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You could have made a lot of winning bets tailing Lee Corso's headgear picks

Joe Cookby:Joe Cook•04/17/25•

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Lee Corso
Kirby Lee | USA TODAY Sports

At the most basic level, you want to convert on just over 50% of wagers in order for it to be a worthwhile endeavor. Sure, there are some things in the weeds like juiced money-lines and even point spreads, but picking winners is picking winners is picking winners.

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During his career on ESPN’s College GameDay, a career that will end on week one of the upcoming season at a to be determined location, Lee Corso picked a lot of winners. He wasn’t just over 50% on his picks. He was correct on nearly two-thirds of his headgear selections, posting a 286-144 record in his 430 picks.

Sure, Corso was probably picking a LOT of favorites. 17-0 picking USC? Most of those winning picks were during the Pete Carroll heyday in Los Angeles when it was easy to pick the Trojans. Though as Texas fans know, Corso bucked conventional wisdom and picked Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns to win the 2006 Rose Bowl.

The most popular selections function as evidence. Ohio State, Alabama, LSU, and Florida, four programs that have won national championships in the past 20 years, account for 130 of his 430 selections.

Still, a 66.5% win rate is impressive.

Let’s look at notable Corso stats via GameDayCole with a view of rivals first. When Corso was picking against the Texas A&M Aggies, he was a perfect 7-0. That includes this past year’s renewal of the rivalry when in College Station, Corso heard boos horse laughs as he put on the Hook Em head ahead of Texas’ 17-7 win.

When picking against Oklahoma, Corso was a less impressive 6-16. That includes a 1-4 record when picking the Longhorns over the Sooners at the Red River Shootout. Corso was on the money in 2009, though.

And when it comes to the Longhorns, Corso was 10-7 when picking teams coached by Mack Brown, Tom Herman, and Steve Sarkisian. Charlie Strong‘s iteration of the program was never featured on College GameDay.

Overall, Corso was 12-13 picking games the Longhorns were involved in — a step down from his overall trend.

A 66.5% win rate gives credence to Corso’s label as an “expert” when talking about what was usually the most important college football game of the week. So too does his epic 1999, when he was 11-0. That includes GameDay’s first trip to Austin for a contest between the Longhorns and the Nebraska Cornhuskers, a game Corso picked correctly thanks to No. 18 Texas’ 24-20 win over No. 3 Nebraska.

He also nailed some of the wacky picks. He was spot on when picking Williams over Amherst in 2007. Dressed as Ben Franklin, he correctly selected Penn to beat Harvard in a 2002 game that essentially determined the Ivy League champion. In 2022, Corso picked Montana State to beat Montana in the “Brawl of the Wild.” As the graphic notes above, the North Dakota State Bison have been great to Sunshine Scooter.

How has Corso fared in national championship game headgear picks? By season

  • 1999 – Correctly picked Florida State over Tennessee
  • 2000 – Wrongly picked Florida State over Oklahoma
  • 2001 – Wrongly picked Nebraska over Miami
  • 2002 – Wrongly picked Miami over Ohio State
  • 2003 – Correctly picked LSU over Oklahoma
  • 2004 – Correctly picked USC over Oklahoma
  • 2005 – Correctly picked Texas over USC
  • 2006 – Correctly picked Florida over Ohio State
  • 2007 – Wrongly picked Ohio State over LSU
  • 2008 – Correctly picked Florida over Oklahoma
  • 2009 – Wrongly picked Texas over Alabama
  • 2010 – Wrongly picked Oregon over Auburn
  • 2011 – Wrongly picked LSU over Alabama
  • 2012 – Wrongly picked Notre Dame over Alabama
  • 2013 – Correctly picked Florida State over Auburn
  • 2014 – Correctly picked Ohio State over Oregon
  • 2015 – Wrongly picked Clemson over Alabama
  • 2016 – Wrongly picked Alabama over Clemson
  • 2017 – Correctly picked Alabama over Georgia
  • 2018 – Correctly picked Clemson over Alabama
  • 2019 – Correctly picked LSU over Clemson
  • 2020 – Wrongly picked Ohio State over Alabama
  • 2021 – Correctly picked Georgia over Alabama
  • 2022 – Wrongly picked TCU over Georgia
  • 2023 – Correctly picked Michigan over Washington
  • 2024 – Wrongly picked Notre Dame over Ohio State

That’s a 13-13 record in the most important college football game of the year. Hey, not everyone is perfect.

But just part of the story of Corso’s incredible career on ESPN’s College GameDay. The headgear selection was the pinnacle of the show, and something that never seemed to jump the shark as so many fads tend to do.

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And more often than not, as one of the faces of the media that covered the sport, if not a face of the sport, Corso was right.

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