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Lee Corso to retire from College GameDay, date of final show revealed
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Lee Corso will make one final headgear selection and then call it a career. An icon in the college football world is moving on.
On Thursday, ESPN announced that longtime College GameDay analyst Lee Corso is retiring. Corso spent nearly 4 decades at ESPN, during which he became the face of ESPN’s traveling pregame show. Each week, the former head coach turned something as mundane as picking a winner in a featured game into a spectacle — with headgear, props, iconic one-liners, and classic Corso charm.
Corso, who turns 90 on Aug. 7, will work his final College GameDay show during Week 1 of the 2025 college football season. ESPN says additional programming to celebrate Corso’s career is planned for the days leading up to the Aug. 30 broadcast.
“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.
“ESPN has been exceptionally generous to me, especially these past few years,” Corso continued. “They accommodated me and supported me, as did my colleagues in the early days of College GameDay. Special thanks to Kirk Herbstreit for his friendship and encouragement. And lest I forget, the fans … truly a blessing to share this with them. ESPN gave me this wonderful opportunity and provided me the support to ensure success. I am genuinely grateful.”
The headgear segment began in October of 1995 at a game featuring Ohio State. According to ESPN, Corso has gone 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 like Benjamin Franklin. He once held a live baby alligator in his hands while picking Florida and took a ride on a motorcycle with the Oregon Duck.
GameDay simply won’t be the same without him.
A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam is the news editor across all Saturday Football brands.