Dave Portnoy on NPR's "Morning Edition." Photo credit: NPR’s Morning Edition
By Ben Axelrod on

Barstool Sports’ daily FS1 morning show won’t launch until next week. But the battle between the irreverent sports brand and ESPN is already gaining steam.

On Thursday morning, the Worldwide Leader in Sports announced that Bussin’ With The Boys will be making regular appearances on Get Up and providing additional ESPN content throughout the upcoming football season. And while the news comes on the same day as the start of Week 1 of the college football season, it also doesn’t seem coincidental that the move was made just ahead of Get Up going head-to-head against Wake Up Barstool.

Taking to X shortly after the announcement, Dave Portnoy called attention to the latest instance of ESPN adding ex-Barstool talent to its lineup. Quote-tweeting a social media post from ESPN’s P.R. team, the Barstool Sports founder proclaimed, “ESPN is officially Barstool Jr.”

It didn’t take long for Portnoy to find another example, circling back to his alleged ban from Ohio Stadium as a part of his debut on Big Noon Kickoff this weekend. Quote-tweeting a podcast clip in which Anthony Schlegel and Bobby Carpenter defended the decision by pointing out the differences between Portnoy’s role on Big Noon Kickoff and Pat McAfee’s place on ESPN’s College GameDay, the Boston native reminded the former Ohio State linebackers that McAfee — and co-host A.J. Hawk — began their media careers at Barstool.

Factor in Pardon My Take producer Hank Lockwood recently citing Barstool’s influence in ESPN hiring social media influencer Katie Feeney and it’s clear that the company sees this as an emerging trend. And in many ways, the Barstool personalities aren’t wrong; ESPN is much closer to Barstool now than it was during the the Barstool Van Talk debacle of 2017.

But by the same token, Barstool has also evolved into a much more mature media operation than it was eight years ago. Look no further than the newfound FS1 partnership and the impending connection with ex-ESPN personality Ryen Russillo.

Between ESPN now being more willing to associate with less-traditional talents and Barstool solidifying its status as a mainstream media outlet, the two may actually now have more in common than either would care to admit. The idea of ESPN being “Barstool Jr.” is obviously hyperbolic. But it’s also not a stretch to say that the two entities are at least playing in the same sandbox.

About Ben Axelrod

Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.

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