Pat McAfee made reference to the assassination of Charlie Kirk while complaining about his experience at the University of Utah on ESPN’s College GameDay.
“I thought to myself, has anything, like, really scary happened at a college gathering in the state of Utah recently?” McAfee, 39, said Monday, October 26, on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show. “Do we think we should be amplifying reasons for why people hate my guts, as a university? I don’t know. There was a lot of mixed feelings for me going out there.”
He added, “It’s like, all right, I hate this place. I hate this place.”
McAfee was referencing a video released by the University of Utah before he and the GameDay crew arrived in Salt Lake City for the Utes’ game against the University of Houston on Saturday, October 24.
In the video, students were asked to give their best McAfee impression. One student called McAfee “corny,” while another urged him to stop taking his shirt off around college kids on the GameDay broadcast.
“If these kids would have done this on their own blogs, all good,” McAfee said on Monday. “Everybody’s taking shots at me, anyways, for everything. I get it. If the two ladies that were hosting that put that out on their own blog, I’d be OK with it. You’re allowed to do what you do.”
He continued, “The university puts that out? Like, as I’m about to go out and do an infomercial for the place? And then I’m walking in front of thousands of these people. This is how the university feels about it? It’s an uncomfortable feeling.”
McAfee referenced Kirk a second time later in his rant, mentioning “what happened 40 miles south of Salt Lake City a little over a year ago.”
Right-wing political activist Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, in September 2025. He was 31.
McAfee said he “did not enjoy the morning there” and hopes GameDay never returns to the University of Utah.
The University of Utah issued a statement about the school’s since-deleted social media post on Monday.
“University staff are responsible for reviewing and posting content on official social media accounts and we take full accountability for that decision,” the school said. “University officials have reached out to Pat to express appreciation and regret. We sincerely apologize for creating any perception that Pat was unsafe or unwelcome on our campus. Nothing could be further from the truth. Pat and the entire GameDay crew are always welcome at the University of Utah and we deeply appreciate the opportunity ESPN provides to showcase our university and community.”
