When Will Nick Saban Retire? Odds Say After the 2025 Season

• Nick Saban is currently 67 years old
• The Alabama Crimson Tide are coming off a loss in the National Championship Game where they looked like they were outcoached by Clemson
• There are currently no head coaches in the country that are in their 70’s.

As we start to head towards summer and gear up for the new college football season, oddsmakers have posted a prop on when Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban will retire. Will he last 5.5 more seasons or will Saban be doing something else by then?

Nick Saban Retirement Odds

2019-20 Will Be Telling

There was a feeling at the end of the 2019 National Championship Game that we were witnessing the end of an era. It just felt like for the first time in a really long time, Nick Saban had been outcoached and his team was whipped. Has Alabama lost games under Saban? Of course. Had they ever looked that much overmatched? No.

At that point, people started wondering whether the game has changed too much for Saban and his style of winning was becoming a dated strategy. For an analogy, we see how the NBA has changed recently with a faster pace and more threes being shot that coaches who still like to pound it inside and play a half-court style get left behind.

Nick Saban. We got him. pic.twitter.com/R5liknyols

— Kofie (@KofieYeboah) January 8, 2019

With Saban, we’re going to find that out in the coming season. If Alabama again struggles with Georgia, Clemson or any other team that’s adjusting to the Clemson style where they can just spread defenses out and pick them apart by passing, that’ll give us a sign. Saban may not want to hang around if he can’t change with the times.

At the same time, if Alabama figures it out and we see that the SEC and National Championship games were merely aberrations, then there’s no reason to worry about Saban retiring soon.

No Rumors of Successor

One of they key tells of when a head coach is going to retire is a successor. If there’s a succession plan and the media knows about it, that can give us an indication that retirement is in the works. For example, with Urban Meyer at Ohio State, we had started hearing rumors early in the season and we knew Ryan Day was likely being groomed to take over one day.

This is what Alabama means to these recruits.. pic.twitter.com/MJVXTDcOnh

— Nick Saban (@sabanfaux) May 9, 2019

With Alabama, we don’t have a coach like that on the staff. There was a time when people thought Lane Kiffin would be that guy but he left. Some people thought Jeremy Pruitt might be the ideal candidate but he also left. That means Alabama’s future head coach probably isn’t on the staff right now. That’s a good thing for the over on this prop.

Odds What Season Nick Saban Retires

Saban Will Be 68 This Season

Keep in mind that the prop queries whether Saban will be around until 2025. He’ll be 68 this season, which means he’ll be 73 by the end of the 2025 season. To put that in perspective, we don’t have many head coaches who are that old in the game right now.

#Alabama’s Nick Saban on his hip/rehab: “I sat at home for 6 hrs in a chair … then I was walking around in the yard when (wife Miss Terry) got back & she said, ‘I’m going to call the doctor or the police on you if you don’t get back in the house.’ I just don’t sit still well.” pic.twitter.com/FMDKVUKVWq

— Alex Byington (@_AlexByington) May 8, 2019

Bill Snyder, who is now 79 years old, just retired. Frank Solich, who is now 74 years old, still coaches for Ohio. Joe Moglia, who just turned 70, stepped down as Coastal Carolina’s head coach at the end of last season. That means that there are no coaches in the country who are in their 70’s. There’s about a dozen in their 60’s but that’s it for the septuagenarians.

What’s the Best Bet?

Saban has a great job and he’s mostly been at the top of his game until last season. However, it feels like this is a young coach’s game these days.

The Dynasty of Nick Saban had arrived 12 years ago today, Thank you Saban pic.twitter.com/QsaBfxqFJt

— Alabama DieHards (@AlabamaDieHards) January 3, 2019

When you add in the fact that there aren’t many coaches in their 70’s, I’d bet the under on this prop. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him move to an Athletic Director roll or find greener pastures before the year 2025.