Meet Fox's new-look 'Big Noon Kickoff' lineup for 2025, from Dave Portnoy to Mark Ingram II

Teddy Ricketson

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Meet Fox's new-look 'Big Noon Kickoff' lineup for 2025, from Dave Portnoy to Mark Ingram II image

Saturdays in the fall are for college football. If you're on the East Coast, the day begins early when the preview shows start discussing the day's matchups. This leads into the first kickoff at noon and continues through West Coast kickoffs, which take place around 10:30 or 11 p.m. 

A staple of Saturday mornings has been "College GameDay" on ESPN. Due the show's success, other outlets have begun using a similar formula for their own shows, featuring a panel of analysts and guest hosts. Fox's iteration is called "Big Noon Kickoff." It is a college preview show, but since Fox has the rights to Big Ten games, the show often leads into the biggest matchup of the day for the conference. 

Similar to "College GameDay," "Big Noon Kickoff" features a panel of sports world analysts. It has varied in the past, but the cast usually consists of former football players, either from the professional or college football ranks. In 2025, though, they are taking things in a slightly different direction and adding a media personality. 

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Here is more on Fox's new-look "Big Noon Kickoff" and the cast it will have for the 2025 season. 

Big Noon Kickoff Lineup

Here is the panel that will be used on Fox's "Big Noon Kickoff" for the 2025 season. 

  • Rob Stone (Host)
  • Urban Meyer (Analyst)
  • Matt Leinart (Analyst)
  • Brady Quinn (Analyst)
  • Mark Ingram II (Analyst)
  • Bruce Feldman (College Football Insider)
  • Dave Portnoy (Owner of Barstool Sports)
  • Chris "Bear Fallica (Stats and Betting Spreads)
  • Tom Rinaldi (Special Segments)

Rob Stone

To clarify before anyone gets their hopes up, this is Stone the college football host and not Rob $tone the rapper. He played college soccer at Colgate University and graduated with an English degree. Stone got his start at ESPN as a production assistant, then was a sports anchor for WFXL-TV in Albany, Georgia. After two years, he worked for a news station in Florida covering the Buccaneers and then returned to ESPN in 1997 to work on college football and basketball shows.

Stone left ESPN in 2012 to join Fox and its soccer broadcasts. During his tenure, Stone later became a studio host for Fox's college football and basketball broadcasts and filled in on the network's baseball coverage. "Big Noon Kickoff" premiered in 2019, and Stone started as the show's host and still holds the title six years later.

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Urban Meyer

Meyer rose to prominence as the head coach of Utah in 2003 and 2004. His success there led to the Florida job, where he won two national titles between 2005 and 2010. Meyer resigned in 2011 and worked as an ESPN analyst. He then took the head coaching job at Ohio State in 2012 and led the Buckeyes to the 2014 national championship. Meyer retired in December 2018 for health reasons and resumed his analyst role.

That lasted until he became the head coach of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars in January 2021. Meyer didn’t make it a full season and was fired Dec. 16 after several problems with the team. His 13-game tenure is tied for the fourth-shortest in NFL history.

Meyer was initially a member of “Big Noon Kickoff” when it debuted in 2019. He left to coach in Jacksonville, then returned for the 2022 season.

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Matt Leinart

Leinart is a former quarterback. He played at USC, where he won both the BCS national championship and the Heisman Trophy in 2004. Leinart was the 10th overall pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, but his success in college did not translate to the NFL. He bounced between franchises, largely as a backup, between 2006 and 2013 before hanging up his cleats. The QB had an 8-10 professional record with a combined 4,065 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 21 interceptions in 33 career games.

Following his career, Leinart got into broadcasting. He joined "Big Noon Kickoff" in 2023.

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Brady Quinn

Quinn is also a former quarterback. He played for Notre Dame from 2003 to 2006. Quinn didn't win a natty with the Fighting Irish, but he did win the Maxwell Award in 2006, which is given out to the best all-around player in college football. The Heisman that year went to Ohio State QB Troy Smith. 

Quinn was the 22nd overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft and landed with the Browns. He only lasted three years in Cleveland and stands as the one of the organization's many failed quarterback investments. Like Leinart, Quinn bounced around the NFL over the next four seasons, spending most of his time on the practice squad. He hung up his cleats in 2015 and got into broadcasting. Quinn joined the "Big Noon Kickoff" panel when the show premiered in 2019.

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Mark Ingram II

Ingram played his college ball at Alabama, where he won the BCS national championship, the Heisman Trophy and was Sporting News’ Player of the Year in 2009. He went on to be the 28th overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. Of the former players on the panel, Ingram had the most successful pro career, making three Pro Bowls.

Ingram played in 156 career games between his stints with the Saints, Ravens and Texans. He finished with 8,111 rushing yards and 65 touchdowns, and added another 2,125 yards and 10 scores through the air.

Ingram last played in the NFL in 2022, and announced his retirement and move to the “Big Noon Kickoff” panel in 2023.

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Bruce Feldman

Feldman is a "leading college football journalists and a New York Times best-selling author," per his bio on Fox Sports' website. He has worked with CBS Sports and The Athletic, but that was after spending 17 years working for ESPN.com. Feldman is known for his book, "The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks" and for co-writing "Swing Your Sword." with Mike Leach. Feldman joined the "Big Noon Kickoff" broadcast in 2020. 

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Dave Portnoy

Portnoy is the newest member of the panel and will debut in 2025. He is most known for being the owner of "Barstool Sports," a platform known for pushing the envelope with sports content by "appealing to young men and rejecting political correctness". He is an avid Michigan fan. Portnoy figures to be their attempt as a foil to ESPN's Pat McAfee. 

Portnoy has developed his persona into “El Presidente” and is an icon of what is colloquially known as “bro culture,” the demographic Fox hopes to draw away from ESPN. He has also become known for his small-business pizza reviews, which could become part of the show on Saturday mornings.

Portnoy was already in the news just days before his first broadcast. Reports surfaced that Ohio State, where "Big Noon Kickoff" will be held for Week 1, had banned Portnoy from entering the stadium because he is a die-hard Wolverines fan. This was debunked quickly and it turns out that Fox had decided to keep him on the early part of the show and not the later portion that transitions inside of the stadium, and this was a sort of publicity stunt to not only draw up hype but to try to explain Portnoy's absence.

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Chris "Bear" Fallica

Fallica has worked in sports for several decades, with his expertise rooted in statistics. As the landscape evolved, that focus shifted into his role as a wagering analyst. Fans may remember “Bear” from “College GameDay,” where he would appear with a small board listing three or four games and their spreads, marking his pick with an image of a waving bear. Fallica made the move from “College GameDay” to “Big Noon Kickoff” in 2023.
 

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Tom Rinaldi

You may not be able to pick Rinaldi out of a lineup, but you'd likely recognize his voice. Rinaldi spent years with ESPN, contributing to their features on shows like "Sportscenter," "Outside the Lines," "College GameDay" and "Sunday NFL Countdown" as an interviewer and providing a voice-over to their feature stories. He retains that role for "Big Noon Kickoff," which he joined in 2021.

Teddy Ricketson

Teddy Ricketson is a Digital Content Producer at The Sporting News. He joined the team in 2024 after spending the last three years writing for Vox Media as part of its DK Nation/Network team. Teddy does his best to support the South Carolina Gamecocks and Carolina Panthers, but tends to have more fun cheering on the Atlanta Braves. In his free time, he loves spending time with his wife, Brooke, and their two dogs, Bo and Hootie.