Fired ESPN Host Confirms Dave Portnoy Was Not Kicked Out By Ohio State, But a Much Larger Group
from Essentially College Sports
Dave Portnoy’s long-running hatred of Ohio State has once again found its way into the spotlight, only this time the Michigan superfan is tying it to his own exit from FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff. Portnoy claimed that Ryan Day and the Buckeyes played a role in getting him booted from the show. “When Fox announced the deal [Big Noon Kickoff deal between Fox Sports and Portnoy’s Barstool Sports], Ohio State objected to it instantly,” Portnoy claimed.
But former ESPN sportscaster Jason Whitlock doesn’t believe Portnoy. Not one bit. In fact, he has his own theory for the deal breaking off. Portnoy won’t like this one.
“Dave Portnoy blames Ryan Day for losing his Fox Sports job, and Portnoy, he’s lying to himself,” Whitlock said on his podcast on October 6. “OSU didn’t fire Dave Portnoy from Big Noon Kickoff. The American Living Room fired [him].
“Television and your smartphone reward opposite behavior, and that collision explains why Barstool was always doomed on broadcast TV while remaining dominant online. Dave Portnoy belongs to the phone, not the couch.”
While Whitlock might have a point, there has to be a deeper reason than that.
Here’s the thing: Fox’s collab with Barstool made sense considering Pat McAfee joined ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’. McAfee, however, has not been banned from entering stadiums. On the other hand, reports from last year suggest Portnoy was banned from entering Ohio State’s stadium, though athletic director Ross Bjork rubbished those reports several times.
Whatever it is, Portnoy’s presence at Ohio State home games was never welcome. That’s not surprising, considering he is a Michigan alum and booster, and also had some harsh words for Ohio State in the past.
Also, consider this.
The experiment of putting Fox Sports’ usual approach alongside Barstool’s completely different style would have been too difficult to manage.
And so, not that the deal is broken, Fox Sports is moving forward with its regular setup beginning Saturday in Minnesota, featuring only Urban Meyer, Matt Leinart, Brady Quinn, Mark Ingram II, and host Rob Stone at the main desk.
Dave Portnoy is unhappy
There is no doubt about it.
Portnoy entered the Fox partnership with plenty of leverage. Fox and Barstool announced their agreement before the 2025 season, with Portnoy becoming a regular contributor to Big Noon Kickoff while Barstool’s college football show also joined Fox’s platforms.
Barstool does not ask its audience to accept Portnoy in a neutral environment. Its audience chooses him. It goes looking for the jokes, arguments, gambling talk, insults, and provocations. But a national television show works differently.
Fox was putting Big Noon Kickoff into homes before a college football game. That means the audience is not limited to people who specifically want Barstool. Some are watching because Ohio State is playing.
Others are there for the game preview. Some might simply leave the television on while the family gets ready for Saturday. That changes the calculation. Moreover, attention and television comfort are not the same thing. That’s exactly what Whitlock was suggesting.
“Television is an invitation into your home. The man on Fox at noon sits at your table with your wife, your kids, and your grandmother. He has to be welcome in mixed company. Barstool built an empire doing the opposite.”
Big Noon Kickoff had a good 2025 season by the numbers. Fox said the show averaged 1.8 million viewers in the hour before kickoff, the highest average in its history and a 14% jump from 2024.
The Ohio State-Michigan show in December reached 4.36 million viewers, making it the second-most-watched episode in the show’s history.
So, Fox didn’t necessarily need Portnoy to bring in viewers. The real question was whether having him around was worth the problems that followed. Whitlock also brought Pat McAfee into the comparison.
“Portnoy also lacks the broadcast versatility of Pat McAfee,” he said, calling McAfee a “chameleon” who can adjust to different settings.
McAfee is an obvious counterexample because he has built an enormous personality-driven media business while also becoming a regular part of ESPN’s biggest college football broadcasts. Never mind the reported $60 million annual contract.
College GameDay averaged 2.7 million viewers during its record-setting 2025 season, and ESPN said the program was up 25% year over year. The show has also continued to post strong numbers in 2026.
McAfee is more dynamic, says Whitlock
McAfee can still be loud. He can still be profane. He can still push against the edges of what a traditional sports broadcast normally looks like. But he can change gears.
“Portnoy has one gear,” Whitlock said, describing that gear as “grievance mixed with degeneracy.” That may be unfair to Portnoy’s entire body of work, but it gets at the problem Fox appears to have encountered.
Still, Barstool has not been erased from Fox. Its weekday Wake Up Barstool program remains on FS1. So, the relationship between the companies has not completely collapsed. The decision is specifically about Barstool’s presence on Big Noon Kickoff.
That makes the Ohio State explanation harder to treat as the entire story. Ohio State clearly had a complicated history with Portnoy.
Yet, Portnoy has spent years targeting the Buckeyes and Day as a Michigan supporter. Those tensions almost certainly did not make his position on Fox easier. But friction is not the same thing as causation.