For college football and NFL fans, it may seem like Pat McAfee is everywhere right now. All the time.
Between his show that airs Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. MDT on ESPN and his weekly appearance on ESPN’s “College GameDay,” McAfee is a major part of football this fall.
But do people like seeing him so much? Is McAfee a draw or a deterrent?
When it comes to “College GameDay” specifically, McAfee is a fairly polarizing personality.
According to the second annual college football TV survey conducted by The Athletic, released Tuesday, 48.9% of fans do not like McAfee on “GameDay.” Some fans even said he has driven them to stop watching the show.
Of course, 30.1% do like him on the Saturday morning show, his energy proving a major positive.
There were also 21% of those surveyed that had no opinion on the TV personality’s presence on “College GameDay.”
The question about McAfee was, per The Athletic’s Chris Vannini, “the most polarizing question of the survey.”
“ESPN has gone all in on McAfee with his weekly show broadcast and ‘GameDay’ spot,” Vannini writes. “Last summer, when readers were asked who should replace Lee Corso when the time came, McAfee was the leading vote-getter, although it was a plurality and not a majority.
“But I’ve anecdotally seen a lot of complaints from friends and fans. The entire show’s mini-feud with Washington State about Lee Corso’s comments and the response from McAfee and Howard rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way, too, and led ‘Big Noon Kickoff’ to open its arms to a Washington State flag a few weeks ago.”
Interestingly enough, “College GameDay” ratings are up this season — especially when the show went to Boulder, Colorado, for Colorado vs. Colorado State — but Vannini noted that there most likely are multiple factors driving that result.