ESPN has announced that the final College GameDay episode featuring Lee Corso will air on August 30, 2025 in Week 1 of the upcoming college football season.
But now the question turns to where that will be.
College GameDay transformed sports on television by visiting college campuses for their Saturday pregame show and creating an unmatched environment anywhere else. And the ability of Lee Corso to play to the crowd and get everyone hyped up with his College GameDay mascot headgear picks has played an integral role in that.
Just how important has Corso’s headgear and mascot picks been? ESPN even gave the statistical record of them since the first one was made all the way back in 1996.
The August 30 episode of College GameDay won’t just be a tribute to Lee Corso, it will be a celebration of everything that makes college football so great. And whoever does get the honor will forever have it in their program legacy that they were the site of the last appearance of his on College GameDay.
ESPN hasn’t announced the location of the farewell episode. But in looking ahead to the Week 1 calendar, it’s easy to see that there are really only two games to choose from for such an important occasion.
Alabama at Florida State
Texas at Ohio State
A case could be made for either one. Florida State is obvious because Corso is a Seminoles alum. He played at Florida State from 1953-1957 and earned honorable mention All-American honors in 1956 as a quarterback and cornerback. He even held the school record for interceptions for some time.
The other contender would be the CFP semifinal rematch between Texas and Ohio State, which promises to see two Top 5 teams square off in one of the most hyped games of the season in Columbus. While Corso doesn’t have any direct ties to Ohio State, it’s a place that has been a huge part of his television legacy.
Columbus is where Lee Corso made his very first mascot pick on October 5, 1996 as he wore the Brutus Buckeye headgear to pick Ohio State over Penn State. Ohio State is also his most worn headgear with 45 picks over the years.
Thankfully both of those huge non-conference games will be played on campus and not in a sterile NFL stadium in Atlanta or Dallas.
One other option for College GameDay is Indiana, which has celebrated the legendary analyst before. Lee Corso was a coach there from 1973-1982. However, their Week 1 matchup hosting Old Dominion is probably not the type of game that is worth such a huge sending off.
There is no wrong choice here. The competitiveness of the games in question would certainly lean towards Texas-Ohio State. And the fact that it will probably be a Big Noon Saturday Fox game won’t dissuade ESPN from also being in Columbus. We’ve seen ESPN show up when Fox is in town before. In fact, ESPN might relish the opportunity to completely overshadow Fox’s pregame show at one of their marquee games of the season.
It would be quite the storybook ending for Lee Corso’s first and last headgear pick to both be Brutus Buckeye. Maybe ESPN could even find the original one that he wore in 1996. That would be an incredible moment.
On the flip side, a visit back to Tallahassee to end his television career would also bring everything full circle. And even if Florida State gets beat handily by the Crimson Tide, seeing him wear his old Seminoles uniform once again would also be a perfect way to go out.
It has to be down to Columbus or Tallahassee. Maybe we can get a headgear pick to announce the decision when the time comes.