Located around 50 steps from Charles Schwab Field across North 13th Street, Rocco’s Pizza & Cantina has quietly become the second-biggest competition in Omaha during the College World Series. The games may decide a national champion, but Rocco’s decides which fan base is the thirstiest in America through the CWS Jell-O Shot Challenge. Better yet, nearly every dollar of it goes to feeding hungry college students and Omaha families.
If you’re visiting Omaha for the CWS, you’ve probably already seen Rocco’s on ESPN. Here’s everything you actually need to know before you walk through the door.
What Is the Rocco’s Jell-O Shot Challenge?
The Rocco’s Jell-O Shot Challenge is a fan-based drinking competition that runs the length of the College World Series. Supporters of the eight teams buy $5 Jell-O shots in their school’s color, and Rocco’s tracks every purchase on its famous “shot board”. The fan base with the most shots by the end of the tournament wins bragging rights and recognition from millions of college baseball fans across the country. The Jell-O Shot Challenge has become as much a part of CWS week as the games themselves.
The tradition dates back to 2011, when Florida and South Carolina fans talked the bar into serving”rally shots” during the final series at the old stadium. The idea for the leaderboard came from manager Pat McEvoy, who was inspired by watching Nebraska and Creighton fans stuff the tip jar to hear their fight songs at a local dueling-piano bar.
“I thought it was the smartest thing alive,” McEvoy says. “I was like, well, what if we did that for the College World Series? What if I put a board up and kept track of how many shots each one of them takes? Everyone thinks they’re a really good fan base—show up and find out.”
The color-coded Jell-O format that fans know today arrived in 2019, after owner Kevin Culjat suggested swapping hand-poured shots for pre-made Jell-O to speed up service. For a sense of scale, Culjat has said the bar pulled in roughly 42% of its entire yearly revenue during the two weeks of the College World Series.
How the Challenge Works
The rules are simple: each of the eight CWS teams gets its own shot color, and every shot purchased counts towards that team’s total. Throughout the challenge, Rocco’s keeps the standings updated throughout the day on its whiteboard leaderboard, and photos of the latest count are posted to social media.
What started as a whiteboard special now includes a dedicated Jell-O Shot Room and an entire 22-foot bar just to keep up with the shots. The preparation is genuinely year-round. “The preparation starts when we finish the last one,” McEvoy says. After each tournament, the team reviews what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve for the following year. By the time the tournament opens, there are 120,000 Jell-O shots ready to sell—at peak, the bar can sell around 15,000 a day, necessitating a staffing increase from eight or nine people in the winter to more than 40 during CWS week.
Because the board moves all day and the numbers travel fast on social, the fastest place to see the current standings is the @CWSShotBoard account on X, which posts updated tallies as the tournament unfolds. If you want the real-time leaderboard, that’s where it lives.
How Much Are the Jell-O Shots & Where Does the Money Go?
Rocco’s Jell-O shots are $5 each, but the challenge is about more than just school pride. For every Jell-O shot sold, $1 goes to a food bank in that school’s hometown, and 50 cents goes to Omaha’s Food Bank for the Heartland. That structure has transformed a fan competition into one of the College World Series’ most successful charitable traditions. After the 2023 series, the challenge generated more than $142,524 the Omaha food bank and the hometowns of participating schools. The following year, the challenge raised more than $145,000, with around $38,000 of it going to a student food pantry at the University of Tennessee alone.
The impact continues to grow. According to Pat McEvoy, the challenge has raised more than half a million dollars since its inception. The local portion of each donation now also supports other Omaha-area food banks like the food pantries at UNO, Creighton, and Iowa Western.
For McEvoy, the charitable side is what gives the competition its staying power. When you buy a round of Jell-O Shots for the challenge, you’re not just padding your team’s number. You’re putting groceries on someone’s table.
Past Winners & Who Holds the Record
While several schools have made strong runs, only one has won the competition more than once. Past winners include:
- 2019: Arkansas (868 shots)
- 2021: Mississippi State (~3,000 shots)
- 2022: Ole Miss (18,777 shots)
- 2023: LSU (68,888 shots)
- 2024: Tennessee (38,795 shots)
- 2025: LSU
The current CWS Jell-O Shot record still belongs to that 2023 LSU run, when Tiger fans bought a staggering 68,888 Jell-O shots, shattering the 18,777 mark Ole Miss set in 2022. It’s a record that may stand for a long time.
The Legends: Omaha’s Biggest Jell-O Shot Buyers
You don’t get to 68,888 shots without a few heavy hitters, and LSU’s 2023 record was powered by two purchases that have become Omaha lore.
The famous one: Raising Cane’s founder and CEO, Todd Graves, bought 6,000 Jell-O shots—a $30,000 round—to push LSU past Ole Miss’s old record. In doing so, Graves set a Guinness World Record, breaking a 40-year-old mark for the largest round of shots ever bought by one person.
However, Graves wasn’t even the biggest buyer that year. Baton Rouge attorney Gordon McKernan purchased 8,888 Jell-O shots, more than Graves bought as an individual. Between the two of them and a handful of other LSU boosters, the Tigers ran up a total that no fan base has come close to since.
The challenge has also become a magnet for star power. Todd Graves returned during the 2025 series alongside Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes and gymnast Livvy Dunne. In a rare moment, Skenes got to update the shot board himself, a job McEvoy seldom hands off. The story behind it is perfect: McEvoy had never even let Graves, the record-setting megadonor, touch the board. “Graves is like, ‘No one cares who I am. This is Paul Skenes,'” McEvoy recalls. So Skenes got the marker.
For owner Kevin Culjat and McEvoy, though, the best part isn’t the celebrities. It’s the new fan bases that roll into Omaha every June and adopt Rocco’s as their home base for the week.
Planning Your Rocco’s Visit During the College World Series
Rocco’s is conveniently located across 13th Street, just steps from Charles Schwab Field, so you can roll straight from the ballpark to the bar in about a minute. That proximity is exactly why it turns into the unofficial CWS clubhouse the moment the tournament starts.
While the Jell-O Shot Challenge gets most of the attention, remember that Rocco’s is also a full-service pizza restaurant and cantina with a menu that attracts visitors year-round. During CWS week, it gets packed, especially after games, so expect a wait and plan around game times if you want elbow room. The Jell-O shots are the headline act, but you don’t have to participate in the competition to enjoy the atmosphere—plenty of people come just to soak it in.
If you do participate, remember to pace yourself. Grab some food, stay hydrated, and enjoy the competition in moderation so you can stick around to support a great cause, celebrate your team, and create a memorable College World Series Experience.
More Omaha CWS Guides
Rocco’s is one stop on a much bigger map. If you’re building out your College World Series itinerary, keep going with our companion guides:
- Baseball Village & CWS Fan Fest Guide: the two separate block-party scenes near the ballpark, explained
- Best Bars & Nightlife Near the College World Series: where to go before and after games
- The Blatt Rooftop: the patio scene overlooking the action
- The Old Mattress Factory Stage: live music and game-day energy steps from the field
