Pat McAfee has done pretty well for himself with an approach to sports broadcasting that's a bit of an acquired taste, and a new survey suggests he's made strides with College GameDay viewers who were slightly less enthused with what he brought to the program based on how he was polling close to a year ago.

In 2022, ESPN decided it was going to try to breathe some new life into College GameDay by tapping NFL punter-turned-rapidly ascending media personality Pat McAfee to come aboard as an analyst in a full-time capacity three years after he joined the network as a regular contributor to multiple programs.

The retired Colt stepped into a more prominent role on College GameDay in 2023 due to the void that formed after David Pollack's eleven-year run came to an end due to one of the many rounds of budget cuts that have impacted ESPN in recent years -- which wasn't a huge surprise when you consider The Pat McAfee Show made its grand debut on The Worldwide Leader shortly after the season kicked off.

McAfee is currently in the midst of his third year as a permanent fixture on College GameDay, and while the most obvious impact he's had on the show is the field goal challenge that's become one of its most entertaining weekly features, he's also left an indelible mark with the essence of The Brand he injects into the broadcast by simply gracing the desk.

ESPN knew what it was signing up for when it welcomed McAfee into the College GameDay fold, but based on a survey The Athletic conducted last year, he was a fairly divisive figure when you consider 48.9% of respondents said they weren't a fan of his presence compared to the 30.1% who enjoyed him (21% were indifferent).

Now, it would be a stretch to suggest the winds have shifted dramatically a little more than a year later, but according to the most recent survey The Athletic conducted, McAfee is making some strides when you consider he's now only disliked by 42.5% of viewers (a 6.4% swing) and managed to gain the seal of approval from 37.7% (a 7.6% improvement; 19.8% were ambivalent this time around).

McAfee is still dealing with a net negative, but things are trending in the right direction for a guy who will likely be a staple of College GameDay for the very foreseeable future based on the mountain of evidence that suggests ESPN views him as an instrumental figure in its quest to weather the storm its been facing due to the rapidly evolving media landscape.