College Football HQ

Paul Finebaum hints at Nick Saban's future with College GameDay

Nick Saban just joined ESPN's flagship college football program, but one of the sport's most famous commentators wonders if that run could end sooner rather than later.

James Parks

Paul Finebaum speculates as to whether Nick Saban might get tired of his role on ESPN's College GameDay.
Paul Finebaum speculates as to whether Nick Saban might get tired of his role on ESPN's College GameDay. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Nick Saban only just joined ESPN’s flagship college football program as an analyst, but Paul Finebaum wonders if the former Alabama head coach will be around for the long term.

Talking about college football on television can be grueling work that comes with constant pressure, especially in a social media age when your words can take on a life of their own.

“Television is a weird deal,” Finebaum explained on the Saturday Down South podcast.

“It’s a little bit like a new car, where you drive off the lot and you feel great, then a year later it doesn’t look so new anymore. I don’t think that’s a big deal for him. But I think after a while, television wears everyone down. I think it will get to him, as well.”

Reflecting on conversations they have had on the subject, Finebaum recalled that Saban was well aware of the constant criticism he would come under in his new position.

“I did say something to him at one point before he got on the air that everything he said would be under a microscope,” Finebaum said.

“And I think Saban acted like, ‘Well, everything I do is under a microscope.’ But I don’t think he understood, quite frankly, that predictions, idle comments, would metastasize in the aggregation world. My guess is he was nonplussed a couple of times by what happened.”

He added: “But he’s done such a good job, and he’s a needed voice. I think maybe we also give him too much credit. I think I will pull my last remaining hair out the next time a coach suggests Nick Saban as a tsar of college football. It’s not going to happen.”

Saban has certainly left an impression on the college football conversation in his first year as a regular analyst with the College GameDay program.

Some of those moments went viral, and not in ways that some viewers appreciated, after it was revealed that some had complained to the FCC about the coach’s liberal use of some profanities.

“Nick Saban said the word sh-t twice, b-tch once, and something else I can’t remember,” read one complaint filed by an unhappy ESPN viewer from Missouri.

“I tune [in] to gain knowledge and insight on college football, not to have profanity stuffed in my face by a former coach trying to be funny. It will continue until you [fine] them a million dollars or more. Chinchy fines accomplish nothing.”

Knowledge and insights are two things Saban does bring to the College GameDay program, in addition to some cussing, but for how long?

(SDS)

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James Parks
JAMES PARKS

James Parks is the founder and publisher of College Football HQ. He previously covered football for 247Sports and CBS Interactive. College Football HQ joined the Sports Illustrated Fannation Network in 2022.

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