Lee Corso retiring from ESPN ‘College Gameday’: When is final headgear pick?

The legendary former college football coach and ESPN “College Gameday” fixture for the past five decades announced Wednesday that his final appearance on the show would be during the Week 1 episode of the 2025 college football season. ESPN has billed it as Corso’s final headgear pick, a nod to his signature closing move on “College Gameday” when he dons mascot headgear to signal his pick for the game at the site in which the show is being broadcast from that week.

ESPN said a location for Corso’s final “College Gameday,” scheduled for Saturday, August 30, will be determined at a later date. ESPN will also present special programming to honor Corso in the days leading up to his last show.

Corso, who turns 90 in August, debuted on ESPN’s college football pregame show in 1987. His first headgear pick – Ohio State’s Brutus Buckeye in Columbus, Ohio – happened on Oct. 5, 1996.

Corso joined ESPN following a 28-year coaching career at the college and professional levels, including 17 seasons as a head coach at Louisville (1969-72), Indiana (1973-82), Northern Illinois (1984) and with the USFL’s Orlando Renegades (1985). He is the only personality from the original “College Gameday” cast still with the show.