How Rob Stone Powers Big Noon Kickoff on Fox Sports

Saturdays in the fall are devoted to the sport of college football. The pageantry, colors, smells, sounds and heartbeat encompass the country’s growing appetite to welcome the weekend with its favorite pastime. Now entering its eighth year, Big Noon Kickoff serves as the pregame tailgate welcoming more college football fans to their day of celebration every year. Its maître d’ is Rob Stone, who has guided the program since its inception.

“In terms of television time, we’re still sort of an infant. We haven’t been a long time, but have witnessed an amazing early run,” said Stone. “We used to be a toddler, but the last couple of years we’ve outgrown our clothes a bit. That’s a compliment to what we’ve done. We’ve grown and matured quite a bit.”

Last year, Big Noon Kickoff had its best year on record. The program averaged 1.8 million viewers per episode, a 14% increase over the prior year. With the addition of Barstool Sports personalities, led by Dave Portnoy, the show added new layers to its arsenal in both content approach and digital reach.

Heading into 2026, Stone says he’s only looking to continue building on the momentum that Big Noon Kickoff earned last season.

“Something that will be new this year will be our openness to accepting newness,” explains Stone. “Being able to pivot and make different decisions. One of the questions that we always get are where are we going to be. What constitutes the right location for us? We love our partners. They’ve given us amazing shows and locations. But there might be an opportunity to expand some of our footprint going out on the road going forward.”

Big Noon Getting Bigger, Bolder

One aspect of the “newness” that Stone referenced was Big Noon Kickoff hosting its first international show during Week 3 of the regular season. It was announced during FOX Sports’ coverage of the FIFA World Cup, which Stone also participated in as a host, that Big Noon Kickoff would broadcast live from Wembley Stadium ahead of Kansas taking on Arizona State.

“It’s now our responsibility to take college football to their shores and introduce to them the passion and energy of college football,” notes Stone. “I’ve said for years, there’s no greater parallel in the sporting world than college football and international soccer. They are almost hand in hand or cousins. Taking Big Noon Kickoff international to London is a natural next step because the two environments are the same.”

While other networks are expanding their game-day pregame programming into additional hours, FOX Sports is keeping Big Noon Kickoff at a 10 a.m. Eastern start time for the regular season. While some skeptics say a head-to-head battle directly against the competition at 9 a.m. would benefit the early audience for Big Noon Kickoff, Stone says two hours is the right fit for the program.

“Two hours is the sweet spot for us. Sometimes with a three-hour show, you might be stretching to find some good, meaningful content that can hold audience for three hours. That’s a lot of work. Two hours, for us, that’s a good spot,” explained Stone. “Having said that, if the bosses tell us the show’s extending to another hour, can’t wait for it. We’re going to be ready for it.”

The kickoff of a new year in 2026 will have a different feel than the speculation that surrounded 2025. When FOX Sports partnered with Barstool Sports to integrate Dave Portnoy into the Big Noon Kickoff talent lineup, there were questions, controversies and inquiries about how Big Noon Kickoff would balance its content model with their involvement.

Now, a year later, Stone says the first year including Barstool Sports was a smashing success.

“The ratings were up. Let’s give the Barstool Sports crew some credit. I’m sure that they played a part in that, because they had to,” said Stone. “They’re really good people to be around both on and off the clock. They bring a different energy and certainly go in different directions that we may feel constrained to go in. That’s their natural personalities, so we let them run.”

Stone credits Barstool Sports for adapting to the Big Noon Kickoff setting because he says they got matched up with the Big Noon crew, not the other way around.

“They’re so smart, creative and intelligent. They blended in very seamlessly. It was a ton of fun to be around those guys as much as we were,” noted Stone.

A Proven Approach

With the addition of Barstool Sports, it was another opportunity for Stone to adapt his approach to hosting Big Noon Kickoff. He explains that his goal is to always make everyone involved at the desk as comfortable as possible by finding commonality and building chemistry early in the process.

“Building equity with anyone as soon as I can is vital,” said Stone. “It’s about letting everyone know they can trust me and building that value together. They have to know I’m here to lead them into a good place. A lot of times, I’m a conduit for what our production team wants to achieve. That equity makes it easier for me to explain why we’re doing certain things sometimes.”

Stone has always prided himself on being adaptable, approachable, professional and easy to work with. He’s always striving to be a good person and someone who people want to be around.

That calm, comfortable nature was on full display this summer as Stone served as a lead host for FOX Sports’ FIFA World Cup coverage. With the tournament played across the United States, Canada and Mexico, Stone says he has since come down from the high. It was the most-watched World Cup in American television history.

“The best memory I had from the tournament was while we were broadcasting ahead of the U.S. game in Seattle. I couldn’t stop myself from spinning my chair and staring at the crowd. Listening, and not saying anything. They were doing the job for us,” said Stone. “For anyone who’s followed American soccer for a long time. To see, hear and feel something like that. I have goosebumps right now. That will never leave me.”

Stone says he knew the country was ripe to dive fully into the World Cup experience prior to the tournament airing on FOX Sports. The results spoke volumes about the interest.

Aside from viewership, FOX Sports social media saw a record-breaking 16.5 billion social impressions, with more than 2,500 social videos eclipsing one million views each. As for viewership, the FIFA World Cup on FOX averaged more than 7.8 million viewers across 104 matches, a rise of 116% from the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

With questions surrounding the rights to carry the 2030 FIFA World Cup, Stone doesn’t believe the story of 2026 will be a last hurrah for FOX Sports.

“I’m not looking at it as a last hurrah. We definitely are going to swing, and swing really hard to keep this relationship with FIFA going forward,” explains Stone. “For me, it’s not a last hurrah. But I am looking back at it fondly as one of the top moments of my broadcasting career.”

Desire For More

As Stone looks to follow up on FOX Sports’ 2026 FIFA World Cup coverage, he also wants the network involved with the College Football Playoff. Earlier this year, FOX Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt criticized the CFP’s exclusive television arrangement. Klatt said having one television partner is “bad” for college football.

“Joel Klatt is one of the smartest college football minds in the sport. If we needed a college football commissioner, he’d get my vote. Absolutely, I agree with him,” said Stone. “Yes, it sounds self-serving. But my gosh, would we love a piece of that College Football Playoff pie… I do think it would serve college football’s stratosphere better if it was shared more than what it is right now.”

Stone has always been a staunch supporter of college athletics in a number of sports. But in regard to the College Football Playoff, he feels it’s always good when you have all the major players involved in deciding who the national champion is.

“We cover college football year-round. But obviously with a greater focus starting in September and running through at least the Big Ten Championship,” notes Stone. “The audience and college football as a whole would be better served if FOX Sports were to get a piece of that pie. This is a growth industry. College football is on the incline and has been for some time. I don’t see it stopping anytime soon.”

For Stone, that continued growth is what makes the start of another college football season so exciting. Big Noon Kickoff has matured from a new experiment into an established part of the Saturday morning ritual. But he doesn’t view that success as a reason to stand still.

The addition of Barstool Sports, the move to London and the possibility of expanding the show’s footprint are all signs of a program willing to evolve without losing what made it successful in the first place.

After nearly a decade of welcoming fans to college football Saturdays, Stone understands that the role of Big Noon Kickoff extends beyond the two hours leading into kickoff. It is about capturing the energy, tradition and emotion that make college football unlike anything else in sports.

And as the sport continues to grow, Stone sees no reason for Big Noon Kickoff to stop growing with it. As Saturday morning arrives, he’ll be right there at the center of it, welcoming college football fans to another day of celebration.

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