The ‘College Gameday’ Crew Lost It Over Rece Davis Saying ‘Let A Naysayer Know’ Prior To The Rose Bowl

The final year of the 4-team College Football Playoff produced the best day of semifinal action in the Playoff’s history, as Michigan beat Alabama in an overtime thriller in the Rose Bowl and Washington held on to beat Texas in a tense shootout in the Sugar Bowl.

However, for everything that happened in a pair of instant classic Playoff games, the viral moment of New Year’s Day belonged to the College Gameday crew. As Rece Davis was setting up a story on Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, he began to explain that Milroe often wears clothing with his own slogan “L.A.N.K” on it that’s a message to the likes of Bill O’Brien — who once told him to change positions. Davis then began to explain what that acronym stands for, saying it means “Let A Naysayer Know,” which was not what Pat McAfee and the rest of the guys on set thought.

It’s really an all-time moment on the show, with Desmond Howard saying “you almost lost me and Joey” followed by Galloway saying “it was about to go down” as everyone thought for a moment, Rece Davis was about to say the N-word on national television. The entire crew is doubled over in hysterics, while Davis does an incredible job playing it straight, ever the professional, doubling down on “let a naysayer know.” McAfee’s inability to keep his own internal monologue to himself sparked the incredible moment, as Howard and Galloway were just gonna let it go and probably have a laugh to themselves during a commercial break, and the next 24 hours was filled with an awful lot of “naysayer” memes on Twitter.

As Bomani Jones noted, it’s maybe the funniest sports TV moment not to involve the Inside the NBA crew, as this is something you’d expect to have happen during an Ernie Johnson read with Chuck, Shaq, and Kenny losing it. Instead it was the Gameday crew absolutely losing it in the most storied venue in the sport on a Monday afternoon (which I think makes it even funnier).