USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
It appears Nick Saban knew he could land at ESPN’s College GameDay over 10 years ago, and WWE exec Nick Khan, then a major talent agent, played a pivotal role in helping the network land the legendary coach.
Earlier this week, Paul Finebaum told an interesting story on ‘Get Up’ about how Saban met with Khan and ESPN execs back in 2013. According to Finebaum, he believed Saban was seriously considering leaving Alabama for College GameDay after the team suffered brutal losses to Auburn and Oklahoma.
“In May of 2013, I got a call from a man named Nick Khan. You may be familiar with him since he was your agent for many, many years. And he said, ‘Can you pick me up at the Birmingham airport?’ This is 2013. I picked him up. We drove to Tuscaloosa. He met with Jimmy Sexton and Nick Saban for dinner and that’s when the offer was made for him to be on College GameDay.
“He didn’t and he was thinking about walking away then because he was so fed up and he met with the same group again before the next national championship game after Saban got knocked out in the Kick Six game. So he knew that College GameDay offer was there for 10 years. So he knew at any point if I retire I have a good job. I’m not sitting around trying to figure out what I want to do like almost every other former coach.”
Later on his show, Finebaum went into more detail about Saban’s meeting with Khan and ESPN execs and why he believed that Saban was close to leaving Alabama at the time.
“Then that year, after the Kick Six, I’m back at the Rose Bowl working for ESPN, and I’m having lunch with Nick Khan at the Langham Hotel. Nick Khan would entertain for hours. It’s like The Don, Don Corleone; there would be people waiting. Toward the end of lunch, he said, ‘Listen, at some point this lunch is going to end very quickly, because John Skipper, the president of ESPN, and John Wildhack, the number two guy, are going to show up here.”
“And a few minutes after that, Saban and Sexton are going to show up.’ The reason that’s important is that this was after the Kick Six, and Saban was furious. I don’t think I’ve ever told this: I ran into Saban in one of the media rooms, either at halftime or before the national championship game between Auburn and Florida State, and I just said something like, ‘How’s it going, Coach?’ This is about four days after the Oklahoma loss in the Sugar Bowl.”
“And he unloaded on his team with about as many expletives in a 10-to-15-minute conversation as I have ever heard. I don’t know if I ever told that story to the Saban people, because it was just a little weird. And I was thinking right then, this guy might be walking out. He has just had enough. He would never admit to that now, and nobody would confirm it. I’m just telling you, I was subjected to an F-bomb tirade by Saban that night in Pasadena.”
Eventually, Saban stayed at Alabama and won a few more national championships before retiring, but it seems the groundwork was laid for him to leave coaching and join College GameDay in 2013, after early meetings with Khan and ESPN.