President of ESPN content 'expects' Pat McAfee to be on College GameDay
In a recent Q&A with The Athletic, ESPN president of content Burke Magnus revealed whether Pat McAfee would remain on ESPN’s College GameDay program for the 2024 season.
In short, that’s the expectation, despite a report that McAfee has not yet inked a deal to do so.
“Yeah, I presume he will. What Andrew (Marchand) reported is technically true relative to ink on a piece of paper,” Magnus said. “But as you know in our world, it’s a fairly common situation to have reached an agreement without an executed contract or piece of paper.”
McAfee tends to like to keep his options open as much as possible, something he’s done throughout his media career and something that has opened a lot of doors for him.
But after a successful first season on one of ESPN’s flagship shows, there’s little reason to think either party would want to part ways.
Magnus speculated that the current contract situation is just Pat McAfee being Pat McAfee.
“I think from time to time Pat likes to just muse on what he may or may not want to do,” Magnus said. “We’re not in the business of handcuffing anybody to a table. This is not unique to Pat. If somebody comes to us and says, ‘Hey, I’d rather do this or that instead of that,’ we’ll listen and have those conversations. But Pat I expect to be there on ‘College GameDay.'”
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McAfee was a fan favorite at many of the stops he made along the College GameDay circuit last year. For several weeks in a row he picked the home team in his GameDay picks, something that increased his popularity.
However, McAfee’s fun-loving attitude and gregariousness with guests are also part of his charm; he frequently gets guests laughing and at ease, where they’re more likely to share freely about their teams or what’s going on.
The bottom line is that despite the fact that there isn’t currently ink on paper, ESPN is fully expecting Pat McAfee to rejoin the show for this season.
Magnus called McAfee ‘so talented’ in a later part of his Q&A session with the New York Times, and it’s clear there’s a healthy deal of mutual admiration.