{"id":896118,"date":"2026-10-27T07:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T07:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/896118\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T07:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T07:22:11","slug":"pat-mcafee-calls-college-gameday-visit-uncomfortable-after-utes-social-media-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/896118\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat McAfee calls &#8216;College GameDay&#8217; visit uncomfortable after Utes&#8217; social media post"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) \u2014 Pat McAfee said he \u201cdid not enjoy the University of Utah\u201d after \u201cCollege GameDay\u201d visited the Utes\u2019 campus for their matchup against Houston.<\/p>\n<p>McAfee said a University of Utah social media post made him uncomfortable before the show on Saturday. The post featured students doing impressions of McAfee. One called him \u201ccorny,\u201d while another called him \u201ccreepy,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf these kids would have done this on their own blogs, all good,\u201d McAfee said. \u201cThe university puts that out, like, as I&#8217;m about to go out and do an infomercial for the place, and then I&#8217;m walking in front of thousands of these people. This is how the university feels about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McAfee said he saw the video shortly before appearing on \u201cCollege GameDay\u201d and had never experienced anything like it.<\/p>\n<p>He also took issue with a Utah student comparing the $1 million prize in \u201cCollege GameDay\u2019s\u201d kicking contest in Salt Lake City with the $3 million won by a BYU student for a kick.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen obviously the kicker goes, &#8220;Only $1 million, only $1 million.&#8221; It&#8217;s like, all right, I hate this place. I hate this place. They got a good football team, though. They got a good football team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>MORE | College GameDay<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;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,\u201d McAfee said.<\/p>\n<p>McAfee also questioned whether the university should amplify reasons people might dislike him, referencing the deadly incident at Utah Valley University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the university gaslighting some of it right before I go out there to talk about your school, especially with what happened 40 miles south of Salt Lake City a little over a year ago, it&#8217;s like I did not enjoy that. I was very, very uncomfortable,\u201d McAfee said.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Pat McAfee said he \u201cdid not enjoy the University of Utah\u201d after \u201cCollege GameDay\u201d visited the Utes\u2019 campus for their matchup against Houston. (Photo: KUTV)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"365\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ee826ce9-60a8-4f4d-acce-63b1e455495e-RL1493_frame_417.jpeg\" width=\"648\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Pat McAfee said he \u201cdid not enjoy the University of Utah\u201d after \u201cCollege GameDay\u201d visited the Utes\u2019 campus for their matchup against Houston. (Photo: KUTV)<\/p>\n<p>McAfee said he did not enjoy the morning and hoped he would not have to return to the school for \u201cCollege GameDay.\u201d He still praised the event, the student section and the football team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;ll hopefully never go to that place. I think I have COVID or something whenever game day goes back if I&#8217;m still a part of game day. But I did not enjoy the morning there,\u201d McAfee said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey got a good football team, though,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The University of Utah released the following statement:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The University of Utah is grateful to have had the chance to welcome Pat McAfee and the entire ESPN College GameDay crew to campus. ESPN College GameDay has visited our campus seven times and we have always enjoyed a terrific relationship and positive experiences with the entire crew.<\/p>\n<p>Our goal during the visit was to create lighthearted engagement regarding Pat being back on campus, but we missed the mark. University staff are responsible for reviewing and posting content on official social media accounts and we take full accountability for that decision.<\/p>\n<p>University officials have reached out to Pat to express appreciation and regret.<\/p>\n<p>We sincerely apologize for creating any perception that Pat was unsafe or unwelcome on our campus. Nothing could be further from the truth.<\/p>\n<p>Pat and the entire GameDay crew are always welcome at the University of Utah and we deeply appreciate the opportunity ESPN provides to showcase our university and community.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>_____<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) \u2014 Pat McAfee said he \u201cdid not enjoy the University of Utah\u201d after \u201cCollege&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[99],"class_list":["post-896118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}