Dave Portnoy says hostile college crowds don’t bother him, unlike how Pat McAfee reacted to a social media video last weekend. Now, the Barstool Sports founder is weighing in on Pat McAfee’s rough weekend in Utah.
What We Know: ESPN brought College GameDay to Salt Lake City on Saturday ahead of Utah’s win over Houston. Beforehand, the university’s Instagram account posted a video of students mocking McAfee. On Monday, McAfee said the video made him uncomfortable, even referencing the 2025 Charlie Kirk assassination. Afterward, Utah deleted the video and apologized, while ESPN said it supports McAfee’s safety concerns. Following the incident, Dave Portnoy compared McAfee’s reaction to a social media to his own way of dealing with hate from university campuses.
What They Said: (All quotes via Davey Day Trader):
Dave Portnoy says he deals with hate on college campuses fine: “I’m hated at like a lot of campuses. I don’t mind it. It’s like heal WWE, but Utah is great.”
Dave Portnoy believes ESPN College GameDay will be headed back to Utah next week: “I think ESPN is going back to the Holy War [BYU v Utah – November 7]. ESPN is going to BYU Utah at Utah. So, [Pat] McAfee, I think, is going back to Utah. I’m sure everyone [at] ESPN are going to lick his t***t and be like, “Sorry, Pat.”
What Remains Unclear: It remains unclear whether McAfee accepts Utah’s apology. He has yet to state as such. Earlier, he suggested he would rather skip any future GameDay trip to Utah. Additionally, ESPN has not confirmed Portnoy’s prediction for next weekend. If the show does pick BYU-Utah, McAfee would return to Salt Lake City within two weeks.
What It Means: Ultimately, the episode highlights two very different approaches to campus heckling. Portnoy, McAfee’s former Barstool colleague, treats hostility as part of the act. McAfee, by contrast, took a student video personally and turned it into a national story. For ESPN, the challenge becomes balancing McAfee’s concerns with GameDay’s campus-driven appeal.
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