In the wake of the first College Football Playoff rankings of the 12-team CFP era, ESPN’s Pat McAfee spouted an absurd rumor that Penn State could not host a first-round home playoff game in Happy Valley. McAfee, who was in State College, PA on Saturday for ESPN’s College Gameday at Beaver Stadium, claimed on Wednesday that the area did not have enough hotels to accommodate a home game.
Pat McAfee with an unsubstantiated rumor that Penn State might not be able to host a playoff game because of hotels.
— Darian Somers (@StuffSomersSays) November 6, 2024
To me, this feels like a thing some random guy told him. He also clarifies no one official from Penn State told him said rumor. pic.twitter.com/0HhhaVNu3Y
As McAfee admits before he spews false information, his claim is entirely unsubstantiated and a baseless rumor. Audrey Snyder, Penn State beat reporter for The Athletic, refuted it in a tweet moments later. Penn State spent millions of dollars to upgrade Beaver Stadium this offseason in anticipation of a first-round home CFP game for the Nittany Lions.
After a 20-13 loss to Ohio State in Week 10, Penn State was ranked No. 6 in the first CFP rankings of the year and would host 10th-seeded Notre Dame as the No. 7 seed if the season ended today. BYU, as the projected Big 12 champion, would jump Penn State in the CFP bracket based on the first rankings because the top four seeds and first-round byes will be awarded to the four highest-ranked conference champions.
With FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff and ESPN’s College Gameday both in town on Saturday for a top-5 matchup, Beaver Stadium was able to accommodate a record-breaking crowd of over 111,000 spectators. McAfee was there to witness State College’s ability to handle that number of people and yet, he decided to go on his show on the world’s biggest sports network and muddy the waters about future playoff seeding.
This is how conspiracy theories start, with one unfounded claim that could easily be used to justify a whole series of events. If Penn State finishes 11-1 but drops behind Alabama with a big win over LSU this weekend or eventually finds itself behind a surging SMU team, the dots will be connected and there will be claims that the CFP committee dropped Penn State because of hotel concerns. All because Pat McAfee believes himself to be above fact-checking or sourcing any of the information that he spews and more importantly because ESPN has lowered its standards so far to allow such nonsense.
In this case, mostly harmless, but also entirely avoidable. ESPN used to be where we weren't for the truth about sports. Now it’s as trustworthy as your crazy uncle you have muted on Twitter.