Why Is Pat McAfee Upset With the University of Utah? Explaining the Controversy

A university-posted video of students doing impressions of the ESPN analyst led to safety concerns, a school apology and a lengthy social media response.

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ESPN analyst Pat McAfee is still addressing the fallout from College GameDay’s stop at the University of Utah, where a university-posted video of students doing impressions of him left him hoping he’d never return to Salt Lake City.

McAfee posted a lengthy response on social media Wednesday, two days after Utah apologized and ESPN backed his safety concerns over the visit. He wrote that he’s “very sorry to those that despise me.”

What was in Utah’s video?

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A student group made the video, which the university posted to its official Instagram account the night before the broadcast. Students camped out for the show did impressions of the former Indianapolis Colts punter, with one joking that he shouldn’t say anything corny like “Houston, we have a problem” and another urging him to keep his shirt on. The clip has since been deleted.

McAfee said Monday that one student called him “corny” and another called him “creepy,” though the word “creep” never appeared in the video. His issue was the school sharing it.

“If these kids would have done this on their own blogs, all good,” McAfee said. He added, “The university puts that out as I’m about to go do an infomercial for the place?”

He also tied his discomfort to the September 2025 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. “I thought to myself, has anything like really scary happened at a college gathering in the state of Utah recently?” he said.

McAfee’s pick and kicking contest

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The weekly “Kicking is Easy” contest added friction. A week earlier in Provo, where GameDay covered Notre Dame at BYU, the prize pool hit $3 million, and Utah’s contestant brought that up before her $1 million attempt.

“Wait, wait, wait. The BYU guy got $3 million,” she said before missing the kick.

McAfee then picked Houston and signed off with, “I’ll never see you again, hopefully.” Utah won anyway, as quarterback Devon Dampier ran for two touchdowns and the Utes erased a 10-point second-half deficit to beat the Cougars 21-13.

Utah won anyway, as quarterback Devon Dampier rushed for 150 yards and two touchdowns and the Utes erased a 10-point second-half deficit in front of a sold-out Rice-Eccles Stadium crowd of 51,864.

How did Utah and ESPN respond?

Statement from Utah's university PR about Pat McAfee and College Gameday.

Free story: https://t.co/WP1JGecjPG pic.twitter.com/yHGTnhhKOd

— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) October 27, 2026

Utah deleted the video and apologized Monday, saying it wanted “lighthearted engagement regarding Pat being back on campus, but we missed the mark.” The school added, “We sincerely apologize for creating any perception that Pat was unsafe or unwelcome on our campus.”

ESPN backed its analyst in a statement to The Athletic. “We support Pat and recognize the very real and valid concerns he has around safety and security,” a spokesperson said.

McAfee details threats and Tennessee security

McAfee skipped addressing the backlash on his show and instead posted screenshots of threatening messages Wednesday. He wrote that the Utah video came “a couple days after The New York Times releases a ‘WE ARE ALLOWED TO AND SHOULD HATE THIS GUY’ piece,” referring to The Athletic columnist Jerry Brewer’s Oct. 15 column on how GameDay has changed around him.

He also described the security around GameDay’s 2025 stop at Tennessee, which came days after Kirk’s killing. “I don’t think it was the FBI that suggested the Bullet Proof Vest, but it was certainly an idea presented by one of the security groups,” McAfee wrote.

GameDay broadcasts from Bloomington, Indiana, on Saturday ahead of Minnesota vs. No. 4 Indiana, while Utah, now No. 6 in the AP Top 25, visits Cincinnati. The Utes host BYU on Nov. 7, a matchup among GameDay’s Week 10 options, though McAfee said Monday, “I think I have COVID or something whenever GameDay goes back.”