The newly minted Fox-Barstool college football partnership already has some drama even before the first game. 

Ohio State is barring Barstool Sports from campus and its founder, Dave Portnoy, from entering Ohio Stadium for the school’s huge opening-week matchup against Texas on Saturday, sources told Front Office Sports. 

Portnoy will still appear on Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff, but not for the end of the show inside the stadium, a source said.

The Barstool College Football Show, which on a number of occasions will lead into Big Noon, will no longer run as Barstool previously planned, a source said. In announcing the partnership, Fox said the Barstool show will be on the road with Big Noon for “select” dates. 

One source said Fox anticipated having issues with Portnoy and Ohio State and that the network’s original plan did not include him entering the stadium. 

Former Ohio State linebacker Bobby Carpenter said on his Columbus radio show Monday that there were a lot of folks from his alma mater who are “not all that happy about [Portnoy] being hired” at Fox, and cohost Austin Ward added that Portnoy is “not welcome inside the Horseshoe.”

Portnoy is a Michigan grad and has been a persistent troll of Ohio State and head coach Ryan Day, ratcheting up his remarks over the last several years amid the Wolverines’ winning streak over the Buckeyes.

Portnoy also joined Oracle founder Larry Ellison, his partner and Michigan grad Keren Zhu, and Tom Brady in wooing five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood to Ann Arbor. 

The story of Portnoy’s ban devolved into a public back-and-forth Tuesday.

Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork told a reporter there was no ban, and an Ohio State representative told FOS in a statement, “FOX representatives informed the department that the only talent who would be inside Ohio Stadium for the last hour of the show would be their main set/desk talent team. … They informed us that David Portnoy is not part of their ‘main desk’ crew. Ohio State did not ban anyone from our stadium.”

Portnoy quickly responded in a video. “I wasn’t going to say anything… I’m trying to be a good partner, we’re just starting this thing with Fox,” he said. “They banned me from coming into their stadium. They banned our [Barstool’s] show from coming to campus. I feel bad because Fox is in the middle of it.”

A spokesperson for the Big Ten told FOS, “It is the Big Ten Conference’s understanding from FOX that Dave Portnoy will not appear on Big Noon Kickoff’s main stage inside the stadium of any Big Ten Conference school this year.”

FOS reached out to every Big Ten school and asked if they were aware of whether Fox intends to bring Portnoy into their stadium as part of their broadcast, as well as whether they would allow Portnoy in. Penn State referred FOS to the Big Ten. Oregon referred FOS to Fox. Iowa said they had not heard anything from Fox.

A representative for Michigan, where Portnoy went to school, told FOS, “We have not banned a reporter/analyst/personality from reporting at Michigan Stadium. I have also not had any discussions with FOX regarding the Big Noon Kickoff show; I’m certain those conversations will take place once they identify a game to attend this fall.”

Other schools did not immediately respond.

A spokesperson for Fox Sports declined to comment.

The predicament with Ohio State figures to be a recurring one as the school usually hosts multiple Big Noon games a year.

—Amanda Christovich contributed additional reporting.

A framework of MLB’s reimagined TV deals for the next three years with ESPN, NBC, and Netflix emerged last week through a flurry of news stories. The agreements have not been finalized and some details still need to be ironed out. As the proverbial i’s get dotted and t’s get crossed in the final contracts, these are some remaining burning questions:  

1) Does ESPN’s MLB.TV licensing also include MLB Extra Innings?

MLB Extra Innings is the out-of-market package sold by cable and satellite operators. The current expectation is that it will remain a separate package and thus not be included in ESPN’s deal. 

Where it gets murky: Currently, MLB Extra Innings subscribers can authenticate via their cable/satellite log-ins to access MLB.TV. Whether this synergy will continue is a factor that is apparently still being worked out. 

Spokespeople for ESPN and MLB declined to comment for this story. 

2) Will MLB.TV subscribers also need to subscribe to ESPN Unlimited—ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer streaming service—to continue accessing the product?

This is another issue still being worked through by ESPN and MLB. If it winds up that you do need to subscribe to ESPN’s streaming service, the relevant model to think about here is that UFC fans need to be subscribers to ESPN+ in order to access the MMA promotion’s pay-per-views. (UFC is leaving ESPN for Paramount at the end of the year.) 

As we have been discussing in the forthcoming deal for WWE premium live events to air on ESPN’s streamer, there’s been some confusion about which bundle subscribers have access versus who will have to pay directly for the ESPN app.

Right now, Charter/Spectrum, DirecTV (and DirecTV Stream), Verizon Fios, Hulu + Live TV, and Fubo TV subscribers have access to ESPN Unlimited. Customers of Comcast/Xfinity, YouTube TV, Dish Network, Sling TV, Cox, and Optimum do not. 

3) Will MLB.TV still be subject to local blackouts?

Yes, at least through 2028, when all of MLB’s rights are set to expire. Commissioner Rob Manfred has been a proponent of eliminating local blackouts as soon as he’s able. 

“I’d like to get into a mode where, if it’s not in a national package, the consumer has the ability to go in, buy what he wants to watch, wherever he is, and we get rid of that really questionable business concept of the blackout, meaning not letting people who want to watch, watch,” Manfred told Puck last year. 

4) How does this deal impact MLB Network?

The Wall Street Journal reported that ESPN’s deal to license MLB.TV would also include the rights to stream MLB Network in its service. However, the plan is not for ESPN to take operational control of MLB Network as it plans to do with NFL Network, pending regulatory approval and deal closure. 

5) With ESPN assuming control of local rights for five teams, will it start bidding against the RSNs for MLB, NBA, and NHL local rights?

“Maybe!” one source said.

In addition to MLB.TV licensing, ESPN is also slated to receive the in-market rights for the Guardians, Padres, Twins, Rockies, and Diamondbacks. It will be interesting to see if ESPN negotiates local market linear TV carriage rights for these teams in addition to digital rights.

The other fascinating question is whether ESPN is going to start bidding against regional sports networks (RSNs) like the FanDuel networks or local NBC Sports affiliates for live rights in baseball or perhaps other sports like the NBA and NHL.

ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro has been a vocal proponent of integrating local rights. 

ESPN previously sought to get heavily involved in the local sports rights business when Fox’s asset sale to Disney originally included the Fox Sports RSNs (which are now the FanDuel networks). However, in 2018, the Justice Department forced Disney to divest the RSNs to approve the sale. Now, things could come full circle.

6) How much new revenue is MLB really receiving?

ESPN opted out of a deal with MLB that would have been worth about $550 million annually over the next three years. Per The Wall Street Journal, the new deals are expected to be worth:

• $200 million for Sunday Night Baseball and wild-card playoffs with NBC (Philly.com also reported that NBC is expected to regain the Sunday morning package that currently airs on Roku but previously ran on Peacock)
• $35 million for the Home Run Derby on Netflix
• $550 million for MLB.TV licensing, the five teams’ in-market rights, and a new package of mid-week games on ESPN.

While that adds up to nearly $800 million, the ESPN portion is not all incremental revenue. It is unknown precisely how many people subscribe to MLB.TV, which costs $139.99 per season. 

In 2020, Sportico estimated there were 3.5 million MLB.TV subscribers. However, that number is not all paying customers, as T-Mobile users get the package for free, and MLB Extra Innings subscribers can also authenticate. 

MLB remains confident that these reimagined TV deals will make it more than whole from the opt-out. 

This weekend, millions of YouTube TV customers could find themselves without access to Fox channels carrying marquee college football Week 1 matchups.

YouTube TV confirmed Monday in a post on X that it is “actively negotiating” with Fox to reach “a fair deal for both sides.” The streaming platform said that if the parties are “unable to reach an agreement by August 27, their content may become unavailable.”

In other words, if YouTube TV and Fox can’t reach an agreement by Wednesday, all of Fox’s sports programming—including Week 1 college football programming on Fox Sports, FS1, and the Big Ten Network—would be unavailable to YouTube TV subscribers this weekend. 

Fox Sports has rights to multiple major conferences, including the Big 12 and Big Ten. In fact, Fox Sports is slated to carry one of the biggest games of the week: a noon matchup between the reigning national champion Ohio State Buckeyes and the No. 1 Texas Longhorns on Saturday. This could potentially also impact the start of the NFL season and MLB matchups.

“If we can’t reach an agreement and Fox content becomes unavailable for an extended period of time, we’ll offer our YouTube TV subscribers a $10 credit,” YouTube TV said.

“While FOX remains committed to reaching a fair agreement with Google’s YouTube TV, we are disappointed that Google continually exploits its outsized influence by proposing terms that are out of step with the marketplace,” Fox Sports said in a statement sent to Front Office Sports on Monday night. “We are alerting FOX viewers who are YouTube TV subscribers that they could lose access to much of their favorite news, sports, entertainment and local station programming unless Google engages in a meaningful way soon.”

Fox One, the network’s streaming service, just launched at a $19.99 monthly rate.

YouTube TV is operated by YouTube and owned by Google. The streaming giant boasts more than 8 million subscribers, far bigger than other competitors like Hulu + Live TV.