Nick Saban spent his first year of retirement plenty busy.
The former Alabama football coach spent his Saturdays in cities from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Columbus, Ohio and Dublin, Ireland, working as a analyst for ESPN’s College GameDay.
Sitting next to Pat McAfee, Desmond Howard and Kirk Herbstreit, while watching Lee Corso don a mascot head each week, Saban made 162 game picks in his first year on the popular show.
Of those 162 picks, through the College Football Playoff quarterfinal, Saban was correct 96 times.
Here’s a deeper dive on the picks Saban made during his first season on College GameDay.
When an Alabama game was on the slate, Saban never wavered from picking the Crimson Tide.
The former Alabama coach picked the Crimson Tide to beat Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, LSU, Auburn and Michigan.
The Crimson Tide finished 5-2 in those games, with losses to Tennessee and Michigan.
During Week 9, Saban picked eight of the nine games correctly. His only loss? Choosing LSU over Texas A&M in a game the Aggies won 38-23.
During Week 10, Saban was correct on two of his eight game picks. His only correct game picks were Miami over Duke and SMU over Pittsburgh.
Seventeen college football teams won each time Saban picked them to win on College GameDay:
Seventeen college football teams lost each time Saban picked them to win on “College GameDay:”
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him atcgay@gannett.com or follow him@_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
