They say behind every successful man there is a successful woman. In the case of the GOAT and 7x National Championship winner, Nick Saban, it’s true. Well, college football fans are aware of the fact that Saban is not tapped into the NIL scenario in college football. However, the enlightenment of the former Alabama head coach was implanted by his wife, Terry Saban.
After giving up on his head coaching duties, Saban once shared, “She came to me like right before I retired and said, ‘Why are we doing this?’ And I said, ‘What do you mean? She said, ‘All they care about is how much you’re going to pay them, they don’t care about how you’re going to develop them, which is all what we’ve always done so why are we doing this?’” Even though Saban no longer holds a head coaching seat, he still thinks about the well-being of college football. Just like now, he has sensed something wrong.
On the 28th June episode of the Pure Athlete podcast, Saban came up with a reality check for college football. The stark contrast between the programs that have the power to pay good players and, on the other hand, the programs that can’t which creates a gap. And this definitely affects the fan base. “How are you going to you know maintain the standard of the financial benefits that you need to be able to pay players and do all the things that we’re talking about improving the quality of life and having the kind of support form that’s necessary for the future. So, I don’t think we did a very good job of that these last few years in college.”
NCAA, College League, USA Football 2025: College Football Playoff Semifinal Capital One Orange Bowl Notre Dame vs Penn State JAN 09 January 09, 2025: ESPN College GameDay analyst Nick Saban prior to NCAA football game action between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Penn State Nittany Lions at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. John Mersits/CSM/Sipa USA. Credit Image: John Mersits/Cal Media/Sipa USA NOxUSExINxGERMANY PUBLICATIONxINxALGxARGxAUTxBRNxBRAxCANxCHIxCHNxCOLxECUxEGYxGRExINDxIRIxIRQxISRxJORxKUWxLIBxLBAxMLTxMEXxMARxOMAxPERxQATxKSAxSUIxSYRxTUNxTURxUAExUKxVENxYEMxONLY Copyright: xCalxSportxMediax Editorial use only
According to Saban, important things like education and development have seemingly been swept under the rug. When he held the head coaching seat at Tuscaloosa, Alabama had a graduation rate of 87%. Even though he knew that only about 2% of his players would go on to play professionally, he focused on preparing them for careers beyond football. However, right now, the entire college football has been governed by NIL, which has spread its net over the transfer portal, alluring players out of their committed programs.
But in the long run, it is widening the gap between the fans with the programs and the players. Taking up a comparative lens with the NFL. “I think this is the first step in that direction, take the NFL. If the NFL had their way, every rule that they pass is for parody; they would love for every team after 16 weeks to be 8-8. So there’s 32 fan bases that are interested in the 17th week, that’s the best thing for the NFL, that’s the best thing for revenue, that’s the best thing for fan interest. And I think that everybody needs to understand if we don’t do this, it’s going to affect the game, and if you affect the quality of the games played, you affect the people who support the game.”
NIL is good as far as players’ development is concerned. However, as Saban considers the NIL system to be ‘unsustainable,’ players are focusing on the wrong things now with NIL money in the fold. Long story short, all this is affecting the purity that college sports used to have. This, in turn, leaves fans with a void in their hearts, as they can’t truly feel for their favorite program as they used to earlier. But his fight to lessen the NIL blows on college football continues, and he has the support of someone special.
Nick Saban counts on solutions over bureaucracy
Back in May this year, reports started to do the rounds that the 47th President, Donald Trump, had been making plans to create a presidential commission on college athletics. No brownie points for guessing, the commission was speculated to be led by Saban. The commission’s goal was expected to deeply examine the unwieldy landscape of college sports. One of its crucial areas was planned to regulate the frequency of player movement in the transfer portal and the unregulated booster compensation paid to athletes.
However, turns out that there has been a slight change in the plan. Saban spoke with reporters at his “Nick’s Kids” golf tournament. That’s when the GOAT broke his silence on the fact that he thinks that the commission is not necessary. However, he did not confirm that he is backing off from taking the seat for an advisory role. “I know there’s been a lot of stuff out there about some commission or whatever. I don’t think we need a commission. I’ve said that before. I think we need — we know what the issues are, we just have to have people who are willing to move those and solve those and create some solutions for some of those issues.”
Nick Saban then assured, “I’m all for being a consultant to anybody who would think that my experience would be beneficial to helping create some of those solutions.” However, it reminds us of what an anonymous Power Five coach told The Wall Street Journal. “It’s a free-for-all. And unlike the NFL, we don’t have a commissioner or a union—we have chaos.” The current model lacks the quintessential safeguards, such as salary caps or standard contracts. And without these guardrails, constant roster churn takes place, leading to wear and tear. The big question now is: can Nick Saban draw the line before college football crosses the point of no return?
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