Josh Pate was evicted while earning $27K. Now, he runs a college football media empire

Pate wants to capture the "vibe" of college campus before a big game.

Josh Pate owns the IP of his industry-leading college football podcast and signed a new deal with ESPN to co-host a Friday afternoon television program with Will Compton and Taylor Lewan of "Bussin' With The Boys" this fall.

Pate now turns down sponsorship deals and other financial offers at the risk of overexposure.

"The truth of it is I leave a lot on the table because I don't want to overextend myself," he told OutKick. "A lot of these, you know, influencer marketing deals and stuff like that, I appreciate the offers. But I think there's a limit to how much of me the public should have to consume."

But it wasn't always this way.

Less than a decade ago, Josh Pate was working in Columbus, Georgia, making far less than the average American. His financial struggles eventually led to his eviction.

"I was making a little over, slightly over $27,000 a year. I was counting on YouTube revenue, Google AdSense revenue at that point. So I'm barely, I'm barely getting by. In fact, I got evicted. I didn't get by. So we fell below the get-by line for a little while," he explained.

Josh Pate speaks onstage during Josh Pate's College Football Show at Fanatics Fest NYC 2026 at Jacob Javits Center on July 17, 2026, in New York City. (Getty Images for Fanatics)

JOSH PATE DISCUSSES NEW ESPN SHOW, FOUR FACES OF ESPN, PAT MCAFEE AND FUTURE OF MEDIA COMPANY WITH OUTK

In 2020, he started to make more, but not much more.

"I think I signed for $75,000 when I came to CBS in 2020. My goal when I was working down in Columbus was to one day make $50,000 a year. So please understand, I thought I had hit the lottery even then."

It was that year, during COVID-19, that Pate began