Caitlin Clark joins Pat McAfee on ESPN's 'College GameDay,' and left-wing podcasters have a problem with it

Caitlin Clark went back to Iowa on Saturday to promote her new Nike shoe and make picks on ESPN’s "College GameDay." The show drew its biggest audience of the season and the biggest October audience in its 40-season history.

Over at "The Sports Gossip Show," a podcast hosted by two women named Charlotte Wilder and Madeline Hill, the hosts found reasons to question the appearance, including Clark sitting alongside Pat McAfee.

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Caitlin Clark's return to Iowa for "College GameDay" drew record October ratings, but two podcast hosts questioned her appearance with Pat McAfee. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)

I wrote about their show in August after they mocked Riley Gaines and called Sophie Cunningham’s defense of women’s sports a "right-wing grift." So, you have a good idea of where they stand politically.

Their podcast was distributed by the New York Times-owned Athletic for about a year before they announced their departure in August. Left-wing outlet Awful Announcing described their departure as part of a "broader exodus of podcast stars" from the New York Times. I must have missed the part where these two became stars.

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On the episode, Wilder suggested Caitlin Clark needed to do something "for her own PR." So, Clark got a national platform to promote her shoe, helped drive millions of viewers to the show, and she should be concerned about her PR?

I think she’ll be OK.

Wilder knows the McAfee context and leaves it out anyway

"Pat McAfee, in 2024, called Caitlin a ‘white b---.’ Which I could give you the context for, but it doesn’t really matter," Wilder said during the episode.

Members of the media often leave out context that hurts their narrative, but they’re not usually so upfront about it. I guess it's refreshing that Wilder admits she's willing to eschew basic journalistic ethics for the sake of the story she prefers to tell.

I happen to think the context does matter, so here it is. McAfee did call Clark a "white b—-" during his show in 2024 but he was defending Clark.

His argument was that people needed to stop crediting the entire rookie class for attention that she was bringing to the WNBA. He was also pushing back on the suggestion that fans liked her simply because she was white. He wanted people to acknowledge how good she was and what she was doing for the league.

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Left-wing sports media hates ESPN star Pat McAfee. (ISI Photos via Getty Images)

McAfee apologized for his wording, explained that he meant it as a compliment and said Clark accepted his apology. Wilder acknowledged that McAfee had apologized.

The podcast host stopped short of saying Clark shouldn’t have done "GameDay," but still questioned her decision to share a stage with McAfee. Clark is allowed to decide she’s comfortable with him. Why does she need to answer to two podcast hosts about an apology she reportedly accepted over two years ago?

How many times does Clark have to say it?

Wilder not only wants Clark to answer for appearances on GameDay, but also wants her to keep addressing something she's addressed multiple times.

"We’ve just said before, if you and I were in a situation where a bunch of Black women were getting death threats and having a really hard time because of people who said they were fans of ours, I think we would say, ‘You are not a fan of mine if you are perpetuating this behavior and these actions.’ It’s not the hardest thing in the world to say," Wilder said, arguing that Clark should say "something a little more forceful."

Here’s Clark in September 2024:

"Nobody in our league should be facing any sort of racism, hurtful, disrespectful, hateful comments and threats," she said. "Those aren’t fans, those are trolls."

And in May 2025, here's Clark responding to a question about an alleged racist incident at a Fever game (the claim was never substantiated):

"There’s no place for that in our game, there’s no place for that in society."

And then again in July 2026:

"Harassment, hate, none of that is OK."

Does she need to open every news conference with it, or would once a week satisfy these two?

Will the left-wing media ever stop demanding that Caitlin Clark condemn racism, something she has done multiple times? (Catalina Fragoso/NBAE via Getty Images)

Wilder even acknowledged Clark had spoken out before, but reduced her comments to a general call for everyone to be treated the same. Clark explicitly condemned racism and threats and said, "Those aren’t fans, those are trolls." Wilder sure does love leaving out important context, huh?

And why does Clark have to keep answering for online trolls in the first place? Random people on the internet don't get to make Clark their spokesperson just by calling themselves fans of hers.

Their discussion also included Kelsey Mitchell’s complaints about the scrutiny surrounding the Fever. I wrote about those comments Sunday, and the benefits of all that attention belong in the conversation.

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Mitchell earned $1.4 million in WNBA salary this season, according to Spotrac. That’s more than the roughly $1.12 million she earned in her first eight seasons combined. Her play earned her the contract but Clark helped grow the audience for a league that can now pay players that kind of money.

That’s a substantial contribution to her fellow players, many of whom are the Black women who Wilder and Hill think Clark needs to spend more time protecting.

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Caitlin Clark needs better PR? Seriously?

"I do think she could do something at the very least for her own PR," Wilder said.

Of all the things Wilder said that were outrageous, this might have been the most outlandish. Caitlin Clark is the most popular female athlete on the planet. Fever games draw more viewers than any other team in the WNBA.

Caitlin Clark arrived on the set of ESPN's College GameDay to massive fanfare. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)

Clark is a spokesperson for major brands like State Farm and Gatorade. Her first signature Nike shoe nearly sold out on Nike’s website within two hours of its release.

So what, exactly, does Clark need to do differently? Bow down to the left-wing media mob to appease podcasters like Wilder and Hill?

Saturday’s "GameDay" averaged 2.9 million viewers, according to ESPN. It was the most-watched episode of the season and the most-watched October episode in the show’s history. The final hour, in which Clark appeared, averaged 3.7 million viewers.

For the record, "The Sports Gossip Show" averaged about 7,200 YouTube views across 39 episodes spanning roughly five months. If anyone needs some PR advice, it's these two.

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Although, I’d love to hear the pitch to Clark’s PR team after that weekend.

"Sorry about all the people watching your client promote her shoe. Have you considered getting her to issue another statement about racism? There's this podcast that no one watches that would really appreciate it. Thanks."