Pat McAfee said Monday that he did not enjoy the University of Utah after what he described as an uncomfortable College GameDay visit in Salt Lake City over the weekend. The analyst said the university's official Instagram account put him on edge before Saturday's show by asking students to do an impression of him.
McAfee said the reaction he saw online was not flattering. One student called him corny, he said, while another called him creepy, and that landed badly because he was about to go on air and walk in front of thousands of people. He said the post from the University of Utah set him off a little bit and made the whole scene feel off from the start.
The complaint was not just about the jokes. McAfee said he was uncomfortable because he was getting ready to do what he called an infomercial for the place while the school was inviting people to take shots at him. He said a student asking for more money during his kicking is easy segment also made the day feel strange, and he said he kept wondering whether anything really scary had happened at a college gathering in Utah recently.
Utah has become a frequent stop for College GameDay, hosting its seventh show and its third over the last four seasons. McAfee said he had previously loved his time in the state and had made several new friends there, which made his Monday reaction sharper: he said he hoped to never go to that place again. That was a pointed turn from someone who has clearly felt welcome there before.
Even with that, McAfee still treated the game itself like a separate call. He picked Houston to win and said Houston would come out of Salt Lake City with a big-time dub and prove that Utah had not played anybody yet. He also said he had a phenomenal GameDay experience with former Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid, whom he described as the only person to pick UCF upsetting BYU.
The unresolved question is not whether McAfee was annoyed. He made that plain. What matters now is whether his criticism stays a one-day gripe about a social media post and a few hostile jokes, or becomes the lasting memory of a trip he said he had once liked enough to call home away from home.
