We are less than 24 hours from the start of another college football Saturday, a Week 11 slate that features big games like No. 7 BYU at No. 8 Texas Tech, No. 3 Texas A&M at No. 22 Missouri and LSU at No. 4 Alabama on the Disney/ESPN family of networks. And barring a significant change in the next day, fans who subscribe to YouTube TV as their service provider will miss another weekend of ESPN’s college football offering—a slate that includes all of the SEC, virtually all of the ACC and perhaps the most significant Big 12 game of the season.
That game between the Cougars and Red Raiders in Lubbock—which could go a long way towards determining the Big 12’s College Football Playoff fate—will play host to Saturday’s edition of College GameDay, the show’s first trip to Texas Tech since 2008. Patrick Mahomes, the greatest athlete in Red Raiders history, will be the guest picker. It’s a big deal.
Fans blocked from watching ESPN may not have an answer for the companies’ football slate on Saturday, barring a switch to a new service. But with some help from GameDay analyst Pat McAfee, fans have a free option to see Saturday’s show.
Pat McAfee will stream College GameDay on his X account on Saturday from Texas Tech
Last week, the brash ESPN personality quickly arranged with X (the app formerly known as Twitter) to broadcast the show from the @PatMcAfeeShow account. The three-hour stream from Salt Lake City ahead of Utah vs. Cincinnati, which McAfee said this week was set up with X in under an hour as it became clear the YouTube TV situation would not be resolved, drew 2.1 million views according to the app.
The show will once again be available on his show’s X account this Saturday, McAfee announced Friday afternoon.
“Breaking news. GameDay will be available on X, on our account, in its entirety,” he said. “So if you are in the middle of this dispute between ESPN and YouTube TV, if you have the X account at all, GameDay will be live on there for the second week in a row.”
BREAKING NEWS: @CollegeGameDay will be available on our @X tomorrow for the second week in a row..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) November 7, 2025
I'm thankful that we're able to do this #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/DyFk06IwYo
After spending some time feting X owner Elon Musk, McAfee also shouted out ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro while weighing in on the ongoing drama.
“Jimmy Pitaro needs a lot of credit for this, because he loves College GameDay and what it brings to people. And he understands that people can be upset about everything that’s going on business-wise. ... A lot of people obviously attacking ESPN and Disney for it because they have the rights for it, well I think they think other side is doing some stuff, and any time that takes place, we have no idea how long it will be. So Jimmy Pitaro, zigging and zagging to try and get College GameDay to College GameDay fans and college football fans as much as they possibly can.
“Don’t think they can do sports right now with the way the deals are, the actual games. Studio show, even though we’re on the road, a little bit different whenever it comes to backend contracts. So I think they’re trying to work on that as well, but Jimmy is like, We need to get our fans our stuff, we hear you, we understand that. So another week of GameDay live on X, obviously for free and I’m thankful we can be a small part of hopefully getting one of the greatest shows in the history of television to more people and to the fans that watch it.”
Traina: Both Sides Look Out of Touch in ESPN-YouTubeTV Carriage Dispute
McAfee called out ESPN brass over YouTube TV standoff messaging
McAfee, who is one of ESPN’s biggest stars but owns and licenses his popular eponymous daily show out to the network, is never shy about bashing members of ESPN leadership. He is also one of the only people associated with Bristol that has taken a somewhat-neutral stance on the showdown with YouTube TV.
After a number of prominent ESPNers put out what were essentially public service announcements telling fans to put pressure on YouTube TV, McAfee called them out over the situation:
“We’re all done with it. And also, if you’re on TV, stop telling people to go to a website to save a multi-billion-dollar deal. Nobody cares what you have to say. There will be nothing that we have to say or any website that will be visited. There are, I don’t want to say the exact names, but these people (hands up high), let’s put our swords down. Let’s put our swords down for the good of sports."
McAfee later hosted CBS analyst J.J. Watt, giving him a platform to rant about the situation. During Watt’s appearance, McAfee walked back his fire towards his colleagues a bit, clarifying that his frustration ultimately lies with management that he says put them up to making the posts.
ESPN’s ratings have taken a sizable hit during the standoff
The Worldwide Leader has been cleaning up during college football season this year, thanks in large part to a very competitive SEC. College GameDay’s ratings were hitting record highs, even after an emotional Week 1 sendoff for Lee Corso.
Last week showed some serious vulnerability for ESPN as the YouTube TV dispute took full effect.
A competitive rivalry game between Florida and Georgia pulled in the same numbers as a mismatched Alabama-South Carolina game the week before. Oklahoma-Tennessee—effectively a knockout game for the College Football Playoff—drew two million fewer sets of eyeballs than Texas A&M’s drubbing of LSU a week earlier. Vanderbilt’s impressive comeback attempt against Texas, which was also the best game of Arch Manning’s career, came nowhere close to the prior week’s Oklahoma-Ole Miss game.
Where things stand between ESPN and YouTube TV right now
By the sound of it, YouTube TV viewers may want to look for more alternate ways to see ESPN games—or check out what the Big Ten has in store across the other networks.
According to a report by The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, the two sides have not come close on a deal with the clock clicking down to college football Saturday followed by one of the best matchups of the NFL’s Monday Night Football schedule between the Packers and Eagles at Lambeau Field:
“The two sides remain apart on how much YouTube TV should pay ESPN for its services, as well as the thresholds and inclusion of a ‘Most Favored Nation’ clause, which would allow YouTube to gain benefits and guarantees from its increasing subscriber base. YouTube’s 10 million homes, built up in eight years, are approaching the two largest providers, Spectrum and Comcast, whose numbers are each in the 12 million range. ESPN just recently reached carriage deals with Spectrum and Comcast.”
Other ways to watch College GameDay and ESPN programming
A number of alternative services exist that offer similar functionality to YouTube TV. Two of them—Hulu + Live TV and Fubo—are owned by Disney. The corporation certainly wouldn’t mind peeling off subcribers from the Google-owned YouTube TV, a major competitor for both service.
ESPN also now offers its standalone app, for which it began a major push in August.
Sling TV offers the “Orange” package, which features ESPN, ESPN2, the ESPN3 streaming options along with a host of other channels. The “Orange + Sports Extra” package adds in ACC Network, SEC Network, ESPNU and other smaller sports networks.
And, of course, there is cable. The folks that never cut the cord are sitting pretty these days, as these streaming carriage disputes become more common, content is further spliced up between services and prices for all of them go up.
More College Football on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as How to Watch ‘College GameDay’ in Week 11 Amid YouTube TV-ESPN Dispute.
