CFB AM: Nick Saban has a new $200,000 Mercedes soccer mom van

Nick Saban, as it turns out, does not spend every waking moment studying film, recruiting, scheming of ways to terrorize Auburn or answering to Miss Terry.

Apparently, he also spends a good chunk of time designing limited-edition, luxury vans.

Saban has just released a $200,000 Mercedes-Benz van called the "Nick Saban Signature Series Mercedes-Benz Sprinter" in partnership with the Benz dealership in Birmingham, Ala., which Saban co-owns and where his son works as the AMG specialist.

Only 15 of them will be produced for the 2015-16 college football season, and the van was designed for tailgating, entertaining and family travel.

So, basically, Saban has just designed the most badass soccer mom van Americans have ever seen.

"There's a standard that we want to do things to," Saban said about the van, which he didn't directly design but was heavily involved in the decision-making. "After looking at what they produced, I'm extremely pleased and proud and happy."

The van seats nine passengers and has three TVs, high-tech audio and video systems and a cooler, in addition to "premium touches" like hardwood flooring, high-grain leather and massage chairs.

And, of course, Saban's signature is stitched into the headrests.

Here's the promotional video that was released with the car.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Politics at Ohio State? Our colleague Joel Klatt made a cameo on The Audible the other day and dropped a polarizing opinion on the Ohio State quarterback decision. Klatt floated the idea that starting Cardale Jones over J.T. Barrett was, at least in part, a political decision by Urban Meyer to help maintain an important recruiting pipeline for the Buckeyes. Is there any truth to that? Who knows, and even Klatt admits it's a "wild theory." He's not the only one to make that point, though. I think Jones is just more talented, but there's certainly no detail or potential consequence that slips past Urban. Listen to the clip for Klatt's full comments:

Meanwhile, Cleveland Browns fans are already pushing a "Fail for Cardale" campaign. Johnny Manziel is a year away from being Chip Kelly's latest project in Philadelphia.

Texas' terrible offense. In a week that's light on big games, the Longhorns have suddenly become a very interesting story. They play Rice this week and all attention will be on the offense and new play-caller Jay Norvell. If Texas happens to lose this week and looks awful in the process, watch out. Cal and its offense comes into town next week, followed by Oklahoma State and then TCU and Oklahoma. It's possible the Longhorns could be 1-5 after that stretch and Charlie Strong's job status would be the No. 1 topic of conversation in Texas. Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel briefly discussed UT on The Audible and what it can possibly do about its offense.

In case you're wondering what Mack Brown thinks about the situation in Austin, he feels he has no responsibility at all for how bad the Longhorns currently appear to be, as he states in this San Antonio Express-News piece.

Rest in peace, Tyler Sash. There was sad news this week about former Iowa Hawkeye and New York Giant Tyler Sash, who died on Tuesday at 27 years old (no cause of death has been announced). Iowa released a nice tribute video for Sash. Condolences to his family, the Giants and the Hawkeyes.

LASTLY

* If you've been following this John Jay High School story with us, the attorney of the attacked referee spoke publicly for the first time and called the attack a "premeditated" and "heinous crime."

* Brian Kelly said Notre Dame and Michigan are "working hard" to see if they can resume the rivalry.

* Tom Herman wrote a first-person piece on what his experience has been like so far at Houston. Loved this insight into program-building.

* Evander Holyfield's son is part of Georgia's 2016 class, which is awesome -- except that dad wanted him to go to Notre Dame.

* Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning reached out to North Carolina QB Marquise Williams after Williams' tough opening-night performance against South Carolina last week (h/t to Joe from Cary, N.C., for sending this along).

Have a great Thursday, everyone. 

Teddy Mitrosilis works in social content development at FOX Sports Digital. Follow him on Twitter @TMitrosilis and email him at tmitrosilis@gmail.com.