We all know Lee Corso is a college football institution, and we will never be able to thank him enough for the sport we absolutely adore. There are so many tributes going around for Lee, and we’re not talented enough to write something amazing about him. So we’ll thank Lee Corso the only way we know how, by doing something ridiculous and time-consuming.

Lee Corso will make his final College Gameday headgear pick this Saturday on Ohio State’s campus before the Buckeyes host the Texas Longhorns. A fitting final stage, since Columbus is Gameday’s most visited location (24 times) and Brutus is Corso’s most commonly donned headgear (45 picks). But how well did Coach do in those picks? Who has he successfully picked the most? And what teams hate to see him coming?  Welcome to a Sickos Stats Deep Dive (SSDD) on Lee Corso’s headgear picks.

First of all, massive thanks to gamedaycole.com, a lovely website we found during season previews this year that has the picks made by every host and guest on every Gameday broadcast, along with a photo gallery of all of Corso’s headgear picks.

Let’s start at the top. Corso first used the mascot headgear to reveal his pick on October 5, 1996, in - you guessed it - Columbus, Ohio, picking the home team to defeat the visiting Nittany Lions.

He won that week, and at the next show 3 weeks later (Ohio State over Iowa in Iowa City), and two weeks after that (Alabama over LSU in Baton Rouge), and again on Thanksgiving weekend (Alabama over Auburn in Birmingham), to end the 1996 season with a perfect headgear record.

Since then, he has put on 425 more hats, helmets, and heads, and has been correct 281 more times. Lee Corso’s overall headgear record stands at an impressive 285-144 (66.4%). He’s picked the home team to win 201 times and won 142 of those (70.6%), but is almost as good at picking the visitors, with 81 wins on 120 picks (67.5%). The only time his success has dipped has been in neutral site games, whether bowls, season openers, Army-Navy, or that time Tennessee and Virginia Tech played in Bristol (more of that, please). In 108 neutral site games, he’s 62-46, still well above .500.

Lee Corso’s most picked teams are what you’d expect: high-profile teams with varying degrees of success over the last 30-ish years, the kinds of teams that get Gameday a lot.

Corso’s Top 10 Most Picked Teams

And he’s generally successful picking them too, with only Texas and Oklahoma falling below his overall record of .664. But one school stands out. Lee Corso is a perfect 17 for 17 picking the USC Trojans. Which begs the question: who are his most successful programs?

Aside from the Trojans, there are two teams Corso has picked more than once and never lost while picking: Virginia Tech (4 times) and North Dakota State (3 times). He’s also one-for-one when picking Appalachian State, Arkansas, Boise State, Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Florida A&M, Grambling, Houston, Illinois, Mississippi State, Montana State, North Carolina, Ole Miss,, Penn, Texas Tech, UCF, Washington State, Western Michigan, and Williams. His most successfully picked teams that he isn’t perfect for are TCU (6-1), Clemson (11-3), Tennessee (6-2), and Michigan State (3-1).

How about some of his favorite venues? He’s never missed a pick on 19 campuses, including six in a row in Blacksburg (4-0 picking the Hokies) and four in a row at Utah (2-0 picking the Utes). He’s also undefeated in four neutral-site picks in Charlotte, NC. For the haters out there, there are two schools he’s visited multiple times, has never missed a pick at, and has never picked the home team. West Virginia and Boston College, you hate to see Coach Corso coming.

It’s not always about getting picks right, though. We at the Committee love a unanimous wrong pick, to the point that certain hosts of the show have become aware of the meme and take steps to avoid ever posting the clean sweep. Finding unanimous misses is too much data for this post, but potentially watch this space in the future. For now, let’s look at who Corso’s worst teams are. After so many picks, the list of schools he’s never picked correctly to win is impressively short, but Baylor hates to see Coach coming. The Bears are 0-2 all time with Corso in Bruiser’s head, followed by a long list of teams that have never seen victory with the man himself waving to the crowd in their headgear at the end of the show.

Teams that have never won after being headgear picked

Riding those two Baylor losses, Waco comes in as Corso’s least successful location as well, with an 0-3 record overall. Other noteworthy locations include that time we put X and X on an aircraft carrier, and Dallas, because no one should be expected to accurately predict Red River year in and year out.

Gameday Locations Corso has had the least success picking in

We’ll cap it off with another one for the haters. Over the last 30 years, who are the teams Lee Corso has had the most success picking against?

Did I, the Lord of the Spreadsheets Kevin, sort this one differently than the others just to highlight he’s picked Penn State to lose nineteen times and hit on almost 80% of them? Who’s to say, but look at those perfect records picking the Hokies, Aggies, and Huskies to lose. 

Thanks for reading this inaugural voyage aboard the good ship SSDD. We’ll return with more on a different day.