“Everything is wrestling” is a phrase you may have become familiar with, as the lines between truth, fiction, perception, and reality have blurred in recent years.
The public spat between Fox Sports’ Dave Portnoy and THE Ohio State University over the Barstool Sports founder’s supposed ban from Ohio Stadium this weekend might just be an ideal example of the theory.
Word broke Monday night via Front Office Sports that Ohio State was banning Portnoy, a Michigan fan and booster, from the stadium while he was in town as part of FS1’s Big Noon Kickoff, prompting widespread backlash. Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger then spoke with Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork, who stated that the school had not banned Portnoy and that Fox made the decision. A Big Ten spokesperson then informed Dellenger that Portnoy would not be broadcasting inside any conference stadiums that year, a decision that had already been made. Portnoy stood firm that OSU had banned him because of his Michigan affiliations.
The whole strange affair seemingly played out in Fox’s and Portnoy’s favor, as they attempt to steal focus from Lee Corso’s final College GameDay while Big Noon Kickoff is broadcasting on the other side of campus. Others were happy to see OSU stick it to Portnoy and Fox, as the fandom has been frustrated with the number of Noon kickoffs required of them.
Dellenger joined Andy Staples and Steven Godfrey on Tuesday’s episode of College Football Enquirer to discuss his reporting and the broader context surrounding it. Godfrey, who previously worked in the world of professional wrestling, knows the difference between a work (a scripted event), a shoot (an unscripted event), and a work-shoot (a scripted event meant to resemble an unscripted one). And while he was all-in on the idea that Portnoy’s ban was work-shoot, he thinks Fox got the timing wrong if they really wanted to make it pop.
After Staples introduced the idea of a segment where Portnoy, presumably banned from the stadium, shows up with a camera crew to infiltrate the Big Noon Kickoff set, only for analyst Urban Meyer to hit Portnoy with the national championship trophy and then pick the Buckeyes to top Texas, getting a massive pop from the partisan crowd, Godfrey explained Fox missed that opportunity, if it is indeed the kind of thing they were going for.
“We’re recording this on Tuesday morning, it’s August 26. We needed this to leak magically, either hypothetically from Fox or from Portnoy’s camp or some hybrid thereof to FOS,” said Godfrey. “They should have done it Friday maybe, like, mid-morning.
“…it takes Ohio State a second to react, right? If you would have done this on Friday morning, you would have still garnered all of the interest. But it would have happened so fast before the Saturday broadcast that there would not have been time, Andy, to break the worked part of the shoot. Does that make sense? In other words, everyone would have believed that Portnoy was legitimately banned and probably, which is what Fox’s intent is here, flipped over to see what was going on on Fox on Saturday morning.
“They just started the work-shoot too early so that legitimate journalists like Ross and everybody else could say, ‘Hey, guys, this is actually all fugazi. If they really wanted to stunt this, they would have done it three days from now.”
NEW @yahoosports CFB Enquirer: Somehow the nonsense stunt PR of college pregame shows keeps forcing me to tell stories about working in pro wrestling: https://t.co/Rdauh23xE2
— Steven Godfrey (@38Godfrey) August 27, 2025
As many have noted, including our Ben Axelrod, Portnoy isn’t here for his thoughtful analysis and prognostications. He’s here to go viral and make TV moments. Fox already had something on its hands, making this avowed Michigan Man’s debut in Columbus. The “ban,” whether it’s real, made-up, or just a matter of semantics, is part of that, intended or not. However, according to those in the wrestling business, they still need to work on their timing if they really want to make this material pop.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.