GameDay is the beating heart of College Football. It gave us legends like Tim Brando, Lee Corso, and, most recently, Pat McAfee is on the same trajectory. Without GameDay now, marquee college football games surely lose some charm. But currently, ESPN is reportedly willing to end that exclusivity, expanding it to other sports, too. Rece Davis, GameDay’s prominent host, hinted at just that in a recent interview.

Davis appeared on the 6th November episode of ‘BYUTv Sports Nation’ and hinted at the possibility of going to BYU’s marquee basketball games. “We want College Game Day on the basketball side in Provo at some point,” said the podcast’s host. He also listed several games, ranging from BYU vs Texas Tech to BYU vs Houston, where GameDay could generate wider viewership, pulling in college basketball fans. Davis didn’t deny the idea either.

“We’ll see. I sure hope so. My buddy Pete Thamel got a chance to drive over when we went to Utah for football a couple of weeks ago. And he stopped in to watch BYU basketball practice, and he came back raving, said they are loaded with shooters,” said Rece Davis. Not just that, but the GameDay host was also impressed by BYU’s ability to pull more than 10,000+ fans to the stands. It surely could play a part in ESPN finally making an appearance in College Basketball.

“Hope we get there. I think I’ve heard that people say they put 10,000 or so in the stands for the show. We’d love that. So, I certainly hope that we get to make the trip during basketball season. I would think there’s a really, really good opportunity that one of those will line up effectively,” said Rece Davis. It surely isn’t a confirmation. But it still is the best we can get near to confirmation about GameDay’s expansion.

Recently, DAZN acquired rights from ESPN to air CFB GameDay in certain countries in Europe. The deal includes airing top-tier conference matchups of power conferences and will also include all CFP playoff games. This is surely a major step in GameDay’s expansion. But expanding to college basketball does make sense. For one, College Basketball is still an NCAA sport and aligns with GameDay’s intention to give a premium collegiate athletics experience. So, can we see GameDay finally at BYU’s basketball games as Rece Davis predicted?

The college basketball season has just begun, and BYU has already played its first game against Villanova. Not just that, going by their 2025 season, the Cougars went deep into the postseason, only to lose against Alabama. This year, the team hopes to continue the momentum, and star players like AJ Dybantsa aim to do just that. Surely, an ESPN College GameDay appearance will be fully accepted in Provo, Utah. But before that happens, GameDay has another problem to tackle.

Pat McAfee sends a strongly worded statement to ESPN

ESPN and YouTube TV are currently at a contractual standstill. The previous deal between the two entities expired recently on October 30th, and no extension seems to be in sight. The result? ESPN is facing significant losses already. For context, ESPN’s parent company, Disney, has lost $5 million each day, amounting to $30 million. All of this has Pat McAfee, GameDay’s host, frustrated.

“[College GameDay] is a unifier. This show should be seen by people. Because we have a business disagreement. We should make it as easy as possible. It was on the ESPN app in front of the paywall. It was on X,” said Pat McAfee.  But the GameDay host didn’t just throw hollow words to the public. The 37-year-old came with a creative idea to deliver GameDay, despite the contractual impasse.

McAfee took matters into his own hands and aired the whole ESPN College GameDay of three hours on his X account. The GameDay host touted permission from ESPN to do so for the last 1 hour, but instead went on for the full show. The stream did its job, too, since 1.18 million viewers tuned in to watch GameDay on McAfee’s X account.