Week 1 in college football is always a highly anticipated date. Getting through the dog days of summer is always rough, with the beginning of the season offering a glimpse of light, dangling a shred of hope while we walk through the long, dark tunnel.
This year's college football season will begin on a bit of a somber note. Week 1 will produce legendary broadcaster Lee Corso's final appearance on College GameDay. He will don the headgear one final time. Corso turns 90 in August and will be walking away from ESPN after 38 years of covering the sport he loves.
Corso is the face of the sport for many of us. His final College GameDay appearance will likely be a celebration of all he has meant to college football.
It has seemed obvious since the announcement that Corso's final GameDay would take place in Columbus for the marquee matchup of Week 1: Texas at Ohio State. The Longhorns and Buckeyes figure to both be ranked in the Top 5, and it seems fitting for Corso's final headgear selection to feature the team it all started with: Ohio State.
Corso has donned the Ohio State headgear more than any other team. Bookending his career with a trip to the Horseshoe just makes sense.
Or maybe not.
With Texas and Ohio State set to kick off on FOX and be the featured game for Big Noon Kickoff, some are pondering whether GameDay will call an audible and end up elsewhere. There's another obvious spot to host Corso's final GameDay, after all.
Alabama at Florida State would be a perfect spot for Corso's last College GameDay
Corso's alma mater is Florida State. It just so happens that there's a marquee matchup in Tallahassee in Week 1 with Alabama traveling to Doak Campbell to battle the Seminoles. According to Brett McMurphy, it looks likely that's where College GameDay is going to end up:
It would be fitting for GameDay to end up at Florida State, the place where college football started for Corso. Though it would be very Corso for him to pull a "not so fast, my friend!" on the 'Noles and throw the Big AL head on.
There are a couple of other legitimate options for the opening week, but none hold the sentimental value of Tallahassee for Corso. If Florida State hadn't bottomed out and gone 2-10 last year, it would seem like a mortal lock.
GameDay could end up going to Clemson for the Tigers' big opening week matchup with LSU. That's the primetime game on ABC on Saturday night and would be a good option with two teams that could be contenders.
It also wouldn't be all that stunning for ESPN to still end up in Columbus. It wouldn't be the first time they've hosted GameDay at the same site as Fox's Big Noon Kickoff.
At the end of the day, what makes the most sense is asking Corso where he wants to go. If he wants the bookend moment at Columbus, then so be it. If he wants to go where it all started for him, then Alabama may be featured on his last GameDay.