Pat McAfee floats Nick Saban for prestigious college football job

Pat McAfee suggests Nick Saban should take the reins as the inaugural college football commissioner.

ESPN personality Pat McAfee talks during College GameDay as Nick Saban looks on, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at Jones AT&T Stadium. | Nathan Giese/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

College football is a booming monopoly in desperate need of guidance from a higher power.

While fans still flock to see their favorite teams play every weekend, the desire to pay exorbitant admission prices will soon wane if the players who profit from them continually bolt for new destinations.

The transfer portal is a small portion of a laundry list of items that irritate the average college football fan. Unless the NCAA or another governing body steps in to enforce new protocols, the sport is on the brink of more chaos.

That sentiment was on display during ESPN's College GameDay show during Championship Weekend. After Nick Saban suggested the root problems of college football should be addressed with haste, Pat McAfee offered a suggestion to Saban about who should solve those issues.

It sounds like you should be the commissioner of College Football Coach Saban 😂😂

What if we did move the schedule up#CollegeGameDay https://t.co/XNGbDFdFDE pic.twitter.com/mXmzR4oW6c

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 6, 2025

"Having a commissioner- I guess I'll just ask you this question because you should be the commissioner, but you don't have enough time in your life to be the commissioner- but, to make that, there's going to have to be a lot of people who are going to have to agree on something and you would be the only person they would agree on."

Pat McAfee

Maybe fans look to Saban as a candidate for the hypothetical position because of the operation he ran for 17 years at Alabama, but the seven-time national champion head coach has also served as a voice of reason for college football. He attended a private roundtable on Capitol Hill hosted by Senator Ted Cruz in March to discuss the need for a framework around NIL.

In response to McAfee's suggestion, Saban mentioned the idea of revisiting the college football calendar as a potential fix for issues with the sport.

"Not just 'when is football season?' and 'when is the playoffs?' but when can you transfer, when does the portal open, when do we have Signing Day and when can coaches leave? All of these things are antiquated."

Nick Saban

The crux of these critical questions from Saban was to suggest that the period for both players and coaches to find new destinations should be moved to the spring rather than the postseason.

ESPN personality Nick Saban does the Guns Up gesture toward Texas Tech students before a Big 12 Conference football game, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at Jones AT&T Stadium. | Nathan Giese/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images