There are plenty of places where the College GameDay crew has spent a Friday afternoon. Iowa City gave them one they will remember for a different reason. Before ESPN’s show took over the area around Kinnick Stadium for Ohio State-Iowa, several members of the crew went to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.
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Kirk Herbstreit, Pat McAfee, Rece Davis, Nick Saban, and Stanford Steve Coughlin met children and their families, talked with them, took pictures, and spent time coloring with them. But they were without one of their colleagues, and she sent her reaction when GameDay posted about the visit on Instagram.
“Incredible! So sad I missed this ❤️,” Jessica Sims commented on the IG post.
Sims is one of GameDay’s reporters and has been with the program since 2022. ESPN describes her role as helping bring viewers closer to the campuses, athletes, coaches, and traditions surrounding the show.
In 2026, her responsibilities have expanded again. She joined Harry Douglas and Harry Lyles Jr. as a co-host of Countdown to GameDay, ESPN’s social and digital pregame program, while continuing her reporting from the road.
The hospital overlooks the Kinnick Stadium, where Iowa fans wave toward the children watching from the windows after the first quarter of every home game. That tradition was part of the reason the visit carried so much weight.
ESPN reporter Jen Lada had already featured the Hawkeye Wave and what it means to families inside the hospital. That feeling was shared in a different way by Herbstreit.
The ESPN analyst later talked about the visit on Nonstop with Kirk and Joey. The hospital connected with him personally because his own twins were born prematurely and spent eight weeks in a neonatal intensive care unit.
Meeting the doctors and staff in Iowa brought those memories back. Herbstreit said the experience was powerful. Coughlin also came away struck by the people working inside the hospital.
He described the experience as genuine and said he was blown away by the place. Rece Davis called the visit heartwarming and emotional, while Saban thanked the hospital staff who dedicate their lives to caring for children. McAfee took the experience a step further.
On his Monday show, he went through the children he had met and spoke about what the visit had meant to him. Then he announced a $1 million donation to the hospital.
“It was special, and, uh, those kids are awesome, and I can’t wait to see them again. I’ll see them soon,” Pat McAfee said.
The donation came after an awkward moment involving his weekly “Kicking is Easy” contest during Saturday’s broadcast. Iowa student Finley Banfig had been given a chance to kick for a $1 million prize, with McAfee also putting money toward the children’s hospital.
When she missed, former Iowa tight end Dallas Clark took part in a separate challenge that produced $300,000 in combined money. McAfee later said he did not feel right leaving the hospital with less than the original promise.
It was another large donation attached to a segment that has quietly become one of the more unusual charitable pieces of GameDay. McAfee’s kicking contest passed $10 million in total giving after the Iowa donation.
Before this season, the contest had already produced more than $6 million in prize and charity money during its first three seasons. In 2024 alone, more than $1.15 million went to charities, with much of that money supporting Hurricane Helene relief.
In truth, McAfee has legitimately turned his kicking contest into a noble cause that also has fun attached to it. Earlier in the season, Oregon coach Dan Lanning hit a crossbar during a McAfee challenge that generated a $500,000 donation to the Sam Day Foundation, a childhood cancer organization.
McAfee has also donated $100,000 to the Pat Summitt Foundation and used the segment for other charitable causes. For Sims, though, not getting a chance to visit the hospital would have been regretful since she has built her career around connecting with people.
Her path to television started in education. She taught elementary school through Teach For America and later worked in school administration. She then moved into fitness, joining Peloton in 2018.
Sims eventually made the jump into sports, working as an in-arena host and reporter for the WNBA’s New York Liberty before joining ESPN. Her background makes sense for the role she has on GameDay. Sims does more than stand on campus and give a report.
She often goes into the local community and talks to people whose stories have little to do with the final score. The focus is usually on the people around the game and what the team means to them.