“The Pat McAfee Show” is moving to ESPN in a multimillion-dollar deal that he is expected to begin in the fall, The Post has learned.
In the process, McAfee appears as if he will walk away from his four-year, $120 million contract with FanDuel.
He is in the second year of the agreement.
The amount ESPN will pay McAfee is not fully known yet, but it is more than eight figures per year, according to sources.
The move comes with Disney in the midst of layoffs that will see 7,000 jobs eliminated, including those at ESPN.
McAfee, 36, is expected to appear at Disney Upfronts on Tuesday afternoon, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
ESPN declined comment.
While McAfee is already a regular on “College GameDay” and does college football alt-broadcasts with Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions for ESPN, his YouTube show is more free-wheeling, including saying the f-word a lot.
“The Pat McAfee Show” program, that formerly included the FanDuel seal in the upper corner, had grown in popularity by streaming on YouTube.
It is expected to remain on YouTube in some form, but one or two hours of it could be on ESPN, where the network would more likely be able to make the math of McAfee’s deal work.
ESPN executives had vowed to only do a deal if they thought it would make money for the company.
When The Post reported last week that ESPN had emerged as the favorites for his services, McAfee said on his show that he is too dumb to change in response to some of his fans’ concerns about Mickey Mouse sanitizing the language and the vibe of McAfee and his crew.
If McAfee does have full control, it may indicate that the Disney deal is some sort of licensing agreement.
McAfee is expected to bring his crew with him.
It includes former Pro Bowl linebacker A.J. Hawk and several of his longtime friends, who are on-air presences for the program.
McAfee has had a meteoric rise in sports media after walking away from millions as a Pro Bowl punter for the Colts.
In just seven years, McAfee has found a lot of success and a lot of employers, beginning with Barstool Sports.
He has had working relationships with ESPN, Fox, DAZN, SiriusXM, Westwood One and, in his biggest deal, with FanDuel.
The apparent breakup with FanDuel has occurred in just the second year of the monster contract.
McAfee has said he wanted to take the burden of the behind-the-scenes work off his plate.
With it being his own company, McAfee had to deal with all the business decisions.
He and his wife just recently had a baby girl together.
The ESPN partnership should alleviate that pressure.
McAfee has been an insurgent sports media force, using the levers of social media and YouTube to build an empire that resulted in the FanDuel deal.
He is now on to the next big thing, a 43-year-old company that has been billed as the Worldwide Leader in Sports, but wants to appeal to a younger generation.
The move instantly becomes one of the biggest sports media stories of the year.