Josh Pate refutes notion Ohio State banning Dave Portnoy is ‘soft’

Josh Pate understands what everyone else is missing about the Dave Portnoy-Ohio State situation.

While everyone else splits hairs over whether the Buckeyes are “soft” for reportedly banning Portnoy from Ohio Stadium, and while Ohio State’s Athletic Director tries to blame Fox for the decision, Pate believes that this is all fair game in the entertainment business that college football has become.

“This is not the football business – this is the entertainment business,” Pate said on his eponymous college football show via On3. “This is what you banked on, if you’re Fox. Fox knew pulling this string, they were about to piss off most of the Big Ten. But they did it anyway. They did it anyway. And you know what the worst thing to do now would be, to back off of it. Now, you made your decision. You ride with it.”

Pate gets what’s really happening here. Fox hired Portnoy specifically because he’s a chaos agent who calls Ryan Day “Cryin’ Day” and bleeds Michigan maize and blue. They didn’t hire him despite his trolling; they hired him because of it. That was always going to create problems with Big Ten schools, and Ohio State’s pushback is the predictable result.

The Portnoy hire was Fox’s direct response to ESPN’s success with Pat McAfee on College GameDay. But there’s a crucial difference that makes Fox’s gamble riskier: McAfee doesn’t have deep allegiances to any SEC program, while Portnoy has spent years publicly mocking Ohio State and celebrating its losses to Michigan.

“There is definite, unapologetic, cut-your-chest-open-with-a-machete-and-bleed-Maize-and-Blue-type allegiance that Dave has with Michigan,” Pate explained.

That creates the tension Fox knew was coming. The network wanted controversy and attention, and it’s getting exactly that. The fact that Ohio State doesn’t want Portnoy in its stadium isn’t some shocking development. This is just the natural consequence of Fox’s decision to prioritize entertainment over relationships.

Pate also pushes back against critics, calling Ohio State’s ban “soft.” He makes a point that should be obvious but apparently isn’t: that if someone spent years publicly mocking you and your program, you probably wouldn’t roll out the red carpet when your media partner hired them.

“You’d do the same thing if you were them,” Pate said. “If you listened to a guy trash you, if you listened to a guy call you, ‘Cryin’ Day,’ over and over again, and found out, ‘Oh, our media partner hired him for their pregame show, huh?’ You think you’d just sit back and say, ‘Oh, well?’ You think you pretend like you’d say that. You wouldn’t say that. You’d be just as petty and small as they are. I don’t even know that I’d call it small.”

But Pate’s real point is about what college football has become. Ryan Day makes over $10 million annually not just because he can coach football, but because he’s part of an entertainment machine that generates massive TV revenue.

“I’m making $10-plus million a year because of the attention that this stuff gets,” Pate said, speaking hypothetically as Day. “And trust me, it’s not always your zone-blocking scheme that attracts the eyeballs. It’s the spectacle of it all. It’s the tradition, it’s the pageantry, it’s the storylines.”

That’s the uncomfortable truth about college football in 2025. The sport is built on entertainment value as much as it’s built on anything else. Fox hired Portnoy to create controversy, even if it meant alienating some programs in the process. And Ohio State is pushing back to protect its image and its coach, even if it means looking petty.

Both sides are operating rationally within the system they’re all profiting from. Fox wants eyeballs. Ohio State wants respect for its program. Those interests were always going to collide when Fox decided to put what Bobby Carpenter called a “Michigan troll” on its Big Ten pregame show.

The real story isn’t whether Ohio State is being “soft” or whether Fox is being “edgy.” The story is that this entire situation was inevitable the moment Fox decided entertainment value mattered more than traditional media relationships.

“This is the trade-off,” said Pate. “So, he trashes Ohio State, they put him on TV, you don’t want him anywhere near you. That’s all fair to me. That was my takeaway. It’s all fair to me.”

Everyone got exactly what they were asking for. Fox got its controversy. Ohio State got its villain. And college football fans got another reminder that the sport they love is primarily a TV product designed to generate revenue and social media engagement.

The only question now is whether Fox’s bet on Portnoy — and Barstool — will pay off in the ratings that justify alienating programs like Ohio State.  And given how much attention this manufactured drama has already generated, Portnoy probably doesn’t even need to set foot in Columbus to serve his purpose.