Fox Pulls Barstool Off Big Noon After Ohio State Pressure

Fox Sports pulled Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports off Big Noon Kickoff on Oct. 2, leaving the Saturday pregame show to its main desk in Minnesota. Portnoy, a Michigan graduate and booster, blamed Ohio State coach Ryan Day for leaning on the Big Ten until Fox folded. The network kept Barstool’s weekday studio show on FS1.

Andrew Marchand, who covers sports media, wrote that sources briefed on the decision described no single blowup. They said the grind of putting Barstool’s act inside Fox’s traditional Saturday show had become unsustainable, and they pointed first at Portnoy’s fights over Ohio State home games.

Fox Kept the Weekday Show and Dumped the Stadium Act

The cut is midseason and narrow. Barstool is off the on-campus Saturday pregame that sits in front of Fox’s top college football window. Wake-Up Barstool, the live two-hour program that airs Monday through Friday from 8 to 10 a.m. ET on FS1, is still scheduled. Fox Sports declined to comment.

Big Noon Kickoff originates Oct. 3 from the University of Minnesota at 10 a.m. ET, before Michigan visits the Gophers. Host Rob Stone will work with the regular main desk. Portnoy will not. Dan Katz, the Barstool host known as Big Cat, is out of that Saturday rotation too.

Portnoy told Marchand that Ohio State had threatened to shut Fox personnel out if he were part of the show in Columbus a week earlier. Ohio State declined to comment on that account. Fox has not confirmed it.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The Saturday cut: Portnoy and other Barstool names are off Big Noon Kickoff as of Oct. 2.
• The weekday show: Wake-Up Barstool remains on FS1 from 8 to 10 a.m. ET.
• The Minnesota site: The Oct. 3 show is assigned to Minnesota for Michigan at the Gophers, without Barstool on set.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Day’s calls: Portnoy says the Ohio State coach complained to the Big Ten and threatened Fox. Day has not spoken publicly about it.
• A school-wide ban: Ohio State’s athletic director said in 2025 that the university did not bar Portnoy from the stadium, and that Fox kept him off the main desk.

That split is the tell. Fox did not throw Barstool off television. It threw Barstool off the set that has to live on Big Ten campuses.

The Big Ten Noon Window Pays the Bills

Fox’s Saturday noon game is not a branding experiment. It is the conference’s premier package under a seven-year media rights agreement still running with Fox, CBS and NBC through the 2029-30 season. Those contracts pay the Big Ten more than $1.1 billion a year, a pile worth more than $8 billion over the term.

Fox has been in business with the conference since 2007, when the two launched the Big Ten Network. Fox owns 61% of that network and holds first overall selection on football games, plus the noon window that Big Noon Kickoff is built to sell. From 2024 the linear allotment runs up to 32 Fox and FS1 games a season.

THE RIGHTS PILE UNDER THE DESK

• Annual take: Fox, CBS and NBC together pay the Big Ten more than $1.1 billion a year.
• Old baseline: The prior Fox and ESPN package paid about $440 million a year.
• Fox’s hold: The network keeps the noon window, first pick of games, and 61% of the Big Ten Network.
• The air: The conference is the only one with regular-season games on three over-the-air networks.

Portnoy said the quiet part in his own post. Huge dollars were at stake, he wrote, and the juice was not worth the squeeze. He added that he did not blame Fox for making that math.

WHAT STAYS ON FOX, WHAT DOES NOT

A weekday studio in Chicago never needs a credential from Ohio Stadium. The Saturday circus does. That is the part Fox chose to protect.

Portnoy Walked Into a Michigan Problem in Columbus

Portnoy graduated from Michigan in 1999 and has spent two decades turning that fandom into content. He has talked up NIL help for Wolverines quarterbacks and treats trolling Ohio State as part of the job. Fox hired that voice anyway, then sent it onto a Big Ten campus show that spends a lot of autumn in Columbus.

The collision showed up in week one of the partnership. Before Ohio State hosted Texas on Aug. 30, 2025, reports said Portnoy would work Big Noon Kickoff from outside Ohio Stadium and would not go inside for the last hour, when the set moves onto the field. The Barstool College Football Show, which Fox had billed as joining Big Noon on location for select games, did not set up on campus that week.

Portnoy put on a fake mustache and an “I Love Ryan Day” hat and did the show from outside. He said the Buckeyes had banned him from “The Shoe” and had banned the Barstool crew from campus. He also said he felt bad because Fox was stuck in the middle.

The same fight was still open a year later. On Sept. 24, 2026, Portnoy wrote that he was heading to Columbus with Big Noon Kickoff for Ohio State against Illinois, and that the Barstool college show was not coming. “We asked, and Ohio said we’re still not allowed,” he wrote. He went. The crew did not. Ohio State beat Illinois 42-19 on Sept. 26. Eight days later, Barstool was off the Fox pregame altogether.

What Ohio State Said About the Stadium Fight

Ohio State’s public line in 2025 was not a coach’s tantrum. It was a credential rule, and the athletic director put it on Fox.

Ross Bjork, the Ohio State AD, told a reporter the university had not issued a ban. Fox, he said, had decided Portnoy would not sit on the main desk, and people who are not on that desk do not normally appear on the field for the last hour. A Big Ten spokesperson backed the same account, saying the league’s understanding from Fox was that Portnoy would not appear on Big Noon Kickoff’s main stage inside any conference stadium that season.

An Ohio State spokesperson put it in writing.

Ohio State routinely holds planning meetings with media partners and provides input regarding broadcast set-up, kickoff times and other matters. During planning meetings with FOX regarding Big Noon Kickoff’s visit to campus this week, FOX representatives informed the department that the only talent who would be inside Ohio Stadium for the last hour of the show would be their main set/desk talent team. This group comprises their halftime and post-game shows, as well. They informed us that David Portnoy is not part of their main desk crew.

Ohio State spokesperson, August 2025 statement

THE YEAR THE SATURDAY DEAL HIT THE GATE

1. July 17, 2025: Fox and Barstool announce a content deal that puts Portnoy on Big Noon Kickoff and a two-hour Barstool show on FS1.
2. Aug. 25, 2025: Reports say Portnoy will work his Fox debut from outside Ohio Stadium. Bjork says Ohio State did not ban him.
3. Aug. 30, 2025: Ohio State hosts Texas. Portnoy appears outside. The Barstool campus show does not.
4. Sept. 24, 2026: Portnoy says Ohio State still will not let the Barstool college show on campus for Illinois week.
5. Sept. 26, 2026: Portnoy is in Columbus with Big Noon Kickoff. Ohio State wins 42-19.
6. Oct. 2, 2026: Fox takes Barstool off Big Noon Kickoff. Portnoy blames Day. Ohio State declines comment.

Read that sequence as an access log, not a taste debate. Fox can live with Barstool’s jokes at 8 a.m. on cable. It could not live with a Michigan booster as a weekly staging problem inside Big Ten stadiums.

Ryan Day Has Not Confirmed Portnoy’s Account

Portnoy did not wait for Marchand’s story. He posted first, named Day, and framed Fox as a rational actor squeezed by a coach he called soft.

Just was told @AndrewMarchand is about to release an article saying I’ve been put on ice for @BNKonFOX I havent seen the article yet and he didnt call me for a quote but i can sum it up this way

Ohio State and Ryan Day bitched and moaned to the Big 10 and threatened Fox…

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) October 3, 2026

“Ohio State and Ryan Day bitched and moaned to the Big 10 and threatened Fox till they had no choice,” Portnoy wrote. “Juice wasnt worth the squeeze amd frankly I dont blame them. Huge dollars at stake and you have Cryin Ryan throwing temper tantrums amd making threats every few days on something I said.” He said Barstool college football would continue, and that most fans in Columbus “love the rivalry.”

In a follow-up, he drew a line around older fights. He said he does not blame Day for getting fired from WEEI or ESPN, or for being barred by the NFL. “However he very certainly got me fired from @BNKonFOX,” he wrote.

Day has not answered. Ohio State has not added to its 2025 statements. Fox has not walked through Portnoy’s version or the persona version. Buckeye fans treating the dump as overdue does not prove a coach placed a call. It does show who held the leverage once the noon window and Ohio Stadium were in the same sentence.

The remaining Fox set still has Urban Meyer, the former Ohio State head coach, next to Stone, Mark Ingram II, Matt Leinart, Brady Quinn and Chris Fallica. Fox did not clear Ohio State’s orbit off the show. It cleared the Michigan booster who kept showing up at the gate.

How the 2025 Fox Deal Split Saturday From Weekdays

Fox and Barstool announced a wide-ranging collaboration announced in July 2025 as a way to put Barstool’s audience on Fox’s air. Eric Shanks, Fox Sports’ CEO and executive producer, sold the hire as a youth play. Portnoy sold it as the first television partner that wanted Barstool on Barstool’s terms. His closing line was “See ya soon in Columbus.”

We’re excited to welcome Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports to the FOX Sports family. Dave has built a one-of-a-kind brand that connects with a new generation of sports fans, authentic, bold, and original. Their unique voice and loyal fanbase makes them a natural fit for our evolving multiplatform content strategy.

Eric Shanks, CEO and executive producer, Fox Sports, July 17, 2025 release

The paper split the relationship in two on day one. Saturdays were Big Noon Kickoff plus the Barstool College Football Show, a 9 to 9:45 a.m. ET lead-in on Barstool channels, Tubi, the Fox Sports app and Foxsports.com, with on-location crossovers for select games. Weekdays were a Barstool-produced two-hour FS1 show, later titled Wake-Up Barstool, with an office in Chicago and Portnoy on Mondays.

Hiring Barstool was widely read as Fox’s answer to Pat McAfee on ESPN’s College GameDay, which runs in the same two-hour Saturday block. McAfee never had to get a Michigan booster through Ohio Stadium security. Portnoy did, because Fox’s biggest Saturday belongs to the Big Ten.

THE DESK THAT STILL GOES TO CAMPUS

• Host: Rob Stone remains in the chair for Big Noon Kickoff.
• Ohio State tie: Urban Meyer, the former Buckeyes coach, stays on the panel.
• The rest of the set: Mark Ingram II, Matt Leinart, Brady Quinn and Chris Fallica continue as the core group.
• Barstool names: Portnoy and Katz are out of that Saturday rotation.

The July release also promised Barstool help on college basketball, including Fox’s College Basketball Crown, and left room for horse racing and shared digital shows. None of that required a sideline pass in Columbus. The one piece that did is the piece Fox just cut.

Big Noon Originates From Minnesota Without Barstool

The first Saturday without Barstool is a Michigan game. Big Noon Kickoff is in Minneapolis on Oct. 3 for the Gophers’ Big Ten home opener against Portnoy’s school. The pregame still starts at 10 a.m. ET. The jokes about Ryan Day will not be coming from the Fox riser.

Portnoy can still talk Michigan on FS1 at 8 a.m. on a weekday, and he can still take the Barstool college show wherever a campus will have him. Ohio State has already answered that question for its own lot. Fox, staring at more than $1.1 billion a year in Big Ten rights, answered it for the noon window.

The headset is off. The horseshoe never had to move.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Did Fox Sports Announce Its Deal With Barstool?

Fox and Barstool announced the collaboration on July 17, 2025. Beyond Big Noon Kickoff and the FS1 morning show, the release said Barstool would contribute to Fox college basketball coverage, including the College Basketball Crown, and left the door open for horse racing and co-produced digital shows.

How Much Did the Big Ten Make Under Its Previous TV Deal?

Before the current Fox, CBS and NBC contracts started with the 2023-24 season, the conference’s previous deals with Fox and ESPN paid about $440 million a year. The new annual take of more than $1.1 billion is why a campus access fight with Ohio State lands on a Fox pregame show as a business problem, not a bit.

Does Fox Still Own Part of the Big Ten Network?

Yes. Fox and the conference launched the Big Ten Network in 2007, and Fox owns 61% of it. That stake, plus first pick of football games and the noon window, is the long relationship sitting under Big Noon Kickoff.

When Did Dave Portnoy Start Barstool Sports?

Portnoy founded Barstool Sports in 2003. He is a Michigan alumnus from the class of 1999, which is the fandom Fox put on a Big Ten campus set and the fandom Ohio State spent a year trying to keep out of Ohio Stadium.