Alabama head coach Nick Saban was announced Tuesday as one of eight 2020 competitive ballot inductees into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

The induction stems from Saban’s successful stint as the head coach at LSU, which spanned just five seasons but included his first national championship along with a pair of Southeastern Conference titles. He left the program in 2005 to try his hand in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins, but he returned to the college level after just two seasons to take the Alabama job. The rest is history as he has since guided the Crimson Tide to five national championships and six SEC titles over his first 12 seasons in Tuscaloosa.

But what if Saban had never left LSU to take that job in the NFL? Well, according to a recent interview with USA TODAY Sports, that decision remains one of the biggest regrets of his career.

"As it turns out, what I learned from that experience in hindsight was, it was a huge mistake to leave college football," Saban said. "And I know a lot of LSU fans think I left for whatever reasons, but I left because I wanted to be a pro coach, or thought I wanted to be a pro coach. We loved LSU. We worked hard to build the program. If there was one thing professionally that I would do over again, it would've been not to leave LSU."

Saban said he still remembers the conversation that he had with former LSU athletic director Skip Bertman, who tried to convince him to stay in Baton Rouge. He recounted the conversation to USA Today.

"I remember Richard Gill and Skip and I meeting in Skip's office," Saban said. "And I was really torn about it. And Skip said, 'You've just got to decide what you want your legacy to be. You want it to be as a college coach? Or do you want to try to make a name for yourself as a NFL coach?'

“And I really wanted to be a college coach, but I had it in the back of my mind all the time that the ultimate thing that you could accomplish in the profession was to be a head coach in the NFL. Don't ask me why. But that was just kind of there. And I thought, probably because of Wayne Huizenga (the late Dolphins' owner) that was the right one. He was a pretty good recruiter."

Saban and the rest of the Class of 2020 will be enshrined on Sat., June 27, in Natchitoches to culminate the 61st Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Celebration.

He will be the eighth former LSU head football coach enshrined into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, joining Gaynell Tinsley (1959), Bernie Moore (1963), Biff Jones (1966), Jerry Stovall (1981), Charlie McClendon (1982), Paul Dietzel (1988) and Les Miles (2019)..

A 35-member Louisiana Sports Writers Association committee selected the 2020 inductees. The panel considered a record 150 nominees from 31 different sport categories on a 33-page ballot, said Hall of Fame chairman Doug Ireland.