You want to know if that was the best kick ever seen on College GameDay? The question's a trap. Argue it in good faith and you've already lost. "Best kick ever" is a tagline at this point. Pat McAfee and the GameDay desk have reached for some version of it over and over this season, and the moment you accept the premise, you're doing the segment's marketing for free.
Look at the pattern before you crown anything. The "Kicking Is Easy" bit is in its fourth season, and the format barely moves: a fan tries a 33-yard field goal for a prize that usually starts around a million dollars, then the hosts escalate it live. This year alone an Ole Miss fan drilled it barefoot on his first try, a Vanderbilt fan made it look effortless, and a Texas fan missed his first attempt at a million before McConaughey and Herbstreit juiced the pot to $1.2 million and he buried the second one. Every one of those got the full breathless treatment. When the same superlative gets stamped on three different mornings, it stops meaning anything. It's a brand, and the brand prints a new "greatest ever" on schedule.
The man responsible is McAfee. He runs the segment, he's the one adding his own money kick to kick, roping in whoever's at the desk, and he's the one who reaches for "best ever" as the default call. This is a verdict on a machine built to manufacture a historic moment every Saturday, because a manufactured superlative drives clips and drives the charity math. If Boise's attempt got that label, of course it did. That's the business model working exactly as designed.
Nobody crowning Boise's kick actually knows what happened. There's no verified account of who kicked, whether it was clean on the first try, nothing. The distance is the same 33 yards it's been all season, which Boise State's own athletics department confirmed when it told fans to grab one of 300 raffle tickets for a shot. A message-board verdict of "best ever," built on a segment you half-watched between coffees, is just vibes.
The crowd isn't wrong about the day. GameDay getting out of its usual rotation is good television. This was the show's first trip to Boise since 2010, with Oregon State as the opponent both times, and the crowd on DeChevrieux Field had the kind of energy you don't get from the fiftieth visit to a blueblood. Set against the blue turf, it looked great. People who've actually spent time in Boise will tell you the broadcast's scenic framing is doing some heavy lifting, that the city outside the hype is ordinary. Both things are true. A good backdrop doesn't make a routine field goal historic.
The actual story out of Boise Saturday is McAfee turning a disaster into a bit. A nationwide FAA ground stop Friday grounded flights across the country and snarled travel for teams and talent alike. McAfee's answer was to ride a horse onto the set, with Rece Davis telling viewers plenty of people had travel trouble, "that includes Pat McAfee," before cutting to the horseback entrance. That's the moment people will actually remember, and it's McAfee doing exactly what he does with the kicks: taking an ordinary input and selling it as an event.
Skip the coronation. The "best kick ever" debate has no fixed meaning left because the people running the show spent that phrase weeks ago. Save your breath for the game, and let McAfee keep his crown. He's been handing out a new one every Saturday anyway.
