Lee Corso to retire from ‘College GameDay’ after Week 1 after 38 years, hundreds of headgear picks

After nearly four decades and more than 400 mascot heads, Lee Corso is stepping down.

Corso, 89, is retiring from ESPN’s “College GameDay” after Week 1 of the 2025 college football season, the network announced Thursday. Corso will make his final headgear selection — a Saturday morning staple since 1996 — on Aug. 30. The destination for the Week 1 show will be announced later this spring, ESPN said.

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“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 news release. “I have a treasure of many friends, fond memories and some unusual experiences to take with me into retirement.”

A “College GameDay” analyst since the show’s inception in 1987, Corso departs as its longest-reigning member and last remaining original on-air personality. Corso became a staple of the program alongside host Tim Brando and analyst Beano Cook, and remained so for 38 seasons, now sharing a set with Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and Nick Saban.

“Special thanks to Kirk Herbstreit for his friendship and encouragement,” Corso said in the release.

But it’s the annual headgear selections, in which he predicts the victor of the “GameDay” matchup by donning the school’s mascot head, that ingrained and endeared him with fans nationwide.

“Do you know anybody else that makes a living putting something else on his head?” Corso told The Athletic in 2018. “I’m telling you, that has been an unbelievable thing for me.”

GO DEEPER ‘It’s like stealing’: After 25 years of GameDay on the road, Lee Corso is still having the time of his life

Originally an in-studio show, “College GameDay” hit the road in 1993. And where the show went, Corso wasn’t far behind.

On Oct. 5, 1996, “GameDay” traveled to Columbus, Ohio — the site of Ohio State’s campus — for what would be a 38-7 Buckeyes’ demolition of Penn State. There, for the first time, Corso didn’t tell viewers his prediction. He showed them.

“I like Ohio State, 24-13,” said Herbstreit, in his first appearance as a “GameDay” analyst.

“Ay, good pick. I’ll tell you one thing,” Corso said. He then reached for the head of Brutus Buckeye, the Ohio State mascot, under the desk and put it on.

“Buckeyes!”

The Ohio State crowd went nuts (pun intended), and a cornerstone of college football culture was born. Since, Corso has handled dogs, chickens and even reptiles on air while shaking Alabama mascot Big Al’s trunk, dressing as the USC Trojan and walking through a makeshift duck pond while twinning with the Oregon Duck — all in pursuit of delivering the perfect Saturday selection.

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To date, Corso has picked more than 400 games.

Tracking Corso’s mascot picks even became a hobby. Cole Reagan, a fan whose website includes a searchable database of headgear picks, has Corso at 287-144 all time, meaning he’s been right 66.6 percent of the time.

Corso has remained a mainstay on the show even through health issues. He had a stroke in May 2009. He sustained no permanent brain damage, though his speech was impacted, but worked his way back for the beginning of that football season. He continued week after week, developing great chemistry with Herbstreit to his left and making a habit of ribbing the weekly guest picker to his right.

“Not so fast, my friend,” became a Corso catchphrase when he disagreed with the pick before him.

Corso’s role on “College GameDay” has been reduced in recent years. He missed five games during the 2022 season for health reasons and is no longer featured during the full, three-hour show block. He also missed multiple games during the 2024 season.

Corso was not on set for the Week 0 show covering the Florida State-Georgia Tech matchup in Dublin last year. He also missed Weeks 6 and 7 due to “health reasons,” Davis said at the time. After having a minor procedure ahead of Week 15, Corso was also not present for the SEC championship edition of “College GameDay” in December.

In the 2018 interview with The Athletic, Corso reflected on how much fun his job was — and how hard it would be to leave.

“Let me tell you something: On Thursday morning I get up, I get on a first-class plane and fly to a place and stay in a nice hotel and get a lot of great meals,” he said. “First class! Then I go and talk football for a couple hours, I see the best game of the year and I get on a plane (in) first class and I go home.

“And they pay me! Why the hell would you ever think about retiring? It’s like stealing. It’s like stealing. Why would you ever think about retiring? I’m gonna be like that vaudeville act — the guy’s out there talking and talking and they get a hook and they try to hook him and bring him off the stage.”

Kirk Herbstreit reacts Lee Corso dons the LSU Tigers mascot on Sept. 14, 2024. (Photo: Isaiah Vazquez / Getty Images)

Corso arrived at ESPN with 28 years of coaching experience — 17 as a head coach — at both the college and professional levels. He coached Louisville from 1969 to 1972, leading the Cardinals to the 1970 Pasadena Bowl and ending the team’s bowl drought of 12 years. He repeated history at Indiana, helping the team to its first bowl win in 75 years: a 38-37 victory over then-unbeaten BYU in the 1979 Holiday Bowl. He later spent a year at Northern Illinois and with the USFL’s Orlando Renegades.

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Raised in Miami, Corso played at Florida State from 1953 to 1956 on both sides of the ball and led the Seminoles in interceptions in 1954, rushing yards in 1955, and passing yards and punt returns in 1956. He held FSU’s career interception record (14) for more than two decades and still ranks third on the school’s list.

“I did everything. I was pretty good. Look it up,” Corso told The Athletic in 2018.

The “College GameDay” set has expanded in recent years, adding McAfee and, most recently, Saban, the retired Alabama coach.

When ESPN hired Saban, 73, as an on-air analyst last February, there was a lot of speculation as to what that meant for Corso, who turns 90 in August. At the time, the network was adamant it would allow Corso to leave the show he helped build on his own terms.

The time has come. The terms seem to have been made. And fans get one final headgear selection, as Corso’s pick remains the show’s centerpiece and is synonymous with college football Saturdays.

(Photo: Michael Shroyer / Getty Images)

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