Pat McAfee announces he will live stream College GameDay on X/Twitter account amid ESPN, YouTube TV dispute

If you were planning to skip College GameDay this weekend because of the ongoing carriage between Disney and YouTube TV, Pat McAfee has good news. The ESPN personality revealed Friday that College GameDay will be live-streamed in full on his X (formerly Twitter) account Saturday morning.

“Breaking news — GameDay will be available on X, on our account, in its entirety,” McAfee announced on The Pat McAfee Show. “So if you’re in the middle of this dispute that’s taking place between ESPN and YouTube TV, if you have an X account at all, GameDay will be live on there for the second week in a row.”

It’s a major move for both ESPN and X. McAfee added that it might signal something larger happening in the media landscape as a whole.

“This is kind of a trailblazing thing for X,” McAfee said. “They’ve made deals — they’re getting in the content game with the NFL, they’ve got deals with the WWE. They’re starting to try to get into the content game in a bigger way. They’re starting to be a hosting platform. They’re trying their best.”

When it comes to why this is being allowed, one thing was clear. McAfee touched on Elon Musk’s broader ambitions for the platform.

“Remember, Elon’s vision of X is a place for everything, not just words. We want pictures. We want to be in the content-creator world. We want to do business. His goals are for X to become this one-stop shop,” McAfee said. “In this content world, they’ve been picking it up big time.”

Meanwhile, McAfee credited ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro for finding ways to keep GameDay accessible during the dispute.

“Jimmy Pitaro needs a lot of credit for this,” McAfee said. “He loves College GameDay and what it brings to people. He understands that fans are upset about everything going on business-wise, and he’s zigging and zagging to get GameDay to fans however possible.”

While the move won’t fix the broader blackout between ESPN and YouTube TV, it offers a welcome reprieve for college football fans. They’ll still be able to watch College GameDay live, even if the broadcast game that follows, BYU at Texas Tech, remains unavailable on ABC.

Tune in on X (formerly Twitter) at 9 a.m. ET if you want to catch McAfee and company. Patrick Mahomes will be serving as the guest picker, and the crowd in Lubbock should be rowdy as ever ahead of the Big 12 clash in Week 11.