Pat McAfee may have to change the rules to his weekly field goal kicking contest on College GameDay, or else he is going to be a much poorer man by the end of the season.
McAfee’s field goal contest has become the weekly highlight of College GameDay as he puts up his own money for college students to win just through kicking a field goal. It’s produced plenty of great moments, and the kicks this year have been more successful than not, leading to lots of winners and lots of money coming from the ESPN star’s bank account.
But we’ve never seen something quite like we saw with GameDay at Penn State for their annual white out game hosting Oregon. A student named William won the raffle to be selected to kick. However, knowing there was little chance for him actually to make the kick, he recruited soccer player Carson to do the honors. The pair then agreed to split the money both ways if it went through the uprights.
McAfee did everything he could to up the pressure on Carson, raising the stakes to $300,000 and telling the soccer player that he would only get one kick at it. Pressure, what pressure? The kick sailed easily through the uprights as both students and the Penn State crowd erupted in jubilation.
An incredible year at the Pat McAfee College GameDay field goal contest continues. Soccer player Carson steps in and wins $150k each for himself and William, who originally won the raffle to kick. pic.twitter.com/1OzjX7z4hW
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 27, 2025
Ironically, this entire episode came just a week after a Tennessee student claimed in a TikTok video that he was wrongly pulled from the field goal contest when it was discovered that he did not have his ID and could not verify that he was at least 18 years of age. For those who aren’t familiar, those interested in the kick are given 300 raffle tickets, with the winner being chosen from that group.
Amazingly, this is already the third successful field goal kick in Pat McAfee’s contest so far this season. McAfee is celebrated as a very generous and giving person, but he might need to make sure that any soccer players aren’t brought in as ringers moving forward. As for Carson, are there any D-I schools out there that need a kicker?
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