Back in December, ESPN’s Pat McAfee hinted that his long-running field goal kicking contest might be ending for good. But as it turns out, it could be coming back for another year or more.
Awful Announcing reported on Thursday that sources near “College GameDay” anticipate the contest’s “eventual return,” but that there is no confirmation one way or another right now.
“Sources close to GameDay production told Awful Announcing at the time that they anticipated the contest’s eventual return, though they conceded they had received no formal confirmation from the network, and several admitted they’d nearly forgotten Pat McAfee had raised the possibility of cancellation in the first place,” the outlet reported.
McAfee’s Favorite Segment
McAfee’s field goal kicking contest involves a local student-athlete attempting a field goal in front of the crowd with tens of thousands of dollars as a prize for converting it. The contest was a brainchild of McAfee, who personally bankrolls the contest and has previously admonished people who criticize the contest.
Back in December he called people who criticized the contest “blinded by hate.”
“These people are just so (expletive) blinded by (hate), it’s an absurd thing,” McAfee said last year.
“But on that note, we just had a $1.5 million kick in front of 110,000 people. I don’t know what else we can (do). I mean, who knows what ‘College GameDay’ looks like next year? There are so many different variables to it.
“But I’m not somebody; I think people know this… we don’t really stick with a lot of things. Get bored with things. It’s not like, ‘Hey, we found something, let’s do this forever.’ So me hinting that this might be the end of the series — what if something else comes up? What if it doesn’t happen? There are so many things to it. But also, saying that it’s bad business sense to do away with it, it’s like okay.”
At any rate, if it’s McAfee’s segment and his money going into it, chances are it’ll ultimately be his decision when, where and how to do it in the future.
McAfee certainly isn’t leaving “College GameDay” anytime soon (despite how much many fans have begged), so it may be a matter of when, not if.
