“College GameDay” certainly knew where it was Saturday.
The crew of ESPN’s popular national pregame show, and particularly sports media superstar Pat McAfee, leaned all the way into the religious storylines of the Notre Dame-BYU game as the show visited Provo for the first time since 2009.
“I try my absolute best to embrace all these unique experiences, because that’s what separates college football and college sports from everything else,” McAfee said on his show Monday while recounting the visit to Provo. “And out there, they are the school of the Latter-day Saints.”
“GameDay” is staying in state this week for Saturday’s Houston-Utah matchup. And while we’re likely to see fewer religious references emerge during this week’s show, it’s still the state of Utah and a football program that’s well-represented with Latter-day Saint fans, players and coaches, beginning with head coach Morgan Scalley.
It’s impossible to separate BYU from its sponsoring institution, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So how was Latter-day Saint culture and theology represented and treated on the three-hour pregame show?
Let’s take a look:
A ‘near-religious experience’
“GameDay” started with a predawn drone shot of LaVell Edwards Stadium as host Rece Davis kicked off the broadcast. It’s unclear whether his first words — “morning breaks” — were a reference to the Latter-day Saint hymn “The Morning Breaks,” but the remainder of the intro was heavy on religious symbolism. The game, Davis said, promised to be a “near-religious experience.”
“Both (Notre Dame and BYU) were left in playoff purgatory a year ago. But they’re on a mission. Spread the word and get to the promised land,” Davis said.
“Degrees of glory will be determined as a judgment day arrives.”
Brother Pat
McAfee, who has had mostly positive things to say about Latter-day Saints on past episodes of “The Pat McAfee Show” and “College GameDay,” literally wore his intentions — uncharacteristically showing up with a tie, white shirt and blue blazer.
“Thank you, Brother Davis,” he said. “This is actually Brother Herbstreit’s tie that Brother Howard tied for me.”
Retired coach Nick Saban, winner of seven national titles, got the title of “Elder.”
“We’ve got the Catholics coming to take on the Mormons, a tale as potentially old as time,” McAfee said. “We’ve entered an ethereal realm. A heavenly place. A biblical outcome could potentially happen in this glorious city that is all about ball.”
He continued to call his colleagues “Brother” throughout the broadcast and was in turn referred to as “Brother Pat.” He frequently used the phrase “God bless you” — not exactly a commonly used phrase in Latter-day Saint culture, but a religious nod nonetheless.
‘There’s not gambling out here’
McAfee surfaced one point of tension early on. The “College GameDay” format frequently references betting lines and is sponsored by the sports betting app Draft Kings.
McAfee brought up the 18th prophet-president of the Church of Jesus Christ (and BYU’s former president) — President Dallin H. Oaks — to a huge cheer from the students. He then referenced President D. Todd Christofferson of the First Presidency, who recently gave a general conference address discouraging gambling in all its forms.
“So there’s not gambling out here, there’s just passion and it’s all toward the Cougars,” he said.
He ended his opening segment by saying, “Thank you, brothers and sisters, for coming out here.”
A Book of Mormon sermon
At the midpoint of the broadcast, McAfee stood on a small stage surrounded by fans and — to loud cheers — opened a copy of the Book of Mormon. He read 1 Nephi 17:36, likening the scripture to — of all things — the University of Utah’s offense.
“As Nephi said about the children possessing it, and I don’t know if this is what the Book of Mormon was referring to, but if they were possessing offense, I think BYU is great at it. And … Utah’s really good at it.”
He then read from 2 Nephi 32:4. “Nephi’s really spittin’ in there, I would say. Rece, back to you, brother.”
(For those — like me — who were previously unaware, the slang term “spitting it” means speaking with authority and is generally a compliment.)
Turns out, the segment was not scripted. (More on that later.)
Kalani Sitake and ‘sober noise’
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake coined a term that lived beyond the end of the game, which the Cougars won 28-24.
“I think we are going to shock the nation with some sober noise,” the coach said during his appearance on the set.
Sitake, after analyst Desmond Howard asked about his return home to Tonga over the summer, encouraged “everyone to look up their genealogy, family history and get connected with their roots.”
The coach leaned right into his university’s sponsoring faith while talking about his program.
“We are a faith-based institution,” he said. “We represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It just shows that the gospel of Jesus Christ works in many things. It works in business. It works at home. It definitely works in football, and we’re making it happen.”
Religious signs
One week after the “No religious signs” rule for the “GameDay” Pit was posted on X and stoked accusations of Christian bias, multiple neon-green Christian signs appeared prominently behind the set and above the massive crowd — as they do seemingly every week. They read, in part: “To every underdog. Don’t give up. Find hope in Jesus”; “Jesus heals any hurt, redeems any loss”; and “When the odds are against you, Jesus is for you.”
BYU fans brought their own signs — many of them religiously themed — but one in particular caught McAfee’s attention.
“There’s a sign out there that says I have 16 honor code violations,” McAfee said. “That’s not true. I’ve been living by the book … of Mormon. I’m trying my best.”
Was it respectful and accurate?
Following the broadcast, I saw a few what seemed to be well-meaning tweets, including one from CBS college football writer Brad Crawford, saying that McAfee was mocking the Latter-day Saint faith by reading from the Book of Mormon.
Now we've got Pat McAfee mocking the Book of Mormon on College GameDay.
— Brad Crawford (@BCrawford247) October 17, 2026
Why does ESPN continue to trot this stuff out there?
The religious references on the set weren’t all flattering, or accurate. McAfee usually referred to church members and even the BYU team as “The Mormons,” rather than using the preferred name of the church. And he couldn’t resist referring to rumored sexual practices in Utah, as he has multiple times in the past.
So after all McAfee and his co-hosts said and did on “GameDay” in Provo, should Latter-day Saints feel flattered or offended?
It all made me think about two media takes I had consumed in the past week with regards to the polarizing, ubiquitous and very wealthy “GameDay” host.
The first was a column from Jerry Brewer in The Athletic, suggesting that McAfee’s growing presence makes it more difficult “to see the show as the ultimate gathering place for all fans despite a ratings spike this season.” (McAfee appeared to reference the column at one point during the show.)
The second was a response to the column from Substack author and former NBA beat writer Ethan Strauss on his podcast with Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports. They discussed the most-liked comment on Brewer’s article at the time, which accused McAfee of “flaunt(ing) religious Christianity to an appalling level on ‘College GameDay.’”
Strauss couldn’t recall any examples of McAfee “flaunting” Christianity, and neither can I. But the larger point — as Strauss has previously written — is that “GameDay” has never really taken itself too seriously.
“‘GameDay’ was always a broad, goofy show ...” Strauss wrote in September. “Through some accident of history, arbiters who might have spread word of an abstract foreign film on a different timeline are instead interpreting shirtless Pat McAfee as some massive civilizational loss.”
The show has always immersed itself in the host campus — whether it be deep in SEC country or at a service academy. The show embraces not just the football program but also its city, fans, culture, food and rituals.
What the show did in Provo seemed quite sincere, despite a few moments of irreverence.
McAfee said he wore the tie as a show of respect. He referred to Latter-day Saint leaders as “Prophet Oaks” and “Prophet Christofferson” — not titles Latter-day Saints use, but certainly ones that show respect. During the million-dollar kick segment, McAfee — devoid of any snark — told former Colts teammate and BYU graduate Austin Collie, “You introduced me to the Mormon religion one spring camp. I appreciate you doing that.”
During his show Monday, McAfee revealed that the Book of Mormon segment was impromptu, and that someone had tossed a highlighted copy that hit him in the leg while on the stage.
“I pick it up, the place goes crazy,” he said.
He chose a verse to read just seconds before the segment started.
“It was just such a moment that was obviously not planned or prepared, but just kind of happens,” McAfee said. “We try our best to embrace every university.”
This weekend, that will be the University of Utah.