The College Football Playoff National Championship between the Indiana Hoosiers and Miami Hurricanes is set to kick off around 7:50 p.m. EST on Monday night.
Pat McAfee is already wondering if the arrival of President Donald Trump will push it back, much later into the night.
Trump is scheduled to attend the game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. He’s expected to be joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a former United States Senator from Florida.
While coverage of the game is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. EST, that includes ESPN’s AT&T Pregame Showcase, the national anthem, and the coin toss.
Trump has attended several notable college football games during his presidency, including two previous national championship games. In 2018, when he attended the title game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide in Atlanta, there were significant delays in getting fans into the stadium. Trump’s arrival at the U.S. Open in September caused delays due to security issues and slower entry for spectators. The match between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz started a half an hour later than scheduled.
That’s what was on McAfee’s mind Monday during a candid conversation with guest Nick Saban as his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show was ending. As Saban was leaving the studio area inside Hard Rock Stadium, McAfee pulled him aside and told him they might have to vamp for extra time during the pregame due to potential Trump-related delays.
“Might have to fill tonight. Just something to think about,” McAfee said to Saban and others. “We’re still live, obviously. We have might have to fill tonight. You see how long it took to get in here? U.S. Open, right, was the last time the president was at an event with a lot of people? That was delayed, what, an hour?”
“You think they’ll delay the start of the game?” asked co-host A.J. Hawk.
“I don’t know, man,” replied McAfee.
It was a little hard to hear, but Saban appears to mention that when Trump attended the 2018 national championship game that Alabama played in, “it was a problem.”
“There’s a chance that happens tonight,” responded McAfee.
Several reports warned attendees to prepare for significantly enhanced security measures in and around Hard Rock Stadium due to Trump’s attendance. According to Local10News, the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service will screen all fans prior to entry, and there will also be pre-screening checkpoints that fans must pass through before being allowed on the stadium grounds. Also, officials warn that ticketholders “should expect to see an extended security perimeter with layers of ticket checkpoints as they approach the stadium on foot.”
Any delays would create issues for ESPN and its coverage of the game. Both McAfee and Kirk Herbstreit are pulling double duty, appearing with the College GameDay studio crew in the pregame show before immediately leaving for their broadcasting duties. Herbstreit will need to make it to the booth to join Chris Fowler on the call while McAfee is hosting a Field Pass altcast on ESPN2. If the start of the game is delayed and they need to hold court on the pregame show, that could ripple outward on how the other broadcasts get started.
