The Pat McAfee cuts will stop at nothing’: Lead ‘College GameDay’ producer taken off show

Pat McAfee sits on the ESPN College Gameday set prior to the NCAA football game between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Ohio State Buckeyes at Beaver Stadium in University Park, Pa. on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.

One of the lead producers of ESPN’s college football program, College GameDay, has been removed from the show. 10-year GameDay producer Jim Gaiero will no longer produce for the heavily viewed program, according to Awful Announcing .

Several versions of the story of why Gaiero was released from GameDay have circulated . With the recent onboarding of Pat McAfee, some believe the former pro had a hand in the ordeal, as McAfee made comments in October 2025 targeting tenured ESPN members.

“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,” he said. “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,” McAfee said.

It is unclear whether McAfee was directly referring to Gaiero, but the longtime College GameDay producer has had a 30-year career with ESPN. McAfee and former Alabama football coach Nick Saban are taking GameDay into a new direction alongside Rece Davis, analyst Desmond Howard, and Kirk Herbstreit.

The recent changes to the show have sparked outrage among fans.

“The Pat McAfee cuts will stop at nothing! First the ticker now this!” one fan posted on X .

“It would not be a shocker if PA had input. This guy is living beyond his wildest dreams. He goes out of his way to think everyone hates him and needs to feel persecuted for his oxygen,” another fan wrote.

“Honest question. Because I’m not a lawyer. With McAfee’s past comments here about “the old white producers on College Game Day hate me”, does Mr. Gaiero have a retaliation case here?” someone else added.

The first College GameDay show of the season will be on September 5th, live from Baton Rouge for the Clemson vs LSU.

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