FOX decision pits Dave Portnoy against $60million former employee Pat McAfee in battle with ESPN

FOX Sports has confirmed its 2026 college football broadcast teams, and Dave Portnoy will be back in the booth.

The Barstool Sports founder will join Rob Stone, Brady Quinn, Matt Leinhard, Mark Ingram and Urban Meyer for his second season on the Big Noon Kickoff show.

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Portnoy joined the show last year after FOX and Barstool signed a multi-year partnership together.

Other Barstool personalities, including Dan ‘Big Cat’ Katz, who filled in on multiple occasions last year are expected to appear on the show.

The on-site coverage of the show will welcome former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski as a regular contributor.

Barstool’s College Football Show will also return on select game weekends, alongside Big Noon Kickoff.

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Elsewhere, FOX’s No.1 booth of Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt and Jenny Taft all return.

Connor Onion has been named as Jason Benetti’s successor in their No.2 booth, he will work alongside Robert Griffin III and Alexa Landestoy.

In the studio, veteran host Mike Hill will continue to anchor Fox Sports’ college football coverage from Los Angeles.

He will be joined by college football insider Bruce Feldman and 2026 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Chris Petersen.

Dave Portnoy vs Pat McAfee

FOX Sports has struggled to compete with ESPN’s coverage of College Football, largely thanks to their superior programming.

Portnoy’s presence on the show seems like a direct response and attempt to dwarf Pat McAfee‘s success on ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’.

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McAfee’s meteoric rise at ESPN began when he joined College GameDay as a full-time analyst in 2022.

After the network made a wave of brutal cuts, including Ryan Clark, who was fired in the middle of a live broadcast, McAfee has been told he runs ESPN.

FOX and ‘The Worldwide Leader in Sports’ have an unofficial rivalry, as all TV networks do, but it’s not the same for McAfee and Portnoy.

Upon retiring from the NFL, McAfee begun his career at Barstool, and gave McAfee early platform tools and a team to launch The Pat McAfee Show.

McAfee parted ways with Barstool in 2018 over dispute issues with the internal sales team, and since has become one of the most recognizable faces in media.

He is currently in talks with ESPN over a new contract the could pay him between $60 – $65 million annually.

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Rather than a bitter personal feud, their competition is a high-stakes battle for dominance over modern sports media, and college football Saturday audiences.

As ESPN reaps the rewards of McAfee’s massive reach, FOX is aggressively seeing if Portnoy can boost their ratings and compete with the Worldwide Leader.