There is a very specific genre of Barstool bit that only works because Big Cat physically cannot say no to a piece of cursed sports memorabilia, and the Yak has been mining it hard this week. The latest score: a 2022 St. Bonaventure NIT Semifinals banner, pulled off a 32auctions endowment page for a cool $2,500. Receipt and all.
The confirmation that the banner is, in fact, bought.
For the uninitiated: the 2022 NIT Semifinals are not a banner most schools would even consider hanging, let alone auctioning off for endowment money. St. Bonaventure lost in that round. This is the kind of artifact that exists in a storage closet in Olean, NY until somebody decides a Barstool host with a soft spot might bite. Somebody did. He bit.
The Yak walks through the 32auctions page on-air, with the $2,500 sale price right there on screen.
The whole bit on the show was that Big Cat is now a marked man — fans and alumni associations have clocked that obscure college memorabilia is a guaranteed sale, and his hands are tied the second somebody dangles a niche enough piece in front of him. Cue the finger-pointing, because no host gets roped into a $2,500 impulse buy without an enabler in the next chair over. The Yak's verdict landed on TJ.
Big Cat puts the blame for the Bonaventure banner squarely on TJ, with the auction page sitting right there as evidence.
And it is not stopping at one banner. By Wednesday's episode the crew was already reading a fan tweet offering a 1997 Washington State Volleyball Sweet 16 jersey, with TJ once again allegedly egging the whole thing on. The pipeline is open, the mark is identified, and the enabler has a name. Somewhere in Olean, a banner is coming off a wall.
The follow-up bit: a listener-donated 1997 Washington State Volleyball Sweet 16 jersey, with TJ getting blamed again.
This is what passes for an arms race in the Yak's corner of the internet — every obscure athletic department in America now knows the going rate. $2,500 for a semifinal banner nobody else wanted. The Bonas just funded an endowment off a podcast bit. Honestly? Respect.