If anyone understands college football rivalries, it’s Nick Saban.

The Alabama legend coached the Crimson Tide in the Iron bowl, one of the greatest and most bitter sports rivalries, for 17 seasons.

But the head coach, who won seven national titles before retiring in early 2024, has seen college football through a different prism this year as an ESPN “College GameDay” analysts.

After walking the sideline for decades, Saban has a front row seat to the sports’ most passionate fan bases as the pregame show travels from one town to another to hype of the latest slate of games.

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Appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show” Friday, Saban broke down Ohio State and Oregon’s upcoming New Year’s Day rematch at the Rose Bowl. Saban thinks the Buckeyes have plenty of talent to win it all, but he also talked about the fan base’s “psychotic obsession” with the Wolverines.

“We’ve kinda gotten on their fans a little bit,” Saban said, noting the “College GameDay” analysts’ recent critical comments about the Buckeyes’ fan base, most notably former OSU quarterback Kirk Herbstreit’s. “These Ohio State fans, they’ve got a psychotic obsession with Michigan, and they need to go to therapy or something to try to get it fixed because they have a chance to win the national championship.”

Saban said the Buckeyes’ regular season finale loss to Michigan appeared to affect everyone’s feelings about their chances to win it all, despite finishing with a 10-2 record and earning an at-large bid in the inaugural 12-team format.

“Nobody’s excited about their opportunity to play because they lost to Michigan, which was a tough game,” Saban said. “And they lost the game, probably, by some of the mistakes that they made. Those are correctable things.”

But Saban still feels strongly about Ohio State’s personnel, which features a couple of his old players including All-American and former Crimson Tide safety Caleb Downs.

“I think this is probably the most talented team if they play to the standard and level — offense, defense — they’ve pretty much got it all.”

Ohio State will play Oregon in the Rose Bowl in the CFP quarterfinals on ESPN at 7 p.m. CST on Jan. 1, 2025.

Watch the segment below.