FOX, Barstool Sports Ink Media Deal
After some rumors swirled, news officially broke Thursday that Barstool Sports and FOX Sports are teaming up to take a stab at competing with ESPN. Barstool founder and front man Dave Portnoy will now join the much-maligned FOX Big Noon Kickoff, which already features Mark Stone, Mark Ingram, Matt Leinart, Brady Quinn, and Urban Meyer.
Additionally, a “Barstool College Football Show” will air in tandem with Big Noon Kickoff for select college football games. A new daily studio show featuring Barstool personalities
will air on FS1, which expects to compete directly with ESPN’s daily talk shows like “First Take” and “Get Up.”
Portnoy is certainly a polarizing figure, but this feels like a good move for FOX. Big Noon Kickoff and its corresponding noon-slated games have won over eyeballs, but have been bashed in the court of public opinion. ESPN’s College GameDay, which has only gotten rowdier thanks to the addition of Pat McAfee, has always been the runaway favorite CFB morning show. The addition of Portnoy, who is a huge Michigan fan, to the Big Noon desk will surely generate more intrigue, disorder, and viral clips of him fighting with Urban Meyer.
The other angle here is that FOX owns a lot of the landmark Big Ten games and a major stake in the Big Ten Network. ESPN’s media deal with the SEC has only led to further “propaganda” and propping up of college football’s darling conference, so having the FOX/Barstool alliance as a counter attack to the empire may be a good thing for the Big Ten.
Big Ten, SEC Continue to Clash Over Playoff Format
It was the SEC’s turn for media days this week, and commissioner Greg Sankey continued the discussion about the future of the College Football Playoff. The big wigs of college football have until November 30 to decide if the 2026 playoff format will change, and things are at a standstill.
The Big Ten continues to support a 16-team format that would give four automatic bids to the Big Ten and SEC, while Sankey and the SEC back a “5+11” approach that would admit 11 at-large teams plus the five highest-ranked conference champions. Sankey said that his conference is in favor of moving to a 16-team format, but also that there is a “12-team Playoff with five conference champions that can stay if we can’t agree.” In my opinion, this is rational. Let’s see how this year’s changes to the 12-team format play out before expanding for the sake of expanding.
The other piece to this, according to ESPN, is the SEC weighing the addition of a ninth conference game. The only way the Big Ten would concede a move to the 5+11 format would be if the SEC and ACC added this extra game, thus making their respective schedules “as hard” as the Big Ten’s nine-game format. Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin pushed back on this, saying “I don’t think there’s anybody who would trade their nine games for the eight games we play down here?” — implying the SEC is the stronger conference overall.
Stay tuned for the Big Ten media days, which kick off in Las Vegas (?) next week. Penn State is sending Drew Allar, Nick Dawkins, and Zakee Wheatley.
Indiana Chickens Out of Virginia Series
Indiana is really not beating the soft strength of schedule allegations. The Hoosiers are reportedly canceling their 2027/28 home-and-home series with Virginia, according to On3’s Brett McMurphy. The school will have to pay half a million dollars to the Cavaliers and they, in turn, added games with Kennesaw State, Austin Peay, and Eastern Illinois.
Things have been trending this way in college football for a while, but it’s still a bit depressing to see it play out. Obviously, schools have to do all they can to pad their resumes and earn a bid into the playoff. Losing a tough out-of-conference game can be viewed as unforced error, especially as conferences grow and added tougher teams. But, these fun series are what give college football juice. Ohio State hosting Texas week one? Hell yeah! Let’s do more of that.
From a Penn State angle, the Auburn and West Virginia series were complete joys. Hosting their fans and then their fans returning the favor the next year was a treat — they got a taste of Happy Valley, and then we got a taste of their fan base, culture, and gameday traditions. The Nittany Lions did go 4-0 in this stretch, but a loss in any of those games would not have drastically changed the course of the program. And now with the playoff eyeing a 16-game format, you can afford another loss in the name of a fun home/home. Counting down the days to Nevada just isn’t that exciting. The countdown really should be until September 27, when Penn State plays its first real game.
Shame on Indiana.
Tweet Of The Week
Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz: "I'm not going to answer any questions about the Epstein files"
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 17, 2025
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