There is no historical equivalent to Pat McAfee in sports media. We have seen plenty of evidence of the power he holds at ESPN since becoming a part of the Walt Disney family in 2023. Last week, we saw that may extend into the sports world too.
After the West Virginia Mountaineers fired Neal Brown, McAfee said on his show that plenty of friends and acquaintances reached out, hoping to get his endorsement to become the University’s new football coach.
That reaction from potential candidates made sense. After all, at this point, does the school have a more famous or influential alum in the football world? Plus, McAfee made a big show of his $1 million commitment to the school’s NIL fund in late August. If he wanted to speak on someone’s behalf, the decision makers would probably have to listen.
On December 12, West Virginia announced that it had hired Rich Rodriguez away from Jacksonville State. From Rodriguez’s side of the fence, it makes sense. As scenic as Northeast Alabama can be, there’s more money in the Big 12 than there will ever be in Conference USA.
For West Virginia though? Well, Rodriguez still knows how to coach ball, but he was the Mountaineers’ coach before and when he skipped town in 2007 to go to Michigan, he left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of people in Morgantown.
This isn’t 2007. RichRod is 61 and the Mountaineers aren’t playing in the Big East anymore. I am not sure it’s a move I would have made, but when you consider that Rodriguez was the head coach at WVU when McAfee was kicking and punting for the Mountaineers and that McAfee admits he had conversations with the school’s athletics director…you see where I am going?
I don’t think McAfee told the school who to hire, but I am sure he made his feelings about his old coach very clear when asked.
Whether you love or hate him, even if you are indifferent to him, you cannot deny that Pat McAfee is one-of-one in sports media. He has quickly established himself among the network’s most influential people.
Note that I didn’t say “most influential talent”. I said, “most influential people”.
Other talent at the network want to be blessed with McAfee’s seal of approval. The network hires people that already have said seal. Network executives that don’t see the value in that are told to get their next paycheck somewhere else.
With evidence of those truths all over the news in recent years, is it so crazy to think that Pat McAfee’s alma mater might seek out his opinion on who to hire to coach the sport he played there? Remember, he’s the face of College GameDay – a show that is one of ESPN’s signature products and a show that changed its whole approach to covering college football to fit McAfee’s identity.
If he is happy with the hire, doesn’t it stand to reason that West Virginia may enjoy a brighter spotlight on College GameDay? Doesn’t it seem likely that he will bring his friend and former coach on his eponymous midday show to talk about Mountaineer football and then disseminate those clips across whatever social media platforms he values? That would probably be pretty good for recruiting and branding.
Even if you aren’t the world’s biggest college football fan, you have probably heard that the sport is in the middle of a transformational moment. McAfee may not have this kind of influence if he played his college ball at Penn State or Ohio State or Alabama. Those schools are secure with their spot in the two most powerful conferences in college sports.
West Virginia isn’t. West Virginia needs to find advantages where it can.
The school just got some pretty good evidence of how its current conference, the Big 12, is valued by the College Football Playoff committee, and by extension ESPN.
The conference’s champion, Arizona State, got one of the 12 spots in the College Football Playoff. No other team in the conference was even close.
The Big 12 may get to call itself a Power 4 conference, but we have firm evidence that there’s really a Power 2 and an Above Average 2. If you’re in the Above Average 2, you probably want to find a way to move up before the next evolution of college football comes.
That’s what Pat McAfee can offer West Virginia. With no one at ESPN allowed to tell him what to talk about or how much time to spend on any one topic, he theoretically has the power to raise the Mountaineers’ profile to levels the school has never known before. He has his own powerful megaphone inside of sports’ most powerful megaphone.
Did Pat McAfee tell West Virginia University’s athletics director, Wren Baker, who should be the football program’s new leader? Probably not, but when McAfee does talk about WVU, whether it’s on his show, another show or on a phone call, Baker knows it would behoove him to listen.
College sports has never put so much power in the hands of its TV partners and ESPN, thanks to its ownership of the College Football Playoff, has more power than anyone else. Pat McAfee seems to have more power than anyone else at ESPN. West Virginia University probably feels like it has hit the lottery.
Now the Mountaineers just have to prove they can compete in the Big 12 with Rich Rodriguez at the helm (this history of coaches reuniting with their old team in a new conference is very much working against them) and McAfee singing his praises on national TV.
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Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
