To Understand the Voting American Male, Understand College GameDay

Not so fast, my friend...

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Much like the first quarter field goal attempt by Minnesota Golden Gophers kicker Dragan Kesich last Saturday, young men in America are drifting right.

By all available polling, 2024 will have the widest gender gap in recent memory. As of October 2024, Harris leads among women by around 12 points, with 55% of women favoring her compared to 43% for Trump. However, among men, Trump has the upper hand, leading Harris by approximately 8 points (53% to 45%). This results in a gender gap of roughly 20 points, continuing a long-standing trend where Democrats perform better with women and Republicans with men.

The Democrats are obviously aware of this considering how hard they’ve leaned on Vice Presidential nominee “Coach” Tim Walz masculine tendencies with varying results.

These efforts have all been strange fits to me. Walz is a much better communicator of progressive ideas to normies than Alpha Strats to betas. His Crock-Pot midwestern shtick more akin to the meme-worthy man speaking his mind by Rockwell than The Rock.

If you really care to understand the beating collective DNA of the mainstream modern man aged 18 to 45 there is only one place to find it: ESPN College GameDay.

For the uninitiated ESPN College GameDay is a pre-game college football panel show on the air since 1987. It transitioned to a live on-location program in 1993, making a new home every week on a college campus that is set to host one of the top games. Unlike other ESPN mainstays, like SportsCenter or Baseball Night in America which have faded like the cable systems it helped build, GameDay is as relevant as ever in 2024. It remains a pinnacle of youthful anything-can-happen live enthusiasm.

GameDay features a rotating cast of broadcasters, ex-athletes and podcasters but the real star is the omnipresent rowdy crowd of college students that have been there since the wee hours of the morning. This is not a party with a show in the middle of it, the crowd lives and dies on every word of the panel, specifically mentions of rival schools.

But the reason GameDay is as successful as ever is that it’s a valuable gathering place in an era of increasingly distant digital tribes. If we agree on nothing else, the American man agrees that Alabama needs to get off the field on third down against Tennessee.

And with that comes the oft-conflicting strains of lesser agreements, all on display during the GameDay runtime. Among them God, gambling and podcasts.

These are all segments from this weekend’s addition of the program emanating from Austin, Texas. Each one a shard in the stained glass display of a modern American male:

• A heart wrenching story about the mother of a University of Texas lineman who found herself on deaths door. “Why would God do this to me?” she asks recounting her time in the hospital having lost the ability to walk. “God has been good to me!” she cries after we learn she’s recovered and is in rehab.

• A Tennessee fan who honors his grandfather’s grave by painting it checkerboard white and orange.

• The panel eats local food. Original Black’s BBQ.

• A comedy sketch about why you shouldn’t book your wedding during the fall as it conflicts with college football.

• Gambling odds.

• A teenager attempts to kick a field goal for $90,000 while Tony Hinchcliffe (a stand-up comedian who hosts the stand-up comedy podcast Kill Tony) calls the teenager “a prepubescent lesbian.”

• Lee Corso, once the vital spark plug of the show who has aged into the Yoda of the group, is tenderly honored as a part of the panel. Like grandpa at a tailgate, every sip of beer is celebrated by the youth surrounding him.

• Golfer Scotty Scheffler picks games and jokes about being arrested.

• The current vital spark plug of the show, podcaster Pat McAfee, plays the live crowd like a maestro. Singing fight songs of teams with the crowd as he makes his picks. He regularly jokes about being high. He often takes off his shirt. The. Kids. Love. Pat. McAfee.

The show is not afraid of tear-jerking emotion but is never far away from ball busting.

While never explicitly religious, it’s not scared of declarations of faith. It’s also unafraid to let you know the Over in Miami vs. Louisville is likely with Cam Ward’s explosive passing attack leading the way for the 5-0 Canes. Odds courtesy of ESPNBet.

It’s a very mainstream male experience in a shrinking marketplace.

Consider this: Howard Stern interviewed Kamala Harris this month and complained to her that Saturday Night Live’s impression of her is too mean. A far cry from The King of All Media’s in his hey-day making Anna Nicole Smith cry because he wanted to weigh her live on air.

The Republican Party wants to let boys be boys and these days you’ll find more testosterone in Stanford Steve than Stern.

And the GOP notices.

When insurgent conservative podcast Ruthless (comprised of working Republican operatives) does live events, it’s on a set created as an homage to GameDay.

Republicans believe that rowdy crowds of college kids are more likely to vote red than ever. They’ve spent time this cycle registering students to vote, something that would be considered a death wish in past cycles.

It should also come as no surprise that Donald Trump would find himself far more at home on the panel than Kamala Harris. In fact, it’s an upset he hasn’t appeared on the show as of yet. Trump has attended several high profile college football games over the last few years. On Sunday, he watched the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers take on the New York Jets.

The Democrats might well win this election. But defections of male voters will continue until a D presidential candidate doesn’t look out of place next to a visibly high Pat McAfee picking Vandy laying the points over Ball State.

Odds courtesy of ESPNBet.

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I asked progressive listeners to our Sunday Sunday Sunday show what they thought of the Harris campaign so far. Here is a representative email…

Jim

I’m less excited to vote for Harris than I was to vote for Biden in 2020.  I think there’s no choice (again) but to vote blue.  I liked some of Biden’s policies, e.g. student loan forgiveness, and I’m expecting Kamala to be less progressive than him in office based off her campaign, when I wanted her to go left campaigning and then go to office with lefty policies in the chamber.  

Walz got me pumped but since then her campaign has been such a let down.  I agree that she’s been totally wasting Walz, who is so good at the progressive talking points.  She should be taking Walz’s policies in Minnesota, or ones like them, and campaigning on going national with those, imo.  

I’m convinced she’s only leaning right because someone convinced her she could win picking up never trumpers instead of going left and then being disappointed about young voter turnout.

All of the progressive emailers said they would be voting for her FWIW.