Nick Saban predicts the next CFP National Championship

ESPN personality Nick Saban. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Nick Saban predicts the next CFP National Championship

By Ernesto Cova | Last updated Sep 5, 2026 1:41 PM ET

For years, Nick Saban kept Alabama consistently ranked either at or near the top of the AP Poll.

A lot has changed, but the Crimson Tide are still absolutely stacked and have championship aspirations every year, even with the legendary head coach long gone.

Saban is now working as an analyst, and his pedigree as one of the greatest to ever do it makes everyone listen whenever he has something to say.

That's why Miami (Florida) fans should be ecstatic to know that Saban thinks they'll get the monkey off their backs and win the whole thing this season.

Nick Saban has Miami winning it all this season

“The number of good teams that we talked about today, there’s no magic in who you pick and it’s just your best guess, but I’m saying Miami versus Texas and Miami wins,” Saban said on ESPN's "College GameDay."

The crew has the early CFP champ picks locked in pic.twitter.com/NMr6jqwHdp
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) September 5, 2026

Notably, Saban thinks Mario Cristobal's team will get back on its feet after losing to Indiana in last season's national championship game.

They certainly got off to a strong start to the season, routing the Stanford Cardinal 45-6 on Friday night with new starting quarterback Darian Mensah and star WR Malachi Toney at the helm.

Even so, it looks like Saban's pick wasn't the most popular, with Desmond Howard choosing Texas over Notre Dame, Kirk Herbstreit rolling with the Fighting Irish over Indiana, and Pat McAfee choosing the Hoosiers over Ole Miss.

It's still way too early to tell, and the fact that Saban didn't choose Alabama is certainly notorious.

But after everything he's done ands een in his years in college football, it's hard not to trust his gut.

Ernesto Cova

Ernesto is a bilingual (English-Spanish) sports writer with over eight years of experience covering major leagues such as the NBA, NFL, and MLB. Ernesto’s work focuses on providing insightful, up-to-date coverage of sports, blending his expertise in sports psychology with a passion for analyzing player performance, team dynamics, and trade developments across various sports leagues

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