The most polarizing personality in college football today is not Deion Sanders. It is not Jim Harbaugh, or Dabo Swinney, or Nick Saban. It is not Caleb Williams or Lincoln Riley.
The biggest lightning rod in college football today is Pat McAfee.
The former West Virginia/NFL punter, turned Barstool Sports underling, turned new media pioneer, turned ESPN cornerstone is the newest addition to the College GameDay.
McAfee's place at the GameDay desk says so much. A table that once sat three, and added a fourth with Desmond Howard in 2005, now places McAfee dead center, with Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso to his right, and Rece Davis and Howard to his left. You can't look away even if you want to. (It must be said that ESPN paid McAfee while laying off the popular David Pollack and others.)
Anecdotally, I've seen a handful message board threads within the College Football Internet soliciting opinions on McAfee, and most have been negative.
Recently, though, The Athletic conducted a poll of 3,100 college football fans, and 48.9 percent said they did not like McAfee's presence on GameDay. Twenty-one percent had no opinion, leaving only 30.1 percent viewing his addition as a positive to the sport's pregame show of record. Just over 4 percent listed McAfee as their favorite college football TV analyst, placing him sixth in the industry.
ESPN knows this, and is fine with it. The former WWE contributor drives the conversation, and hate viewers count the same as everyone else.
However, McAfee signaled over the weekend that he may not be all that into his role as ESPN's designated lightning rod.
On Sunday, McAfee quote-tweeted a screenshot of the poll, saying this (and if you're unfamiliar with McAfee's schtick, this tweet pretty much says it all):
So, McAfee states he is not under contract with GameDay beyond this season. "I'm not right for some crowds and the 'distinguished' College Football folks are definitely one of those," McAfee said, implying contempt for people who like college football enough to pay to read about it.
McAfee's presence on GameDay is a kind of living metaphor for where college football as a whole is going. The Big Ten is about to embark on becoming the first "national" conference, with TV deals already in place with Fox, CBS and NBC. ESPN will go all-in on the SEC beginning next year, and will make room for the ACC, the Big 12 and the others when they can.
And then next year will see the start of the 12-team Playoff that will make college football more like the NFL. More teams will remain in the national championship hunt through the end of November, which will mean that some teams will be 6-4 with legitimate hopes of getting in the expanded bracket.
ESPN, Fox and the others will almost certainly lose some hardcore fans in Oregon or Arkansas -- the "distinguished College Football fans" -- but they're betting they'll make up for it by appealing to the casual fan in the Northeast, the type of person that find McAfee appealing.
That future is coming for college football, starting in full next season. McAfee may or may not be a part of it.
In the meantime, McAfee and the rest of the GameDay gang will be in Salt Lake City on Saturday broadcasting before No. 8 Oregon at No. 13 Utah (the game will air at 3:30 p.m. ET on Fox).