AMAC EXCLUSIVE
Legendary college football coach Nick Saban, who won seven national titles over 28 years as a head coach, testified before Congress on March 12 and has re-ignited the debate on paying college athletes.
Saban’s retirement from the University of Alabama earlier this year surprised many in the college football world, particularly considering the Crimson Tide’s status as one of the premier programs in the sport. But it soon became clear that Saban had no intention of stepping away from college athletics entirely. Instead, he seems to be moving into more of an “elder statesman” role, where he intends to use the universal respect he enjoys from not just college football fans but the country at large to advocate for reforms to compensation rules.
That mission brought him to the U.S. Capitol last week, where he participated in a roundtable with senators on not just college football, but collegiate athletics in general.
“All these things that I believed in, for all these years, 50 years of coaching, no longer exist in college athletics. It was always about developing players, it was always about helping people be more successful in life,” Saban told lawmakers. “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 what we’ve always done, so why are we doing this?”
Starting in 2021, following a tumultuous period of individual state action and even a Supreme Court case, the NCAA began allowing college athletes to receive compensation for their “name, image, and likeness” (NIL). In theory, the change was supposed to allow players to capitalize on their fame to earn money while still in college – something which had before been explicitly banned.
In practice, however, the program has turned college sports – and in particular the multi-billion-dollar college football industry – upside down.
At the biggest schools, groups of boosters have formed “NIL collectives,” where donors pool their money to target highly rated players. The collectives then offer those players large sums in exchange for a miniscule amount of promotional or volunteer work – in effect creating an indirect payment scheme. At the University of Texas, for instance, offensive line recruits are promised at least $50,000 per year in exchange for a few hours of charity work.
Changes to transfer rules have also encouraged teams to poach players from other squads by promising them more money. While NIL proponents initially insisted that the changes would increase parity and benefit smaller schools, in reality the wealthier blue-blood programs like Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Texas, and USC have been able to drain lesser programs of their most talented players and further cement their status as college football royalty.
The sums of money now flowing to top players are enormous. USC quarterback Caleb Williams, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2022 and is widely expected to be the top pick in this year’s NFL draft, reportedly made more than $10 million on NIL while in college. Ohio State allegedly has to spend around that sum every year just to keep its current players on the roster.
As a growing number of coaches, including Saban, are warning, the NIL-era is ruining college football. “I’m for student-athletes being able to share in some of this revenue,” Saban said, but the current situation is “a red alert that we really are creating a circumstance that is not beneficial to the development of young people, which is why I always did what I did.”
Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart, Saban’s former defensive coordinator at Alabama, has likewise expressed his concerns about NIL causing players to be too focused on money. “I think it’s much more important how you develop players than how much NIL you can give them,” he said during Georgia’s pro day earlier this month.
While some voices in sports media have suggested that Saban and Smart are hypocritical for earning millions of dollars per year while opposing the current NIL structure, that criticism misses the nuance of their argument. Neither coach is opposed to offering players compensation. They simply want more guardrails to ensure that the payment structure is in the best interests of both players and coaches.
As Josh Pate, the host of the popular year-round college football show The Late Kick with Josh Pate has pointed out, the current situation in college football would be like if the NFL did away with the salary cap and contracts and allowed every player to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of every season. Chaos would quickly ensue and the overall product on the field would suffer, which is exactly what is happening in college football.
Saban also made clear on Capitol Hill last week that fixing what’s broken in college football is crucial for the survival of college athletics as a whole. College football, and to a significantly lesser extent, college basketball, are the only sports that make any money, and they pay for the 22 other NCAA sports – including the life-changing scholarship opportunities that those sports make available to high school students.
But despite the fact that a number of lawmakers have promised to introduce legislation regulating NIL, Saban’s hope that Congress can solve the problem is likely misplaced. Congress has proven itself hopelessly inept at virtually everything it has been asked to do, from securing the border to passing a budget that doesn’t set the country on a course to fiscal disaster. If anything, the American people should want Congress to stay as far away from the issue as possible, lest they ruin college sports completely.
A big part of the problem is the NCAA itself, an organization that has become astoundingly corrupt and incompetent. The NCAA is charged with working alongside coaches and players to develop a working framework for things like NIL. It failed miserably, and has continued to fumble opportunities to rein-in the wild pay-for-play schemes that now dominate the sport.
At the very least, however, Saban is elevating this issue and pushing for real solutions, rather than just rhetoric and complaints. For those of us who love Saturdays in the fall and all the traditions and pageantry of college football, this is something to be grateful for.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on X @ShaneHarris513.
“For those of us who love Saturdays in the fall and all the traditions and pageantry of college football, this is something to be grateful for.” I was so sad and disgusted this last year with college football, especially at the end of the season. I too love Saturdays in fall, even if I am doing yard work, I have it on and check scores and watch the games throughout the day. I am afraid they let the jeannie out the bottle now and fear there is no way to go back to what it used to be and should be. I hate all the teams changing conferences and losing the tradition and player jumping into the portal … it’s just awful
They are being payed 50-70 thousand and get an education – I think that is enough!
I don’t need the crap they do after catching a ball either.
always remember dexter manley. anyone getting a scholarship should be held to the same standards as anyone paying for school. and the course they take, should actually elevate their intelligence and must be tested. otherwise play in a rookie league and impress the scouts!!!
A full academic ride, tutoring, room and board, and the opportunity to develop as a person under leadership of professional coaches and trainers isn’t enough? Now it’s NIL as well. I don’t blame an athletic recruit not to ignore such temptation to the NIL “incentives.” On the other hand, for the player to accept it speaks to his (or her) character, and that is, again, a symptom to the greater problem of those people in charge of the source of the money. This has to be paid for and I have no doubt that it’s not just coming from the “donors,” given the cost of tuition and rise of corruption and immorality all throughout the halls of academia. The “gang that can’t shoot straight” (Congress), will surely turn this into a quagmire of insanity as directed by their lobbyist overlords. And the players’ “community service” should not be performed at the incentive of a paycheck, otherwise it’s not service, it’s a face on an ad. A photoshoot.
I doubt that all collegiate players are compromised by NIL, not all are marquee players, are they? Saban is correct, very much so. And NIL is why I no longer have any interest in watching and supporting collegiate athletics, and why my enthusiasm has dampened towards the pros. It’s tainted now. I’ve got better things to do with the years I have left on this earth than watch what’s becoming another leftist clown show.
Once again, the U. S. Supreme Court, with one decision destroyed a credible and mostly highly successful part of U. S. culture when they turned college sports from amateur status to professional status with one kooky decision. They failed to take into account, or failed to correctly price the amount of money college athletes were paid each year. A college athlete with a full “scholarship” was and still is paid full room and board, all tuition, free tutorial assistance, and paid daily oversight of health and welfare by a specialized group of people dedicated to keeping each scholarship athlete healthy, cocooned in legal and protective services, and academically qualified to play their sport. In a state-supported major university this easily amounted to more than $50,000 to $100,000 a year. Now, how on earth did the U. S. Supreme Court determine that these players were “underpayed” and needed the ability to negotiate additional compensation and even form a labor union. The Supreme Court, with one single decision made college sports participants no longer amateurs, but rather full professionals. Many Americans could see the result, and it happened just as quickly as we expected. Like all other professional sports, college athletes now go to the college who is the highest bidder AND gets their name in lights both personally and as a member of the team for whom they play. Additionally, college coaches can no longer plan to keep a player in his grasp for 4 years in order to help the player mature to his best capability. Thanks to the portal and the Supreme Court’s ruling, most of the top tier coaches in the big three sports of football, basketball, and baseball (for both women and men) will never be able to develop team loyalty and team cohesiveness through 4 years of dedicated student athlete effort to a single college program. Finally, long-term fan dedication is probably gone and will cost the big three sports dearly in terms of fan revenue from year to year. Coach Saban is right in everything he has personally witnessed. He is the first of many top tier coaches who will probably leave their college sport early. I saw this coming, and like the tip of the iceberg, the college sport programs nationwide will suffer the fate of the Titanic. I wish someone on the Supreme Court would read The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. Written in 1776, it became the blueprint for the U. S. Economy. Although never mentioned as a steadfast document to which the U. S. needs to be dedicated, it is the bedrock text for our U. S. Economic System. Starting with the Obamacare decision, John Roberts has thrown away the basic tenets of the U. S. Economic system. The professionalizing of college sports ill-informed and ill-thought.
My heart really breaks over those greedy student athletes doing what all those multibillion dollar schools do: make bank.
Free-ride scholarships should be enough. It seems everything in this world today is “all about the money”, and it’s ruining the American way of life and ethics. This country was founded on hard work and merit. Keep it that way.
AND, why have “Game” sports been turned into $$million careers? It’s a game, for heaven’s sake. It’s something people watch to get their minds off (at least for a couple hours) what the world is becoming in the 21st century.
It seems to me that this NIL started out to be a good thing for the student athletes but has morph into being a major corruption in college sports. Those institutions that have big money support from alumni entice student athletes to transfer from school to school leaving the programs that initially recruiting them holding the bag. Maybe a fixed amount of money should be paid to all student athletes at all schools that would prevent this from occurring. Once they get out into the work force let their talents, and abilities will then provide them with the capability of making as much money as they can.
First and foremost the attend college to earn a degree! If students are recruited by colleges/University’s due to their excelling in a particular sport (Baseball.basketball, or football and/or other sport that doesn’t bring in the huge amounts of money that football does and the student is good enough to make the team, that’s fine. However, the student’s First responsive is to their parent’s and earn their degree. Their athletic participation is secondary and playing basketball, baseball,football, and golf as a professional athlete is TEMPORARY..Professional athletes Must have a plan once they retire from their professional athlete career.
Saban liked it better when they could pay players under the table. Now they have to compete for top athletes.
College football, or any college sports, are the only sports where the kids play with their hearts, not their wallets.
What does that even mean. We are all individuals.
Saban and Smart don’t like other schools getting some of the premiere players. But I also don’t like the play for pay. There should a difference between amateur and professional athletics.
March Madness is my favorite sports time of the year & it a huge worry to me that the pay for play will ruin college sports in the near future. Most of the athletes have a good scholarship package that will pay for their education if they keep grades up AND in my opinion that system works for the athlete and United States. If it aint broken, leave it alone.
Official payment to players separates them from the rest of the students. I don’t think the football players will do any of the growing and developing that people go to school for. They will emerge as potential coaches and players but with no other skills or certifications. I wouldn’t want this for one of my children.
AMAC purports to be a conservative site yet they are promote socialism. Why not go all the way with communism. There are far better alternatives to AARP which are actually conservative.
Hooray for Nick! College Football needs some rules for NIL. Simple things, such as minimum years after a transfer, i.e. 2 years after the transfer. Institute a Pay Cap for all Divisions, D1= 200k/yr, D2= 100k/yr, D3= 50k/yr.
should have been shouldn’t be allowed to start about NIL
Why not pay high school players. Maybe even kindergartners Where does it end. If molding students is not number one but paying them is. You open a can of worms. Next they’ll be wanting free agency after a year. Go to a university that pays more. Education is not number one any more. Sport is. Like ole Joe paying college loans now it will be buying players. If this is not written with safeguards in place it will be a disaster. And lawsuits will dominate. Like everything with ole Joe’s governing. Suit after suit is brought, so called, to make it legal what the people would have rejected had they been given a chance to vote on it. And this project will also be a disaster. For the courts are just rubber stampers for ole Joe and his minions. Be very afraid for what you wish for. NIL should have been allowed to start. Beginning of the end for honorable sport.
Baseballs, basketballs, footballs, golf balls, soccer balls, tennis balls, oh my.
feel the bern
You notice big name coaches are bothered by players finally getting paid.They move around freely but don’t want the players to be able to.