Pat McAfee Is Leaving SmackDown To Work For ESPN College Gameday

Pat McAfee has secured a gig on ESPN College Gameday, where he will serve a full-time role.

Making the announcement on Twitter, McAfee had this to say:

“SmackDAHN will be on hold for a little bit while I do College GameDay.. I’m still VERY much in the WWE family & will still be doing things with WWE.”

McAfee expanded more on the show.

“I had to talk to WWE first and see what their thoughts were. I was thinking about maybe doing both. ‘How do I go about doing it?’

I did it one time when Smackdown was in Buffalo and there was a plane that was stuck in the Middle East and unable to get back. Triple H actually called me, who’s in charge of creative now, Triple H called me and was like, ‘Hey, can you get to Buffalo to do Smackdown because we don’t have anybody basically?’ And I had College Gameday the next morning in Memphis. So this is the joke of my life. Jim Irsay gave me his fucking jet to fly to Buffalo and then to Gameday in Memphis the next morning. I was on like two hours of sleep, but it was accomplishable.

So the original thought for me was, I could do Smackdown and Gameday. I can do it. The folks at the WWE, who I have nothing but love, respect and appreciation for. I’m talking about old regime, new regime, whoever you think is in charge over there, I have nothing but great feelings towards. So I reach out to them, I chit-chat with them. They’re actually the ones who said, ‘Hey man, if you’re going to do Gameday, which is a great opportunity, congratulations…you cannot be traveling overnight for the entirety of the season. It’s not good for your health. It’s not good for your family. It’s not good for anything. Whenever the time is right we will have you definitely be back in our family.’

So Smackdown will be on hold for a little bit, me commentating, while I do College Gameday. I’m still very much in the WWE family and as one of the OG WWE guys said to me, ‘Hey now one of our guys is on College Gameday.’ So I’m still very much a part of the WWE family, will still very much be doing things.”

SmackDAHN will be on hold for a little bit while I do College GameDay.. I'm still VERY much in the WWE family & will still be doing things with WWE#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/bhSpOYg3wW

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 7, 2022