If Big Noon Kickoff wants to finish inside Ohio Stadium, reports are that one of the show's hosts, Dave Portnoy, may not be allowed inside. Photo Created by Liam McGuire, Comeback Media. Photo Created by Liam McGuire, Comeback Media.
By Matt Yoder on

The drama involving Dave Portnoy, Ohio State, and Big Noon Kickoff has played out in the last 24 hours like an episode of The Young & The Restless. And it’s clearly not over yet.

To recap just what a wild ride this has been, it started on Monday when former Buckeyes star Bobby Carpenter and reporter Austin Ward said that Portnoy wouldn’t likely be welcomed inside Ohio Stadium when he makes his debut with Fox Sports and Big Noon Kickoff.

That was followed by a Front Office Sports report saying that Portnoy would indeed be banned from accessing the stadium for the final part of the Fox pregame show.

Then, on Tuesday morning, Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork said that it was a Fox decision not to have Portnoy appear in the stadium. A second statement from the university offered even more information, saying that since the Barstool Sports founder wouldn’t be a full part of the main set, he wouldn’t be part of the stadium show. Even the Big Ten chimed in that Portnoy wouldn’t be part of any stadium segments from any conference school.

But then just a couple hours later, Dave Portnoy himself blew a hole in Bjork’s statement the size of the Michigan flag planted at midfield after the maize and blue were victorious in last year’s rivalry game.

Portnoy took to X for one of his emergency press conferences in response to the the Ohio State AD’s comments reported by Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports. And in the video he was open and honest about the difficult situation that his new partners at Fox are in.

But he ultimately said that he was indeed banned from Ohio Stadium regardless of what Bjork said. And furthermore, that Barstool’s college football show was also banned from campus.

“Emergency press conference time. So the big story involving me right now is Ohio State banning me from entering the Shoe to be part of Big Noon Kickoff on the field. They also banned the Barstool Sports college football show. We were supposed to be in Columbus, we talked about being in Columbus, and then we got word that Ohio State was not going to allow us to be on campus with Big Noon Kickoff,” Portnoy said.

The Barstool founder than went into self-reflection mode, balancing his reputation for having no filter and always telling it as he sees it with the company’s new relationship with Fox Sports. Portnoy will be appearing on Big Noon Kickoff as a regular and will also launch a new FS1 daily show starting soon. But he appreciated the difficult spot that the network is in caught between one of their biggest partners in the Big Ten and their newest partner in Barstool Sports.

“They definitely got put in a weird spot. They couldn’t see this. How could anyone see that Cryin’ Ryan Day and Ohio State would be this soft? I mean, they got a big game versus Texas coming up, a game I’m rooting for them, I’m rooting for the Big Ten. But Michigan has just broken Ohio State,” Portnoy added.

Dave Portnoy then said he was going to remain quiet about the situation, but chose to go public once he heard Bjork say that Portnoy wasn’t banned and it was a Fox decision. According to the Barstool Sports founder, that was indeed the case. And that he’s known about the ban for over a week. Barstool’s Kayce Smith and Dan “Big Cat” Katz also backed up Portnoy’s story in social media posts.

“I wasn’t going to say anything. Alright, we’ll just go to Week 2, I’m trying to be the good solider, the good partner, we’re just starting this thing with Fox. Story breaks, Bobby Carpenter the old, I think it’s Bobby, the old linebacker from Ohio State, he has a podcast that nobody listens to, and they basically say they have it on authority 100% certainty that people within the administration of Ohio State have banned me and Barstool Sports. So that starts, I already knew this for a week and a half. We canceled our production, we had to pay a late fee, all the stuff for not coming to Ohio State, Columbus. But Robby Carpenter, Bobby Carpenter, he gets the ball rolling, it becomes a story,” Portnoy said.

“Then Ross Bjork, the AD of Ohio State comes out and is like ‘that’s a lie, we would never ban Dave.’ Listen, at Ohio State people are eating it up because obviously when the story broke, everyone was like ‘oh my God, Ohio State is so f—ing soft. Michigan broke them. Woody Hayes is rolling around in his grave. If you can’t beat them, ban them. They’re broken! It’s a broken team. A broken school. Oh, national championship this, national championship that. One man, this face, and they start crying. They’re broken. Something I’ve been saying for a long time,” he continued.

“What’s Fox going to say, this is a big partner of Ohio State. And I’m not trying to f— up the relationship. This is sports. This is rivalry. This is petty. When one team beats your face in for an entire decade, when your arch rival is stomping on your neck and you can’t breathe, you do crazy things. They ban me from coming in the stadium, they ban our show from being on campus, and I feel bad Fox is in the middle of it. And I don’t want to create any issue, but then I look in the mirror and say, ‘Dave, 20 years you’ve been doing Barstool, you just tell it how it is.”

Portnoy then concluded the video by addressing Ross Bjork and Ohio State directly. And like much of the video and his Michigan fandom that he wears on his sleeve, he used it as an opportunity to troll the university and taunt the Buckeyes with the Wolverines’ recent success in the rivalry.

“Suddenly this big relationship, I can’t go on the field. I have no problem with Ross Bjork and Ohio State,” Portnoy remarked. “But this is my advice. And this is why we kick your ass inside out every single Thanksgiving Day weekend. This is why you haven’t beaten us in a decade. Stop pussyfooting. Stop making excuses. Stop crying about planting flags. Stop crying about the hammer and Connor Stalions. Just own up. Be like, ‘you know what, Michigan is a bully, and they beat the piss out of us, and when they walk down the street we cross to the other side and we got to get better. You know what, we did ban Dave, we did ban Dave because we are so hateful against Michigan.

“Take accountability for your actions. Yea, we banned him. Just say it. Yea, we banned him. Don’t point the finger. Don’t blame Connor Stalions. Don’t blame the hammer. Just look in there and say we’re weak, we’re soft, and until we get better, we’re never going to beat this team,” he concluded.

It’s a nightmare scenario for Ohio State and an incredible amount of free publicity for Barstool Sports and Dave Portnoy.

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