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“College GameDay” spent a second straight Saturday in Utah, and the state’s college football rivalry followed it from Provo to Salt Lake City. Before Utah junior Morgan Boring lined up for Pat McAfee’s $1 million kick, she brought up the $3 million a BYU student had won in the same contest a week earlier.
She came up short, but the exchange before she kicked is what stuck. A fan posted a clip of McAfee’s reaction, and other fans have since taken aim at Utah.
McAfee, the ESPN analyst and former Colts punter, runs the “Kicking Is Easy” segment, which gives one person from the crowd a crack at a field goal worth his standard $1 million. Utah students had camped out for days to get a spot at the show and a shot at that kick, hoping to make their own mark after the BYU payday.
Boring, a chemical engineering major and a swimmer, was the student who got the call. Before she kicked, she raised the number hanging over the segment: “Wait, wait, wait. The BYU guy got $3 million.”
The clip shows her line, and the fan who posted it wrote that McAfee “looks visibly annoyed” when the Utah student brings up the BYU money.
In Provo, BYU student Carter Smith, dressed as Spider-Man, missed his first attempt before connecting on his second. McAfee’s reply pointed back to that scene: “Yeah, there were two billionaires on the side.”
No other donor stepped in this time, and the prize stayed at $1 million. By the time Boring lined up, McAfee was talking up her chances: “She’s a swimmer. She’s an athlete.”
McAfee returned to the exchange when he made his Utah-Houston pick near the end of the show: “Now, I will say, the person that won the kicking raffle said $1 million wasn’t enough, and then they go on to miss.”
The sharpest posts went past McAfee and straight at the Utah side of the exchange. One fan zeroed in on the comparison itself: “1 million dollars wasn’t enough for this Utah fan… wow.”
Another fan was blunter about the scene and the school: “This was hard to watch. Complete embarrassment to Utah.”
Another fan turned it into a rivalry jab: “Utah Utes fans weren’t willing to come up with an additional $2 mill like the BYU fans did last week. Go Cougs!”
The extra $2 million in Provo came from two men, not from the crowd. Ryan Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz and Utah Mammoth, and his business partner Ryan Sweeney each put up $1 million before the BYU student’s second attempt. They are the two men McAfee was referring to on air.
Not everyone was keeping score. Another fan came away entertained by the segment: “How about for $20 bucks then is a HOF response.”
The Utes now turn to the game that brought “GameDay” to town. No. 10 Utah (6-0) hosts No. 14 Houston (6-1) in a top-15 meeting at Rice-Eccles Stadium at 10:15 p.m. ET Saturday.
Pro Football Network’s College Football Playoff Meter gives Utah a 56.2% chance to win the game and a 39.3% chance to make the playoff. PFN’s College Football Playoff Meter puts Utah’s playoff chance at 55.5% with a win and 18.5% with a loss.
BYU, which also entered the day 6-0, comes to the same stadium two weeks later, on Nov. 7.