Saturday is for the buzz? Fox Sports finalizing TV deal with Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy

Fox Sports is nearing completion of a major deal with Barstool Sports, sources briefed on the deal confirmed to The Athletic.

The agreement would call for the company’s founder, Dave Portnoy, to become a regular on Fox’s premier Saturday college football pregame show, “Big Noon Kickoff.”

On weekdays, Portnoy and top personalities, like Portnoy and Dan (Big Cat) Katz, would be part of a Barstool-produced daily show on FS1 that is expected to compete directly with ESPN’s “Get Up,” hosted by Mike Greenberg, and Stephen A. Smith’s “First Take.”

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An official announcement of the deal could come as soon as Thursday, per the sources briefed on the deal.

While Portnoy’s move to “Big Noon Kickoff” does feel like a direct response to Pat McAfee’s success on ESPN’s “College GameDay,” Portnoy’s role will likely be more of a voice of the fan; especially with Fox owning the biggest Big Ten games, including Michigan versus Ohio State, and Portnoy being a Michigan alum. McAfee is an every-segment panelist on “GameDay.”

Front Office Sports first reported the “Big Noon” aspect, while the X account, “BackAftaThis,” initially mentioned the Barstool daily program connection.

Sources told The Athletic that Barstool is also likely to have its own pregame show before “Big Noon Kickoff” at select Big Ten games.

Fox Sports declined to comment.

FS1 has struggled to compete with ESPN in the mornings, which is partly due to ESPN’s superior programming the night before that gives it a head start each morning. FS1 just canceled its previous morning programs, Craig Carton’s “Breakfast Ball” and Emmanuel Acho’s “The Facility.” The two programs did not rate, which made it so Colin Cowherd’s noon show was at a huge disadvantage going against McAfee’s daily program.

The nature of the Fox Sports agreement is expected to be similar to ESPN’s licensing of McAfee’s program. McAfee produces his show and has editorial control.

Cowherd’s and Nick Wright’s “First Things First” programs remain in the afternoons. Fox Sports canceled Joy Taylor, Keyshawn Johnson and Paul Pierce’s “Speak” earlier this week, as well.

Barstool’s previous foray into mainstream sports TV came in October 2017, when “Barstool Van Talk” — a TV spin-off of its “Pardon My Take” podcast — appeared on ESPN2 in the middle of the night for a single episode before being abruptly canceled after then ESPN president John Skipper responded to the backlash from employees over the controversial site.

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“While we had approval of the content of the show, I erred in assuming we could distance our efforts from the Barstool site and its content,” Skipper said at the time.

Portnoy and Barstool employees have been embroiled in numerous controversies and faced misconduct accusations over the years, though the site has remained very popular. Most recently, Portnoy apologized after a couple of his commentators spread a false rumor about a freshman student at Ole Miss.

“Pardon My Take,” which launched in February 2016, consistently ranks among the top five most popular sports podcasts.

(Photo: Tommy Gilligan / Imagn Images)

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