Pat McAfee has made a career out of being loud, unpredictable and willing to get under people’s skin.
But after spending Saturday morning at the University of Utah for ESPN’s “College GameDay,” the former NFL punter-turned-ESPN-superstar says he left with a feeling he rarely experiences on the road: discomfort.
McAfee unloaded on the university during Monday’s episode of “The Pat McAfee Show,” saying a social media post mocking him and an awkward interaction during his million-dollar kicking contest combined to make for an experience he would rather not repeat.
“I did not enjoy the University of Utah,” McAfee said Monday.
The comments came two days after the “GameDay” broadcast from the Salt Lake Valley ahead of Utah’s matchup with Houston. The show brought its usual mix of college football analysis, fan interaction and celebrity appearances with former Utes star turned Buffalo Bills standout Dalton Kincaid as the guest picker, but the morning also produced several moments that apparently left McAfee with a bad taste.
The biggest issue, he said, started before the cameras even went live.
The post that set him off
According to McAfee, he was getting ready to appear on “GameDay” when he saw a video on the university’s Instagram account featuring students doing impressions of him.
One student called him “corny.” Another described him as “creepy.”
McAfee said he would have had no problem with students making fun of him on their personal social media accounts. What bothered him was that the video appeared on an official university account shortly before he was scheduled to promote the school to a national audience.
“If these kids would have done this on their own vlogs, all good,” McAfee said. “I mean, everybody’s taking shots at me anyways for everything. I get it.”
His issue was the source of the criticism, not necessarily the criticism itself.
“The university puts that out?” he said. “Like, as I’m about to go out and do an infomercial for the place?”
McAfee said the timing made him question how the university viewed his presence on campus. He was preparing to walk in front of thousands of Utes fans while representing the school on one of college football’s biggest broadcasts, only to see the university’s social media account poke fun at him.
“It’s the university putting this out,” he said. “It’s not like a vlog. It’s the actual place that we’re at.”
The university’s social media post has since been deleted. It remains unclear who approved the video or whether the post was intended to be anything more than a lighthearted attempt to engage with students.
McAfee, however, said it affected how he felt heading into the broadcast.
“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,” he said.
Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp said it was unusual for a university account to post something like that.
“It seems very unusual for a school’s official account to take a shot at a broadcast partner like that, especially when a show like GameDay brings so much national publicity to the school, campus, athletic department and city,” Karp said.
He noted, however, that the video came from a student group, which may not have been considering the broader relationship between ESPN and the Big 12.
The million-dollar kick didn’t help
The social media video was only part of the morning’s awkwardness.
McAfee also pointed to an exchange during his popular “Kicking is Easy” segment, which gives a selected fan the opportunity to make a field goal for a $1 million prize.
The contest took on a different life the previous weekend when “GameDay” visited the BYU Cougars for their matchup with Notre Dame.
BYU student Carter Smith, dressed as Spider-Man, missed his first kick, but got another shot and nailed it. He walked away with $3 million after Utah Jazz and Mammoth owner Ryan Smith and his business partner, Ryan Sweeney, matched the original $1 million prize.
ONE MORE KICK CARTER #CollegeGameDayhttps://t.co/bTxno8VIZ8pic.twitter.com/bt24KNOQog
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 17, 2026
Utah student Morgan Boring, a chemical engineering major and swimmer who said she had never kicked a football before, was selected for the contest the following week.
Before attempting the kick, Boring brought up the previous week’s payout.
“Wait, wait, wait, the BYU guy got $3 million,” she said.
The exchange was awkward, and McAfee appeared annoyed during the interaction, saying that he could have offered her only $20 instead. Boring ultimately missed her $1 million dollar kick.
On Monday, McAfee referenced the moment as another reason the morning did not sit well with him.
“And then obviously the kicker goes, ‘Only $1 million?’” he said. “It’s my money. ‘Only $1 million?’ It’s like, all right, I hate this place.”
The contrast between the two visits was hard to ignore.
Over at BYU, the show had delivered a memorable moment with a student snagging life-changing money and the whole campus going wild. But a week later, the awkward question about the cash turned into just another headache for McAfee.
A bigger reason for discomfort
There was another, more serious reason McAfee said the university’s social media post made him uncomfortable.
During Monday’s show, he referenced the killing of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem in September 2025.
“Has anything like really scary happened at like a college gathering in the state of Utah recently?” McAfee asked rhetorically.
He later returned to the point, saying the university’s actions felt particularly uncomfortable given what had happened in Utah a little more than a year earlier.
That was key for him. McAfee wasn’t just upset about kids poking fun at him. He felt like the university’s post, combined with the timing and everything else going on, made walking out in front of the crowd feel super awkward.
“Just didn’t like the university taking a shot at me,” he said.
He also noted that he is accustomed to criticism and that he understands why some people dislike him, acknowledging that he has plenty of qualities people might find irritating.
But he drew a line between criticism from individuals and what he viewed as criticism coming from an institution he was there to promote.
The university hasn’t responded to McAfee’s comments as of Monday.
A different experience from BYU
McAfee’s reaction also stands out because it followed a successful visit to BYU just one week earlier.
“GameDay” returned to Provo for the first time since 2009, setting up on campus ahead of the Cougars’ top-10 matchup with Notre Dame.
The episode averaged 3 million viewers, making it the third-most-watched broadcast in the show’s history, per ESPN.
Utah followed with its own nationally televised showcase ahead of a ranked matchup with Houston. The university had a chance to put its campus, football program and fans in front of a national audience, and the student section made a strong impression on McAfee.
He didn’t suggest the entire experience was a failure. In fact, he was quick to praise the football program and the atmosphere.
“They do have an incredible student section from my understanding, and they have a good football team,” he said.
He also described Saturday’s broadcast as phenomenal.
But his comments made clear that he viewed the two Utah visits very differently, even if the programs and their fans were not entirely responsible for every moment that unfolded.
Will McAfee return to Utah?
For now, McAfee is making it clear that he has little interest in repeating the experience.
“I’ll hopefully never go to that place,” he said Monday, later joking that he might have COVID-19 the next time “College GameDay” returns to campus, assuming he is still part of the show.
It is unclear whether the incident will have any effect on future “GameDay” visits to Utah. McAfee’s comments were personal, and the decision about where the show travels involves more than one personality.
Karp noted, though, it was possible, particularly if ESPN is deciding between multiple potential host sites.
“Showing the star of the show in a negative light like that could make ESPN think twice about taking GameDay back to SLC in the future (if it’s a coin flip as to where to go),” Karp said.
Still, Karp said he doesn’t believe the incident threatens the broader business relationship between the Big 12 and ESPN.
Karp also cautioned that McAfee’s personal reaction may be part of the story, noting that the former kicker “has shown he can be a little sensitive to these topics. Maybe overly sensitive.”
Others in college sports media also questioned why McAfee took the university’s social media post so personally.
He’s just doing this for content, right? Because if this is sincere… https://t.co/bvPgzgYtub
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) October 26, 2026
The episode is a reminder of how quickly a nationally televised college football event can become about something other than the game.
McAfee acknowledged that the Utes have plenty going for them. He just didn’t enjoy his morning on campus.
“It made me not have the greatest morning,” he said. “But it was a phenomenal ‘GameDay.’”