ESPN execs defend Pat McAfee after The Athletic survey shows declining popularity

If Pat McAfee is actually getting less popular, then why hasn’t it been reflected in the ratings for College GameDay?

That’s the question that two prominent ESPN executives posed as they took to social media on Tuesday to defend the former All-Pro punter after a survey indicated that McAfee is losing support from the show’s viewers.

The survey in question was performed by The Athletic, which asked its readers, “How do you feel about Pat McAfee on College GameDay?” The results showed that 49.5 percent of voters said they did not like McAfee on ESPN’s weekly pregame show, while 31.6 percent said they like him, and 18.9 percent said they have no opinion.

But if McAfee is truly as unpopular as the survey says, two of the network’s top executives want to see more evidence. Taking to X on Tuesday, ESPN president of content Burke Magnus quote-tweeted an Awful Announcing story regarding the survey, noting that he’s far more interested in what College GameDay’s ratings show than a survey of 3,500 readers.

“I say that people vote with their remote controls…so if three straight seasons of record high audiences for @CollegeGameDay (before & after any measurement changes) qualifies as ‘declining support’ then sign me up for more,” Magnus wrote before tagging McAfee’s official X account.

“2.7 million people every Saturday feels like a complete sample size, but we could always ask the 500K daily instead,” ESPN senior vice president Mike Foss added, with the 500,000 figure referring to McAfee’s daily audience.

I say that people vote with their remote controls…so if three straight seasons of record high audiences for @CollegeGameDay (before & after any measurement changes) qualifies as “declining support” then sign me up for more @PatMcAfeeShow https://t.co/mME36V0nhS

— Burke Magnus (@burkemagnus) January 13, 2026

2.7 million people every Saturday feels like a complete sample size, but we could always ask the 500K daily instead. pic.twitter.com/rfpRcaNkSI

— Mike Foss (@foss) January 13, 2026

To Magnus and Foss’ points, it’s tough to square The Athletic’s results with GameDay‘s ratings. Sure, one could argue that ESPN’s flagship college football show is succeeding in spite of the 38-year-old. McAfee, however, has largely been credited with reenergizing the program, especially in its post-Lee Corso era.

But while McAfee and GameDay might be succeeding in the metrics that ESPN cares about most, it’s also not a surprise that the network’s executives would use the survey as an opportunity to public support one of their biggest stars. After all, the West Virginia product took such exception to his 48.9 percent negative approval rating in the same survey in 2023 that he publicly mulled leaving College GameDay altogether, before ultimately opting to return.

This time around, there hasn’t been any indication that McAfee will have a similar response. That’s perhaps in part because while he may not have the approval of the The Athletic’s readers, he knows he has the support of two of GameDay‘s most important viewers.