Nick Saban

When Nick Saban retired as Alabama's head coach after 17 seasons, athletic director Greg Byrne knew he needed to make the right decision for his replacement.

Per ESPN's Chris Low, Byrne said he enlisted the help of some of Alabama's most recognizable alumni from different eras and spoke to Joe Namath, Mark Ingram, Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith.

"Not to discuss candidates, but it was more, 'What do you think if you were in my shoes?'" Byrne said. "Because they may have had a piece of information I hadn't thought about, which is good."

Byrne ended up needing just over two days after Saban's retirement to decide to hire Kalen DeBoer as his replacement following his successful run at Washington.

DeBoer has a tough act to follow, as Saban led Alabama to six national titles and nine SEC championships during his tenure.

Last season, the Crimson Tide went 12-2 and lost to the eventual champion Michigan Wolverines in the Rose Bowl. DeBoer will be taking over a group that is motivated to bounce back in a big way in 2024.

Nick Saban is done with coaching, but he isn't done with college football.

"If my voice can bring about some meaningful change, I want to help any way I can, because I love the players, and I love college football," the retired Alabama coach told ESPN's Chris Low. "What we have now is not college football—not college football as we know it. You hear somebody use the word 'student-athlete.' That doesn't exist."

He will have the platform to do just that when he joins ESPN's College Gameday during the upcoming campaign.

To say it is a turbulent time in college football would be quite the understatement.

From a macro level, this offseason has largely been defined by conference realignment to the point the Pac-12 is all but gone. Oregon, USC, UCLA and Washington are going to the Big Ten, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah are going to the Big 12, and California and Staford are going to the ACC.

Elsewhere, Texas and Oklahoma are joining the SEC.

Then there is the College Football Playoff, which will expand to 12 teams for the next two years but might be even larger in the near future. ESPN's Pete Thamel reported Wednesday that the CFP management committee discussed potentially increasing to 14 teams as soon as 2026 during meetings.

Throw in name, image and likeness opportunities for players and the ever-expanding use of the transfer portal, and today's college football looks nothing like the version of the sport that Saban dominated for so long as a seven-time national champion head coach.

He stressed he is supportive of players having the opportunity to make money but expressed concerns with the current system.

"But what you have now isn't name, image and likeness. A collective has nothing to do with name, image and likeness," Saban said.

"Listen, I'm for the players," he continued. "It's not that I'm not for the players. I want to see the players have a great quality of life and be able to create value for themselves. But we've gone to nobody talking about education, nobody talking about creating value for their future, to talking only about how much money can I make while I'm in college.

"I think the consequence of this could come down the road when some of these guys get 28 and 29 years old that maybe they didn't prepare themselves for when they can't play football anymore, which is what you should do when you go to college."

While Saban will no longer be on the sideline for the Crimson Tide, it seems like he will remain a prominent voice for the sport as it attempts to navigate an uncertain future.

Nick Saban doesn't sound like he'll be doing much picking against Alabama on ESPN's College GameDay.

The former Crimson Tide coach told reporters there may be times when he chooses to have a "spiritual feeling" when deciding who to pick to win games.

"I've tried to steer away from picking people. I think I'm going to have to do that now," Saban said (2:35 mark). "But, I don't know that you always have to pick the team you think is going to win. You are allowed to have a spiritual feeling about who you like and who you want to win. So, I think it will be a lot of fun, though."

Saban retired after the 2023 season and joined ESPN as an analyst. Alabama won six national championships in Saban's 17 seasons at the helm, with the 72-year-old finishing his career with an astonishing 201-29 record in Tuscaloosa.

The Tide finished outside the Top Five just once in Saban's final 10 seasons with the program.

"It's been good," Saban said of retirement (1:00 mark). "I'm anxious to see that we can do whatever we can to continue to support Alabama athletics and the athletic program and the football program and hope that the players and the coaches that are there continue to have a great amount of success."

Former Washington coach Kalen DeBoer was named Saban's successor last month. DeBoer led the Huskies to a national championship game appearance last season and was 25-3 in his two seasons with the program. The 49-year-old has had success throughout his coaching career, including three NAIA national titles while coaching at the University of Sioux Falls.

Saban said he has attempted to stay away from the program during DeBoer's first month to avoid stepping on any toes.

"I really haven't been around. I really tried to stay at arm's length," Saban said (2:15 mark). "I don't want anybody to think I'm looking over their shoulder. I think he's hired a good staff, and I think he's a good man. I think he's a great coach, and I think he'll do a really good job."

DeBoer managed to keep most of Saban's final recruiting class at Alabama intact. The Tide ranked second behind only Georgia in 247Sports' rankings for the best class in this year's recruiting cycle.

Saban noted the uniqueness of the challenges facing DeBoer given the NIL era and the pressure to continue having success.

"This is a totally different era now. We already signed 23 or 24 players in the early signing period, but then the opportunity those guys have to go someplace else, and now you have to re-recruit them. I think they did a really good job of that," Saban said (5:45 mark). "Managing a roster now is one of the most challenging things you have to do—especially when you have a change like this.

"This is not a normal change. Normally, when you have a change, it's because the program was unsuccessful and you're bringing in somebody to fix it. This is kind of unprecedented in a way. ... You have a successful program, and you make a change, it's a little bit different in terms of how you manage a roster, how you keep continuity in your program with the players you have and the players you recruited. All in all, I think they did a pretty good job of that."

DeBoer may have navigated a difficult offseason, but his real test will come when Alabama's season kicks off in September.

Alabama men's basketball coach Nate Oats said former football coach Nick Saban gave the Crimson Tide players a pep talk before Saturday's 100-75 win over Texas A&M.

He said during his appearance on the Crimson Tide Sports Network that pregame show that Saban talked about keeping the focus on the present, not the end goal (h/t Mike Rodak of 247Sports):

We had Coach Saban talk to our team yesterday. Always go back to his process. Like, honestly, the more you talk about championships, the less you're focused on what you should be doing today. So they know where we're at [in the SEC]. I briefly mentioned where we're at, but I spent the majority of the conversation on focus areas on what we have to do today to get us better than we were yesterday. I think all that other stuff, the championships and all that, takes care of itself if you do that.

The Crimson Tide likely have an SEC title on the mind. At 18-7 on the year but 10-2 in SEC play, Alabama currently sits atop the conference and is in the driver's seat to win the regular season title, though tough matchups against Florida (twice), Kentucky and Tennessee still loom.

"That's a big win; we've got teams right on our tail in the SEC race," Oats told reporters after Saturday's victory. "It was a well-needed win at this point in the year."

Alabama swept both the regular season and conference titles in two of the past three seasons and is looking to continue its dominance in this year's campaign.

The team is also fighting for a high seed in the NCAA tournament. In the NCAA Selection Committee's early top-16 seeds, it had the Crimson Tide projected to finish as a No. 3 seed. Purdue, UConn, Houston and Arizona were the 1-seeds, followed by North Carolina, Tennessee, Marquette and Kansas as the twos and Alabama, Baylor, Iowa State and Duke as the threes.

The Crimson Tide earned a 2-seed in 2021 and were the top overall seed last year, though in both seasons they failed to advance past the Sweet 16. Still, Oats has steadily been turning the program into a powerhouse, and the Crimson Tide have titles on the mind.

Nick Saban's third act in his football career will be with ESPN.

The company announced Wednesday that the legendary head coach will be joining College GameDay as an analyst, a huge addition for the show given Saban's wealth of football knowledge.

"ESPN and College GameDay have played such an important role in the growth of college football, and I'm honored to have the opportunity to join their team," he said in a statement. "I'll do my best to offer additional insights and perspectives to contribute to College GameDay, the ultimate Saturday tradition for college football fans."

"Nick Saban is a singular, iconic presence in college football," ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro added. "He is also an extremely gifted communicator, who will immediately add even more credibility, authority and entertainment value to ESPN, including our esteemed College GameDay show."

Saban's first act saw him climb through the college ranks, with head coaching stints at Toledo (1990), Michigan State (1995-99) and LSU (2000-04) while also holding down a defensive coordinator position with the Cleveland Browns (1991-94). He won a national championship at LSU and the NFL came calling, leading to the Miami Dolphins hiring him in 2005.

That ended poorly, however, as Saban went just 15-17 in two seasons with the Dolphins (2005-06).

But Alabama was happy to bring him aboard, the beginning of his second act. And what an act it was—Saban went 206-29 with the Crimson Tide and won six national championships, creating a true juggernaut at the school.

While Georgia and Kirby Smart eventually caught up to Alabama later in Saban's tenure, the school's run of dominance in both the loaded SEC and across the college football landscape in general was truly incredible. He retired from the sport this offseason as arguably the greatest college football head coach of all time.

As for his third act, it had long been rumored that Saban was ESPN's dream hire for College GameDay, giving them a fantastic eventual replacement for Lee Corso. Saban's insights should be a welcomed addition to the show.