Pat McAfee draws Joe Scarborough’s wrath over College GameDay on Election Day

MS NOW host Joe Scarborough used part of Tuesday’s Election Day edition of Morning Joe to rip ESPN’s Pat McAfee, saying the former NFL punter has taken over College GameDay at the expense of its longtime stars.Scarborough asked whether anyone at the table wanted to get in trouble, then answered his own question. “I’ve had enough of Pat McAfee ruining College GameDay,” he said. “I look forward to waking up on Saturday mornings and watching that.”MORE:Week 10 college football prediction market picks: Texas, UCLA, Penn State road testsWhat set off Joe Scarborough?It's election day in America, and Morning Joe spent over two minutes discussing the country's most pressing issue: Pat McAfee ruining College GameDay"I don't know if they haven't gotten the message yet, but the manosphere that we all thought was brought in in '24, it may get… pic.twitter.com/a16be985Zt— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 3, 2026Scarborough said ESPN’s push to feature McAfee is burying a cast he enjoys watching, which includes host Rece Davis and analysts Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and Nick Saban.“They’re all great. And they’re all being eclipsed by ESPN’s just insatiable desire to give this guy more time,” Scarborough said.On the morning of the 2026 midterm elections, he also tied McAfee’s on-air persona to politics. “I don’t know if they haven’t got the message yet. But the manosphere that we all thought was brought in in ‘24, it may get washed aside,” Scarborough said.He then mocked McAfee for “yelling at people and being freaked out because two kids in Utah put up signs or say something that might offend you.”“Do you know what Nick Saban calls that? Tuesday,” Scarborough said.MORE:Week 10 college fantasy football rankings: Jackson Gutierrez leaps to QB1Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire join inCo-host Willie Geist backed Scarborough’s praise for the rest of the panel, adding, “Desmond’s great.”MS NOW’s Jonathan Lemire then pointed to a column The Athletic published Tuesday. “Well, your timing is spot on, because I just got a push alert right now from The Athletic, New York Times, calling about College GameDay and wondering if it works right now in its current formation,” Lemire said.That column, written by Will Leitch, compared the show’s direction under McAfee to YouTube star MrBeast’s pursuit of traffic and argued the approach will eventually burn out.Geist said he still watches every week, but he agreed the balance has shifted. “It’s Saturday morning church for those of us who love college football, ’cause it starts at 9:00,” Geist said. “It’s still a great show because of all the pieces in it, but it has become a little bit of the McAfee show.”MORE: Predicting College Football Playoff rankings entering Week 10 of 2026 seasonHow did the Utah fallout start?Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit on the set for ESPN’s College GameDay | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect (Reuters)McAfee’s feud with Utah began before the show’s Oct. 24 stop in Salt Lake City, when the school’s official Instagram account posted a video of students doing impressions of him, with one calling him corny. Utah beat Houston 21-13 later that day.On his show two days later, McAfee said he felt uncomfortable on campus and referenced the September 2025 killing of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. “Has anything like really scary happened at like a college gathering in the state of Utah recently?” McAfee asked.Utah apologized, saying its content “missed the mark.” McAfee later confirmed a bulletproof vest was suggested to him after Kirk’s death, though he said the idea came from “one of the security groups” rather than the FBI.The controversy hasn’t hurt viewership. ESPN said the Utah broadcast averaged 3 million viewers, the third-most-watched episode in the show’s history.At the following Saturday’s show for Minnesota at Indiana, McAfee kept his shirt on until the broadcast ended and named Utah as his College Football Playoff sleeper.— Enjoy free coverage of the top news & trending stories with The Big Lead Newsletter —