Pat McAfee has very quickly become the most divisive figure in college football. You either love him or hate him...really hate him.
And of course, you can't escape him.
ESPN hired McAfee as a new big personality on the set of College GameDay, a show that used to rely on the wild weirdness of college football itself as its biggest selling point. They have him doing an alternate broadcast on Saturdays as well, this week of the Red River Rivalry game between Oklahoma and Texas.
The problem is that McAfee has never seemed like a CFB guy. So he's not there to let the greatness of college football speak for itself. He's there to be the loudest voice in the room. He's there to put the attention on him. College football fans haven't exactly embraced the schtick.
Pat McAfee is driving CFB Twitter crazy on College GameDay and more
YouTube TV subscribers usually love the ability to watch games in a quad box, but for some reason, ESPN decided to make the McAfee broadcast of Oklahoma-Texas on ESPN2 the only version of the game available in that mode.
Complaints on Twitter were rampant.
Broadcast personalities have always been a big part of the CFB viewing experience. Lee Corso is beloved. Kirk Herbstreit is respected. Others have come and gone with varying degrees of success.
But having McAfee there feels more like the energy a guest picker is supposed to bring to the GameDay broadcast. And if you don't like him on that show, you certainly aren't going to enjoy the sideline broadcast either.
It feels like ESPN is trying to create a CFB version of the Manningcast and simply failing. McAfee is something closer to a shock jock. The Manning brothers are actually likable to a broad audience. It's just not the same.
McAfee isn't for everyone. ESPN is putting him out front like he is. And college football fans aren't on board.
