Throughout Dave Portnoy’s first season on Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff, the supposed problems between the Barstool boss and Ohio State leadership were hard to parse.
Portnoy, a Michigan alum, was prohibited from entering Ohio Stadium from the jump in Week 1 for a big matchup between the Buckeyes and the Texas Longhorns. All parties traded blame for the ban, with both Ohio State athletics and the Big Ten both claiming that Fox made the final call to keep Portnoy off the field, while Portnoy never wavered from blaming Buckeyes officials.
In October, Barstool veered away from its new colleagues at Fox, airing The Barstool College Football Show live from Mississippi State’s campus while Big Noon Kickoff went to Iowa as the Hawkeyes hosted Oregon. Portnoy blamed that split on the Big Ten as well.
When it came time for Fox’s capstone broadcast of the season, in Indianapolis for the Big Ten championship game, Portnoy was nowhere to be found. Of course, the Buckeyes were the honorary home team at Lucas Oil Stadium after beating Portnoy’s Wolverines. And Portnoy played up his absence, announcing it quickly after Michigan’s loss in The Game.
Now, Front Office Sports has released numerous emails that show the true nature of the friction between the Ohio State athletic department, Fox, and Portnoy.
A FOIA request by FOS from August has finally been addressed, and the released emails from leaders at Ohio State show a frustration with the Portnoy hire as well as continual claims that Portnoy’s restrictions in Columbus did, in fact, come from the conference.
A senior sports information director at the school (who recently announced his retirement) wrote that it is “very disappointing that Fox is aligning with Barstool.”
A marketing executive at Ohio State wrote in a different message to representatives at other Big Ten universities that “the B1G banned (Portnoy) from all Big Ten games.”
.@FOS reporter @mgfleming12 sent Ohio State a FOIA request in AUGUST about correspondence regarding Fox/Barstool. After a lawyer sent an email prodding them, they have produced the initial results.
In one email an OSU official said the partnership was “disappointing.” Another… pic.twitter.com/8iEAnZi69m
— Ryan Glasspiegel (@sportsrapport) December 19, 2025
Portnoy issued a response to the findings by FOS, calling the emails “hilarious.”
“Listen Ohio State may be preparing for the playoffs and Michigan may be in chaos but when I yell boo Brutas still jumps into a closet and calls the cops because the bad man is knocking,” he told the outlet.
Dave Portnoy response to @FOS on these emails which were FOIA’ed by @mgfleming12:
“Hilarious. Listen Ohio State may be preparing for the playoffs and Michigan may be in chaos but when I yell boo Brutas still jumps into a closet and calls the cops because the bad man is… https://t.co/Q3Vv4fOfy9
— Ryan Glasspiegel (@sportsrapport) December 20, 2025
As long as Portnoy sticks with the kayfabe and neither Fox nor the Big Ten comes out with a clear policy about his involvement with BNK, viewers will wait week by week to see whether he is on the show. Typically, this season, Portnoy was used in solo segments in the crowd or playing off other BNK panelists in short spurts. Because the network opted not to have Portnoy on the desk much, not having him in-stadium to make picks wasn’t too much of a distraction.
Clearly, Portnoy was not outright “banned” by the conference. The majority of BNK shows are on Big Ten campuses due to Fox’s expansive partnership with the conference, and Portnoy appeared most weeks on the show.
But based on the emails FOS uncovered, we can expect that Portnoy’s role with Fox will remain a point of contention among all parties heading into the second season of the partnership.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.