It’s hard to believe that the week has arrived, but in just a few days Lee Corso will say goodbye to ESPN and College GameDay. The time is right, and yet somehow, it still feels too soon. For so many of us, whether or not Corso had lost a step in recent years is irrelevant. His absence will make Saturday mornings for sports fans feel incomplete.
The former Louisville and Indiana coach made an important choice nearly 40 years ago when his TV career began. Current College GameDay host Rece Davis talked about it recently in paying tribute to Corso. Davis said Corso’s mantra is, “It’s entertainment, sweetheart. Football’s our vehicle.” That taught Davis a lot about what it meant to host that show.
As the internet fills up this week with tributes to Corso and think pieces about what he meant to college football fans, I think it’s important for everyone in sports media to ask themselves if they really understand what made Corso a success in his second career.
Corso understood what TV is and immediately embraced what it takes to be good at it.
Lee Corso Knew What People Wanted
Colin Cowherd has talked about this a million times in his career. No one listening to or watching your show has any vested interest in you being right all the time. They aren’t sticking around and/or coming back because your opinions and observations are incontrovertibly correct.
Everyone chooses what they consume based on how it makes them feel regardless of the subject matter or platform. Dude Perfect, for example, always delivers slick editing and high energy to their tween boy audience that comes looking for sick trick shots. Lee Corso showed up on set ready to be silly, have fun, and embrace all of the cultural weirdness of college football.
I wonder if anyone in sports media took the right lessons from his career, because I’m not sure all of the over-the-top fake laughter that pollutes so many pregame shows is the same thing as entertainment. Even Corso’s own show relies too much on the annoying practice that is largely about filling time until the commercial break.
Corso was so good at identifying his goal and building a role around it. It made an impression with everyone. Even the people that didn’t like him contributed to his reputation as the guy that enjoyed being in the middle of all the silliness.
His Star Had a Dimmer Switch
Lee Corso’s greatest sports media gift was being comfortable in any role. When he was asked to be the center of attention, he hammed it up as well as anyone in that job ever has. When it was time to pull back and let someone else shine, he was willing to do that too.
It was so easy for him to create memorable moments no matter who was sitting with him at that desk. Corso is as comfortable with Katy Perry trying to steal his mascot head and Ken Jeong shouting, “You complete me, ho,” as he is with an old friend like Charles Barkley or someone as no-nonsense about football talk as Roger Staubach.
Because Corso approached each episode of College GameDay focused on the job he was hired to do, he didn’t mind being the butt of a joke or being outshined. He realized that any win for the show was a win for him too. The job is entertainment.
Corso Just Wanted To Be Corso
Entertainment is the job. Football is just the vehicle. Until Saban joined the cast last year, Corso knew the sport as well or better than anyone on that set, but he recognized that he didn’t always need to prove that to the audience. After all, he wasn’t really there to talk football anyway.
As an entertainer, Corso knew exactly who he was. If his bits and segments were cheesy, well, it’s because Corso is a little cheesy. He got emotional talking about an issue, because Corso was an emotional guy. If he came off as ornery in a debate, it’s because something genuinely touched a nerve with Corso.
This is an unserious business, and I think that’s a good thing. It’s why Lee Corso thrived. But, at times, sports media can lean so far into being unserious that it feels inauthentic. It’s an issue that ESPN, in particular, has struggled with in recent years.
That is why Corso has been so valuable to the network. If he has an ego, he doesn’t wear it on his sleeve every second of the day. He has always been genuinely good-natured. It’s what sets him apart on a network populated by Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee and in ratings competition with the likes of Urban Meyer and Matt Leinart.
Corso doesn’t need to tell you who he was or what you should think of him. He was always happy to just be Lee Corso and let you decide what that means.
After nearly 40 years on TV, it shouldn’t be a surprise that there’s so much that could be learned from watching Lee Corso. I hope that no one lost sight of how simple his most important lesson actually is—the audience comes first.
“It’s entertainment, sweetheart. Football’s our vehicle.” It’s simple, but it’s as true as anything ever said in this business. And as Lee Corso gets set to take his final bow on Saturday, he will leave behind a giant legacy that grew from it. Letting Corso set the path for College GameDay with that mantra allowed that show to grow, spawn copycats, and become one of the defining properties in ESPN history.
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Demetri Ravanos is a former columnist and editor for Barrett Media. He is the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host of the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
