Lee Corso retirement: Rece Davis believes College GameDay will choose 'the best opportunity' for host site

ESPN rocked the college football world on Thursday morning when it announced that Lee Corso would be retiring shortly. He will host his last College GameDay show on Aug. 30.

What is currently undecided is where that last show will air. And there are some intriguing options.

Not the least of those options is a game between Alabama and Florida State, the latter being Corso’s alma mater and where he played college football before getting into coaching. A stop there might seriously tug on the heartstrings.

But ESPN isn’t tipping its hand yet. Rece Davis, the current host of College GameDay, joined The Paul Finebaum Show on Thursday to discuss the potential locations, among other things, with Finebaum noting the Florida State game provided a unique opportunity. Davis acknowledged that but noted it won’t be the lone factor.

“I think probably the best opportunity, because LC’s always been about what’s best for the show,” Davis said. “There are obviously some full-circle things that would be an opportunity depending on how everything plays out in terms of the schedule.

“But he’s always been about the show. Whatever’s been best for the show. Even in recent years, when maybe to put him in position to succeed, to look his strongest, as he battled through some issues, he was always all about making sure that we put the show first and not our own individual needs.”

Here are some of the other potential big games that College GameDay could consider. Like most opening weekends, there are a handful, though some occur later in the weekend, rather than on Aug. 30 itself.

Potential College GameDay Locations for Week 1

Alabama at Florida State
LSU at Clemson
Texas at Ohio State
Utah at UCLA

So it’ll be interesting to see what ESPN decides. Texas at Ohio State — a rematch between two playoff teams from 2024 — is the obvious candidate for selection. But could the Florida State angle win out? We’ll see.

Rece Davis praises Lee Corso

As Davis spoke with Finebaum about the Lee Corso news, his admiration for the long-time ESPN employee couldn’t have been more clear. Corso clearly means a lot to him.

“I mentioned this on social media, Paul, I’ll never be able to fully thank him, because even though I’d been around ESPN for 20 years when I took over GameDay, and we’d worked together a little bit from time to time on various projects, it would have been very easy for him to have been standoffish,” Davis said. “For him to say, ‘OK, I know you can do TV, let’s see if you can do this show.’

“Instead, the exact opposite. I remember him calling me and congratulating me and then, ‘Hey, sweetheart, we’re going to kill ’em.’ And that was always the thing, he was always like, ‘OK, we’re going to kill ’em.’ And thanks to him, the show usually did.”