What Is Rocco's Jello Shot Challenge? College World Series Tradition Explained

Eight college baseball teams will be vying for baseball immortality within the walls of Charles Schwab Field Omaha over the course of the next ten days as part of the College World Series, with one club emerging as a national champion at the end of the tournament.

In downtown Omaha, Nebraska, across North 13th Street, a completely other kind of tournament will be taking place.

Rocco’s Pizza and Cantina’s Jell-O Shot Challenge has been a mainstay of the CWS for a number of years, with fans of the eight teams competing to be the event’s thirstiest crowd. If supporters are unable to discover their teams’ greatness on the diamond, they may look for it in small plastic cups.

Throughout the CWS, the restaurant keeps track of whose school’s fan following has consumed the most shots, and this information is displayed on a whiteboard. Millions of curious fans worldwide may follow the constantly shifting tally on social media to see who is leading in the competition for alcoholic greatness, so the race of the events extends well beyond Omaha.

As the CWS’s first game begins today, let’s take a closer look at the Jell-O Shot Challenge and its history:

What is the Jell-O Shot Challenge by Rocco?

Rocco’s was a popular spot for college baseball fans in town for the College World Series years prior to its abrupt rise to fame. They would celebrate their team’s victories, drown their sorrows after losses, and use the energy from the sport’s biggest event to compete with rival fans and play drinking games.

Fans of the Gators and Gamecocks that flocked to Rocco’s in 2011 for the CWS final series between Florida and South Carolina had asked for different shots. Numerous spectators knocked them back, which inspired Pat McEvoy, the manager of the restaurant, to do the same for every team at the event. Eventually, he gamified it as a way to satisfy the competitive urges of the fans.

Jell-O shots, which are simpler to produce in large quantities, replaced the liquid shots years later. Rocco’s contracted with a Tennessee-based business that specializes in creating the mixtures to mass-produce the shots as demand for them increased year after year.

Since the COVID-19 epidemic disrupted much of the 2020 season, including the College World Series, the 2025 College World Series will be the sixth iteration of the challenge, which officially started in 2019.

The competition is simple. For each of the eight CWS teams, Rocco’s keeps Jell-O shots that match one of the school’s colors. Every time a supporter of that team buys a shot, the amount is added to the overall total for the school. On a white board at the bar of Rocco’s, the shot counts for each school are updated on a regular basis to give customers a sense of the current situation and the amount of effort their team needs to do to catch up. The total only includes shots that were bought, not shots that were actually taken.

In Omaha, the challenge was already well established, but it really took off in 2022 when McEvoy created a social media account and shared images of the leaderboard. On its first day, the account gained seven followers; by the end of the tournament, it had 17,000. It currently boasts about 51,000 followers. Also, the sheer quantity of images has grown quickly. Arkansas won the challenge with 864 shots in its inaugural year. Ten years later, Tennessee prevailed with 38,799 last year.

The final leaderboard at Rocco’s is probably the only event that draws more attention to Omaha during the CWS than the actual games, which has made it a topic of fascination in recent years. The SEC has controlled the competition, as it does on the field in the CWS, with one of its schools emerging winner each year.

In general, teams with sizable fan bases, good travel capabilities, and a reputation for heavy drinking have performed well; past victors include LSU, Tennessee, and Arkansas. It also didn’t hurt that those teams had lengthy tournament runs, which kept their supporters in Omaha for longer. As expected, public colleges with a more stuffy reputation, like Virginia, or smaller private schools, like Stanford, have occasionally had struggles.

Additionally, the desire to win the challenge contributes to a worthy cause. Fifty cents of each $5 shot goes to the Heartland Food Bank in Omaha, and one dollar is donated to the local food bank of the specific school.

Jell-O Shot Challenge record for the College World Series

A well-known figure holds the record for the most Jell-O shots taken at Rocco’s during the CWS, and it is quite doubtful that the record will be topped.

LSU fans purchased 68,888 shots on their way to winning the Jell-O Shot Challenge in 2023—30,000 more than the next-closest finisher in the competition’s history.

The Tigers’ journey there is a tale in itself.

As the Jell-O Shot Challenge gains traction, enthusiasts have resorted to unconventional and possibly dubious methods to help their team climb the leaderboard. When LSU achieved its record-breaking feat, it received a significant boost from Todd Graves, the founder and CEO of Raising Cane’s, who resides in Baton Rouge and purchased 6,000 shots — totaling a staggering $30,000.

Despite this, Tigers fans still made a notable impact, consuming over 60,000 shots, not counting Graves’ bulk order.

“You know what, man? I started from nothing,” Graves told ESPN. “I had to commercial fish in Alaska to launch my first restaurant. … You work hard, achieve success, and then you can treat all these LSU fans to a shot; it feels pretty awesome. It’s a great way to celebrate with others.”

Here are the highest shot totals since the challenge started in 2019: