Nick Saban reveals his biggest issue with NIL in college football currently

We know that college football is a young man's game, but it is still hard to fathom that the NIL landscape is what ultimately led to Nick Saban retiring. Yes, he was firmly in his 70s, but his youthfulness and adaptability are what made him a coaching legend. His dynastic run at Alabama from 2007 to 2023 was the stuff of legend. However, it wasn't coaching attrition that ended him...

During his opening address at the NIL roundtable at Capitol Hill, Saban expressed what he likes and doesn't like about name, image, likeness. Oh, he has been all about player empowerment in the latter part of his career. He has very little problem with guys being compensated fairly for their NIL, based off the brand and performance on the field of play. It should be earned, and not given to any player...

Where he continued to push back was on the notion of the "pay for play model", inducement, if you will. NIL has been combined with the transfer portal, and high school recruitment to some extent, as a way to create a free-market enterprise where a player goes to the highest bidder. It is like Scott Boras representing 18-year-olds who have never left home before. You can understand Saban's frustration.

While Saban's comments on the issue have always made sense, his wife Terry's were a bit off-putting.

Obviously, there need to be changes made to college athletics to give this thing guardrails, but when?

Nick Saban shares biggest beef with NIL and college football landscape

As the old adage goes, the road to hell was paved with good intentions. Should players be paid? Absolutely, especially since their team sport commitments make it extraordinarily difficult to hold jobs during the academic year. Many of these student-athletes come from nothing, so any little bit of extra money helps. However, if you pay players for NIL, expect for corners to be cut with inducement.

There absolutely need to be regulations put on NIL, and especially the transfer portal. Even having just two transfer windows a year is still far too difficult for even some of the best college head coaches to manage. It is why those who love recruitment, and those who emphasize creating a front office of sorts operating behind the scenes will run laps around programs who do not value that.

What probably needs to happen is for there to be a player's union and for major college football to separate from the NCAA entirely. The FBS already conducts its own bowl system and playoff tournament. If the players are deemed workers, then let's get a CBA drawn up and go from there. If college football is the minor leagues of the NFL, then let's have a system in place to best reflect that.

While Saban's opinions on NIL are justified, they are a bit of the idealism variety in an evolving world.