I’m Cole. Follow me on Twitter @GamedayCole for live picks and predictions. For the record, I do not work for ESPN or have any affiliation with College Gameday or any other media network. I’m just a fan.
Do you ever wonder to yourself “what is Lee Corso’s record for picking games”? Now we have an answer (sort of)! I’m here to track expert predictions week to week with focus on College Gameday, but also with as many analysts as I can fit in. I love College Gameday to death and always wondered what the guys on the show have as far as their records. Basically everyone always wonders: What is Lee Corso’s picking record? Does Kirk Herbstreit know what he’s talking about? Does Lou Holtz have a good picking record even though he always picks Notre Dame to win? Well I’m here to solve the riddles.
This is and will always be an incomplete puzzle because I don’t have video tapes of Gameday going back 20 years. However I will keep up with the current picks, and will continue to do research to find old picks from sources like Youtube videos, old news articles, blogs, tweets, and so on. As we put more and more pieces of this puzzle together, we may never complete the puzzle but the image will still emerge the same and we can get a good idea about what the lifetime averages are for the experts.
As far as how I go about my research, the following rules apply:
1. I’m here to track predictions on winners. Straight up or against the spread. It doesn’t matter the games or who is playing. I track them all, big and small.
2. If one of our experts does pick against the spread, the following rule is implemented: If the expert is taking the points and picking the underdog, that does not count. All that means is that our expert thinks they will cover the spread, not that the team will win. If the expert lays the points and takes the favorite, that will count for the official record. Obviously, if our expert thinks the team will win by 14 points, then he thinks they will win straight up. Picks ATS are obviously more difficult, so they can earn partial credit laying points if they don’t cover but still win the game.
3. If an expert makes a pick, then changes their mind and picks the other way on another show, I take the most recent pick for the official record. Things can develop and change during the week, so predictions can change as well. The most up-to-date pick is the one I will take, even if the expert changes their mind twice in the span of an hour. Lou Holtz, I’m looking in your direction.
4. I try not to read too much into what our experts are saying when analyzing games for predictions. I only count it if I hear key words like “I’m picking”, “I’ll take”, “I like”, “I’m going with ____ in this game”, and so on. If its not perfectly clear who they think will win, then its an under-pick and not counted.
5. Our experts have to have at least a handful of picks to be eligible for my prestigious awards. Nobody cares if someone is 100% right on their record if they have only picked two games. This is known as the “Matt Millen” rule. When the rule was implemented, Matt Millen was our #1 ranked picker, but with a very small sample size. Now I require a larger sample size before I can declare someone a champion of picking games.
I’d like to plug some resources I use for historical research and make sure these entities get credit. I have spent a lot of time trying to dig out picks from the last 20-30 years, and having these sites has provided some great information.
ESPN – Obviously I watch a lot of Gameday, but podcasts, ESPN.com, ESPN Chalk, ESPN Media Zone, and ESPN Front Row provide me tremendous help in my research
Archive.org – I spend a ton of time looking through archived snapshots of various websites where picks have been posted in the past
506sports.com – They have forums containing historical broadcast data going back a very long time, and their users were able to provide historical data for some significant gaps I had
TigerDroppings forum – Their userbase constantly bitching about who Lee Corso picked on any given day has provided a valuable historical snapshot of picks going back a very long time
USA Today – Their online archives go back decades and have provided some of the oldest data I have collected
NewsOK.com – Oklahoma news which has had some past material about Gameday and Oklahoma
The following Youtube channels have provided classic episodes and clips of College Gameday which I have referenced:
LASooner – His Youtube channel provides his old VHS records of OU related content on College Gameday and ESPN
hokietapes – Old episodes and clips of Virginia Tech related content on ESPN
Classic Vol Video – Old Tennessee related material from ESPN/College Gameday
Tim Bliss – A massive archive of college football material including episodes of Gameday
keeerrrttt – A collection of Oregon Ducks related material from College Gameday
The following may seem obvious, but deserve credit:
PhilSteele.com – Obviously this is Phil Steele’s website, and I’ve included some of the historical picks he has available from past years to include in my database
Bet the Process podcast – Rufus Peabody & Jeff Ma’s weekly gambling podcast
Crowd’s Line – Youtube channel/Podcast featuring Lou Holtz and Mark May put out weekly
Stanford Steve and the Bear – Chris Fallica and Steve Coughlin’s weekly podcast
Rolling up a stake and going to Vegas….LOL
so how come you deleted my posts? I’m a winner… JP
Hi JP,
I hadn’t deleted your posts, I just needed to approve them. Thanks for picking and good luck!
Cole
Can you post their picks pending the outcome?
Cole your write up says Kirk H took Arkansas over northern Illinois . But under picks says northern Illinois. Which is it?
Good catch. After further review, Kirk did pick Arkansas over NIU and continued to disrespect Huskies.
No McShay updates for the last few weeks? If it helps you, he was 4-1 this past week and also 4-1 with his over/unders. I can give you the picks if you need them. Your blog is vital to me when I miss his picks. I hope you will get back to McShay.
Hey man this is awesome! Really cool idea. I’m going to continue to keep up with this
Love this! Helps with my pick every week! So far I’ve won 5 out of the last 8 weeks 🙂
I watch game day religiously! Just wondering how you feel about where game day is this weekend (November 8th)…why did they overlook TCU and K-State…only for $$$$?
I think they have to spread the love and throw the Big 10 a bone at some point this year, and they won’t get a better chance than this weekend. Sure there may be bigger games this weekend, but there’s a lot of good fans up in Big 10 country that want their piece of that Gameday pie!
were do a get their picks
Here starting tomorrow!!!
Hey Cole: You do a great job on all your football info. I was wondering if you follow any college basketball picks. Thanks. John
Hi John. College football is all I cover on this site. My wife said I can track basketball picks or stay married, but not both.
Will you be doing the bowl games
Absolutely. Bowl Mania preview is tomorrow night and we will be posting more bowl picks than you can shake a stick at!
When will the bowl picks start coming in.
Thanks
Ask and ye shall receive. Kanell’s big board is up and we will be updating all week!
Cole,
I also run a college football blog and think we could help each other out in terms of exposure. Would love to talk some when you get a chance. My twitter page is linked with my own blog @ComingforHerbstreits. It’s mostly funny posts with insight and opinions. Looking forward to speaking soon.
Where’s Jennifer picks
A few minutes late:
@GamedayJen:
Okla St over WVU
TCU over Iowa St
Clemson over GT
TAMU over Miss St
Georgia over Florida
Wash St over Arizona
Ariz St over USC
Mich St over NW
ND over NC St
Penn St over Ohio St
Kentucky over Tennessee
Texas over Baylor
Fuck Bama! Three consecutive championship games and they haven’t covered the spread once! Fuck Bama!
Thanks for doing this…. i check it every Saturday before the first games start! I really appreciate your hard work and Roll Tide!
AGREE 1000%
Where do you find Dusty Dvoracek’s picks
They do picks on his radio show, and you can hear them on their podcast on Wednesdays or Thursdays usually. However if you follow @sportsanimal on twitter they usually tweet them out and that is where I get them.
Cole
Used your data (mainly Stanford Steve and the Bear) to make picks and make some $$..Thanks
Thanks for reading. Those two are the best. I’ll be posting when they give out bowl picks so stay tuned.
Cole
who else would you recommend?
Hello Cole, thank you for posting Stanford Steve’s picks ATS. Do you even post an expect sports handicapper ATS that has had similar success as Stanford Steve for; basketball and or baseball? If not can you direct me to other blogs that have had good success ATS for basketball and or baseball that are free to the public to access? Thank you. Peter
I don’t know of anyone who does what I do for other sports. I put out the word on Twitter asking if anybody knows. I don’t know who the sharps are in other sports, but Doug Kezirian talks NBA, MLB, UFC and other stuff on his Behind the Bets podcast. Scott Spreitzer gives out a free pick most days on his YouTube channel and he handicaps everything. Evenyourodds.com posts lots of NBA stuff. There’s people on the Action Sports app who post and track their plays publicly but I don’t know who is good. I’ll let you know if I get any good answers for you.
Cole
youtube.com “Bet on it” has 2 podcast on wednesdays . one for college football and another for NFL football. Marco D’angelo is the one I follow. He is good and gives out alot of talks on how the sharps handicap. I am pretty he has had a great year in NFL. his 6 pt teasers are 13-1. sides 12-6. Not as good in college. but still winning overall.
Hey! Love your work and I wanted to ask – would you have anything like this for NFL as well or any other sports NBA for example too? 😀 thank you so much!
Can you help me use your data to understand Lee Corso’s headgear records when picking a Wisconsin or MInnesota game. E.g., Each time he pick Wisconsin, they lost
ESPN Press Room usually releases this type of info prior to Saturday but I haven’t seen it yet. That being said, here’s my unofficial records:
Corso has never made a headgear pick involving a Minnesota game
Corso has picked 17 games involving Wisconsin
Corso has picked Wisconsin 8 times
Corso has picked against Wisconsin 9 times
Corso is 3-5 picking Wisconsin
Corso is 6-3 picking against Wisconsin
I hope that helps.
Cole
where do you have these 2 guys picks??
EJ Manuel at 7-1 straight up,
and Stewart Mandel going 8-0 against the number.
EJ Manuel gave out his picks Saturday morning on the ACC network. Stewart Mandel gave out his picks on the Athletic last Thursday. If you click on the “Individual Grades” page you can select any expert to see their full picks and results.
I’m active duty military in Korea, and I love watching Gameday. It’s the only thing I really watch all week. I’m 13 hours ahead from US EST, so I’ve just been searching YouTube when I get up on Sunday, and I’ve been able to find the full three hour Gameday show. Until now. And of course when I go to ESPN to watch the archive show, it requires my TV provider, which of course I don’t have since I’m in Korea. Does anyone know where I can find the full Gameday shows? Thanks.
I noticed that Danny Kanell’s sides on the Cover 3 podcast are the exact opposites of of his sides posted with Brady quinn. He’s been having a good season lately. would be nice to know which sides are the right ones for Danny
He did actually give out both sides on those games. It drives me crazy. To me his Cover 3 picks supersede CBS Sports HQ because he isn’t always on CBS Sports HQ every week. Take it however you’d like.
Where do I find the picks for Adam Kramer and Wes Reynold?