On Friday it became known Alabama football and West Virginia will play games in 2026 and 2027. Almost immediately Nick Saban conjecture began.
A home-and-home between Alabama football and West Virginia is a big deal. The future scheduled series between the Crimson Tide and Notre Dame and Texas should be bigger but they are not. West Virginia and Crimson Tide games are bigger because of Nick Saban.
Alabama football fans are already making plans for Morgantown, WV in the fall of 2026 when Nick Saban takes his team home. Home, of course, being the state of his birth and young life. It will become one of the hardest regular season tickets to score ever for Tide fans. There will be plenty of Nick Saban fans from inside the state of West Virginia in attendance as well. The Mountaineers may not have their normal home-field advantage.
We are making a big assumption about this big game. The assumption is Nick Saban will be roaming the Crimson Tide sideline. Cecil Hurt commented on one aspect of Nick Saban and the game.
For those asking, Nick Saban will be 74 when Alabama plays in his home state.
— Cecil Hurt (@CecilHurt) February 22, 2019
If it is ever true that age is just number, the best claim is Nick Saban. Still robust in spirit and action at 67, it is easy to see Saban coaching until he is 75, maybe longer.
What so excited so many Tide fans about the 2026 game was the immediate flash of perception that Nick would never retire before that game.
After the excitement from the announcement faded it was natural to ponder what will, at some point in time, drive Saban to retire. As long as he coaches the Crimson Tide, it is unimaginable failure to win games will be the cause.
We suspect it will be something quite different from winning and losing. It will be a slippage in his ability to fundamentally connect with his players. Such broad slippage would likely precede team failures on the field.
Almost two and a half years ago, Nick Saban explained to ESPN’s Chris Lowe that he doesn’t lose sleep over losing. This is what he told Lowe.
"The thing I lose sleep over the most is not winning and losing games. It’s about players. It’s about a guy who’s not doing the right things or somebody you are trying to get to see the light and buy into doing the right things. I have been coaching for 43 years and to have what happened with Maurice Smith and his family, that’s what I lose sleep over."
Smith wanted to transfer to Georgia. Saban blocked the transfer at least partially because he did not believe it was in the player’s best interest. After a delay, Saban relented. From the comments to Lowe, it is clear Nick believes he failed to accomplish what was in Smith’s best interest.
Between now and the eventual time when Nick accepts retirement as the best direction, what is the tipping point? It will not be a precise number of players with whom Nick is no longer able to fundamentally connect. It will be the sense of a slippage we expect Nick (or maybe Miss Terry) will perceive before the rest of us are aware.
It will be a difficult day. For the Sabans and the rest of us. Until then we will keep believing it will not happen before a fall day in West Virginia in 2026.
West Virginia will travel to Tuscaloosa in 2027. Don’t count on Nick Saban not being the Crimson Tide head coach for the return game.