One last show 👏Lee Corso will make his final College GameDay headgear pick on August 30th. pic.twitter.com/MKBuFOtVOw— ESPN (@espn) April 17, 2025
Lee Corso to sign off as 'College GameDay' analyst in August
Lee Corso will retire from ESPN's "College GameDay" in August, ending a career with the show that began in 1987.
"My family and I will be forever indebted for the opportunity to be part of ESPN and College GameDay for nearly 40 years," Corso said in a statement released by ESPN. "I have a treasure of many friends, fond memories and some unusual experiences to take with me into retirement."
Corso, who turns 90 on Aug. 7, is widely known for his headgear picks and "not so fast, my friend" retort when he disagreed with someone on the panel.
The headgear segment, which started in October 1995 in a game at Ohio State, has seen Corso go 286-144 in his 430 selections. In addition to wearing helmets, mascot heads and other hats, he has dressed up as the Fighting Irish leprechaun from Notre Dame, the Stanford tree and historic figures James Madison and Benjamin Franklin. His affection for the Oregon Duck led to a ride on a motorcycle with the mascot. He once held a live baby alligator in his hands while picking Florida to win and took on pop star Katy Perry in picks from The Grove at the University of Mississippi.
Corso held a No. 2 pencil for most segments; in the offseason, Corso was the director of business development for Dixon Ticonderoga, which makes the famous yellow pencils.
Godspeed, Lee
Comments
I wish him well, but it's time. I got the feeling over the last couple years they were sort of parading him out there similarly to the last couple seasons Madden was doing games or Lou Holtz was at the desk - more for the "sizzle" than anything else.
Honestly I'm a bit surprised the percentage is as high as that. It used to be pretty standard procedure to bet against the team Corso picked to win.
Legend, and a great guy. Sad to see him go, but we all reach that age at some point. Enjoy the pool Mr. Corso. Now if they can get rid of the screaming coke head the show would be watchable again.
the screaming coke head
LOL
Personally I think Pat does a great job of offsetting Saban's lack of personality. I'm not the biggest fan but I think their dynamic on the show makes for a good broadcast.
agree that Saban is arguably the worst coach you can get for that role. If his name was smith and coached at Buffalo, he would not have gotten an audition of course. Dry, quiet, no energy- I agree- Dan Mullen would have been much better and given you equal "coaching" insight. But, as soon as I pour my cup of coffee I look up and that fucking moron with the fake rodeo belt buckle is standing on his chair singing some school chant smacked out on coke. It's sophomoric at best and adds nothing. He's not original or funny. He's rich with alot of baller friends- that's his super power. Nothing more.
He's had some comments that I found hilarious. The 'let a naysayer know' comment had me rolling. At Utah, he could've kept his shirt on, but I literally spat my coffee out when he made the soaking comment.
My biggest beef with him is that he makes the show about himself instead of the sport and the school he's visiting. When he takes a step back, and stops making it about himself, he actually fits in pretty well. His arrogance is obviously his weakness.
Not to mention, he basically does the same show the day before at the same sight. Add: He gives the worlds biggest douche aaron rogers a platform now.
Yeah, this
Corso was great because seeing him on Saturdays was a special thing. It was a unique experience every week, and that goofy ass personality made the show feel special and important.
McAfee is on ESPN for his show unfiltered for 15 hours every week before you get to GameDay, and that's without him appearing as a guest on any other show. Its complete oversaturation that just has you completely sick of it real quick.
That's a fair point. I don't really watch ESPN except for college football, tennis (which they barely have anymore), and college gameday. I don't hate ESPN like a lot of people do, but I just choose not to spend much of my free time in front of a TV.
If you missed McAfee's show today, he's trying to make a 43 year old bum QB that's won 1 title in his life and lost multiple home playoff games the key to the 2025 NFL draft. Not Cam Ward or Travis Hunter or Abdul Carter... nah, the key component of the draft is a totally washed diva bum that had one good post season in his career. Love it. That is what I DONT like about ESPN... and their dishonest borderline fraud coverage of the NBA.
The Fox Saturday morning football show is far superior to Gameday now. In fact, Fox's coverage of just about anything sports is better than ESPN at this point. Gameday and any other ESPN programming is largely unwatchable anymore. It's just poorly produced, and getting cheap so they can pay the SEC top dollar and pay for one NFL MNF game a week are some of the dumbest business moves. They've had to cut some of their top talent just to pay those.
Hot take and probably unpopular but McAfee is a complete over the top douche that is only where he is because of that; not for his sports knowledge or intellect. Loved him as a player but FFS get off my TV screen!
Not unpopular at all! Can't stand watching him - actually didn't watch once last year for the first time ever.
At this point I'll only be watching for when Saban finally loses it and knocks McAfee out.
I don't really think the target demographic for McAfee overlaps with the main demographic on TKP.
I'll take that as a compliment.
No one ever went broke appealing to the lowest common denominator.
Well I guess that explains why the talking heads always focus on the Cowboys so much
And the $ec
Hey ESPN, what's your strategy on covering sport?
ESPN:
can we not? we already had a CG-bait bellyflop this week
on an unacknowledged april 16th, no less.
I've said it before and I'll no doubt say it again.
Pat McAfee is exactly who and what I'd expect a sports media personality with a WVU degree to be.
Agree that it is unwatchable drivel now
I know CGs, but now he can run for president.
Only if he starts every presidential veto with "not so fast, my friend"
"Lightning struck my car." I'll never forget watching that storm roll in from the East stands.
Corso holding up the shirt (I don't know what a Hokie is, but God is one of them." Is one of my favorite memories
Spent all day watching that storm get closer and closer. One of maybe three times in my life I thought I might die. Everybody was slowly filtering out of the stands but not completely leaving the stadium. I remember some idiot in the stands yelling "it's only 1.21 gigawatts" right about the time the lightning and thunder hit almost simultaneously. Everybody started trying to push in, but nobody was leaving. Me and a buddy just tried to flow with the movement of people and wound up in the back corner of one of the women's restrooms for what felt like hours. When they finally called it we still couldn't leave the game because we were parked in the "new" lot, which must've been an old farm field because the rain turned it into a mud pit. I was working in the CRC snd had keys to my office so we walked up there, dried off and got some coffee. Watched and waited for all the cars to finish slipping and sliding out to leave. That was a crazy night.
Stuck in the bleachers, tunnels full and unmoving, we were forced to ride it out. When they finally called the game, we were directed to the field and exited in calf deep water past the benches and out of the stadium finally. The lightening and rain were pretty scary, but we had no option other than riding it out. Went to Taco Bell afterward and had the place to ourselves after passing some GT fans on their way out. They stole all of our magnet signs from my buddy's car, the low life bastards, and forever cemented their place as low life thieves in my mind whenever we play them. That was a scary storm, and I'm pretty sure I remember the strike that hit Corso's car. On top of that, we were ready for them and woulda whupped 'em...
Undoubtedly, riding it out in the stands was not fun! Exited from the field too.
We were about 5 rows from the top of the East stands when the few strikes right next to the stadium hit. Was. NOT. Fun
Enjoy your retirement, Lee, but let's not pretend that this wasn't about 10 years too late.
Edit: correct amount of negatives (I think)
I thought every week since covid that they were going to either announce his retirement or his death. He was getting bad towards the end.
Glad he's able to retire though and enjoy the years he has left.
"I don't know what a Hokie is, but God's one of them."
Farewell to a legend.
Farewell to the last vestige of what used to make ESPN and Gameday especially appointment television.
Enjoy retirement.
Corso's comments in the old X-Box NCAA Football still echo in my brain ("...sniffed that out from the get-go!"). Time eventually gets all of us. Glad he was able to end it on his terms.
I still remember from the old PS2/XBox versions if you broke off a ridiculous QB run, Corso would say "Kirk, there are no words to describe what we just saw there." And Herbstreit said, "Yeah coach, kind of reminds you of some guy who used to play for Virginia Tech."
I hope he enjoys his retirement and is able to reflect on the impact he had on college football. He helped make things fun while revolutionizing the national media exposure to the sport.
