Speaking on the Pat McAfee Show, the Smackdown commentator explained the decision to do College GameDay and how he’s taking a small break from his commentary duties over at WWE during college football season.

McAfee said he called WWE to see what their thoughts are and run it by them. He recalled that time when the WWE plane got stuck in Saudi Arabia and Triple H called him to go to Buffalo to do Smackdown commentary and he flew in on a private jet but had GameDay the next morning and did it all on two hours of sleep. He said that his idea was that it was doable, do Smackdown on Friday and then fly to GameDay afterward.

“The folks at the WWE, who I have nothing but love respect and appreciation for…I m talking old regime, new regime, whoever you think is in charge of there, I have nothing but great feelings towards,” McAfee said.

He noted that WWE told him that if he’s going to be on GameDay, he cannot be traveling overnight for the entire season as it’s not good for his health and for his family and when it’s time, he can go back to the WWE family.

“I’m still very much in the WWE family,” McAfee continued. “As one OG in the WWE said to me in a message…it was very heartfelt…said, “Now one of our guys is on College GameDay.”

SmackDAHN will be on hold for a little bit while I do College GameDay.. I'm still VERY much in the WWE family & will still be doing things with WWE#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/bhSpOYg3wW

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 7, 2022