Interesting Ohio State–Wisconsin GameDay Facts

By D.J. Byrnes on October 11, 2016 at 2:59p

The weekly pregame show college football fans love to know, ESPN College GameDay, returns this Saturday to Madison, Wisconsin for the first time since 2011 ahead of No. 2 Ohio State's clash with No. 8 Wisconsin under the lights of Camp Randall Stadium.

Last week, famed coach Lee Corso celebrated the 20th anniversary of his first headgear pick — Brutus Buckeye, ahead of No. 3 Ohio State's 38-7 bombing of No. 4 Penn State in Columbus — so this week offers another glimpse into historical numbers involving Corso, Ohio State, and Wisconsin.

From ESPN PR:

  • Corso has put on Ohio State headgear 20 times — second only to Alabama (24). He is 14-6 when picking Ohio State, but Ohio State has lost two of the last three times he has picked Ohio State.
  • He has also picked against Ohio State 14 times, which is tied for the second-highest number of times picking against a team. Corso is 6-8 when picking against the Buckeyes. He has lost the last two – and three of the last four times he has picked against Ohio State.
  • Corso has picked Wisconsin four times, including the 2010 upset win over Ohio State in Madison. He is 2-2 when picking the Badgers and has picked against the Badgers seven times going 4-3 in those picks, but the Badgers did win the season-opener this year when Lee picked LSU over the Badgers at Lambeau Field.

Other tidbits:

  • Wisconsin is 3-2 with GameDay in town and has won the last three times the show has been in Madison.
  • This is the third straight top-10 matchup from which the show will originate. It’s the first time since 2012 that the show will originate from three straight top-10 matchups prior to the conference championship game and bowl season.
  • Home teams are 4-0 this year with GameDay in town, and really 5-0 if you count Wisconsin’s win over LSU at Lambeau Field.
  • The last 15 times GameDay has been to a top-10 matchup on a host campus, the home team is 13-2.
  • This is the 12th time a top-10 team has hosted the No. 2 ranked team at a GameDay. No. 2 has lost each of the last four times – Florida State at Louisville in September, Auburn at Mississippi State in 2014, Texas Tech at Oklahoma in 2008 and Michigan at Ohio State in 2006.
  • Urban Meyer has won five-straight true road games with GameDay present with his last loss in 2007 when Florida lost 28-24 at LSU.

Looks like Meyer will be the Buckeyes' ace-in-the-hole as they attempt to ward off bad historical juju of being a No. 2-ranked away team in a Top-10 GameDay matchup.

ESPN College GameDay starts Saturday at 9 a.m. ET. Ohio State–Wisconsin kicks off at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.