A widely applauded column in the Washington Post by Steven Godfrey calls out 'College GameDay.' Where the show used to celebrate a sport that is bigger than the show, it now punches down, WWE-style, on schools that get left behind in ESPN's money game.

In 2015, I profiled anchor Rece Davis as he prepared to take over hosting duties for 'College GameDay,' ESPN’s wildly successful Saturday morning college football pregame show. The story focused on Davis replacing the show’s original host, Chris Fowler, a task most would assume daunting.

But 'GameDay' executive producer Lee Fitting wasn’t having it... 'People ask me that all the time: ‘Why does the chemistry work?’' Fitting said then. 'And I don’t really have the answer; it just does. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We’re not bigger than the sport. ‘GameDay’ works because everyone has the show first—period. And the sport of college football first—period. It’s the college football fan first.'
....
[Today, though,] among other changes, ESPN is gambling on the addition of Pat McAfee, a former NFL punter turned seasonal pro wrestling personality and football analyst. McAfee is waging a weeks-long public war with Washington State, one of the two Power Five college football programs left homeless by the machinations of conference realignment.

It’s a plight that makes Wazzu the least deserving target for any ESPN pundit in this moment. Sadly, Washington State is also the one school that might best define what once made 'GameDay' something greater than the sum of its television parts.

Complete article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/20...tate-feud/

Behind paywall.

Gameday has looked really bad during this Pac2 curfluffle
They should own their mistake at this point and move on

Pat McAfee is an annoying media hack. If I were on the board of trustees at Washington State, I'd be suing him for slander.

(10-05-2023 02:49 AM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  Behind paywall.

This won’t help everyone, but WaPo is free if you sign up with a .gov or .mil email address.

I noticed this on the show two weekends ago. When they were picking the Washington State game, Lee Corso said something like "Oh, boo hoo, no one wants to plays us", and McAfee let out a wild laugh.

(10-05-2023 05:32 AM)andybible1995 Wrote:  Pat McAfee is an annoying media hack. If I were on the board of trustees at Washington State, I'd be suing him for slander.

And you’d be laughed out of court as an idiot running his mouth about a public figure isn’t slander.

Gameday has been a Saturday staple in my house for years. Background noise more than anything else but it was a good way to get me ready for the day. But McAfee is curing me of that. No issues with Howard or Herbie. Love Corso, but his time is passed. Find someone else for the funny uncle role. May check out Fox pregame to see if they are less annoying.

The middle part of the article is just a rehash of the Dickert/Leaf/McAfee thing so I just posted the writer's opinion

Quote: In his defense, it’s possible McAfee thinks he is doing what he was hired to do, given his parallel career in WWE. In pro wrestling, a scripted feud is meant to elevate both characters in conflict. There’s a logic there that elevating a rivalry by increasing its vitriol draws attention, which is a form of investment in the subject. And there’s also the whopping $85 million ESPN reportedly threw at McAfee, a deal struck amid waves of layoffs. He has to assume he isn’t being paid to go unnoticed.

But this isn’t pro wrestling; this is just punching down. There are very real circumstances facing Washington State and Oregon State, many of which ESPN helped create.

Up to this point, ESPN’s editorial stance on its corporate effect on the sport has been to play dumb, as exemplified by an Aug. 26 “GameDay” segment by Wright Thompson. In the piece, he claimed “every school that sacrificed history and tradition to find a richer conference did so in an attempt to survive.” That’s a fundamentally false statement that indirectly insults the audience by assuming we’re stupid. Now, “GameDay” has evolved from being indirectly insulting to directly insulting in a matter of weeks.

Is McAfee screaming at a school flag on a cable TV show some kind of unconscionable sin? No, but it reads terribly. It’s one thing to operate as an unseen financial force ripping up the fabric of a sport to streamline your holdings. It’s another to point and laugh at the orphan you created, and it’s even worse when your millionaire talent is offended that the orphan is angry about its predicament.

It’s hard to imagine that happening on the old “GameDay.” There are a handful of great television shows covering sports. None carried the fully formed identity of “GameDay.” None has transcended the format, let alone in such an honest way, by being so present for and reverent of its subject’s myriad quirks that it’s divinized right alongside the sport it loves as much as the fans do.

Years of media coverage detailing the logistics required to deliver such a carnival to every odd corner of the country built the show’s value proposition, so much so that notoriously tribal college football fans celebrate “GameDay” arriving in their town as if they have already won something that weekend.

And for a long time, they had — “GameDay” came to see their team, not yours. No matter where the trucks pulled up, fans happily met the program on its terms, turning out before dawn with posters and face paint to assist in the evangelism.

You felt good watching “GameDay,” and when the show visited your school, you felt great. But more importantly, you felt validated. Even if you cheered for a perennial loser or just some forgotten directional nobody in this big, messy sport, “GameDay” built its mythos on celebrating you for celebrating that.

How does a tradition like Ol’ Crimson persist? Because they were told they mattered.

(10-05-2023 02:49 AM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  Behind paywall.

https://archive.ph/Ai1yF

This has gone on for a while, you all are just noticing it now because schools you have respect for are the ones receiving the LOL’s.

For many years there has been sort of the “douchey cool-kid” banter on GameDay instead of journalism. Herbstreit is the ring leader along with the rest of his buddies that went to B10 and SEC schools.

This is what happens when you try to appeal to the LCD crowd Pat McAfee appeals to.

CGD has been a clown show the last couple of years. But last weekend when Ken Jeong was on there... I lack words to describe the stupidity of what even went on when he was guest hosting last week. I had to turn it off, I was embarrassed for them. As for Mcafee, he's just not up to the task, he'd do really good on Tick Tock maybe... but at the moment he's sinking their ship. He needs to start dressing and acting like a man instead of a 13 year old boy with no friends.

GameDay is finally turning into what ESPN's game plan has been for the last 10-15 years: a show that will generate clicks. ESPN doesn't care if people "hate watch" or rant on social media because that's generating interest. Personally, I haven't watched ESPN outside of live sporting events in 10+ years because I have zero interest in that style of content.

I do find it surprising that Herbie is going back and forth with Ryan Leaf because Kirk always struck me as the avoid controversy at all costs type of guy. Maybe he's changed too?

TV Ratings are king and controversy is the name of the game in the 20s. Coach Prime is getting viewership streaks because he's polarizing. You either love him or hate him. College Football is more cutthroat in realignment. It makes sense coverage would be just as cutthroat and polarizing. The sob stories on Gameday have run their course. McAfee is here to stir the pot and create controversy that creates polarization. If you like him, stay with Gameday. If you hate him go watch Big Noon.

The AP Era ended a long time ago. There are no more Lee Corso's in the world. Kind old man who is a former coach and loves the game and the fans. The former coaches we turn out now are Urban Meyers who have dirty laundry. A slew of narcissists like Dabo Sweeny.

(10-05-2023 07:52 AM)Keyser Soze Wrote:  GameDay is finally turning into what ESPN's game plan has been for the last 10-15 years: a show that will generate clicks. ESPN doesn't care if people "hate watch" or rant on social media because that's generating interest. Personally, I haven't watched ESPN outside of live sporting events in 10+ years because I have zero interest in that style of content.

I do find it surprising that Herbie is going back and forth with Ryan Leaf because Kirk always struck me as the avoid controversy at all costs type of guy. Maybe he's changed too?

I do neither of those. Like you, I just never watch Gameday, have not for many, many years.

I am not sure who Pat McAfee is, let alone that he was on Gameday.

But, I don't watch any such shows, whether on ESPN, Fox, the ACC Network, you name it, I don't watch it.

I just watch the actual games I am interested in, nothing else.

No pre-game, no halftime, no postgame shows. Its all just noise, hype and BS to me.


So, I am not the demographic they count on.

Maybe lots of other people should just tune them out too, then maybe they will notice.

(10-05-2023 07:30 AM)CliftonAve Wrote:  This has gone on for a while, you all are just noticing it now because schools you have respect for are the ones receiving the LOL’s.

For many years there has been sort of the “douchey cool-kid” banter on GameDay instead of journalism. Herbstreit is the ring leader along with the rest of his buddies that went to B10 and SEC schools.

Speaking of cool kid, did you know Herbstreit lives in Nashville?!?

I do because he’s only said it 7485839274 times

(10-05-2023 07:50 AM)GreenBison Wrote:  CGD has been a clown show the last couple of years. But last weekend when Ken Jeong was on there... I lack words to describe the stupidity of what even went on when he was guest hosting last week. I had to turn it off, I was embarrassed for them. As for Mcafee, he's just not up to the task, he'd do really good on Tick Tock maybe... but at the moment he's sinking their ship. He needs to start dressing and acting like a man instead of a 13 year old boy with no friends.

I didn’t get the point of him. I get that he’s a celebrity and all and that’s fine. And he did go to Duke. But why not get Coach K? If you have an A list sports related person available get him. In the era of cost cutting, he’s even better since you don’t have to pay to fly him in. He can even drive himself over to the set and probably has a parking pass.

They were in Tuscaloosa a few weeks ago and they had Joe Namath.

I get McAfee was hired to be a clown and is doing his schtick. But they have him sitting in the middle of the desk so it looks like he is the “host”.

I knew Gameday was total crap when they let Lee Fitting go. That guy was the genius behind the show and made it wildly successful. He hated the direction that ESPN execs were pushing the show.

Bringing on clowns like McAfee takes away from the actual story lines that made the show popular. Tell the story of college football, drop the cheap antics and divisive commentary, and keep it light hearted. No one wants Fox News/CNN type drama on Saturday mornings.

I don't watch Game Day or Big Noon because I'm at choir practice when they air. But I, too, didn't know who Pat McAfee was, so I made of point of checking him out during the week even though I don't watch sports talk during the week.

I get what people are saying about him. He acts like a loudmouth jerk, which is probably the persona his bosses want him to act out. Glad I have something better to do on Saturdays.

(10-05-2023 07:52 AM)Keyser Soze Wrote:  GameDay is finally turning into what ESPN's game plan has been for the last 10-15 years: a show that will generate clicks. ESPN doesn't care if people "hate watch" or rant on social media because that's generating interest. Personally, I haven't watched ESPN outside of live sporting events in 10+ years because I have zero interest in that style of content.

I do find it surprising that Herbie is going back and forth with Ryan Leaf because Kirk always struck me as the avoid controversy at all costs type of guy. Maybe he's changed too?

Herbstreit is doing to Washington State what he was doing Boise State in years past. The snobbery from Ohio State crowd looking down at schools in small communities or not blue blood he have gone after.