One of the greatest college football coaches, Nick Saban who had achieved seven national championships, eleven SEC championships, one MAC, and 15 SEC Western Division has recently shared that although he is retired from college football he isn’t from playing the part through which he can still help shape college football for its betterment.
Saban shared with ESPN and stated, "If my voice can bring about some meaningful change, I want to help any way I can, because I love the players, and I love college football. What we have now is not college football — not college football as we know it. You hear somebody use the word ‘student-athlete." That doesn"t exist."
The two-time Paul "Bear" Bryant Award recipient retired in January. The only head coach to win seven national titles was also inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. He coached the Alabama Crimson Tide from 2007 to 2023. Apart from this, Saban also coached Louisiana State University, Michigan State University, and the University of Toledo.
Saban also coached the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and now he is an analyst on ESPN for College GameDay. Some college coaches have also suggested that Saban would be the perfect candidate for the position of college commissioner if there is any chance of this position coming up.
Several coaches have suggested that Nick Saban would be a perfect choice for a "college football commissioner"—if such a position is ever created.
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He further continued, "I"m not really looking for a job, but I do know I"d like to impact college football the best way I can, whether it"s being a spokesperson or anything else. Listen, I"m for the players. It"s not that I"m not for the players. I want to see the players have a great quality of life and be able to create value for themselves. But we"ve gone to nobody talking about education, nobody talking about creating value for their future, to talking only about how much money can I make while I"m in college."
"I think the consequence of this could come down the road when some of these guys get 28 and 29 years old that maybe they didn"t prepare themselves for when they can"t play football anymore, which is what you should do when you go to college."
Saban also shared that he hopes that more reasonable conversation comes up when considering the present situation of college football. He further states that the dialogue needs to happen before the existing paradigm collapses entirely.
Regarding player compensation, Saban is of the opinion that he favors the players getting paid through NIL, name, image, and likeness deal as soon as they join college. He shares, "But what you have now isn"t name, image and likeness. A collective has nothing to do with name, image and likeness."
Further continuing, "People can give money to the university again and get a tax deduction for doing it, and the university in some kind of way shares, whether it"s share revenue, whether it"s buying marketing rights, which is a possibility. You can buy somebody"s marketing rights as an institution, and I don"t want to say cap because that sounds like a salary cap, but find a way for schools to invest the same amount of money in players, just like everybody can invest the same amount in a scholarship. This becomes a part of the scholarship."
For players to reap the benefits from their financial side, Saban enforced that player’s commitment also plays an important factor. He shares, "Just like an NFL player has a contract or a coach has a contract, something in place so you don"t have all this raiding of rosters and mass movement. I wonder what fans are going to say when they don"t even know the team from year to year because there"s no development of teams, just bringing in new players every year."
Saban also expressed that he is not quite near or knowledgeable about the law side of the league such as Greg Sankey, SEC Commissioner or Greg Byrne, Alabama athletic director.
Saban continues, "They would be more qualified [to serve in a college football commissioner"s role] than I am. They"re in it every day and know all the issues. That"s why I"m hesitant to come up with a firm solution because you don"t know the consequences of the solution relative to, ‘All right, do we have to pass antitrust laws to be able to do it this way? What does it all entail?’ It"s one thing to come up with a solution. It"s another thing to implement it. I"m just here to help."
