For the first time in program history, the West Virginia baseball program is in the College World Series. That means that Mountaineer fans get to partake in the festivities of Omaha. But perhaps the most famous West Virginia alum, ESPN’s Pat McAfee, did not start his Omaha experience in a strong way.

After arriving on Thursday night, McAfee and the co-hosts of his daily ESPN show went to the iconic “Rocco’s” bar, where the yearly jello shot challenge takes place. As many wealthy alums have done for their schools in the past, McAfee wanted to make a donation on behalf of West Virginia. However, it doesn’t sound like things went according to plan, leaving a sour taste in his mouth.

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“We’ve never done this before. West Virginia’s never been here,” McAfee began. “We were just kind of happy to come and do this entire thing. So then I started asking questions. I go, ‘How’s this work? Like, do I write a check?’ I brought checks. brought checks with me like, this is fuckin’ 1995. I literally brought checks because I assumed that was gonna be the thing. I go, ‘So like, do I write checks?’ Guy goes, ‘Yours would bounce, I think.’ Just kept walking, wasn’t like a joking thing. This is the general manager of the place.”

To keep track of how these comments impact Rocco’s Jello Shot sales, check here for live updates on the counter for each team.

UPDATE: Since McAfee’s rant, the bar has since accepted the “largest tip Rocco’s has ever seen.” It moved West Virginia into the lead with 7,911 shots.

McAfee had seen previous notable alums participate in the trend, such as LSU alum and Raisin’ Canes co-founder Todd Graves, who bought 6,000 shots on behalf of Tigers fans in 2023, totaling $30,000. McAfee wanted to do something similar, but was not able to.

“I came here literally to do this to represent for West Virginia before this thing gets started,” McAfee said. “How’s this work? He goes, “Card.’ I go, ‘Okay, well, how’d that guy do 300,000 bucks? He’s got a — is there a credit card out there that has a $300,000 limit? That’s incredible, I need to find that.’ He goes, ‘Well, he wrote a check.’ I’m like, ‘So, can I write a check?’ He goes, ‘No, we’ll figure it out.’ … It was very much like a ‘You’re lucky to be giving us this money to do this entire thing,’ as opposed to, like, a celebration. And I think they’re treating everybody like that.”

McAfee states plans to not return to Omaha

Seeing as this is West Virginia’s first trip to the College World Series, it’s far from a guarantee that this is a trip McAfee will be making every year. But if the Mountaineers do continue to make trips back to the CWS, McAfee’s experience at Rocco’s might result in him not coming back.

“This guy publicly told me I need to come give hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy shots at this guy’s bar, basically,” McAfee said. “And I come in there and the guy told me that my check was going to bounce, and then did this entire thing, and people were buying these shots, and it was zero celebration. It felt like — I’m tellin’ ya, I was very bummed out.

“…This will be a one-and-done thing for us.”