Pat McAfee makes big decision regarding future with 'College GameDay'

After a few months of leaving college football fans in the dark, ESPN’s Pat McAfee finally made a decision about his future on popular weekend show “College GameDay.”

McAfee kicked off Wednesday’s “Pat McAfee Show” with his formal announcement where he informed everyone he was indeed returning for his third season as a guest host.

“I am returning to ‘College GameDay’ and although I don’t want to make a big deal out of it, I know it is a big [expletive] deal that it’s happening,” McAfee said . “There was some drama that started lingering, we had chatted about it me, [ESPN president of content] Burke [Magnus] and [ESPN chairman] Jimmy [Pitaro], obviously, whenever the licensing of the show conversation was taking place. … When you get offered the opportunity to join the ‘College GameDay,’ you can't say no to that. You're talking about one of the greatest shows in the history of television.”

The full announcement is below.

McAfee didn’t immediately announce whether or not he’d return in 2024 after last season, and a reader poll conducted by The Athletic showed that 48.9% of college football fans didn’t want him back on the show.

Joining the “College GameDay” crew during as a full-time analyst in 2022, McAfee will return to a star-studded panel of hosts that includes Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, Rece Davis, Desmond Howard and former Alabama head coach Nick Saban.

The first “College GameDay” show of the 2024 season will take place Aug. 24 in Dublin, Ireland as Florida State faces Georgia Tech.