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Following his legendary tenure as Alabama’s head coach, Nick Saban will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as part of the 2025 class.
Saban, who now serves as a college football analyst for ESPN, was surprised with the news during an appearance on College GameDay.
Saban retired at the end of the 2023 season after spending 17 years at Alabama, winning six national championships with the Crimson Tide.
The 73-year-old also won a seventh national title with LSU in 2003. He finished with an overall record of 297-71-1 as a college head coach with Alabama, LSU, Michigan State and Toledo.
“Thank you so much but anytime anything like this happens, it’s because you had a lot of great people in your organization,” Saban said on College GameDay after the news was revealed. “A lot of great players, a lot of great coaches, lot of support staff and they made a great team. I was happy to drive the bus but we had some great people on it, so thank you so much.”
He opened his head coaching career with Toledo in 1990, leading the team to a 9-2 record before joining the NFL to become the Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator. Saban stayed in the role for four years before returning to the college level, taking over as head coach of Michigan State from 1995-99 until starting at LSU in 2000.
He returned to the NFL for two years as the Miami Dolphins head coach in 2005 and 2006 before beginning his impressive tenure at Tuscaloosa. After compiling a modest 7-6 record during Saban’s first year with the Tide, they reached double-digit win totals in every subsequent season that he spent with the program.
He’ll now be part of the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame class, which will be officially inducted on Dec. 9.
The rest of the 2025 class will be announced on Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET.
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