It’s no secret how a select group of college football fans feel about Pat McAfee being a featured analyst on College GameDay the last two seasons. But despite the constant negativity thrown his way, McAfee believes he will be back on GameDay in 2024.
Pat McAfee was joined by Kirk Herbstreit on the GameDay set in Foxborough on Friday, and while McAfee was talking to Herbstreit about the blowback he received after Florida State didn’t make the College Football Playoff semifinals, eventually his future on GameDay came up.
McAfee first said college fans are not afraid to tear right into him in a very visceral way.
“For me sports are fun. I grew up in an NFL town, and it’s like, ‘Hey we talk shit,'” he said. “That is competition. And college football – I don’t want to say it’s the softest group of fans – but it is a fan base that gets very offended and gets very mean. They get very mean. Like they feel as if I’ve walked into their living rooms and smacked them right in the mouth. And it’s like, ‘Yo I’m just talking – we’re just talking sports here.'”
The negative feedback from fans has certainly weighed on McAfee throughout the season. He said even though it’s clear his presence on the show hasn’t hindered ratings success, the threats and criticism don’t make it worth losing half his weekend.
“I don’t want the negativity in my life. I don’t want the death threats every week,” McAfee said.
Herbstreit kept trying to get McAfee to focus on the positive side of things, calling the very vocal naysayers a “lunatic fringe” of college football fans. But Kirk also praised McAfee for being a fresh voice and presence that’s taken College GameDay to a new level.
“I’m not kissing your ass. I’m just telling you this, and I’ve told you this a lot, that you changed my experience,” Herbstreit said. “I work really hard with these three projects (College GameDay, Thursday Night Football on Amazon, and the weekly primetime college game on ESPN) and you’ve really changed the approach, the energy not just on the set but the week. I’m having a blast.”
Kirk shocked everyone on the show going as far as to say that if Pat even considered leaving College GameDay, he would follow suit.
Pat McAfee said he’s always come into it with a team-first mindset and a desire to have fun. He just kind of figured the negativity would’ve been dialed back by now.
“I pride myself on being a good locker room guy, good vibes guy, good energy guy, which is why it is becoming something where it’s like, every single Saturday, do I want to read — because I’m on the internet a lot. We’re an internet show. So I’m like on there,” McAfee said. “People are like, ‘Don’t read your mentions.’ It’s like, ‘I have to.’ It’s part of our job. Like it’s part of my job to read the internet.
“It’s like, these college fans are awesome, they’re phenomenal, they’re incredibly passionate,” he added. “But man, that negativity — normally when I get dropped into a new show like the WWE, that negativity is like three months. They hate my life, they hate my — they hate everything about me. And then they’re like, ‘You know what? This guy, not that bad.’”
Herbstreit continued to reiterate that the loud voices are a true minority in the grander space of college football fandom, and he illustrated his point by noting that Pat has always received very warm welcome by the fans in attendance at the show.
Pat McAfee admitted he’s fallen in love with the atmosphere the fans provide, eventually saying he’s going to be back on set next year.
“How about this? I’m back. I’ll come back. Let’s do it,” he said. “I don’t love it. I don’t love that my life is just going to continue to have people telling me to run into oncoming traffic, swallow a barrel.”
I think one thing Herbie likes is less show prep. The field goal segment, the yuk it up while the random topic comes up stuff, and at least 1-2 other dominating times that McAfee is center stage… take pressure off Herbstreit to prepare, prepare, prepare.