The Barstool College Football Show is heading to East Hartford next week, setting up shop at Rentschler Field before UConn’s Friday night matchup with UMass.
The show will be staged between gates C and D in the parking lot, with the pregame festivities beginning at 5:30 p.m. ahead of the 7 p.m. kickoff on Oct. 23.
Barstool founder Dave Portnoy said the matchup jumped out to him because of the regional edge.
“Growing up in the Northeast, UMass-UConn, they do not like each other,” Portnoy said on the show’s Week 7 preview episode. “These are like bitter, bitter rivals.
UMass was playing good (when we broached the idea), they lost their quarterback which sucked. But it is a heated fan rivalry game, I think they played this at Gillette (Stadium) a couple times so I thought it’d be a cool game.”
Portnoy first floated the idea when UMass was 4-0, just hours before UConn dropped a 42-41 overtime game to Syracuse. That same day, the Minutemen lost quarterback Pop Watson III, a local star from Springfield, Mass., to an ankle injury. Since then, UMass has taken back-to-back losses to Eastern Michigan and Miami, Ohio.
Even with the shift in momentum, the pitch got plenty of traction right away.
“Come on down, Dave.
You bring Barstool, we’ll bring the pizza. @UConnFootball can handle the rest. 🏈🍕 https://t.co/693pPOFRlT
- Governor Ned Lamont (@GovNedLamont) October 2, 2026”
UConn athletic director David Benedict quickly jumped in and invited the show, which is Barstool’s answer to a College GameDay or Big Noon Kickoff setup. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont also got involved, offering pizza as Portnoy - whose One Bite Pizza Reviews have made him synonymous with the New Haven pizza conversation - has called New Haven the Pizza Capital of the U.S.
From there, the momentum kept building. The UConn and UMass football main accounts weighed in, along with the Mid-American Conference and men’s basketball coaches Dan Hurley and Frank Martin. Hurley’s team was the last in the state to get the GameDay treatment, before a Big East game against Villanova during UConn’s 2024 national championship season.
When the show arrives, UConn will be on a bye and sitting at 3-3. The hosts will be Portnoy, Kayce Smith, Brandon Walker and Dan “Big Cat” Katz. UMass, meanwhile, will be 4-2 and traveling to Buffalo on Saturday.
Portnoy said the atmosphere should fit the spot on the calendar.
“It’ll be a cool Friday night environment,” said Portnoy, who was recently removed from FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff show. “And don’t embarrass me UMass and UConn fans by not showing up because we picked this game - we have all major games and we picked UMass-UConn because I did think it would be a cool game.”
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