Being a guest at the most popular college football show means you are under a lot of scrutiny from mercurial college football fans. They expect the guest to come with the same amount of respect that the rest of the regular panel brings to the game. Especially when there’s a legend like Nick Saban on it. But College GameDay’s Week 6 trip is now catching strays because of an embarrassing mistake made by the guest picker. Alabama fans, especially, are voicing their displeasure over his selection as guest picker and his slip up on social media.

Nick Saban’s name is 3 easy syllables. It’s Nick Sa-ban, it doesn’t get any easier than that. But famous comedian Theo Von apparently didn’t get the memo. He is College GameDay’s guest picker for the heated Alabama-Vandy clash. Von took to social media to express his gratitude for the special invite, and his excitement to meet the crew. “I get to see everybody, I get to meet Nick Sabans, baby,” he said. “God, I get to meet Nick Sabans,” he stressed once again. Yep, it’s outrageous enough for a double-take at that pronunciation.

Even if you’re not an Alabama fan, you probably wouldn’t be making such an obvious mistake while naming the most iconic figure of that program. Von is a Vanderbilt fan, despite having no native roots to the Nashville area. But he’s made it home, and has grown to love Vanderbilt football. The guest picker is usually either a superfan or a former player. The former is how Von enters the show. But even the best Vandy fans know how to pronounce Nick Saban the right way.

Saban, a 6x National Championship winning coach at Alabama, will be sharing the stage with Von. By now, the comedian sure knows how big of an error he made. Alabama fans absolutely cannot ignore the Nick Saban blunder. Intentionally or not, a mistake about their beloved coach will bring forth a response from many of them.

Fans drag Theo Von on X

“I like Theo Vonn but wtf @CollegeGameDay This is horse—-. A former BAMA player should have been guest picker. ANYONE from BAMA….just like you do for ALL other places,” one fan shared angrily on X. The shows’ OSU-Texas coverage did not have any picker, since it was all about Lee Corso. Sooners basketball star Trae Young turned up for the OU-Michigan game. Tennessee and WNBA legend Candace Parker joined them for Week 3. NHL’s Matthew Tkachuk joined for Week 4, and PSU HOF linebacker LaVar Arrington came in for Week 5. But more often than not, College GameDay chooses guest pickers from the area they’re travelling to.

“I certainly believe they should’ve gotten someone different. After listening to Theo for so long though, he definitely knows there not an s on the end and is trolling. He intentionally mispronounces damn near everything,” another suspected. Von jokes for a living. The Alabama-Vandy game was already going to be a charged atmosphere. Vanderbilt are no underdogs this year, coming in as a ranked squad this year. Theo Von being a Commodores fan, could be trolling for some rage bait from Bama fans. “This man said Nick SABANS,” one user pointed out clearly, amused at the novelty of this mistake.

“I know ESPN is running out of talent, but this is god awful,” wrote another angry fan. Rece Davis even defended having someone like Von coming to the show, considering his space in the media. His social media following is at 8.3 million. So, it’s not that Theo Von lives under a rock. Nick Saban is everywhere in college football. Von did say in his video that he’ll “abide by” the rules of the crew around Saban. But for the fans at Bryant-Denny it appears he has already broken one rule around calling their legendary coach in the correct manner.