Freshman wins $1.2M on 'College GameDay,' donates half, then wins $1M more for charity

Connor Kacena-Merrell, a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin, won $1.2 million on “College GameDay” and then pledged half his winnings to charity. Camping out on Friday, Sept. 11, he entered the show’s “Kicking is Easy” contest for a chance to win $1 million. He told hosts Pat McAfee and Matthew McConaughey that if he succeeded, he would donate half of the proceeds to Building Tomorrow, a nonprofit in Indianapolis supporting educational opportunities in East Africa. After missing the first kick, McConaughey convinced McAfee to give him a second try with $100,000 added by McAfee and another $100,000 from Kirk Herbstreit. He made the 35-yard kick and later drew an additional $1 million pledge from Love, Tito’s, split between the Central Texas Food Bank and Building Tomorrow.