Pat McAfee reveals Field Pass contract with College Football Playoff has expired

Bombastic ESPN personality Pat McAfee revealed that the contract with the College Football Playoff that created his Field Pass simulcast of college football games over the past two seasons has expired.

“That contract is up, we don’t know if that’s ever going to happen again,” McAfee told Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule during Thursday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show on YouTube. “It was a great time.”

McAfee’s semi-weekly simulcast of ABC/ESPN’s game of the week usually aired on ESPN2 and featured the cast of The Pat McAfee Show including McAfee and former Ohio State and NFL linebacker A.J. Hawk discussing the game in real-time from either endzone. On occassion, McAfee would interact with celebrities like diehard Texas fan Matthew McConaughey when they’re on-site as well.

“Just being there feeling (it), the college world is just different,” McAfee told Rhule.

It’s unclear whether McAfee’s contract with the College Football Playoff will be renewed for the 2025 season or beyond, but with six months before any actual games kickoff, there’s plenty of time for discussions to pick back up.

Pat McAfee calls out rumors his show was leaving ESPN amid lengthy vacation

Pat McAfee returned to his show and ESPN Wednesday following a two-week vacation and clapped back at those who speculated his time with the network could be done.

To be fair, nothing’s been speculated publicly, so it could’ve been behind closed doors or something McAfee heard. Nonetheless, McAfee took his latest swing at the four-letter network which carries the first two hours of his program.

Apparently, McAfee was in Disney World, or maybe Disneyland, as part of his vacation.

“While we were down there, during our break, with how long it was, some people were wondering – I’ve heard – in the industry, ‘Oh, Pat McAfee and the show are never coming back to ESPN.’ They thought we were gonna sail off into the sunset. Never come back,” McAfee said Wednesday. “Then I popped my ass into Disney and I think, ‘Is this not enough of a mention?’ I am literally in Mickey Mouse’s town having the time of my life.

“We are so incredibly grateful that we get to do this. I think that was a lot of the thought while we were gone, is just gratitude, perspective, appreciation, and also, it’s time to get back to work.”

McAfee has not shied away from calling out ESPN on numerous occasions. First, it was the ratings leak and shots at Norby Williamson, a former ESPN executive.

Then, it was a shot at ESPN’s social team regarding the College Football Playoff rankings in November. But the Williamson saga stands out among McAfee’s gestures towards the company. 

“ESPN set us up pretty good here,” McAfee said in January of 2024. “There were some comments about one particular person at ESPN you know that I made only on the YouTube, ESPN-plus show. That wasn’t even on linear TV. I didn’t know anybody was gonna hear it because he was just on digital. I guess everybody did hear it. 

“Topic of discussion obviously the entire weekend and the only thing that I’m like, super bummed out about at all is that a guy that we like a lot, a man that watched the game with us in the suite, Burke Magnus, who is currently new guy in charge of ESPN right below Jimmy Pitaro. I guess he was kind of made to look bad because of what I did and how I did it.” 

On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this report.