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New ESPN executive vice president Mike Foss defended Pat McAfee’s ever-growing role at the network, calling McAfee a “generational” talent.
“It’s funny, I think he might be a journalist at heart,” Foss said while speaking at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit in New York. “I think what you find as he puts the show together each day and something piques his interest, he’s got the rolodex, so he … has built access that a lot of people don’t have the ability to do.”
Asked what he would say to critics of McAfee’s College GameDay antics, Foss was blunt. “Absolutely nothing,” Foss told FOS’s Mike McCarthy.
Foss joined ESPN in 2017 as a senior vice president after spending time at Fox Sports and USA Today. This May, he was promoted to the title of “Executive Vice President, Executive Editor, Sports News and Entertainment,” succeeding the retiring Dave Roberts.
Foss also commented on the return of McAfee’s popular field goal kicking contest in which fans have the opportunity to earn $1 million by making a 33-yard field goal live on College GameDay. McAfee had cast some doubt on whether the contest would return this season, but Foss said he didn’t believe it was ever at risk.
“I don’t know if he was ever undecided, I think he might’ve done a little theater,” Foss said. “Especially given how much he’s donated this year, I don’t think you give away $12 million just on a whim.”
McAfee joined College GameDay as a full-time analyst in 2022 after his podcast, The Pat McAfee Show, exploded in popularity. ESPN began licensing The Pat McAfee Show in 2023, though McAfee still owns the intellectual property.
College GameDay has broken its own viewership records multiple times in recent years. It is currently averaging 2.8 million viewers at the midpoint of the 2026 college football season, putting this year on track to be the most-watched in the show’s history.
On Tuesday, McAfee poured cold water over McCarthy’s recent opinion column suggesting he could soon land on the Monday Night Football broadcast, writing on X, “This isn’t real. There’s been zero conversation about this.”
Asked whether he could envision McAfee commentating on MNF games, Foss stressed the job was not currently available due to Joe Buck and Troy Aikman’s presence in the booth, but added that McAfee’s upcoming Super Bowl alt-cast was evidence of his growing star power.
“Pat can do whatever he wants,” Foss said. “If Pat wants to call football games full-time, that’s a decision that he’s gonna make, and I would never bet against him.”
