Dave Portnoy addresses reports linking him to Big Noon Saturday, trolls Ohio State fans

Reports surfaced on Wednesday regarding a potential deal between Barstool Sports and Big Noon Saturday. Front Office Sports says Dave Portnoy would be involved in the popular college football pregame show, along with other Barstool programming appearing on FS1.

A little while after, Portnoy commented on the matter via social media. He claimed there is nothing more than “rumors” going around at the moment. And then, being the Michigan alum Portnoy is, he once again took a shot at the Ohio State Buckeyes.

“These are nothing more than rumors at this point,” Portnoy said via X. “But all the crying from Columbus is making me feel like it’s Thanksgiving Day weekend again and Michigan is pounding a hapless Buckeye team into the mud for the billionth straight year.”

Portnoy followed the message up with three laughing emojis. Anybody familiar with the Barstool founder knows he will never shy away from reminding Ohio State fans how they currently fare in the rivalry.

As for potential programming, this is not the first time Barstool has attempted to work with a major cable network. Back in 2017, personalities Big Cat and PFT Commentator aired a pilot of Barstool Van Talk, scheduled to routinely air during the late-night ESPN hours. After one episode, the Worldwide Leader decided to pull the plug.

For now, nothing is official between Barstool and Big Noon Kickoff. They will be in Columbus on Aug. 30 for the season opener, highlighting Ohio State and the Texas Longhorns.

More on potential deal between Dave Portnoy, Big Noon Saturday

Fox Sports and Barstool Sports are nearing a deal that would include Dave Portnoy on FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff and additional Barstool content on FS1, per Ryan Glasspiegel. This comes amid the news of FS1’s programming cuts earlier this week.

According to the report, the deal has not been finalized. It’s another move for Big Noon Kickoff to compete with the every popular College GameDay on ESPN.

“Barstool content is expected to fill some of this FS1 airtime, likely via a licensing agreement,” Glasspiegel wrote for Front Office Sports. “Details were not immediately available about which Barstool personalities will be included for this deal, or whether this would mean a new show or existing franchises, such as Pardon My Take, get repopulated onto the network. The Twitter/X account BackAftaThis first suggested that Barstool personalities would be appearing on FS1.”

On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this report