July 28, 2025
Newton says he can bring the same kind of spotlight to HBCU football programs that Pat McAfee brings to college football programs.
Former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton wants to bring an HBCU-focused College Gameday experience to ESPN, which he pitched during a recent episode of his podcast “4th and 1 with Cam Newton.”
According to Sports Illustrated, in Newton’s opinion, he believes that he can bring the same kind of spotlight to HBCU football programs that Pat McAfee brings to college football programs–minus the controversy that McAfee courts–during his appearances on ESPN’s flagship College Gameday program and his own show, which ESPN hosts, but does not produce.
“Give Cam Newton a Pat McAfee-like deal… You talk about the content, then you can start showing the tailgates, the student section. When it comes to box offices, I can show you what’s interesting about HBCUs. Well, you talking about the content? Which one of these members of the media is willing to go into the student section? I am. This is the sweetest gig in sports,” Newton noted.
He continued, “I wanna be a part of the Black College Football Gameday. You get me to the Tuskegee, the Savannah States, the Tennessee States, the Jackson States, the Morgan States, the North Carolina Centrals, the North Carolina A&Ts, the North Carolina A&M — Alabama A&M. My personality is lively. It’s so much to tell about the college experience that I would love to be a part of it.”
Although Cam Newton certainly has star power, his pitch is contingent upon network bosses at ESPN recognizing the value of a program centered around HBCUs, taking up valuable media real estate like The Pat McAfee Show or First Take, which did a number of HBCU road shows in 2024.
Although specific ratings numbers for those shows aren’t available, clips of the appearances shared by ESPN’s Shannon Sharpe were popular on social media sites.
For Newton to secure such a deal, however, he will have to prove his worth to ESPN executives, not necessarily the value of programming centered around HBCUs.
As a 2023 press release from ESPN notes, McAfee’s $85 million multiyear licensing deal with the network came about because of his ability to leverage his show’s popularity. If Newton wants that type of deal, he needs to turn his podcast into appointment new media, similar to what McAfee was able to do with his show.
“Pat is a proven talent. He and his team have built The Pat McAfee Show into one of the most engaging programs in sports and all of media,” ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in the press release. “It’s a destination for athlete interviews and breaking news, and the centerpiece of a growing community of sports fans. We’re honored to bring Pat and the show to ESPN through a multifaceted, multiplatform approach.”
To that point, Newton’s podcast only has 500K followers on YouTube, while McAfee’s show has more than 2.9 million, a stark contrast that any studio executive would point to if they were asked for a deal in the range of or with a similar structure to McAfee’s deal.
While Newton’s idea would undoubtedly be good for the visibility of HBCU sports, perhaps Newton should seek to pivot and turn segments of his podcast into a showcase for HBCUs that he envisions, so he can both create value in the eyes of network executives and exposure for the storied HBCU programs he seems to have an affinity and respect for.
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