FOX Sports is looking to fight ESPN head for sports TV star power

After Pat McAfee helped to transform College GameDay and Stephen A. Smith inked a massive contract with ESPN, Fox Sports needed an answer.

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The network has since found their counter to ESPN’s stars.

Fox Sports is banking on the popularity of social media company Bartstool Sports to help them fight back against ESPN.

Dave Portnoy, the founder of Fox Sports, will now be a regular face on Fox’s premier college football program, Big Noon Kickoff.

On top of that, he will air a weekly Barstool-produced show with personalities like Dan “Big Cat” Katz.

That show is intended to directly compete with ESPN’s Get Up and First Take.

Portnoy’s introduction to the Big Noon Kickoff cast is almost certainly a direct response to the success of McAfee joining College GameDay.

Barstool previously broke into live TV with ESPN, airing a show called Barstool Van Talk in 2017.

It was a spinoff of the podcast Pardon My Take and appeared on ESPN2 for just one episode.

It was immediately canceled after backlash from employees.

“While we had approval of the content of the show, I erred in assuming we could distance our efforts from the Barstool site and its content,” then ESPN president John Skipper said at the time.

It appears that Fox and Barstool won’t have the same issues as ESPN based on a post from Portnoy.

“This is the 1st time in our illustrious and notorious history that we’ve got a (TV) partner we believe in and believes in us,” Portnoy wrote on X.

Fox desperately needs a win in the form of a sports studio show.

Despite restructuring its content months ago, Fox Sports just cancelled multiple shows again.

Speak, The Facility, and Breakfast Ball were all cancelled due to poor ratings.

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If Barstool’s new show can get anywhere close to the ratings of First Take or The Pat McAfee Show, it will be a huge success for Fox.

They have a good base to work off to for viewership.

Barstool’s biggest podcast, Pardon My Take, is consistently one of the most popular sports podcasts.

It is currently ranked No. 1 on both Spotify and Apple, with the Pat McAfee show far behind.

If that viewership translates to live TV, Fox could have a big winner on its hands.

SEC television-radio voice Paul Finebaum made it clear that he’s “sick and tired” of Big Ten football fans during a recent appearance on the Netflix Sports Club Podcast.

Finebaum, the ESPN personality and host of SEC Network’s The Paul Finebaum Show, told Netflix Sports Club host Dani Klupenger that he’s “so sick and tired of being harassed by Big Ten fans” and added that Big Ten fans “act like they invented football.”

“If it’s not I’m leaving the country. I am so sick and tired of being harassed by Big Ten fans on our show. … They act like they invented football.” @finebaum has had enough of Big Ten fans, and predicts that an SEC team will win the National Championship 😂 @daniklup pic.twitter.com/LNXFwU7IL3

— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) August 9, 2025

Klupenger asked Finebaum, “Who’s going to win the national championship, and is it going to be an SEC team?”

“It is,” Finebaum began. “And by the way, if it’s not, I’m leaving the country because I am so sick and tired of being harassed by Big Ten fans on our show.”

“The Big Ten has literally done nothing,” Finebaum continued. “They’ve won two national championships. Michigan won one two years ago. They’ve won one and a half national championships, I think, and before that, in 70 years. And they act like they invented football.

“Alabama has won about 15 national championships in my lifetime. Now, I realize that’s not a good comparison to a realistic lifespan. But, I believe Texas is going to win; I didn’t mean to avoid your question. It’s going to end all this. And on January 20, I’ll be the happiest man in America because I won’t have to listen to the Big Tenners, or as my callers call them, the Little Tenners.”

You can watch Finebaum’s full appearance on the Netflix Sports Club Podcast here:

The sports media company Overtime has seen three of its four athlete talk shows end since January, when the publisher first announced its intention to grow its roster of shows to as many as 10 series and invest millions into the program. The network originally launched last August.

“By September, we will most likely double the size of the network and invest millions of dollars in this,” Overtime chief executive Dan Porter told ADWEEK in January. “It’s been really successful, and we think it’s the future. The biggest challenge is that brands don’t understand that this is the new television talk-show format.”

Since then, series following the popular college athletes Shaddeur Sanders, Travis Hunter, and Flau’jae Johnson have ended. The remaining show, which follows college basketball player Ian Jackson, is still producing new episodes.

A spokesperson for Overtime confirmed the conclusion of the three shows and the lack of new launches.

“We’re continuing to lean into what makes Overtime unique-developing talent, expanding original IP, and deepening our connection to the communities that fuel the future of sports and culture,” the representative shared in a statement. “We’re still in talks with pro athletes, expanding on the work we’ve already done, so it’s not a step back-it’s a strategic evolution toward long-term growth.”

Its first round of deals were structured as a combination of minimum guarantees with additional splits on top, according to Porter. The contracts began as one-year minimums.

As part of the model, Overtime managed most of the workload for the athletes. It launched the channels, brought in the sponsors, booked the guests, helped craft the editorial, and supplied the studio equipment. 

“If we pay someone hundreds of thousands upfront and we don’t sell, that’s on us,” Porter said in January. “You treat your video podcasters as if they were entrepreneurs.” 

Both Sanders and Hunter, whose series ended, left the University of Colorado and were drafted into the NFL. Johnson and Jackson are still in college.

The conclusion of the three series partially reflects the challenges of working with college athletes, according to podcast analyst Nicholas Quah.

“[Overtime]’s struggles are a little strange because the podcast business is moving in this direction. Athlete talk shows are very popular right now,” he said. “But the creator economy is very bifurcated: the only ones that hit are the biggest names, and Overtime doesn’t focus on the biggest names. They focus on college athletes, which are definitionally people on the rise.”

Overtime is in active talks with professional athletes to build new series around them, according to the company. It was engaged in similar discussions in January, Porter said at the time.

The podcast landscape has also been transformed over the last year by the rapid growth of video podcasts, or video versions of podcasts, into the medium.

The emergence of video in podcasting has opened the channel up to larger ad budgets-in 2024, video advertising was a $62 billion market, while podcasting brought in $2.4 billion, per the IAB. But the frenzy to transform podcasts into videos and videos into podcasts has also led to disruption. 

On Monday, Amazon broke up operations of its Wondery podcast network as part of a broader reorganization, eliminating 110 jobs and redistributing staff under Amazon’s Audible banner or into its newly created “creator services” team, according to Bloomberg. The reorg was the latest in a series of cuts and pivots from major technology platforms, including Spotify and Audacy, as they try to navigate a rapidly shifting landscape, including video.

“Two things can be true at once,” Quah, the podcast analyst, said. “If you’re rushing to get into the video podcast space, you’re a little too late. But the equally true lesson is that if you want to get into the podcast space right now, you should be considering video.”

With the high school football season drawing nearer, the Sooners Illustrated Podcast is back with a brand new episode to catch up on the latest with Oklahoma recruiting. 

Sooners Illustrated’s Josh Callaway and Collin Kennedy open things up by breaking down the big news of the week for the Sooners as they picked up a commitment from 2027 offensive tackle Luke Wilson on Thursday out of Southlake, TX. 

“This guy popped up on the radar pretty early in the process, as you do whenever you’re roughly 6-6 to 6-7 and play at Southlake Carroll,” Kennedy said. “Luke Wilson is on his way, and Oklahoma realized ‘Hey, this is probably a player we need to make sure is on his way to Oklahoma.'”

The staff then dive into the latest with OU 2026 Elijah Golden and Jake Kreul ahead of their impending commitment announcements on Saturday and Tuesday, respectively, before shifting attention to another 2026 target Davian Groce and the latest with Sooners’ fall camp with some freshmen looking to make an immediate impact for Oklahoma. 

“The most obvious one is Elijah Thomas…that guy looks like he is going to play,” Callaway said. “Certainly Courtland Guillory I think is having a great camp as well and is probably a guy who has a very good chance to get on the field if you want to get one on the defensive side.”

Listen to the podcast on Apple, Spotify and the player above or watch the show in its entirety on our YouTube channel below. Be sure to like, comment, subscribe and leave a review wherever and however you take in the Sooners Illustrated Podcast.

Keep an eye out for new episodes every Monday and Thursday at 3 p.m. CT all year long as well as a special game preview show on Friday mornings and the instant reaction episode recorded at the stadium on Saturday’s immediately following the games during the season.

Also be sure to subscribe to the Sooners Illustrated: Oklahoma on 247Sports YouTube channel for all the latest press conferences, player interviews, recruiting news, practice footage and podcasts throughout the year.

Become a VIP subscriber to Sooners Illustrated to keep up with all the latest team and recruiting intel for Oklahoma football, basketball, softball and baseball year-round as well as 247Sports’ elite national team and the entire 247Sports network. 

Are you interested in keeping up with the Sooners Illustrated team on social media and more? Head to Twitter and toss our staff a follow in order to get all perspectives and in-depth coverage on OU athletics. You can find Collin Kennedy at @CKennedy247. James D. Jackson is at @JamesDJackson15. Josh Callaway is at @JoshMCallaway. Lead reporter Tom Green can be found at @Tomas_Verde. Finally, simply click here to check out the new Oklahoma Sooners on 247Sports YouTube Channel where the team will be sharing video content to viewers for FREE!

Two and a half decades later, Roger Clemens’ broken bat throw at Mike Piazza is still a defining moment of the Subway Series rivalry.

While many were outraged and confused when Clemens took a chunk of Piazza’s broken bat and fired it into the ground right back at him, Clemens has set the record straight numerous times over the years and did so once again on the latest episode of Jack Curry’s “Yankees News & Views” podcast.

“TV made it look like it was five feet from him,” Clemens said. “I didn’t think it was that close to the guy, and I definitely wasn’t throwing it at him. I tease people now … if I wanted to hit him with it, I could have hit him with it.”

Clemens detailed that the reason he fielded the bat in the first place was because his initial instinct was that the baseball was coming back at him.

“So, I broke down into my wonderful fielding position, and wouldn’t ya know, that bat took two hops, came right up into my freaking lap, and I just grabbed it and whistled it on down to the on-deck circle,” he said.

Of course, this led to mayhem as the benches cleared.

While the broken bat and the ensuing chaos weren’t part of the plan, the fastball that shattered Piazza’s bat was.

“Mike got in the box and I think my first three pitches were like 98, 98, 98. And I shattered his bat,” Clemens said. “The scouting report with [Yankees pitching coach] Mel Stottlemyre was great, too. We were in the trainer’s room going through the lineup, and when we got to Piazza, we said, ‘We’re gonna pitch him in. And we’re gonna pitch him in. And we’re gonna pitch him in.’”

The Yankees pitcher went on to retire Piazza with a ground ball out, and the Pinstripes took down the Mets 6-5 en route to their 4-1 2000 World Series win.

Saquon Barkley might be the only one who is happy about the Giants’ “Hard Knocks” appearance last year.

The Eagles’ superstar running back, who rushed for 2,005 yards in his first season with the Eagles while winning a Super Bowl after leaving the Giants, went on the “Pardon My Take” podcast this week and was asked whether he hates the Giants.

“It’s funny because you would think from social media that there’s this big beef with me, (general manager) Joe Schoen, the Giants,” Barkley said to Barstool Sports’ Dan Katz.

“In reality, I still talk to them here and there. I got to see all of them before the game last year to end the season where I didn’t end up playing. … They were super happy for me for rushing for 2,000 yards the week prior. It’s a business. The NFL is a weird business, obviously. I’m not a fan of that side of it when it comes to the money side. But those guys were a big reason why I was able to get back.”

Barkley’s season in Philadelphia was so special that he received MVP votes, and he believes the “Hard Knocks” clip showing what went into his exit allowed fans to view him differently.

The former Penn State star received plenty of vitriol from fans after leaving Big Blue for their heated rival.

“I’m kind of happy, though, it saved me,” Barkley said. “Because people thought that I just [left], you know what I mean? You have fans that are just blinded by it, and they just say, ‘Oh, he just left.’ But, you got to see that, yes, we had a negotiation process the year before, but that year they gave me the opportunity to hit the open market, which was the right thing to do by the Giants. A lot of people don’t talk about that.”

Giants owner John Mara said in the show he would “have a tough time sleeping if Saquon goes to Philadelphia,” which ultimately came to fruition.

And to add salt to the wound, Barkley produced one of the best seasons by a running back ever.

Barkley added that he’s happy as ever to be in Philadelphia, where he just got a raise and contract extension less than a year after signing with the team.

“So, for Joe Schoen and all those guys to be like, ‘The right thing to do by him is to let him test the market,’ and I gave them the opportunity to match it. Obviously, they felt that I wasn’t worth what they thought that number was,” Barkley continued. “And it’s the best thing to ever happen to me. I’m in Philly, I’m with Howie [Roseman], I’m with (security guard) Big Dom (DiSandro) and all these guys. I got the best offensive line in football, we just came off a Super Bowl win, and things are continuing to go great.”

The Eagles open the 2025 NFL season Sept. 4 against the Cowboys on “Thursday Night Football,” and may face a Dallas team that is without Micah Parsons amid a contract dispute.