Dave Portnoy vows not to hire from Harvard, MIT and Penn after presidents’ congressional testimony: ‘Unacceptable on every single level’

Dave Portnoy vows not to hire from Harvard, MIT and Penn after presidents’ congressional testimony: ‘Unacceptable on every single level’

Dave Portnoy has narrowed down his hiring pool.

The Barstool Sports head vowed this week to not hire applicants from Harvard, MIT and Penn after seeing congressional testimony from the schools’ presidents after they offered excuses and cited free speech amid antisemitic demonstrations on their campuses.

“This video has made me so irate I need to make sure as many people see it as possible,” the 46-year-old wrote on Instagram.

“The Deans of 3 supposedly prestigious Universities in the United States somehow refusing to condemn students calling for the Genocide of Jews on campus. AKA – the murder of all Jews. Newsflash that is calling for the murder of myself, my parents and my entire family. And these ‘leaders’ refuse to condemn this as hate speech on their campuses?

“This isn’t debating whether there should be a cease fire or discussing the future of Israel and Palestine in the Middle East. This is calling for the MURDER OF ALL JEWS everywhere and these absolute coward school administrators refuse to condemn it.”

He claimed Jewish students are the only minority group that other students “could openly intimidate and chant that they want to murder an entire group of people and not get kicked out immediately or better yet thrown in jail.”


People chant and hold signs at a rally to support Palestine at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 19, 2023
People chant and hold signs at a rally to support Palestinians at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Oct. 19, 2023. AFP via Getty Images

“At this rate we’re 1 step away from the Ivy Leagues offering courses on how 9/11 was actually the Jews (sic) fault,” the Michigan alumnus wrote.

He went on to say he would no longer consider hiring applicants who attended any of the three schools until they made leadership changes, and he urged other businesses to do the same.

“Not that this will make a huge difference but moving forward I will not hire any student who graduates from any of these schools until these Deans step down,” Portnoy wrote, noting he would not make exceptions for Jewish applicants from the institutions.


Dave Portnoy, photographed at his office, Barstool Sports in Manhattan on August 16, 2023.Dave Portnoy took a hard line after seeing the presidents of Harvard, MIT and Penn testify before Congress. EMMY PARK

The two former Harvard athletes already on the Barstool Sports staff — former hockey player Sam Bozoian and ex-lacrosse player Francis Ellis — will be “grandfathered in,” he said.

Portnoy’s outrage comes after weeks of high-profile incidents involving pro-Palestinian protests and antisemitic behavior on campus at the schools, which have led to several donors and business owners pulling their support.

“This is unacceptable on every single level,” Portnoy wrote. “I don’t care if you’re Jewish or not either. If you know a jew (sic) or just have a degree of basic human decency calling for the murder of an entire group of people should outrage you.”