Do politics await Nick Saban now that he’s retired as Alabama’s football coach?

It didn’t take long for a possible new venture for Nick Saban to be floated.

A future in politics, to be specific.

The legendary college football coach, who announced his retirement from the sport on Wednesday after 17 years coaching the Alabama Crimson Tide, during which time he won six national titles, has been suggested as a potential U.S. senatorial candidate by the Alabama Democratic Party, The Hill reported.

Per Nick Robertson, the party signaled Wednesday, shortly after news broke that Saban was retiring, “that it would support a Senate campaign by retiring University of Alabama head coach Nick Saban against Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.”

While not close to being anything official — it was posted by the Alabama Democrats’ social media account on X, in response to a post by Josh Moon, a reporter and columnist at Alabama Political Reporter that suggested Saban run for office, specifically to defeat Tuberville, that put Saban’s name in the political sphere — Saban does have close ties with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., due to a childhood friendship, and actually endorsed Manchin’s 2018 reelection campaign.

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Saban was also among a handful of sports figures from West Virginia who signed a letter in 2022 that urged Manchin to support the passage of the Freedom to Vote Act.

Tuberville has been the senior U.S. senator from Alabama since his election in 2020 and is a noted Donald Trump supporter, though he recently suggested that the former president hasn’t been as strong with his rhetoric as Tuberville would like, particularly when it comes to immigration.

“I’m mad he wasn’t tougher than that because have you seen what’s happening at the border? We are being overrun. They’re taking us over,” Tuberville said last month, as reported by CNN. “They’re taking us over, so a little bit disappointed he wasn’t a little bit tougher.”

Saban and Tuberville have a long history with one another on the football field, Saban at LSU first and then later at Alabama, and Tuberville when he was the head coach at Auburn.

The pair only coached against each other once while heading the two Alabama-based universities, though, a 2007 matchup where Tuberville and the Tigers got the better of Saban and the Crimson Tide.