Pat McAfee is literally front and center on ESPN’s college football coverage as the most vocal star of College GameDay. After knocking the worldwide leader for its social media coverage of the sport, he also has some notes on the network’s new College Football Playoff jingle.
After ESPN debuted the song in an ad spot for the College Football Playoff this week, McAfee made a show of playing the song no less than three times Wednesday on The Pat McAfee Show.
While McAfee loves to serenade his audience and goof around with various viral sports memes on his show, his comments about the CFP jingle went beyond simply the fun of it.
“Your first time (you hear the song), you think, wow, that was crap,” McAfee chortled. “How is that supposed to be for college football fans? How is that supposed to get you excited for a 12-team playoff? How did the company that spent billions and billions of dollars on the College Football Playoff go with that as its commercial? That’s your first thought.”
The CFP commercial is SOMETHING 😂😂#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/wN27Vjrx67
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 11, 2024
However, after playing the song on repeat for a full segment to troll cohost A.J. Hawk, McAfee appeared to come around on it a bit. The song is quite the earworm and does a pretty solid job of explaining the tournament format while still being catchy.
“They explained it all!” McAfee realized.
ONE MORE TIME 😂😂 #PMSLive https://t.co/KhhsAOPx9d pic.twitter.com/7Ty2UslTX8
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 11, 2024
In general, McAfee seems not to love how ESPN approaches college football. Not because of the alleged bias or conspiracies that certain fanbases might accuse the network of, but more that ESPN doesn’t treat the sport like the treasure trove its popularity would suggest it can be.
McAfee has seen that immense popularity firsthand, traveling the country weekly for GameDay. That led him to rip ESPN for not posting updates on the CFP rankings on its various college football accounts on X.
Now, McAfee quickly came to appreciate the CFP promo ditty. But he clearly doesn’t think it meets the moment of the hype that will surround these games in the first year of the 12-team tourney.
[The Pat McAfee Show on YouTube]
