Retired Colts Legend Pat Mcaffe recently joined ESPN and has completely revitalized a lackluster program that wasn’t improving. Pat Mcafee, upon his arrival, instantly planted seeds and joined the college gameday team, joining Lee Corso, Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, and Desmond Howard. His impact on the team has been incredible, as College Gameday is currently experiencing one of its most successful seasons ever setting an all-time high of 3.2 million concurrent viewers this year.
Pat’s impact has not only shown in the analytics of the show but in the quality and spirit as well. McAfee has also started a new scholarship opportunity for the students where if they make a 33-yard field goal they can earn at least $50,000. However, this amount has increased all the way to $1,000,000 for a Duke student who failed miserably, but resulted in a very successful clip. Sadly, the event has only had one winner in its short history, but it’s always entertaining to watch and is great for CFB. While the kicking competition is amazing, College Gameday is probably most known for the crew’s picks at the end of the show. During his first season with the show, Pat McAfee in the SEC championship game created an iconic clip. Pat started his pick with a Georgia chant, “Who’s that coming down the track? It’s a mean machine in Red and Black… Ain’t nothing finer in the land…Than a drunk obnoxious Georgia fan! GOOOOOOOOO DAWGS, SIC ‘EM, WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF!” He then took a deep breath, paused, and said, “Give me Alabama to break all their hearts” In response everyone at the table immediately burst out into laughter. His success has been incredible with College Gameday but he also brought his popular show, The Pat Mcafee Show. to ESPN. This show has 2.4 million subscribers on YouTube, 1.1 million followers on TikTok, 1.6 million on Instagram, and has averaged 1.4 million viewers during its first four weeks. This number for average viewership is the highest among all ESPN shows currently. Ultimately, Pat McAfee’s impact on ESPN and the sports world in general has been immense and will only continue as his fame & role grows within the company.