As long as Pat McAfee is sitting on the ESPN GameDay panel, there can never be a dull moment. He proved it once again before the Ohio State vs Iowa game kicked off. In a typical fashion, McAfee had a full heel moment in front of guest picker Caitlin Clark and the rest of the Iowa crowd as he showed off his abs on national television. But that act also made him offer an apology to the WNBA star.
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During the final picks segment on College GameDay, the panel made predictions for the Ohio State-Iowa game. Clearly, the Buckeyes were getting nods, except from Iowa legend Clark. Everyone knew McAfee wouldn’t be saying the team’s name and be done with it. Instead, he used the same formula that first started when he stunned the Georgia crowd by picking Alabama three years ago.
“It feels like the football gods have been talking to me about the Hawkeyes getting a big-time win,” McAfee began his remarks. Then came the part no one was ready for. He took off his blazer and ripped off his shirt. The shirt just refused to come off. “I’m stuck,” McAfee said. Nick Saban, who sat right next to him, enjoying the theatrics, even helped McAfee take his shirt off.
And as he took it off, he suddenly remembered that he was sitting next to Caitlin Clark.
“Caitlin, I apologize for being like this in front of you, but when it calls, it calls,” McAfee said while posing shirtless on the television. “The football gods have told me to get shirtless in front of these fantastic people. And I’m going to put my shirt back on.”
But the pick was still pending. Since the start of the segment, McAfee was team Hawkeyes. He even named the Hawkeyes as his pick during the stock exchange segment. After raving about Iowa’s chances and creating a dramatic scene that had everyone thinking he had officially jumped onto the Hawkeyes’ bandwagon, it turns out McAfee had one more trick up his sleeve. The whole thing was just a perfectly timed misdirection.
“I’m going to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes get a huge win. There’s no way the Buckeyes lose two games in the first five weeks,” McAfee said in the end. He cheered for the Buckeyes like a full-blown cheerleader, breaking out the proper hand gestures and proudly going, “O-H-I-O!”
Predictably, the home crowd didn’t like the pick. Iowa fans booed McAfee. Despite his earlier optimism towards the Hawkeyes and their 4-0 start, the Buckeyes are a serious challenge. It doesn’t matter that they have one loss on their record. It came against the current No. 1 team away from home.
But Kirk Ferentz’s team also has momentum on its side. The Hawkeyes went to the Big House and took down the Wolverines in a nail-biter of a game. As Nick Saban pointed out on Friday, Iowa teams always play a physical game, are good at tackling, and make it about the line of scrimmage. Kyle Whittingham discovered that you can’t give Iowa a chance late in the game. Surely, Ryan Day has learned a lesson or two from that game featuring the team up North.