• Show Returns to the Site of Corso’s Original Headgear Pick in 1996
• Show Will Be Live from St. John’s Arena on Campus

ESPN’s College GameDay Built by The Home Depot – college football’s longest-running and most-celebrated pregame show – returns to Columbus, Ohio, home of the No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes, for the 17th time in the show’s history, ahead of the school playing host to the No. 2 Penn State Nittany Lions. Lee Corso made his first ever headgear pick ahead of this very same match-up in October 1996.

The three-hour premier show will originate from just outside of St. John’s Arena on the Ohio State Campus on Saturday, Oct. 28, from 9 a.m. to noon ET with live SportsCenter hits from campus in the 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. hours leading up to GameDay.

ESPN programming will begin from the GameDay set on Friday, Oct. 27, with SportsCenter hits throughout the day and an afternoon taping of College Football Live.

The seven-time Emmy Award-winning show is hosted by Rece Davis, who is joined by analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and David Pollack, as well as contributors Chris ‘The Bear’ Fallica, Jen Lada, Tom Rinaldi, Maria Taylor and Gene Wojciechowski.

College Football Live will originate from the set with Taylor, Howard and Pollack on Friday, Oct. 27.

GameDay Features

• Spark Plug: The Cyclones’ walk-on senior quarterback Kyle Kempt has proven to be the spark Iowa State needed after its QB carousel. Gene Wojciechowski reports.
• A Conversation with Brian Kelly:  After the Fighting Irish went 4-8 in 2016, head coach Brian Kelly now has his team off to a 6-1 start with a top 10 ranking. Tom Rinaldi sits down with Kelly to find out what’s changed.
• Quinton Flowers Journey:Maria Taylor tells the story of how University of South Florida quarterback Quinton Flowers triumphed over tragic, personal loss to become a star on the field.

College GameDay Fun Facts
Corso began making his entertaining end-of-show headgear pick more than 20 years ago, donning the headgear of the team he picks to win the match-up College GameDay is onsite covering. This weekend’s show will mark headgear pick number 303 for Corso, with an all-time record of 199-103. Corso reached a headgear milestone this season during GameDay’s trip to TCU when he made his 300^th headgear pick on the show. The phenomenon began on October 5, 1996, prior to the Ohio State-Penn State game in Columbus, Ohio when he put on OSU’s “Brutus Buckeye” mascot head to show his pick to win the game – watch here.

• The 17 trips to Columbus mark the most of any campus. The 16th trip happened this season in week two for Ohio State’s match-up against Oklahoma.
• The 25 times Corso has picked Ohio State represent the 2^nd highest total of any headgear (Alabama 27)
• Corso’s headgear record picking Ohio State: 17-8; Corso’s headgear record picking Penn State: 3-1
  • Corso’s headgear record picking against Ohio State: 7-7; Corso’s headgear record picking against Penn State: 9-3
• This is not the first time GameDay will be at a Penn State-Ohio State game in Week 9. In 2008, GameDay was present for Ohio State’s 13-6 home loss to Penn State.
• Corso is 6-2 in headgear picks this season and has won four straight. His 6-2 mark is the exact same record he had at this point last year

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Media contact: Derek Volner at 860-384-9986; [email protected] and @DerekVolner