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ESPN is coming to the defense of Pat McAfee after the multimedia superstar voiced his frustration with the University of Utah.
McAfee didn’t appreciate videos showing students “talking trash” about him as a “corny” shirt-ripping clown. Not to mention the student in his kicking contest complaining she stood to earn “only” $1 million vs. another student who won $3 million on Oct. 17. She missed all three tries—but McAfee seemed annoyed by her attitude.
On his eponymous show Monday, McAfee doubled down, saying he “never felt more uncomfortable” as he did at the University of Utah Saturday. Specifically, he called out the school for mocking him on its main instagram account while he was about to shoot essentially an “info-mercial” for the university. McAfee then alluded to the assasination of political activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in September 2025. He doesn’t plan to return to the campus in Salt Lake City with GameDay.
“I thought to myself: Has anything really scary happened at, like, a college gathering in the state of Utah recently?” asked McAfee on his show. “Do you think we should be amplifying reasons for why people hate my guts as a university? I don’t know. So it was just a lot of mixed feelings for me going out there. Then the kicker goes, ‘Only one million dollars?’ Only one million dollars? It’s like, alright, I hate this place. They have a good football team though.”
McAfee receives threatening messages—including death threats—on a regular basis, sources say. The week after Kirk was shot and killed, the FBI advised McAfee to wear a bulletproof vest, said one source. In a statement to Front Office Sports, an ESPN spokeswoman says the network takes all threats very seriously.
“The safety and security of our on-air team, crew and fans is paramount at College GameDay,” said the ESPN spokeswoman. “We are committed to ensuring a safe environment, and given the very real threats that members of our team face, we take issues involving their safety seriously. We support Pat and recognize the very real and valid concerns he has around safety and security.”
With the McAfee story picking up steam, the University of Utah offered an abject apology for “any perception that Pat was unsafe or unwelcome” at their campus.
“Our goal during the visit was to create light-hearted engagement regarding Pat being back on campus, but we missed the mark,” said the school in a statement. University staff are responsible for reviewing and posting content on official social media accounts and we take full accountability for that decision,” the school said in a statement.
“University officials have reached out to Pat to express appreciation and regret,” the school added. “Pat and the entire GameDay crew are always welcome at the University of Utah and we deeply appreciate the opportunity ESPN provides to showcase our university and our community.”
ESPN’s iconic GameDay is next set to visit the University of Indiana on Halloween for the Hoosiers vs. Minnesota Golden Gophers.
