_{This was article was written with contributions from D.J. Byrnes, Ryan Donnelly, Kevin Harrish, and Patrick Mayhorn, co-founders of Meet at Midfield.​​}

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Former Ohio State offensive tackle Kirk Barton and his associate Ken Stickney (known online as “Nevadabuck”) used “improper and unauthorized access to Ohio State’s internal football video system” to “[expose] team formations, schemes and personnel changes” on the website the duo co-founded, Buckeye Scoop, per a document obtained by Meet at Midfield through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Barton and Stickney “will not receive Athletics media credentials for the foreseeable future,” Ohio State athletics spokesperson Jerry Emig confirmed in an email sent to Robert Glickman, an arbitrator in the now-concluded legal battle between Barton and Stickney and fellow co-founder Marc Givler – who has since left Buckeye Scoop and launched a separate website, Buckeye Huddle. Barton and Stickney’s actions also led to the revocation of media credentials for colleagues at Buckeye Scoop who were uninvolved in the incident, according to the email.

Emig’s communication to the arbitrator, speaking on behalf of Ohio State, also noted that the pair were in “direct violation of Ohio State’s closed football practice policy” and were “uniquely problematic because of the improper and dishonest manner in which they gained access to these closed practices.” Emig continued, saying they “compromised the spirit of journalistic integrity.”

The details behind Barton and Stickney’s source of access to Ohio State’s internal practice video remain undisclosed. Rumors of an improper connection to a player on the team have surfaced in the months since news broke of the legal battle. Meet at Midfield was unable to substantiate these rumors.

Barton played at Ohio State from 2003-07 and received a first-team All-America nod in his final season. He served as a graduate assistant on the Ohio State coaching staff under former head coaches Jim Tressel, for whom he played, Luke Fickell and Urban Meyer from 2010-12. Barton’s relationship with the university appears to be entirely severed.

Sources confirmed to Meet at Midfield on the condition of anonymity that in addition to his banishment from media activities, the former Buckeye was escorted out of a team scrimmage by C.J. Barnett, Ohio State’s director of player personnel, in March 2022. Traditionally, practices and scrimmages are open to all former players to attend upon request, but Barton’s actions have stripped him of the privilege.

This is hardly Barton’s first public run-in with scandal, as the former media member and current car salesman was accused in the lawsuit of stealing endorsement dollars from website partners and cheating in a Buckeye Scoop-affiliated fantasy football league for financial gain. Competing media outlets have also publicly accused Barton and Buckeye Scoop of stealing video content to publish as their own on their YouTube channel.

In 2018, Barton was infamously caught on video being “tased, arrested, and charged with felonious assault” while intoxicated at the Bogey Inn, where he slammed a police officer’s arm in a car door. That arrest is the source of this article’s lead image, via the Delaware County Prosecutor’s office.

Stickney has no formal associations with Ohio State of his own, and is best known as an infamous figure on Ohio State message boards, where he has posted for decades under the alias “Nevadabuck” to preserve anonymity.

While Barton has largely remained mute on accusations of wrongdoing, Stickney has repeatedly declared on the paywalled Buckeye Scoop message boards that all accusations against the duo are false. The documents obtained by Meet at Midfield offer evidence to the contrary.

Stickney has found himself in hot water in recent years for outlandish and unfounded message board posts, including one implying that former Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields slept with underage women; that Fields lied about slurs being directed at him at Georgia – which led to his transfer to Ohio State in January of 2019; and that Ohio State head coach Ryan Day mishandled the mental health of former center Harry Miller, who has publicly discussed his mental health challenges and Day’s instrumental role in helping him through them.

He has also frequently claimed that he would sue co-founders of this website for defamation or libel if we “had a pot to piss in” on paywalled BuckeyeScoop posts. Ironically, Stickney has played a public persona of an independently wealthy individual, but recently had to borrow a loan of $917,000 against the value of his home with an encumbrance* and saw the company of which he was a principal, Avenir Sports, go through bankruptcy negotiations to sell off ownership of the Portland Winterhawks, a minor league hockey team.

Despite the revocation of media credentials, Barton and Stickney continue to tout insider information as the primary selling point for Buckeye Scoop, which remains behind a paywall as of the publication of this report. This is a developing story, and Meet at Midfield will continue to report new information as it becomes available.

^{*Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article described the encumbrance as a lien, which was improper syntax. Meet at Midfield regrets the error}.

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