If you’re going to work for Barstool Sports, there’s an expectation that you’re willing to speak your mind and publicly call out anyone who you think deserves it, including your boss.
Brandon Walker will put that ethos to the test this college football season when Dave Portnoy is on FS1 extolling the virtues of the Big Ten.
Portnoy is about to become the face of Fox Sports’ college football coverage when he joins Big Noon Kickoff as part of a new partnership between Fox and Barstool. The Michigan alum has made it very clear that he plans to promote the Big Ten (though likely at Ohio State’s expense), which Fox has the broadcasting rights for, and will use the opportunity to explain why that conference is superior to the SEC. In fact, according to a report by Puck’s John Ourand, Fox and Big Ten executives specifically brought in Portnoy to serve as an “on-air fanboy” to promote the conference, similar to Paul Finebaum’s role regarding the SEC on ESPN.
This, of course, is not going to sit well with some viewers, especially those with ties to the SEC. You can count Brandon Walker among that crowd. The co-host of Barstool’s Mostly Sports With Mark Titus & Brandon Walker and The Yak has long been an SEC football commentator, and he says he won’t have any issue checking Portnoy over his fandom on Fox, even if he’s part of Barstool’s new Saturday morning show broadcasting live from Big Ten country.
“The irony was not lost on me yesterday when one of the biggest opportunities the company I have been part of has ever been involved with is now Big Ten-centric,” Walker said on Friday’s episode of Mostly Sports. “I’m with that, but I will have no problem, and I am not an SEC homer, people hear the Southern accent, they think I’m an SEC homer. I am not.
“But I will have no problem walking into Columbus, Ohio, or Ann Arbor, Michigan, or Madison, Wisconsin, or anywhere that the Big Ten pervades its football wares. I will have no problem walking on the stage, looking Dave Portnoy in his 5’6 eye and saying, well, I probably won’t be able to say, f*ck you. I’ll have to amend the language, but I’ll look him dead in the eye and tell him, ‘This right here is nothing compared to the SEC.’ I have no problem doing that.”
The Big Ten has a recent advantage, having won the last two national titles, but the SEC has rattled off four before that (to say nothing of Alabama’s dynasty). This season, all eyes are on the SEC’s Texas, Georgia, and LSU, as well as the Big Ten’s Ohio State, Penn State, and Oregon, to be among the teams competing for the crown. So there will be plenty for Portnoy and Walker to battle over all season long.
Infighting and bickering are a cornerstone of Barstool content, so surely Fox knows what they’re in for this college football season. At least, for their sake, we hope they do.