Report: Pat McAfee, ESPN College GameDay contract situation remains unsettled two months before 2024 season

Pat McAfee will reportedly return to College GameDay but his contract remains unsigned, according to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand.

“With the start of the season a little more than two months away, Pat McAfee remains unsigned with ESPN’s ‘College GameDay,’ sources briefed on McAfee’s contract talks told The Athletic,” Marchand wrote.

“McAfee, the 37-year-old talk show host, wrestling analyst and firebrand, said late last year that he would return to the program, but a deal to make that official is still not completed. McAfee has a separate contract that allows ESPN to license his daily ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on its network and YouTube.”

Marchand also reported that McAfee and ESPN are still working towards a deal, but nothing’s been signed.

The host previously said in May that his contract with the ESPN studio show would get figured out.

“We’re not getting into that,” McAfee laughed. “I don’t know if (many, many years) is the case, but it will get figured out. And it will. It was an honor, it is an honor to be a part of College GameDay.” 

“It’s an ongoing honor,” McAfee’s GameDay co-host Kirk Herbstreit quipped back on that edition of PMS.

“Yeah, of course … the honor goes on,” McAfee said. “The honor goes on forever and ever.

“It better. It better,” Herbstreit said.

McAfee originally said he would return to ESPN’s flagship pregame show for college football back in December.

“I pride myself on being a good locker room guy, good vibes guy, good energy guy, which is why it is becoming something where it’s like, every single Saturday, do I want to read — because I’m on the internet a lot,” McAfee said in the winter. “We’re an internet show. So I’m like on there. People are like, ‘Don’t read your mentions.’ It’s like, ‘I have to.’ It’s part of our job,” McAfee said.

“It’s like, these college fans are awesome, they’re phenomenal, they’re incredibly passionate. But man, that negativity — normally when I get dropped into a new show like the WWE, that negativity is like three months. They hate my life, they hate my — they hate everything about me. And then they’re like, ‘You know what? This guy, not that bad.’ How about this? I’m back. I don’t love it. I don’t love that my life is just going to continue to have people telling me to run into oncoming traffic, swallow a barrel.”

It was revealed last May that the popular host reportedly signed a contract with ESPN for his self-named YouTube show worth $85 million over five years.

Herbstreit’s love for McAfee is no secret though. What he said Wednesday was genuine since he previously said he would’ve followed McAfee had the latter left College GameDay.

“I’m just going to say this right now,” Herbstreit told McAfee. “If you dare even think of leaving College GameDay, I’m leaving with you. I am. I am. I’m dead serious.”