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If ESPN decision-makers have their way, viewers will be seeing more of Josh Pate on their airwaves.
The network wants to expand Pate’s role going forward, sources told Front Office Sports.
Sources told FOS that ESPN president of content Burke Magnus has felt, in the past, that the network has under-covered college football on its studio programming relative to the ratings the sport garners, which trail only the NFL in U.S. sports. The sport has had several hot-button storylines of late, including Lane Kiffin’s protracted departure from Ole Miss and Notre Dame getting left out of the 12-team Playoff.
“We introduced Josh into the fold for this football season, on a short-term deal, and he’s been fantastic—so have Taylor Lewan, Will Compton, and a slew of other college football voices,” ESPN SVP Mike Foss told FOS. “As the year is coming to a close, and as it’s been an incredible year for football in general, it’s a good opportunity to look to the future. As we look at everything Josh has done, we certainly want to find a world where he’s a part of it.”
Pate has appeared regularly on Get Up and SportsCenter, as well as a few times on First Take during this football season. He appears frequently on The Pat McAfee Show, which is licensed to ESPN.
Pate also hosts a YouTube show—his channel has more than 500,000 subscribers—with components of the show licensed to Yahoo Sports and On3.
Industry sources believe Pate is ultimately primed to make millions of dollars per year as his exposure has exploded.
Regarding the matter of more college football talk on ESPN, Foss said there has already been a push.
“Going into this fall we made a concerted effort to follow college football in a really meaningful way,” Foss said. “It’s something McAfee has done masterfully on his show as well. We just wanted to widen the tent. We saw going into this season that audiences were going to be astronomical. Collectively we made a push to make sure all our shows were equipped to have those conversations in a substantial way.”
As FOS noted, ratings were up across the board for ESPN’s studio programming in 2025, including Get Up, First Take, The Pat McAfee Show, Pardon the Interruption, and Scott Van Pelt’s midnight SportsCenter.
