Nick Saban explains why he never wanted Lee Corso to pick his teams

Lee Corso and Nick Saban were only ESPN colleagues for one full season of college football. Saban, though, felt the analyst’s impact on the game long before joining him at the College GameDay desk.

ESPN recently announced that Corso will do his final GameDay on Aug. 30 before retiring. The GameDay crew is in Green Bay for the NFL Draft. Ahead of Round 1, Saban, Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard reflected on Corso’s legendary career.

Saban recalled how his daughter would call him to share Corso’s headgear pick for the day. Saban, who coached at Michigan State, LSU and Alabama during Corso’s time on GameDay, did not want Corso to pick his teams.

“My daughter would call me and tell me who he picked,” Saban recalled. “Every week, whether it was our game or not. But when it was our game, I was always hoping he didn’t pick us. I knew the players were watching, and I wanted reverse rat poison.”

Though Saban was worried about rat poison, Corso’s headgear picks fared well. Corso is 286-144 all time, better than 66% correct. Corso’s most-picked team is Ohio State (45 times), with Alabama (38) and LSU (25) taking second and third.

Before the draft picks start rolling in, the College GameDay crew looks back on their favorite Coach Corso memories pic.twitter.com/goRMsVHB6f

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) April 24, 2025

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.