How Celebrity Guest Pickers Fared vs. ESPN College GameDay Analysts in 2015
It's the unofficial start of college football Saturday—the final 10 minutes of College GameDay on ESPN.
That's when GameDay analysts Desmond Howard, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit join the week's celebrity guest and pick several of the top games of the day in college football.
This year, the show spiced it up with some with against-the-spread picks straight out of Las Vegas (those vanished after Week 2). The crew even picked a horse race and an NFL season-opener between two former Heisman winners.
With show No. 14 in the books and bowl season right around the corner, let's find out who made the best picks and which celebrity would join Jase Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame as the top guest of the season.
Week after week, Bleacher Report college football editor Eric Bowman kept track of each pick made on GameDay. Here are the final results.
| 1. John Stockton | 6-1 | .857 | Cal vs. Utah |
| 2. Bob Baffert | 7-3 | .700 | UCLA vs. Arizona |
| 3. Brad Paisley | 6-3 | .667 | Wisconsin vs. Alabama |
| 4. Rickie Fowler | 7-4 | .636 | Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State |
| 5. Jim Cantore | 5-3 | .625 | Notre Dame vs. Clemson |
| T-6. The Phillie Phanatic | 5-4 | .556 | Notre Dame vs. Temple |
| T-6. Rick Ross | 5-4 | .556 | LSU vs. Alabama |
| 8. Eric Church | 6-5 | .545 | Ole Miss vs. Alabama |
| T-9. Archie Griffin | 5-5 | .500 | Michigan State vs. Ohio State |
| T-9. Dierks Bentley | 4-4 | .500 | Richmond vs. James Madison |
| T-9. Jeff Dunham | 4-4 | .500 | Oklahoma vs. Baylor |
| T-9. Dallas Clark | 4-4 | .500 | Iowa vs. Michigan State |
| T-13. Draymond Green | 3-6 | .333 | Oregon vs. Michigan State |
| T-13. Steve Spurrier | 3-6 | .333 | Michigan State vs. Michigan |
| 70-56 (.556) | 67-48 (.583)* | 77-49 (.611) | 73-43 (.629)** |
*Desmond Howard did not pick in Week 13, as he was being honored at Michigan. David Pollack picked in his place and went a strong 8-3 on the day.
**Kirk Herbstreit abstained from picking the games he called for ESPN.
Hitting the hardwood
Legendary NBA point guard John Stockton is used to winning and making the right calls on the basketball court—he is basketball's all-time leader in both assists and steals for a career.
This year, Stockton took his talents to college football picking, and he was an all-star at that, too.
Stockton went 6-1 as the celebrity guest picker in Week 6 when GameDay was in Salt Lake City for Cal vs. Utah (Stockton spent his entire career playing for the hometown Utah Jazz). That was the best percentage of any of the 14 celebrity pickers this season.
Stockton's only miss of the day was picking West Virginia over Oklahoma State, citing the Cowboys' turnover issues and the rowdy Morgantown crowd. Oklahoma State did turn the ball over three times later that evening, but the Cowboys rallied in overtime to win 33-26 on the road to stay unbeaten.
Like Stockton, Draymond Green knows a thing or two about winning on the basketball court.
But the Golden State Warriors forward is way behind Stockton's level in both assist totals and GameDay picking. The former Michigan State basketball All-American went 3-6 as the celebrity picker in Week 2—tying former South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier for the lowest percentage of 2015.
The NBA Finals trophy Green brought to the stage didn't give him any luck. Two of the three picks he got right—Oklahoma over Tennessee and LSU over Mississippi State—were picked the same way by the rest of the GameDay crew.
At least he got to see his Spartans beat Oregon later in the day.
Off to the races
American Pharoah was quite a hot name in 2015, and the Triple Crown-winning horse even had an influence on College GameDay.
The horse's trainer, Arizona alumnus Bob Baffert, was the celebrity picker in Week 4 when the Wildcats hosted UCLA.
Baffert picked seven games correctly, tying him with PGA star Rickie Fowler for the most correct picks for a celebrity this season. His .700 pick percentage put him just behind Stockton, who only picked seven games in total.
Baffert's missteps were going a little too bold with his SEC picks, pegging Arkansas to upset Texas A&M, and Tennessee to knock off Florida in The Swamp. Both games were close, but he missed both—and UCLA's win over his alma mater—to fall to 7-3.
That wasn't the last that college football fans would hear from American Pharoah on GameDay, though.
When the show was in Philadelphia for Notre Dame vs. Temple, one of the picks of the day was for the Breeders' Cup Classic.
Philadelphia Phillies mascot The Phillie Phanatic, who gave 2014 GameDay legend Katy Perry a run for her money when it came to prop usage in picks, joined Corso in picking American Pharoah.
That selection helped Corso go 9-0 in Week 9, which was the only perfect slate of picks from any celebrity or analyst this season.
The 80-year-old Corso might have had a rough time with his headgear selections this season, but he's still got it—he outpicked fellow analyst Desmond Howard this season.
The Heart vs. The Head
The celebrity pickers for College GameDay usually have some tie to the host school, so what team they're going to pick in the spotlight game is obvious.
And even if there aren't any such ties between the celebrity picker and the home team, he or she normally sides with the hometown crowd.
This season, that dedication to whipping the crowd into a frenzy with the big pick didn't exactly pan out in the win-loss column. Celebrity pickers went 5-9 in the spotlight matchup, and they combined to miss the last four games in a row.
Still, that was better than the year Corso had with the headgear.
Corso went 4-10 with his famous picks this season, only getting Alabama, Utah, Notre Dame and Michigan State correct.
In retrospect, the veteran GameDay host shouldn't have faded the Michigan State Spartans so much this season. He picked Oregon over MSU in Week 2, Michigan over MSU in Week 7 and Ohio State over MSU in Week 12.
He missed all three before selecting head coach Mark Dantonio's team last weekend to win the Big Ten title game.
Had Corso rolled with the Spartans from the beginning of the season, he would have hypothetically gone 80-46 this season—enough to edge Herbstreit for the best pick percentage of 2015.
The moral of the story: Don't sleep on Sparty.
Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.
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