Why Nick Saban's Emmy Shouldn't Come as a Surprise: Just a Minute

The longtime college football head coach added another honor to his extensive trophy case.

Jan 9, 2025; Miami, FL, USA; ESPN analyst Nick Saban before the game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Welcome to BamaCentral’s "Just a Minute," a daily video series featuring BamaCentral's Alabama beat writers. Multiple times a week, the writers will group up or film solo to provide their take on a topic concerning the Crimson Tide or the landscape of college sports.

Watch the above video as BamaCentral assistant editor Katie Windham shares why it shouldn't be a surprise that Nick Saban won a Sports Emmy in the first year of his post-coaching career.

Nick Saban won a Sports Emmy for "Outstanding Personality/Emerging On-Air Talent" on Tuesday night for his work on ESPN's "College GameDay" as an analyst.

Anyone who has followed Saban's career knows he's been successful at almost everything he does. (Let's just pretend like the Dolphins experiement didn't happen.) Not only did Saban win seven national titles (six at Alabama) and a dozen conference championships in college football, but he has built a car dealer empire outside of the sport.

So winning an Emmy his first year of doing TV full time should come as no surprise. Whenever ESPN's "College GameDay" host Rece Davis spoke about what Saban brought to the show, he mentioned how prepared the former Alabama head coach was for every meeting and show.

Saban spent decades giving the media hard time, but maybe that helped him have a seamless transition from coach to media personality. I think most people who watched Saban on ESPN this past season, including myself, would agree that this award was well deserved. He was just as natural in behind the desk as he was behind the podium or on the sidelines.

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