Dave Portnoy is sticking to his story: Ohio State, and specifically Ryan Day, helped push him out of FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff.
The Barstool Sports founder said Friday that he would no longer appear on the college football pregame show, and he went further in a Monday interview with Front Office Sports, laying out what he described as a long-running battle between Ohio State and FOX over his presence on the program.
Portnoy said the pushback started almost immediately after FOX announced the deal. In his telling, Ohio State objected so strongly that FOX executives traveled to Columbus and were shown a 30-to-45-minute highlight tape of Portnoy criticizing Ohio State and Day. He said the school did not want him on Big Noon Kickoff from the start.
“If you recall, they actually prevented our [Barstool] show from going to Columbus. I went year one, but our show was denied, and then I wasn’t allowed into the stadium.
That became a big story-Ohio State denied that they did it, but really from day one they were very unhappy with me being on the air. Any time anyone-not only me-would criticize Ohio State or Ryan Day, they would complain.”
Portnoy also described what he believes happened behind the scenes. He said complaints went to Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti, then to FOX, and eventually back to him. He said he was moved off to the sidelines for three or four Big Noon Kickoff shows over two years, or sent to another location such as Mississippi State last year, because of Big Ten complaints.
“I believe the chain of action would be to complain to the Big Ten [commissioner] Tony Petitti, and then phone calls would be made to Fox complaining, and then calls would be made to me. I was put on the sidelines for three or four Big Noon Kickoff shows over the course of two years, or go to a different location, like Mississippi State last year, because the Big Ten complained.”
He said the tension kept building until, two weeks ago, he was supposed to be in Columbus again and was told to stay home.
“It got worse and worse, to the point where I was supposed to be in Columbus two weeks ago. I was getting ready to go out there and they told me to stay home because Ohio State had basically said, ‘If Dave’s there, we won’t cooperate in any aspect of the show.’”
Portnoy said he never spoke directly with Ohio State or the Big Ten about any of it, though he said FOX and Barstool offered to set up those conversations.
“I’ve never spoken to the Big Ten or Ohio State. I know it’s been offered by Fox and me, but no, they’ve never taken us up on that.”
He also said he has heard that Day believes Portnoy “doxxed” him, a claim Portnoy denied.
“From what I gather, Ryan Day thinks I ‘doxxed’ him. I’ve heard that a lot from not only Fox people, but people here in Nantucket.
I’m not 100% sure he knows how the internet works, and I don’t even mean that facetiously. But like during the whole Harbaugh thing [the Connor Stalions investigation], when it was back and forth in the news every day, there was a story at On3 that said [Day’s] brother was running a spy operation against Harbaugh, which by the way is hilarious.”
He added that he believes Day thinks Portnoy made the story up.
“We talked about it, and I think a) he thinks I made that story up myself-he doesn’t realize it was a huge story already within the Michigan-Ohio State world, but he seems to think I somehow doxxed him with that. That’s the thing I always hear, that it somehow went beyond just Michigan vs. Ohio State, which it never did.”
Portnoy’s version of events is now more detailed than before, but it remains unconfirmed. Ohio State has disputed some of his earlier claims about Big Noon Kickoff, and the school declined to comment on the latest accusations when reached by The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, referring questions to FOX Sports. FOX also declined to comment.
Ohio State previously said it did not ban Portnoy from Ohio Stadium for his Big Noon Kickoff debut in 2025. The school said FOX chose to keep him outside the stadium for the final hour of the pregame show because he was not part of the main desk. Portnoy still appeared on the broadcast during the segment outside the stadium.
Portnoy acknowledged in the Front Office Sports interview that he has never personally spoken with Ohio State or Big Ten officials about his role on the show, despite saying FOX and Barstool were willing to arrange those conversations.
For now, Portnoy’s claims that Ohio State pressured the Big Ten and FOX remain unconfirmed.
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