Pat McAfee says he 'hates' University of Utah after latest 'College GameDay' appearance

SALT LAKE CITY — It was an uncomfortable Saturday morning for ESPN personality Pat McAfee, the "College GameDay" analyst said Monday on his self-titled daily show.

Explaining his experience over the weekend, McAfee said he "did not enjoy the University of Utah."

McAfee took issue with an Instagram post that was published before the start of the show from the University of Utah's official account (not the football or athletic accounts), which asked students to do an impression of McAfee.

"One kid goes, 'Ah, he's corny.' Another kid calls me creepy," McAfee said. "OK, if these kids would have done this on their own blogs, all good. I mean, everybody's taking shots at me anyways for everything; I get it.

"The university puts that out," he added. "Like, as I'm about to go out and do an infomercial for the place, and then 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 like, I'm getting a lot of shrapnel from a lot of places. The university is putting this out? That something I just had never experienced really in my entire life."

McAfee said it "set me off a little bit," which was obvious to many observers of the TV broadcast. The normally over-the-top personality, who leans into his love of the places he visits, was more reserved throughout the morning.

Even during the popular final segment of the show where he makes his game pick, McAfee quickly breezed through his rationale before picking Houston to win the game.

"It's hard to pick against this mighty Utah student section, but I'm gonna do it 10 times out of 10," he said. "Give me Houston coming out of here with a big-time dub and proving that Utah hasn't had to play anybody yet.

"Congrats to Houston getting a huge win here in Salt Lake City," he added. "Thank you, guys. I'll never see you again, hopefully."

The reaction left many wondering what had taken place over the course of his time at Utah for him to say he never wanted to be back. But McAfee said his mind immediately went to the Charlie Kirk shooting more than a year ago, which put him in a different state of mind.

"I thought to myself, has anything like really scary happened at a college gathering in the state of Utah recently? Like, do we think we should be amplifying reasons for why people hate my guts as a university? I don't know," he said. "So it was just, it was a lot of mixed feelings for me going out there."

That, mixed with a student asking for more money during his "kicking is easy" segment, made him "uncomfortable" being at the university, he said.

Utah hosted its seventh "College GameDay" show and third over the last four seasons, with McAfee previously loving his time in the state — even making several new friends inside the state. But Saturday was enough for the ESPN personality to say he never wants to come back.

"I'll hopefully never go to that place," he said. "I think I have COVID or something whenever GameDay goes back, if I'm still a part of GameDay. But I did not enjoy the morning there. They do have an incredible student section, from my understanding, and they have a good football team, so I'm pretty impressed. Just didn't like the university taking a shot at me."

He did, however, say he had a "phenomenal GameDay" experience, including being with former Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid, who he credited with being the only person to pick UCF upsetting BYU.

"I was just very, very uncomfortable," he said. "So I think it made me not have the greatest morning. But it was a phenomenal GameDay. Thank you to everybody that showed up."

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