Another weekend, another ESPN College GameDay stop for Pat McAfee, or so he thought. When the show landed in Utah ahead of the Utes’ matchup with the Houston Cougars, the analyst expected another chance to fire up the crowd. Instead, the trip turned sour enough for him to say he hopes never to return. McAfee is now explaining the discomfort behind that unusually strong reaction.
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On a recent episode of The Pat McAfee Show, the former NFL star opened up about how deeply his Utah experience had affected him, admitting that he had found himself in an uncomfortable position for the first time.
“If these kids would have done this on their own vlog, I’d have been okay with it,” McAfee said on his show Monday. “The university puts that out as I’m about to go out and do an infomercial for the place? I’m walking in front of thousands of people. This is how the university feels about me? It’s an uncomfortable feeling.”
“I’ll hopefully never go to that place. I did not enjoy the morning there, but they do have an incredible student section, from my understanding, and they have a good football team.”
The unease came after the university’s official social media page shared a video of students mocking McAfee and calling him “creepy.”
The video uploaded by the University of Utah did not sit well with Pat McAfee. It featured Utah students imitating the ESPN analyst, and their responses were far from subtle. One predicted he would shout, “Houston, we got a problem!”
Another joked about betting on whether McAfee would tear his shirt off that morning. A third addressed him directly: “We love you, bro, but, like, bro, keep the shirt on,” the student said.
That wasn’t all. McAfee was also unimpressed when a Utah student compared the $1 million prize offered in the “College GameDay” kicking contest in Salt Lake City with the $3 million awarded to a BYU student for making the kick.
“Then obviously the kicker goes, ‘Only $1 million, only $1 million.’ It’s like, all right, I hate this place. I hate this place. They got a good football team, though. They got a good football team,” he said. “I’ve never been more uncomfortable, honestly, in my life walking in front of a group of people after watching their university put out a post basically dogging me just moments before.”
Earlier in the broadcast, the ESPN analyst explained that the prize money was lower this time because his billionaire friend, Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, had contributed to the pot the previous week but did not do so on this occasion.
Admitting that the experience had made him uncomfortable, McAfee said he hoped he would not have to return for College GameDay. Despite his disappointment, he acknowledged the success of the event, praising the student section and the football team.
“But the university gaslighting some of it right before I go out there to talk about your school, especially with what happened 40 miles south of Salt Lake City a little over a year ago; it’s like I did not enjoy that. I was very, very uncomfortable,” McAfee said.
“They got a good football team, though,” he concluded.
The controversy surrounding Utah’s video also left McAfee questioning the university’s decision to draw attention to the reasons behind the backlash against him, particularly in light of the deadly incident at Utah Valley University.