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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Jimmy Traina

Dave Portnoy–Ohio State Controversy Is Nothing But a Positive For ‘Big Noon Kickoff’

1. A report came out Monday night that Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who is set to make his Big Noon Kickoff debut this Saturday, has been banned from entering Ohio State’s stadium (where Fox’s pregame will take place).

Tuesday morning, Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger reported that there is no ban.

As with most stories in this day and age, we don’t know what the truth is. Would I put it past Fox to leak that Portnoy was banned even though he wasn’t to drum up attention and interest for the show? No.

Would I have put it past Ohio State to make the ridiculous decision to ban Portnoy from entering The Horseshoe? No.

Whatever the reality is, this controversy is nothing but good for Big Noon Kickoff. The show needs any and all juice it can get this week since it will be going up against Lee Corso’s final appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay.

There was already a curiosity factor built in with Portnoy and his debut on the show. The ban/not banned element just adds another level of intrigue.

The reality is that the ban/no ban is irrelevant. Portnoy does not need to be inside the stadium to do his thing. The Barstool Sports founder can be effective without being on a set or at a desk. In fact, he can be more effective away from the stadium ranting and raving and causing a scene over being banned.

2. There was an erroneous report a couple of weeks ago about Major League Baseball’s broadcast future that got a lot of play. The report stated Apple TV+ was out when it came to airing an exclusive Friday night game. In the words of the aforementioned Lee Corso: not so fast.

According to Puck’s John Ourand, here’s where we stand with MLB:

• NBC/Peacock will get Sunday Night Baseball and the wild-card series. In addition, Peacock will get the Sunday morning game that currently airs on Roku.

• Netflix will get the Home Run Derby.

• Apple will continue with Friday Night Baseball.

• ESPN will get a midweek game and in the bigger news, MLB.tv.

From Ourand: “With their new deal, ESPN will have access to MLB.TV, which fans will be able to subscribe to through ESPN’s app (though, importantly, they do not need to be ESPN direct-to-consumer subscribers to access MLB’s out-of-market package).”

3. Sports fans who subscribe to YouTubeTV got freaked out on Monday when it became public that the service is currently in a carriage dispute with Fox. If no agreement is made by Wednesday, all Fox stations would be pulled from YouTubeTV.

Of course, this is significant because the first Sunday of the NFL season is just around the corner.

If you have YouTubeTV, my advice is simple: Calm down. Don’t worry. YouTubeTV and Fox will absolutely make a deal before the NFL season starts. There is a zero percent chance Fox will be dark on YouTubeTV on that first Sunday of the season.

4. I gave Brian a standing ovation when I saw this video a couple of days ago.

5. Some broadcast crews for Week 1 games on ESPN:

• Syracuse-Tennessee: Bob Wischusen and Louis Riddick

• Alabama-Florida State: Joe Tessitore and Jesse Palmer

• LSU-Clemson: Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit

• Notre Dame-Miami: Sean McDonough and Greg McElroy

• TCU-North Carolina: Rece Davis and Herbstreit

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast is half “Traina Thoughts” and half mailbag, with WFAN’s Sal Licata joining me for the entire show.

Topics discussed include the onslaught of sports docuseries, ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer app and its best feature, preseason NFL magazines and the perils of MLB betting.

In the mailbag segment, we tackle questions about the possibility of a woman becoming a full-time NFL game analyst, UFC leaving ESPN for Paramount, Howard Stern’s future on SiriusXM, ESPN buying MLB.TV, ESPN’s plan for its direct-to-consumer product, Russell Wilson vs. Jaxson Dart, the pinnacle of HBO’s Hard Knocks, Cris Collinsworth’s future with NBC, MLB realignment, my aversion to flying and whether Sal has called 911 recently.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Kevin McCallister is somehow 45 years old today. Happy 45th birthday to Macaulay Culkin.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on AppleSpotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Dave Portnoy–Ohio State Controversy Is Nothing But a Positive For ‘Big Noon Kickoff’.

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