The college football landscape will look different next season but not only because of conference realignment and an expanded playoff.

Nick Saban will no longer be patrolling the sidelines of the Alabama Crismon Tide for the first time in 17 years after he announced his retirement on Wednesday, Jan. 10.

With six national championships and nine Southeastern Conference titles at Alabama, and another national title with two more SEC championships at LSU, Saban is the only coach other than Paul “Bear” Bryant to win SEC titles at two different schools.

Over 28 years as a head football coach in the college ranks, Saban finishes with a 292-71-1 overall record, including a 19-12 mark in bowl games, for an .804 winning percentage. He was the SEC Coach of the Year five times and the Associated Press Coach of the Year twice where 45 of his players earned consensus All-American honors.

The 2023 Crimson Tide registered a 12-2 record with a loss in the Rose Bowl to the eventual national champion Michigan Wolverines.

Saban’s wife, Terry, confirmed the reports that the coach met with his team to announce the news.

“It has been an incredible run these last 17 years at the University of Alabama and we take with us many amazing memories. We hope that the Saban legacy will be about helping others and making a positive difference in people’s lives as well as the winning tradition on the field,” Ms. Terry wrote on Wednesday. “Our Nick’s Kids Foundation will continue to help children, student, and teacher causes in the state of Alabama. The rules for the game of football may change, but the ‘process’ will never go out of style: hard work, discipline, the relentless pursuit of a worthy goal, not cutting corners, and doing things the right way for the sake of constant personal improvement, not for the scoreboard. Alabama will always feel like ‘Sweet Home’ to our family, and we’ll be cheering ‘Roll Tide’!”