Lee Corso’s Final 'College GameDay' Becomes Most-Watched Ever As He Goes Perfect 6-For-6
The 90-year-old legend closed his ESPN career in storybook fashion.
This weekend, College GameDay bade farewell to Lee Corso. And, honestly, ESPN couldn't have scripted it any better.
Saturday's edition of the iconic college football pregame show averaged 3.5 million viewers — making it the most-watched episode in its 38-year history. The final quarter-hour, which featured Lee Corso’s final headgear pick, averaged 5.1 million viewers.
And that's despite the fact that ESPN allowed its competitor, Fox, to simulcast the moment when Corso put on the Brutus Buckeye head at Ohio Stadium ahead of No. 3 Ohio State's clash with the No. 1 Texas Longhorns. That means far more than 5.1 million tuned in for the emotional moment.
The 90-year-old former coach announced earlier this year that he was going to retire from ESPN. He had been a part of GameDay since it became a traveling show in 1993. In 1996, Corso did his very first "headgear pick," which became a long-running tradition on the show.
His first pick was Ohio State, and his last pick was Ohio State.
Of course, the Buckeyes took down Texas, 14-7, on Saturday, but that wasn't the only smart call Corso made on his final show. He went a perfect six-for-six on his picks, and he was the only member of the GameDay panel to accurately predict Florida State's upset over eighth-ranked Alabama.
To make Corso's retirement weekend even more perfect, every team he has been associated with throughout his career also won. The three schools that he led as a head coach — Indiana, Louisville and Northern Illinois — all won their respective season-openers. Corso played at Florida State in the 1950s.
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Talk about going out in a blaze of glory!