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Josh Pate says the hostility he draws online vanishes when he visits college campuses, where students line up for photos and handshakes. He described that split last week at Front Office Sports’s Tuned In sports media summit in New York City, where he spoke alongside NBC Sports personality John Fanta.
Fan reactions clash with social media
Pate, who has risen quickly in the college football media landscape, recounted how the online abuse he encounters does not match the reception he receives in person. The contrast became clear while traveling with former quarterback-turned-analyst Danny Kanell, he said.
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“I learned this traveling around with Danny Kanell—very, very hateable. Kanell’s opinions are just terrible sometimes!” Pate said with a laugh, noting that the harsh comments he saw online were absent on campus. Instead, fans would approach Kanell to shake his hand or ask for a picture.
After witnessing that pattern repeatedly, Pate said he stopped treating the internet as a mirror of real life. “It’s right there,” he added, holding up a phone, “it’s not real life.”
Perspective from the panel
Fanta framed online critics as an occupational hazard for visible media figures. “You’re gonna have some people that just don’t like you for whatever your take, whatever your opinion is,” he said, stressing that public attention inevitably brings dissent.
The two panelists agreed that social media can be useful, but warned against mistaking online consensus for broader public feeling.
On the College Football Playoff expansion
Both Pate and Fanta used the session to criticize proposals to expand the College Football Playoff from 12 teams to 24. Pate argued the move would function more as a cash grab than a competitive improvement.
“We’re going to call it an expanded playoff,” he said. “Really, what it is is it’s an ATM to bail out very bad decision-making from, and I use this term loosely, leadership in college football.”
The panel noted context: this season will be the third and, they suggested, possibly the final year of the 12-team format, after the playoff grew from four teams in 2024.
Fanta acknowledged the appeal of the spectacle—“the pageantry, the theater”—but cautioned against rushing into larger fields before the current format has time to settle. “We have barely given 12 teams time and runway,” he said. He also raised a common concern about incremental expansion: if the playoff moves to 24, what stops it from growing further?
