no context college football fox Screen grab: no context college football on X
By Ben Axelrod on

Dating back to its inception five years ago, the popular X (formerly Twitter) account @nocontextcfb has amassed a following of more than 213,000 followers thanks to its irreverent approach to following the sport.

Don’t, however, expect the account to be sharing videos from this weekend’s highly anticipated matchup between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Michigan — or any other game that airs on Fox, for that matter — as the account says that the network reported it for merely reposting a video from last weekend’s matchup between the Wolverines and Maryland.

“alright y’all… i’m officially done posting any clips from Fox,” the account, which is run by Barstool Sports employee Liam Blutman.

“Absolutely ridiculous and pathetic behavior from these guys. not much else I can do,” the nocontextcfb account wrote.

While broadcasting networks and sports leagues have previously made a habit of filing DMCA reports against social media accounts that post their footage, Fox seems to be the last one still taking an ultra aggressive approach. By now, it seems to be understood that the exposure from accounts sharing such clips is ultimately a net positive for all involved and that doing so typically falls under the spirit of the “fair use” exemption.

Other prominent accounts have also found themselves confounded by getting DMCA takedowns of late as well. (Full disclosure: Fox has previously filed DMCA reports against Awful Announcing’s social media accounts, as well)

But while one might understand a network or league being upset with a social media account ripping video from their broadcasts, that’s not even what @nocontextcfb appeared to do in this particular instance. Rather, the social media account says that it was merely reposting a video that the Fox College Football account had already shared — a perfectly permissible act that is commonly accepted on social media.  No Context College Football’s tweet  seemed to only incite even stricter enforcement as days later a followup tweet showed even more aggressive enforcement for posts going back to this past summer.

Considering the mess that X’s online support has been, however, it’s not a surprise that the post was taken down once it was reported. Chalk this up as a loss for nocontextcfb and its sizable following, while it’s hard to tell what Fox has to gain by taking such an aggressive approach.

[nocontextcfb on X]

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.

View all posts by Ben Axelrod