Lee Corso to retire from College GameDay during Week 1 of 2025
ESPN announced Thursday that Lee Corso will officially retire from “College GameDay” on Aug. 30 after nearly four decades on the popular show.
The beloved mainstay’s farewell from the Saturday-morning broadcast will come during Week 1 of the upcoming college football season, with the location still to be determined.
ESPN further noted that, in addition to the traditional airing, the network will also present special programming celebrating Corso during the week.
“My family and I will be forever indebted for the opportunity to be part of ESPN and College GameDay for nearly 40 years,” Corso, 90, said in a news release. “I have a treasure of many friends, fond memories and some unusual experiences to take with me into retirement.”
Corso’s longtime co-host, Kirk Herbstreit, posted a heartfelt message to social media shortly after the announcement — one of what figures to be a multitude of shares of appreciation, love and memories in the coming months.
“Coach, this is Kirk, just wanted to say I love you,” Herbstreit said. “I thank you for so many lessons you taught me. Almost 30 years together. I have enjoyed sitting next to you, watching you do your thing. So much fun. We’ve had so many great moments on the show, off the show. This is a celebration for everything that you did for the sport, for College GameDay. You’re an icon.
“You’re a once-in-a-lifetime person, once-in-a-lifetime broadcaster. It’s been a special time for all of us as college football fans to watch you do your thing and celebrate this sport every Saturday in the fall. And having a chance to be sitting where I sat since 1996 and to look over and watch you, whether it was the headgear or saying something that nobody else would say, you’re brilliant.”
Corso was a highly touted prospect in his time coming out of Miami’s Jackson High School in 1953 on his way to Florida State, where he was a quarterback, defensive back and multisport athlete.
He began his nearly three-decade coaching career as a graduate assistant with the Seminoles before tenures on Maryland’s and Navy’s staffs and tenures heading Louisville, Indiana and Northern Illinois.
His final coaching stop came leading the Orlando Renegades of the USFL in 1985 before the league folded prior to what would have been his second season at the helm.
Corso joined ESPN in 1987 as an analyst for its new “College GameDay” show, which in 1993 began traveling weekly to the site of a selected game.
The show and its personalities — particularly Herbstreit, who joined in 1996 — have shared tributes to Corso throughout the years, including an emotional broadcast in 2023 when he donned his 400th team headgear during the show’s game-predictions segment, a longtime hallmark of the show.
“ESPN has been exceptionally generous to me, especially these past few years,” Corso said. “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.”
LSU opens its season at Clemson on Aug. 30 in what is anticipated as a potential top-10 matchup, which would make it a viable destination for the “College GameDay” broadcast.
But the schedule also features national champion Ohio State hosting what figures to be a highly touted Texas and perennial power Alabama visiting Corso’s alma mater, Florida State, as prime candidates.
Also, notably, Corso first use of mascot headgear to predict a game winner came Oct. 5, 1996, when he put on the Brutus Buckeye head to pick Ohio State.
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