Dave Portnoy is ready to shake up Big Noon Kickoff.
In a move that signals a major shift in the media landscape, FOX Sports has announced a partnership with Barstool Sports that aims to bolster the network’s coverage around college football and basketball.

Personalities including Portnoy himself and Dan ‘Big Cat’ Katz, are set to feature on already established programming, while they will also be create new content with a daily studio show on FS1.
As part of the collaboration, it has been confirmed that the ‘Stool Presidente’ will join Big Noon Kickoff this fall for the 2025 NCAA season.
Portnoy, who often causes a stir with his takes on the WNBA and Caitlin Clark, comes on board with a particular interest in representing his alma mater, the University of Michigan.
Announcing the new ‘wide-ranging’ partnership between Barstool and FOX, he put his beloved Wolverines front and center, describing them as the dominant force of the Big Ten conference.
But according to sports business reporter John Ourand, Portnoy’s role on Big Noon Kickoff will extend far further than the ‘Big House’.
“FOX executives see a chance to insert a big personality to their lineup, and to leverage Portnoy’s Michigan fandom, which dovetails naturally with their Big Ten rights package,” Ourand wrote for Puck.
“After all, ESPN has a number of high-profile commentators, like Paul Finebaum, who openly advocate for the SEC, especially when it comes to getting teams in the College Football Playoff.
“ESPN, of course, holds all of the SEC’s media rights through 2034.
“In short, Fox executives and Big Ten officials wanted an on-air fanboy of their own.”
Ourand’s report added that the need for a ‘passionate conference booster’ had been a topic for both conference and network execs long before the Barstool deal was announced.


Rolling out Portnoy for Big Noon Kickoff to act as a ‘fanboy’ is just one part of FOX’s wider attempt to challenge ESPN.
The far more established College GameDay is coming off a record-breaking 2024, in which it averaged an impressive 2.2 million viewers.
Big Noon Kickoff, in comparison, averaged 952,000 viewers through seven weeks on the season.
GameDay has leaned heavily on larger-than-life personality Pat McAfee in recent years.
The former NFL punter is another charismatic, and sometimes controversial personality, who actually started his media career at Barstool.
Offering Portnoy a spot on Big Noon Kickoff shows the kind of following that FOX Sports are attempting to bring in, according to On3 insider Andy Staples.

“This is clearly their attempt to counter-program Pat McAfee,” Staples said of Portnoy in an On3 YouTube video last week.
“You can’t get up there and say boring stuff. He doesn’t say boring stuff.
“They are hiring him to say interesting things, and that’s going to p*** some people off.
“Part of this is doing what ESPN did with McAfee, because McAfee reached a different audience.
“That’s where the bulk of your audience is going to come from in the future.”
Staples went on to suggest that big networks are leaning into these types of personalities as execs know their business models are ‘dying’.
“I want to see what the dynamic is here, but my guess is, Dave is supposed to say outrageous things,” he concluded.
Days before FOX’s partnership with Barstool was announced, the network confirmed that three shows: Speak, Breakfast Ball and The Facility, had all been cancelled.

Amid a major shake-up of the sports media landscape, it seems the likes of McAfee and Portnoy are rising to the top, with the latter suggesting the ‘sky’s the limit’ for him now.
“It’s a totally new chapter for us,” he said of Barstool’s deal.
“We’ve never partnered with a network as big, as many resources, as much talent as FOX Sports that is invested in us.
“They’re as excited about it as we are. So, you know, the sky’s the limit.”