Did Barstool Lose Its Legs?

In the midst of the Ramblers men’s basketball team’s, thus far, undefeated season in the Atlantic 10 conference, the social media account @barstoolblers has gone silent. 

Barstool Sports is a sports blog which began as a free newspaper in Boston in 2003, according to Forbes. In addition to the blog, Barstool has accounts on social media sites like Instagram, TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter, including numerous “unaffiliated” university accounts.

In April, the last full month the account operated under previous management, the managers never went more than three days without posting.

The Instagram account last posted Oct. 11, nearly one month prior to the first Ramblers men’s basketball game of the season Nov. 7 against Detroit Mercy, who fell to Loyola 87-65. The last TikTok post was May 3.

Though the “stool” disappeared, related accounts such as @lucchicks continue to post regularly. 

@barstoolblers didn’t respond to The Phoenix’s requests for comment.

William Bazzone — now a reporter with the local ABC and FOX stations in Macon, GA — was one of the six forces behind Loyola’s Barstool account before graduating in May. 

The @barstoolblers management position is an unpaid contractual internship with “perks” such as free merch, according to Bazzone. He said he was required to follow the policies of Barstool Sports while curating posts.

Bazzone said he and his colleagues had a “pretty big role” in hiring the new management team. They posted a flier on Instagram April 25 to scout applicants.

“We poured a lot into making those accounts better than we found them,” Bazzone said.  “Our hope was that the people who would come after us would leave it just as good as they found it, if not better.”

Bazzone said the hiring process was collaborative and involved speaking directly with applicants to ensure they knew exactly what the expectations would be. 

Among the guidelines, the most important was to post consistently, so to see the account inactive has been disappointing, according to Bazzone.

“It’s frustrating to see,” Bazzone said. “As long as you’re producing content that lands with people, that’s the goal at the end of the day.”

Leo Bruni, a class of 2024 alumnus, joined the social media management team for Loyola’s Barstool as a second-year when the school announced the men’s basketball team would be moving from the Missouri Valley Conference to the Atlantic 10.

Bruni said four underclassmen were tasked with taking up the mantle for the future of the account. 

“I don’t know if those people quit or if they didn’t see eye-to-eye with the higher ups at Barstool,” Bruni said. “But I would love to see the account be resurrected.”

Employees at Barstool Sports headquarters had the final say on who would take over the account, according to Bruni. 

Barstool Sports Advertising, Sponsorships and Partnerships management did not immediately respond for comment.

Bruni said he and the other social media managers who graduated in May still have a group chat.

“We had a conversation like, ‘What is going on? Why aren’t they posting?’” Bruni said. “I would assume Loyola students realize what’s going on because the six of us were very in depth with posting.”

Katie Steponaitis, a class of 2024 alumna, joined the @lucchicks management team in spring of her third-year at Loyola.

Barstool Chicks was created by Barstool to entertain female audiences as opposed to the usual male audience of Barstool Sports, according to the Barstool website.

The @lucchicks managers were paid in VISA gift cards based on the level of content and engagement the accounts receive, according to Steponaitis. She said she earned $300 from January to May.

Steponaitis said there were tiers for university Barstool accounts. Loyola is part of the lower school tier because of the smaller size of the student population.

@barstoolblers silence is odd considering Loyola’s Barstool account has the highest following of nearby universities with over 16,000 followers. Loyola’s total enrollment was over 17,000 students, according to the university’s undergraduate admissions page.

The University of Illinois Chicago’s account, @barstooluic, has fewer than 4,000 followers for their student enrollment of over 33,000, according to UIC Today. Northwestern’s account, @barstoolcats, has nearly 13,000 followers compared to over 22,000 students, according to  Northwestern.edu.

The University of Chicago’s @barstooluchicago has under 2,000 followers with 18,000 students, and Depaul University’s @depaulbarstool has nearly 18,000 followers to a total student enrollment of over 21,000.

The allocation of Barstool accounts to separate universities allows students to find niche common ground within their community, according to Steponaitis.

“My friends and others loved the humorous side of it,” Steponaitis said. “Finding those posts that you could find common ground with — the posts which talked about professors and random people on campus.”

The hiring process was tricky because of the hesitancy to be the face of barstool, even if anonymous, according to Steponaitis. She said she unfollowed the Barstool account, but still remains among the nearly 6,500 followers for @lucchicks.

First-years Emma Swift, a political science major, and Elise Louden, a social work major, attended the men’s game against Eastern Michigan Dec. 3. The Ramblers won 76-54. 

Louden  has attended numerous games throughout Loyola’s men’s and women’s basketball season. She did not follow @barstoolblers prior to Dec. 3.

“Our barstool account should be more active, since we’re undefeated,” Louden said. “Even if we weren’t, more engagement would bring more students and people from Chicago communities.”

Louden said she enjoys attending games due to the sense of community and support felt in Gentile Arena.

Swift followed @barstoolblers before Dec. 3. 

“Barstool accounts ran by big schools in the south, like Florida State University, have a larger influence because of the athletics teams for those schools,” Swift said. “If Loyola’s Barstool was was a little bit more active, I think we would see a little bit more attendance at games.”