College Gameday makes major shakeup right before season with Pat McAfee prominently involved in the drama

Pat McAfee’s influence at ESPN only grows larger by the day and some speculate he played a role in a notable behind-the-scenes “College GameDay” shakeup.Veteran producer Jim Gaiero has been removed from his role after 10 years in a move shared among those involved with the college football show earlier this month, according to Awful Announcing.ESPN vice president of production Matthew Garrett reportedly is set to become executive producer of the show, which will host its first broadcast Sept.5 in Baton Rouge for LSU vs.

Clemson.Sources told the outlet they believe friction with McAfee led to the potential change.Last October, McAfee railed against those criticizing him after a recent appearance on the popular ESPN show.He has served as a co-host for the program since 2022.“If you think about old white people and old ESPN people, those are really the people that hate me the most at this stage of life,” McAfee said in a video posted to his Instagram Story at the time.“Now granted, there’s some other groups that certainly have threatened my life on a pretty regular basis, I’d say they hate me too.

But throughout the entirety, old whites and the old ESPN people over the last like three years have really hated me.That’s who all the producers are of ‘GameDay’ too.

So now … it’s been a fun run.College football is great.

OK, cheers.Have a great day.”While McAfee did not call out anyone specifically, sources told Awful Announcing that his message was directed at Gaiero and Garrett.“He was absolutely talking about Jim and Matthew Garrett,” a source told the outlet.

“That isn’t up for debate.”Roughly 10 months later, Gaiero is out — although Garrett is seemingly taking on a large role — and the timing of the issue is reportedly also causing some antennas to go up.ESPN told Awful Announcing that Gaiero can instead focus on duties for Super Bowl 2027, which will be aired on the network for the first time, and he will also be helpin...