College Football is one of America’s favorite pastimes, especially in regions where there are few pro sports teams. It as a sport has always been carried by its colorful personalities in both the media and on the field. Recently there has been a generational “changing of the guard” from many of the older personalities in the sport, as many of the older sports icons retire and become further removed from the game they love.
Lee Corso is his in last days of being on College Gameday. Nick Saban is 71-years old and close to retirement.
Many are wondering who is gonna step up and replace some of these older legends of the game and be the next generation to lead college football into a new era. The answer is becoming quite clear this CFB season as two men lead the charge, Pat McAfee and Deion Sanders
Characters for Modern Era
Both Pat McAfee and Deion Sanders are leading the promotion of the college game to a wider audience than just the traditional audience that watches college football, which is mostly college students and their families, sports fans, and blue-collar workers.
The audience they are bringing in is an audience that may not traditionally be exposed as much to college football. Younger generations are focused on social media and gaming and may not as be well-versed in the traditions of college football and the game itself.
Football itself is growing outside the United States as far as exposure and eyes watching it as well, so having voices and characters that carry it in new markets is key to the survival of the college game as college enrollments continue to go down and endowments go up. In this way, I can choose no better representatives of the game than Pat McAfee and Deion Sanders.
Both have their positives and negatives as people, however, they create clicks and generate views for the game on social media (Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, etc.) and therefore get more eyes on the college game. They both generate these through their flamboyant personalities that make them the stand-out part of the events they are a part of.
Each deserves a look into what makes them special and why they make the college game more fun every game or show they part of.
Punter Turned Media Superstar
When you think of iconic punters, there’s probably not many that come to mind.
There’s probably not many that come to mind. There are probably two that almost any football fan knows: Ray Guy, who has a college award for best punter named after him, and Pat McAfee.
Pat McAfee, while a great punter, is probably known more so for his outlandish and wild personality and energy that has carried him further than he probably ever thought when he was a party boy at West Virginia and his early days with the Colts.
Not many punters have had the opportunity to survive legal troubles to become one of the most recognizable media figures in the sports world. He’s been living a dream ever since he retired from professional football with the Indianapolis Colts.
He got his start by doing stand-up comedy while still on the playing field and figured he was pretty good at this talking-for-a-living thing. After having one too many surgeries on his knee, he decided to shift careers. He took a brief opportunity with Barstool Sports and ran with it. After that, he began his own podcast and internet sports show, The Pat McAfee Show.
He has quickly built a media empire and has one of the most listened-to sports podcasts around the world. In May 2023, he announced he had signed an eight-figure deal with ESPN to host his show on the network furthering his already growing fanbase.
This is in addition to his College Gameday appearances on College Gameday beginning in 2019. He became a regular alongside the rest of the gang beginning in 2022. Many college football purists have had a lot to say about him on the show with many disapproving of his appearances on the show claiming he is too loud and too brash.
However, I would propose that College Gameday in its previous format before McAfee was not sustainable. Lee Corso the icon that made College Gameday the show it today is getting up there in age and the show clearly needed a boost of energy. Pat isn’t afraid to go out there and act outrageously to get viewers to tune into the show.
When have you seen Kirk Herbstreit or Desmond Howard jump off a boat into the river recently?
I’d argue he fits right in and amplifies the rest of the crew around him and gives Lee, Kirk, Rece, Desmond, and the guest picker the freedom to just be themselves on stage. Plus he is super knowledgeable about the game of the football as somebody who played both college and pro ball and knows how to play a crowd as a fan of wrestling and somebody who he himself has appeared in WWE.
Simply he is the future of CFB media.
Prime Time Returns to College Football
At the same time as Pat McAfee’s rise in the media, another sports icon has been making waves.
Deion Sanders, a Pro Football Hall of Famer and all-around athlete, has making waves in the coaching world.
Deion was always known as “Prime-Time” for his outstanding and wild play on and off the field. One of the most flamboyant players ever in the league for his sense of fashion and interviews. He is also a controversial figure in the same vein as McAfee.
Years after his playing career ended, Deion got a crazy idea to bring HBCU’s back to relevance and took the head coaching job at Jackson State in the Fall of 2020. The only problem he never had coached at the college before, and that rubbed some purists the wrong way.
Traditionally underfunded, Deion sought to generate interest and funding for HBCUs around the country through success on the football field. Coach Prime as he came to be known had the country’s eyes on Jackson State and whether he would succeed or fail, and succeeded he did.
He generated such a social media frenzy that got many top talents to follow him to Jackson State. This included his two sons and in an unprecedented coup for the FCS level, Class of 2022 #1 recruit Travis Hunter who he flipped from his alma mater Florida State.
The hype train was so off the rails that it generated interest from much bigger schools.
Feeling he had accomplished his goal at Jackson State, Coach Prime moved on to rebuilding 1-11 Colorado. However, how he would build his program left many college football fans once again questioning his integrity to the game.
He basically flipped Colorado’s roster through the use of the transfer portal and NIL. Colorado would basically have an entire new roster for the 2023 season. This rubbed many people the wrong way that he was not being fair to his current players. Although Colorado is currently 4-6, the hype train led to a 3-0 start and College Gameday appearance that brought unprecedented levels of attention to the Colorado program.
Through the use of showmanship and pure honesty, Deion is building a culture at Colorado that may get them back to heights they haven’t been at in years.
For his critics, Deion may rub those wrong with his flamboyant interviews and new age way perspective on program building. However, he is great for the college game because he genuinely cares about his players, and hasn’t thrown his team under the bus in a tough year like so many others would do.
He is the perfect combo of flair and motivator that will get more people to tune into college football on a weekly basis.
McAfee and Deion bring a flair to the college game that we haven’t seen before, and that generates interest and gets people talking. What is sports if not entertainment?
Obviously, the results and emotions on the field are real, but the characters of the game matter as well.
What better way to bring a WWE-sports entertainment flair to the sport that with Coach Prime and McAfee. Makes sense that when Colorado appeared on College Gameday, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was brought in to make it a full episode of sports entertainment. Maybe there’s a kid out there that will have football dreams after seeing “Prime Time” figures on TV.
