Pat McAfee had already found a way to make his Miami stop on College GameDay impossible to forget. But the wildest part of the appearance was not waiting for him at the high dive. It started with the outfit he wore before he ever got there.

South Florida’s heat and humidity had McAfee fighting his own suit as the three-hour broadcast went on. By the time the show was nearing its finish, the white pants had become a problem of their own.

“1,000 degrees out,” McAfee said while recalling the experience on his August 17 show. “All white suit. Those pants were just glued to me by the end of that entire thing. Got changed into a Speedo in the porta-john.”

McAfee’s “1,000 degrees” line was obviously hyperbole, but the conditions were still enough to make the suit miserable. On September 20, temperatures in Coral Gables reached roughly 87 to 88 degrees, with high humidity and muggy conditions during the GameDay broadcast. There was no heat advisory or excessive heat warning that day, but the combination of South Florida humidity, direct sunlight and a formal suit helps explain why McAfee was sweating through his clothes.

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The wardrobe change, however, was only one part of what McAfee had planned for the closing moments of GameDay. As the final prediction segment arrived, he walked from the main set to the University of Miami’s pool complex, climbed the high-diving platform and addressed the crowd before making his pick. “Ladies and gentlemen, if you come to this beautiful campus, you will notice quickly that the students here love this university, they love this atmosphere… I think The U is back. Give me the Canes!” McAfee said before jumping into the pool.

The stunt was clearly more than a last-second escape from the heat. “THIS THING HAS BEEN STARING AT ME ALL DAMN DAY..” McAfee said in a post from the broadcast, referring to the diving platform.

The prediction itself was hardly a shock. Miami entered the game as a 7.5-point favorite, and every member of the GameDay panel, including guest picker Matthew Tkachuk, picked the Hurricanes. McAfee simply found a much louder way to make the same prediction.

That kind of performance fits the role McAfee has carved out on GameDay. After Lee Corso’s retirement from the show’s traditional closing-pick role, McAfee’s WWE background helped give the final selection a different feel. His picks have leaned on crowd work, physical stunts and wrestling-style promos rather than simply ending with a prediction from the desk.

Miami was not the first time McAfee has used water to turn a GameDay appearance into a spectacle. In 2019 at Baylor, he belly-flopped into the muddy Brazos River while wearing a full suit. The Miami high dive was a bigger stage, but the idea was familiar: use whatever the campus gives him to make the closing moments of GameDay his own.

The Baylor moment came on November 16, 2019, when McAfee belly-flopped into the muddy Brazos River while wearing his full suit during GameDay. Six years later, the Miami high dive showed that water stunts were still part of his GameDay repertoire.