Pat McAfee, a co-host of ESPN’s “College GameDay,” doubled down on his criticism of the University of Utah on his sports talk show Monday, referring to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and suggesting he would call in sick if “GameDay” returned to Utah.
“I’ll hopefully never go to that place,” McAfee said. “I think I’ll have COVID whenever ‘GameDay’ goes back, if I’m still a part of ‘GameDay.’ I did not enjoy the morning there.”
Utah issued an apology even as an avalanche of social media reaction was mainly critical of McAfee. The dominant meme theme focused on his perceived softness in reacting so strongly to a short video the university released Saturday ahead of the “GameDay” show from Utah’s Salt Lake City campus that preceded the Utes’ game against Houston.
The video posted on the university’s official social media accounts asked students to do an impression of McAfee. A microphone was handed to a handful of male students who roared while saying that although they were fans of the irreverent, theatrical analyst, he should stop his weekly “GameDay” routine of taking his shirt off while college students cheer and jeer behind him.
Another student called his antics “corny.” McAfee, apparently already reeling from a column in the Athletic that opined that “College GameDay” has become overwhelmed by McAfee’s “frat-rock prankster” personality, appeared deeply offended.
“The University puts that out as I’m about to go out and do an infomercial for the place?,” McAfee said. “And I’m walking in front of thousands of these people? This is how the university feels about it? It’s an uncomfortable feeling.
“I’m getting a lot of shrapnel from a lot of places. The university is putting this out? That’s something I just had never experienced, really in my entire life. So it kind of set me off a little bit. Made me feel a little bit weird.”
McAfee alluded to the shooting death of Kirk, the conservative activist who was killed in September 2025 during a speaking event on Utah Valley University, about 40 miles from the Utah campus.
“And I thought to myself, ‘Has anything, like, really scary happened at a college gathering in the state of Utah recently?,’” he said. “Do we think we should be amplifying reasons for why people hate my guts, as a university? I don’t know. There were a lot of mixed feelings for me going out there.
“It’s like, all right, I hate this place. I hate this place. They’ve got a good football team, though…. But 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.”
The video was removed from Utah’s social media accounts and the university issued a statement Monday night saying the goal “was to create lighthearted engagement regarding Pat being back on campus,” but that the video “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,” the school said. “University officials have reached out to Pat to express appreciation and regret. We sincerely apologize for creating any perception that Pat was unsafe or unwelcome on our campus. Nothing could be further from the truth”
Social media was soon littered with memes of McAfee accompanied by rolls of a soft brand of bathroom tissue. But ESPN defended his concern about safety in a statement.
“The safety and security of our on-air team, crew and fans is paramount at ‘College GameDay.’ We are committed to ensuring a safe environment, and given the very real threats that members of our team face, we take issues involving their safety seriously. We support Pat and recognize the very real and valid concerns he has around safety and security.”
