Barstool Sports originally planned to host its live College Football show from Boulder on Saturday, Sept. 9. But according to owner and founder Dave Portnoy, Colorado told Barstool not to come for the team’s first home game of the Deion Sanders era.
Portnoy put out a teaser on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, asking if anyone could guess Barstool’s first stop on its annual college football show this year. Based on the image, it appears that Bartsool will be headed to Tuscaloosa for the Sept. 9 matchup between Alabama and Texas.
Can anybody guess our 1st stop on our college football show this year? Hint. It's a week from Saturday. Hint. We've never been. Hint. We just put these hoodies and tshirts on sale with @OldRowOfficial https://t.co/GErPfHwYAb. #rolltide pic.twitter.com/Hgo39uOSG8
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) August 30, 2023
After it was pointed out that Portnoy said back in December that the Barstool College Football Show would be live from Boulder on Sept. 9, he revealed that Colorado told Barstool not to come.
Colorado told us not to come. So we pivoted https://t.co/W6rqeGyjXl
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) August 30, 2023
“So, we pivoted,” Portnoy wrote.
While the company is bracing for major layoffs, this has nothing to do with that. Instead, as Portnoy suggested it’s because Colorado doesn’t want a split crowd between Barstool and Fox, who will be bringing the Big Noon Kickoff to Boulder that same weekend in question.
Colorado head coach Deion Sanders responded to Portnoy on Twitter. Sanders asked Portnoy what was going on, seemingly having no idea that the University told his former employer not to come.
What's going on man. You know y'all are family!
— COACH PRIME (@DeionSanders) August 31, 2023
Prior to becoming the head coach at Jackson State and even during his time there, Sanders was an employee of Barstool Sports after leaving NFL Network. But Portnoy did not want to use that connection in this instance, saying he didn’t want to bother Sanders and that the college football show would come to Boulder some other time.
I know. I didn't want to bother you. We were told not to come cause Fox was coming and they couldn't give us a spot for the show. No clue who our people talked to. We'll get there another time. #GoBuffs https://t.co/ctS61jOsR3
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) August 31, 2023
It seems that both Barstool and Sanders have bigger fish to fry at the moment.