After a long week with a lot of talk aboutPat McAfee and Utah, the "College GameDay" panelist seemed to have a return to form on Halloween in Bloomington, Indiana.
McAfee spoke for nearly 10 minutes almost uninterrupted to open the show, and while he didn't mention Salt Lake City by name, he certainly seemed to have a lot of glowing things to say about host Indiana. Even more than usual, in fact.
"It's nice to be in the GREAT STATE OF ..." McAfee said, letting the crowd finish his sentence with a loud proclamation of Indiana. "Now, Hoosier hospitality is a real thing, Rece. We're great at it. That is something that this state really takes a lot of pride in. You
need a Super Bowl host. You need a Final Four host. You need a national championship host. You need an Olympic qualifier host. Hell, if your NFL team needs a new state, you can come to the GREAT STATE OF ..."
"The great state of ... INDIANA!"@PatMcAfeeShow gets the Hoosier crowd ready for an electric day of college football 🔥 pic.twitter.com/cS88EaaPFe
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) October 31, 2026
It needs to be said, McAfee's enthusiasm is also personal. He lives in the Indianapolis-area and played his NFL career with the Colts, so he's very likely glad to be home. However, he seemed borderline giddy to be up on the dais compared to last week.
McAfee even cobbled together a "Happy Birthday" song for Nick Saban's 75th birthday, as Saban probably had flashbacks to Miss Terry telling him to sit up when he's being venerated.
The entire College GameDay crowd singing happy birthday to Coach Saban 🥹 pic.twitter.com/Xe69bEsWUI
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) October 31, 2026
All things told, things felt normal. After last week ended with McAfee saying he'll "never see you again, hopefully" to the Utah crowd, the disparity was even more stark.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pat McAfee had much different College GameDay message in Indiana after turbulent week
