College GameDay chose Rice-Eccles Stadium as the site for the show this past week, returning to Utah for the seventh time overall. One member of the College GameDay crew didn't enjoy the trip: Pat McAfee. McAfee claimed to “hate” his visit, being made to feel uncomfortable due to a video posted by the school on social media, and going so far as to allude to Charlie Kirk. There were also the complaints that his kick for money was just for $1 million, when it had been higher in previous weeks. The University has since responded and apologized to McAfee.

Despite the ESPN talent not liking his trip to Utah, the people who pay his bills at ESPN may not care that much. Once again, College GameDay continues to set records when it comes to viewership, per an announcement from ESPN PR.

The Week 8 edition of College GameDay averaged 2.5 million viewers, which was the second most-viewed Week 8 in the show's history. The final hour drew 3.1 million viewers, which was 105 percent better than the competition, according to ESPN. Further, through eight weeks, viewership pacing is up five percent over the 2025 season's averages.

This week, GameDay will head to Bloomington, Indiana, to the site of Minnesota and Indiana on Saturday.

Despite the viewership numbers, fans took the chance to take more digs at McAfee in the comments.

You’re welcome, @PatMcAfeeShow pic.twitter.com/erpsTGNbzK

— InScalleyWeTrust (@Ficklin4Heisman) October 27, 2026

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ESPN has been putting McAfee everywhere as of late. They heavily promoted his debut album and also set up an alternate broadcast of Monday Night Football with McAfee. At some point, fatigue around McAfee could hurt GameDay's numbers, but that is not now.