The Athletic reported that Pat McAfee was considering his own independent College GameDay show. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Pat McAfee calls out 'rat' reporter over College GameDay spinoff claim

Originally posted on CFB-HQ on SI | By James Parks | Last updated Jun 12, 2025 3:51 PM ET

Pat McAfee has responded to the report that he considered producing an independent version of College GameDay, among other bits of gossip about his career, and it’s safe to say the ESPN personality didn’t like what he read.

McAfee used the early part of his Thursday show to offer some pointed remarks towards The Athletic and in particular reporter Andrew Marchand for what he had to say.

“I learned a lot about my business this morning with another article, which has been great news. Seems like it happens all the time,” McAfee said on his ESPN show.

“I don’t know if this is normal and par for the course. I guess it’s just life these days. There’s so many of them it’s hard to keep track of. But when that rat writes something, it is nice to be like, ‘Welp, that’s bullsh-t immediately.’”

McAfee then introduced ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter, which is itself noteworthy given some of the content of The Athletic report.

Part of the story about McAfee claimed that he “essentially banned” Schefter from his popular daily show ever since March in response to a reputed incident when the network’s NFL reporter was unable to appear on McAfee’s program.

The apparent incident in question took place during the NFL’s free agency deadline when McAfee wanted Schefter to appear on the show to discuss player movements.

But Schefter was unable to, as he was appearing on the free agency special airing on ESPN2 at the time, resulting in his apparently being “banished” from McAfee’s show ever since.

But that wasn’t the only rumor The Athletic shared about him.

Most notably, the publication claimed that McAfee was considering carving out a place in the college football media scene himself by starting his own independent version of College GameDay featuring him as host.

That’s definitely not something that ESPN would be interested in, given McAfee’s central place on the GameDay set, especially as veteran analyst Lee Corso is set to retire.

But it also sounds like something that’s not going to happen, as The Athletic claimed that McAfee is not directly or imminently orchestrating such a plan.

“At least not for now,” the report said.