FOX Ices Portnoy After Ohio State’s Access Fight

FOX has pulled Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports off Big Noon Kickoff ahead of Michigan at Minnesota on Oct. 3. Portnoy, the Barstool founder and a Michigan booster, says Ohio State coach Ryan Day forced the call. Sources briefed on the decision, who were not authorized to speak publicly, said there was no single smoking gun, only that blending FOX’s usual pregame with Barstool’s act proved, in their word, “unsustainable.”

The Saturday Experiment Ends in Minneapolis

The cut lands in Week 5, with the show originating from Minnesota’s campus at 10 a.m. ET before a noon kickoff. Portnoy, Dan Katz (known as Big Cat), and other Barstool names had been on the program a little more than a year. Starting in Minneapolis, FOX is using only its main desk.

FOX Sports declined to comment. Ohio State sent questions back to the network. The school has previously disputed claims that it blocked Portnoy from FOX’s shows. Portnoy still says his relationship with FOX is strong, and he does not blame the network for folding.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The cut: Portnoy and Barstool talent are off Big Noon Kickoff as of the Minnesota show.
• The weekday show: Wake Up Barstool keeps airing on FS1, and both sides may still build other programs.
• The silent parties: FOX declined comment, and Ohio State pointed back to FOX.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Day’s role: Portnoy says the coach and the school complained to the Big Ten and threatened FOX; neither FOX nor Ohio State has confirmed that account.
• A single trigger: Briefed sources said there was no smoking gun beyond a mix that never held.

The louder objection writes itself without a press release. A campus pregame that lives inside Big Ten stadiums still needs Ohio State more than it needs Barstool, and Portnoy’s own line, that he does not blame FOX, already concedes where the money sits.

Portnoy Says Ohio State Threatened FOX

Reached Friday night, Oct. 2, Portnoy said Ohio State had “relentlessly complained to Fox.” He told the same reporter that if he were part of the show the previous week in Columbus, the school would offer no access to FOX staff. On X he went further, naming Day and the conference before the story posted.

The juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. (Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks) and I have a good relationship.

Dave Portnoy, Barstool Sports founder, reached Friday night

In the same burst of posts he wrote that “Cryin Ryan” had been “throwing temper tantrums” and “making threats every few days on something I said.” He added that he always thought Day was soft, “but holy shit even I didnt realize he was this soft.” A follow-up post drew a harder line: he does not blame Day for older exits at WEEI, ESPN, or a ban from the NFL, “However he very certainly got me fired from @BNKonFOX.”

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

FOX hired him as fan voice, a reply to Pat McAfee on ESPN’s College GameDay, the two-hour on-site show that airs against Big Noon Kickoff every Saturday. McAfee was not barred from stadiums. Portnoy was, at least for the final hour inside Big Ten venues, and that gap is the part of this fight that never closed.

Ohio State Still Said No in Columbus

On Sept. 26, Portnoy was in Columbus for Big Noon Kickoff before Ohio State’s game against Illinois. The Barstool College Football Show crew did not come with him. “We asked, and Ohio said we’re still not allowed,” he posted that week, then asked which pizza shops in town he had not already rated.

That freeze was a year old. It did not start with senior day, and it did not start with Friday’s call. It started the first time FOX tried to walk a Michigan booster through the Horseshoe as part of the conference’s own flagship pregame.

Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork has said more than once that the school did not ban Portnoy. In August 2025 he put the in-stadium limit on FOX, which told the school that only main-desk talent would be inside for the last hour. The Big Ten said it had been told Portnoy would not appear on in-stadium segments at its schools. Portnoy kept saying the block ran through Day.

Who Sits on the Desk in Minneapolis?

FOX’s Minneapolis hour is the first Big Noon Kickoff of the season with no Barstool names in the mix. The network is going back to the panel it already uses for halftime and postgame, the group that was allowed inside stadiums when Portnoy was not.

THE BIG NOON DESK IN MINNEAPOLIS

Meyer’s Ohio State tie is the comparison FOX used when it sold Portnoy’s Michigan fandom as just another partisan voice. Meyer is still on the set. The Michigan booster is not. That is the hidden vote in the room, and it did not require a statement from Day.

A Billion-Dollar Rights Deal Leaves FOX Little Room

Portnoy’s own post named the reason he does not blame FOX: “Huge dollars at stake.” The Big Ten’s current package with FOX, CBS, and NBC, which began with the 2023 season and runs through 2029-30, was the first college sports rights deal to reach $1 billion a year. FOX also owns 61% of Big Ten Network and, through that stake, has controlled the conference’s media rights at least through 2032. It holds the exclusive noon window. Ohio State is the brand that window is built around.

The Texas at Ohio State opener on Aug. 30, 2025, the same Saturday Portnoy made his Big Noon debut outside the Horseshoe, drew 16.6 million viewers, the largest Week 1 college football audience on record dating to 1993. FOX can pick a fight with a digital shop it hired last summer. It cannot pick a fight with the school that fills that window. The conference still has FOX carrying its biggest events, including the title game, which will be broadcast by FOX on Dec. 5 from Lucas Oil Stadium.

A high-ranking Power 4 official put the conflict in one line last year, after FOX put a Michigan booster on a show that lives in Columbus: “Why would Fox do that to their partner? Especially a school that might be their No. 1 property in college sports.” FOX notified the Big Ten and the NFL before it announced the Barstool deal. Notification is not the same as consent once the cameras are on campus.

The Fake Mustache Never Left Ohio Stadium

The on-air act FOX is now done housing is not a mystery. It is the same bit Portnoy has run at Day for years, and it is why a coach’s complaints had somewhere to land.

THE SQUEEZE TIMELINE

1. Dec. 21, 2024: Portnoy posts video of a plane over Ohio Stadium towing a banner that reads “EXTEND RYAN DAY #GOBLUE,” then turns to camera in a matching hoodie, after Michigan’s fourth straight win in the rivalry. Day later received an extension, after Ohio State won the national title.
2. July 17, 2025: FOX and Barstool announce the deal. CEO Eric Shanks says FOX is excited to welcome Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports. Portnoy’s own line is “See ya soon in Columbus.”
3. Aug. 26, 2025: After reports that Ohio State barred Portnoy from the stadium, Bjork says FOX decided only main-desk talent would be inside. The Big Ten says it was told Portnoy would not do in-stadium segments at league schools.
4. Aug. 30, 2025: Portnoy debuts outside the Horseshoe in a fake mustache and an “I Love Ryan Day” hat, tells Will Cain on Fox and Friends that Day banned him from “The Shoe,” and draws boos on the campus set.
5. August 2026: After Day moves senior day to Week 1 against Ball State to cut noise before Michigan week, Portnoy calls him a “scared little chicken boy” on Wake Up Barstool.
6. Sept. 26, 2026: Portnoy is in Columbus for Big Noon. Ohio State still will not let the Barstool college football crew on campus.
7. Oct. 2, 2026: Portnoy is told he has been put on ice. He posts before the story lands, and FOX goes to Minnesota without him.

That sequence is why “persona” and “Day” are not two different stories. The persona was the Day bit. The school that had to host it was Ohio State. FOX kept trying to split the difference, Portnoy on the outside hour, Meyer on the inside hour, until even that split cost more than it returned.

The Weekday Show Survives the Saturday Cut

The Barstool deal is not dead. It is smaller, and it has been moved off the conference’s most protected window. Wake Up Barstool still airs live weekdays from 8 to 10 a.m. ET on FS1, with an encore from 10 a.m. to noon, the lineup that launched Sept. 2, 2025, with Portnoy on Mondays. Briefed sources said the two sides could still try other shows.

WHAT STILL AIRS UNDER THE FOX DEAL

• Wake Up Barstool: The two-hour FS1 morning show continues on weekdays, with Portnoy still in the Monday chair as last announced.
• Barstool College Football: Portnoy says the Saturday digital show goes on, and he floated taking it to Columbus.
• Other FOX windows: The original July pact also covered college basketball, including the College Basketball Crown, and left room for more FOX digital distribution.

Portnoy founded Barstool in 2003 on the idea that he would not eat a punch from a coach or a league. On Friday he ate this one in public and called it rational. The Minneapolis set will open without him. The Barstool college football show, he says, might see everyone in Columbus anyway.