On Monday, it was reported that Ohio State University had banned Barstool Sports President Dave Portnoy from Ohio Stadium ahead of the Buckeyes’ crucial season-opening matchup against Texas. Now, after the school tried to deny the ban, Portnoy is ripping into the school.
Portnoy is scheduled to debut on Fox’s Big Noon Saturday and was initially set to broadcast from the stadium. However, reports soon emerged that he had been banned.
Yet, after the report of the ban broke, Ohio State claimed that the reports were not accurate.
Instead, Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork blamed it all on Fox Sports, saying the network decided to leave Portnoy off the desk, which would also prevent him from being on the field in the stadium, according to the New York Daily News.
But Portnoy is strongly disputing this claim. In a video on Tuesday, he took a stick to “crying Ryan Day and Ohio State” and called them “soft.”
He reiterated that Ohio State had banned him and his other OutKick show, forcing him to pay cancellation fees for venues and travel. He also says he has known of the ban for a week.
“This is a unique spot for me because I always just sling it and say what’s happening,” Portnoy said in the video. “Barstool is an independent pirate ship. We work for ourselves. That’s why people love us. We don’t filter anything, we don’t hide anything. Now, we’ve formed this big relationship with Fox, and I’m always cognizant of our partners and try to do right by them. And they definitely got put in a weird spot because they didn’t see this. How could anybody see that crying Ryan Day and Ohio State would be this soft?”
Portnoy pinned it all on Michigan’s big rivalry with Ohio State because he is a graduate and big fan of Michigan.
“When one team beats your fucking face in for an entire decade, when your arch rival is stomping on your neck and you can’t breathe, you do crazy things,” he said, needling Ohio for its long string of losses to Michigan. “They ban me from coming to the stadium. They ban our show from being on campus. And I feel bad that Fox is in the middle of it.”
He concluded by advising Ohio State to just “own” its actions.
“Just own what you do. Just own what you do,” he said. “Don’t hide. ‘Oh, we didn’t ban him.’ You banned me. You’re scared of Michigan and the only way you guys are going to compete with us again is you can look yourselves in the mirror and be honest with yourselves….Don’t point the finger.”
Ohio, of course, has not admitted that Portnoy has been banned because he is a big fan of Michigan. However, the school’s silence on the matter might be saying more than anything else. However, the idea that a major American university would ban Portnoy, an accredited member of a major network’s sports broadcast team, over his support of a rival school, is an incredible lack of professionalism.
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