Pat McAfee Makes Big Donation to BuckeyeThon Despite Ohio State Student Missing Terribly at the Field Goal Contest

Another week, another College Gameday with Pat McAfee raising the stakes with college students! This time at Ohio State was special, however, with the analyst including a donation to a local charity alongside his wager on the field goal-kicking competition.

McAfee met Carson Baer, who was the surprising candidate chosen at random for the kicking contest ahead of the Buckeyes’ matchup against Indiana. The Ohio State freshman shared that he hasn’t played a kicking sport since grade 2 soccer! Yet the youngster was confident and even negotiated with McAfee and suggested a local charity, BuckeyeThon, for the analyst’s weekly donations for a cause.

He was successful, and McAfee agreed to raise the award for the athlete to $250,000 while pledging $100,000 to a college non-profit that raises awareness for cancer in children. In an interesting choice that the former NFL star called “dumb”, Baer tried his luck barefoot, but unfortunately missed by a narrow margin.

With the crowd erupting in groans and the student pointing out how he’s from the analyst’s hometown, Pittsburgh, McAfee was convinced to give him a second chance. There were still several obstacles in Baer’s path, with his foot all wet from being barefoot in the cold weather and Kirk Herbstreit’s enthusiastic golden retriever, Peter, causing constant interruptions!

McAfee laid the stakes again for the student’s second attempt:

“Carson, with the dog, the people, the barefoot, your first attempt was wonderful. It was close. Can you put it through now for $250,000 to you? And $250,000 to BuckeyeThon”

McAfee hyped the crowd up as Baer went for another attempt at the 33-yard goal. This time was a miss again, completely swerving left and making the analyst realize, “Yeah, this guy sucks.” The analyst joked that he knew that it would happen but stated that he would still stick to his commitment to the BuckeyeThon. He shared that he has learned about the organization’s work and liked their efforts and would still donate the $100,000 as promised.

“Now, I’ll give $100k to BuckeyeThon because I just learned about it. They sound like great people.“

While the Ohio State non-profit garnered a generous token of support from the analyst, thanks to Baer’s determination, it was a Gators head coach who missed out on a $1 million bet.

Billy Napier loses Pat McAfee’s $1 million deal

It wasn’t just the college students who participated in McAfee’s contests, but Florida HC Billy Napier was also roped in with an enticing deal! The analyst had a brainwave midway through the pregame interview and offered a million dollars to hurricane relief efforts if Napiers could complete his challenge. As a suited-up Napier strolled onto the field with a football in his hand, McAfee said,

“Coach, you’re the first person that we’ve had on this program that has done this conversation with a ball in your hands. Classic football guy. I respect the hell out of that.”

McAfee stated that the head coach would have to hit the goal post crossbar with the football while standing on the 25-yard line. Napier expressed his hesitation, saying he’ll need to change into football gear but on Herbstreit’s’ encouragement, went ahead anyway. After removing his jacket, the coach tried the throw but missed by a hair’s breadth.

While some major money was lost in the GameDay contests on Saturday, it will soon be forgotten as the highly anticipated games move toward their culmination. The Gators face the Ole Miss Rebels while the Buckeyes will be battling it out against the Indiana Hoosiers.