Saban on NIL during Capitol Hill NIL Roundtable (video)

[Bamabuzzard]

I know Saban cares about the game but I wish he would not lend his NIL to this mess. There is no upside for him. He made multi-generational wealth off the game when the labor inputs were free. He dominated the sport because he was the ultimate agent to the NFL. I know he supports players receiving money, he can't oppose it because he has benefitted immense from the old model.

Ultimately, 2 models will have to develop where they player can opt-in to the NIL model of their choosing subject to certain restrictions.

I think we tend to forget the college model of football has made a lot of kids a lot of money over the years as well, on top of providing them with resources for an opportunity to earn an education. The players and the college platform both need each other. Take away the college platform and what would the players have had this entire time? More than likely an underfunded "pro" and "semi-pro" league with nowhere near the quality of coaching and benefits they have received from the college platform. Nick Saban's name and coaching knowledge have gotten kids drafted who otherwise would be working the drive-thru at Wendy's or a parts delivery driver for Auto Zone making $13/hour.

The format needs to be fixed no doubt, but the players need college football just as much as college football needs them, but when it comes to the money part of the talks, the terminology should change to "value", because this narrative (not saying you're saying this) of coaches and admins making all the money and the kids "getting nothing" is not true. There are former LSU football and baseball players who live in my town that have gotten six-figure jobs not because they were the most qualified, but because they wore the LSU uniform. They weren't superstars but played four years at LSU in baseball or football and because of that, got a fast pass to the front of the line in the business world. Players get A LOT.

 

[December05]

It is infuriating to me.

While he is, without much debate, the greatest of all-time, what 5 to 10 more seasons would have done for his career numbers would have been amazing. He was 292-71-1. If he averages 11 wins per year (which is not off the pace he set at Alabama) for 5 more seasons he reaches 347 wins. If he coaches 10 more seasons at 11 wins per year, he's at 402 wins.

Joe Paterno is still credited with 409 wins. At 402 wins, only Joe Paterno, Eddie Robinson, and Joe Gagliardi would have been ahead of him. Maybe he tapers off the last few years and misses 400 wins. Still it is maddening that he didn't get the chance.

While this would’ve definitely been possible, two prevailing thoughts come to mind:

First, echoing the above poster’s observation that he already looks younger and rejuvenated, I would rather have the man and see what his impact could be over the next hopeful 20-30 years aging naturally than the coach running himself into the ground over a much shorter period of time. That’s just how much I value Nick Saban even more than Coach Saban.

Second, if he can be a leading voice in shepherding the sport through its most turbulent period since scholarship limits to come out on the other side with some close version of it still in tact and viable, his legend will grow in ways wins can’t measure. This feels like a higher calling moment for him of sorts, and I’m as proud as ever for him.

 

[JDCrimson]

I agree. I just see this topic getting gaslit by activists and he would be an easy target for them. Not because any of it would be true but because he was successful at it. The real value and the truth about how the system served to help young will be muzzled.

I think we tend to forget the college model of football has made a lot of kids a lot of money over the years as well, on top of providing them with resources for an opportunity to earn an education. The players and the college platform both need each other. Take away the college platform and what would the players have had this entire time? More than likely an underfunded "pro" and "semi-pro" league with nowhere near the quality of coaching and benefits they have received from the college platform. Nick Saban's name and coaching knowledge have gotten kids drafted who otherwise would be working the drive-thru at Wendy's or a parts delivery driver for Auto Zone making $13/hour.

The format needs to be fixed no doubt, but the players need college football just as much as college football needs them, but when it comes to the money part of the talks, the terminology should change to "value", because this narrative (not saying you're saying this) of coaches and admins making all the money and the kids "getting nothing" is not true. There are former LSU football and baseball players who live in my town that have gotten six-figure jobs not because they were the most qualified, but because they wore the LSU uniform. They weren't superstars but played four years at LSU in baseball or football and because of that, got a fast pass to the front of the line in the business world. Players get A LOT.

 

[twofbyc]

I’m for making them employees of the school. Make them pay taxes on every.single.benefit they get - schoarships will disappear. There’s a documented laundry list of all the benefits these kids get which would all be taxable.
Half of them would refuse scholarships- good; more classroom space for kids who want to be there.
Make it just like a real job - they have to pay room and board without a scholarship. They have to pay for their equipment (show me a carpenter whose boss buys his tools). They want adult money? They have no right on this planet to dodge all of the other responsibilities that everyone else who “works” has to bear. NONE.
I’m all for giving them a dose of reality - right smack in the face. No more “freebies”. They get to use the employers facilities for their “work”, and that’s it. Unless they want a scholarship or pay tuition and ALL fees.
Stop all the debates. Make it real.

 

[bamaga]

Feels like you need to go take a deep breath.



This is from this week's testamony in front of congress which you apparently haven't or care to read
Nick Saban rails on pay-for-play, how chaos contributed to retirement (msn.com)



You think all those CNS quotes from when he was a coach in this system are relevant? What was he supposed to say when he was competing for players? That he was against giving them collective money?

EDIT - look who is the one deleting what they posted and backtracking

First of all, I was at work and don’t like what I wrote, and edited before you ever posted that.

Second, the quote I posted came from the Senate roundtable. He wasn’t talking out of the side of his mouth for the sake of recruiting as you inferred. So yeah, would you like to backtrack on that?

In a teal suit and dotted blue tie, former Alabama coach Nick Saban spoke as one of nine members as part of a roundtable discussion organized and led by Sen. Ted Cruz, the lawmaker’s attempt to highlight the need for congressional action related to college athlete legislation.

Two months removed from announcing his retirement, Saban offered a thundering message to the college sports world: Pay the players — but with limitations.

“I’m for student-athletes being able to share in some of this revenue,” he said. “The No. 1 solution is if we could have some kind of a revenue-sharing proposition that did not make student-athletes employees. That may be the long-term solution.

“I don’t want them to be employees, but I want them to share in the revenue some kind of way.”

BTW, Saban’s beef with NIL pay for play, again, is the boosters involvement in the collectives. As we should all be against. Any Bama fan should know How Saban feels about booster involvement with the internals of a college football program.

 

[JDCrimson]

Saban can't have it both ways as he is trying to advocate. He wants kids to have access to legitimate NIL opportunities but he also wants all the players on the team to get a base NIL. No booster funded collectives. That doesn't work in the real endorsement world. I'm not going to give a portion of my endorsement money to my teammates. And with this disparity there is going to be jealousy within the team.

In his testimony, he finished his remarks with "in some kind of way" which I take to mean that even he is not sure how to reign this mess in... Collective bargaining likely doesn't work because there way too many athletes compared to the NFL, compliance with Title IX is still an issue, and some of the freshmen are still minorities with repsect to parties to contracts. The NFL has none of that to deal with.

 

[dWarriors88]

fighting for my life in the comments on TikTok with the Saban haters

 

[TideFan in AU]

fighting for my life in the comments on TikTok with the Saban haters

**Trying to imagine a world a where I would spend even a single second worrying about what Tik Tok haters said/thought. **

 

[The Ols]

I do appreciate how Saban is stirring the hornets nest causing all the attention to land on him so DeBoer can work outside the spotlight assembling the next slayer class of Bama champions.

The old Robert Montgomery Knight trick!!!

 

[twofbyc]

Just read a Houston Chronicle article that made me gag. Jerome Nobody going on and on about Saban - lie afte lie after lie.
The media is pathetic.
First of all - yeah, Saban went from job to job, pretty sure all were promotions but he EARNED them. 18 year olds ain’t earned SQUAT; they’ve done ZERO to deserve $500,000.
Lying and saying he didn’t really believe Saban wanted the players to get any money.
What a piece of garbage.

 

[twofbyc]

Saban can't have it both ways as he is trying to advocate. He wants kids to have access to legitimate NIL opportunities but he also wants all the players on the team to get a base NIL. No booster funded collectives. That doesn't work in the real endorsement world. I'm not going to give a portion of my endorsement money to my teammates. And with this disparity there is going to be jealousy within the team.

In his testimony, he finished his remarks with "in some kind of way" which I take to mean that even he is not sure how to reign this mess in... Collective bargaining likely doesn't work because there way too many athletes compared to the NFL, compliance with Title IX is still an issue, and some of the freshmen are still minorities with repsect to parties to contracts. The NFL has none of that to deal with.

There’s going to be jealousy anyway and there probably already is. “Having access” is legitimate, and there’s no reason there can’t be a “base” allowance (unless they’re going to be employees) as part of a scholarship. All the players aren’t 4 and 5 stars who’re going to have money thrown at them. Starting somewhere with freshmen and increasing each year (and tie it to time at the institution; transfer and start all over), and regulate NIL to REQUIRE something from the athlete (if it’s “appearances”, make em show up or forfeit that part of the NIL money) and make the schools enforce it.
The biggest problem is there are NO rules; the ones that are supposedly there don’t work and can’t/wont be enforced. NOBODY knows the answers but they need to start thinking and talking and developing plans NOW - it’s already a few years too late.
Saban is at least trying - what’s Kirby or Sark doing?

 

[JDCrimson]

None of these schools want the players to be considered employees without some contract stipulating their employment. Too many labor laws come into play with at will employees not to mention OSHA, etc. OSHA and playing football for money don't easily mix.

 

[AlistarWills]

None of these schools want the players to be considered employees without some contract stipulating their employment. Too many labor laws come into play with at will employees not to mention OSHA, etc. OSHA and playing football for money don't easily mix.

If OSHA gets involved you can hang it up. So many opportunities to get injured “on the job”.

 

[B1GTide]

Just read a Houston Chronicle article that made me gag. Jerome Nobody going on and on about Saban - lie afte lie after lie.
The media is pathetic.
First of all - yeah, Saban went from job to job, pretty sure all were promotions but he EARNED them. 18 year olds ain’t earned SQUAT; they’ve done ZERO to deserve $500,000.
Lying and saying he didn’t really believe Saban wanted the players to get any money.
What a piece of garbage.

Goodman wrote a similar hit piece on Saban.

 

[bamaga]

If OSHA gets involved you can hang it up. So many opportunities to get injured “on the job”.

Two hand touch may be too dangerous for OSHA

 

[twofbyc]

I agree 100%.

None of these schools want the players to be considered employees without some contract stipulating their employment. Too many labor laws come into play with at will employees not to mention OSHA, etc. OSHA and playing football for money don't easily mix.

But since they’re allowing unions, it may be unavoidable. That’s why you separate the scholarship - face it, a $40,000 scholarship means little to a kid who barely graduates high school but is getting 100k a year in (whatever you want to call it) money. They won’t be burdened by having to go to class, and the schools can claw back some “payroll “ by making them pay if they want to go.
It’s not “college” football anymore, ladies and gents. Bruno and Guido have their own “collective”, and they can get their boys (or girls) whatever they want - they only ask for “favors” in return. Education in anything that doesn’t directly relate to their sport is irrelevant. So sever the connections to education altogether, as a requirement; make it optional but not free (cost based on income of athlete). There are a lot of details to work out, such as “employment contracts” (at which point the court’s insistence they can “jump” at will becomes useless). But it’s doable and makes it totally transactional. I mean, with the amounts of money going to (legal) “minors”, it’s just what the players want - it’s “business”.
Speaking to the other old fogies like me: we ain’t getting our College Football back. It’s changed. Rip the bandage off: change it all at once (or as soon as reasonably possible) and move on. This haggling and arguing about what plan works best is a waste of time; make it a legitimate business and avoid the courts as long as possible.

 

[rtr90]

Goodman wrote a similar hit piece on Saban.

goodmans hate for cns coming now that he doesnt have to deal him as a coach at press conferences

 

[timmyj3]

College football has become theatre of the absurd. Lets just stop pretending and have the college name/team license it to the billionaire owner that will be in control of the NIL. Then maybe we could get back to amateur college athletics.

 

[bvandegraff]

Goodman wrote a similar hit piece on Saban.

Goodman wrote a tendentious, intentionally misleading hit piece on some aspect of Bama athletics to try getting a rise out of us fans and draw hate clicks? You don't say.....

 

[BamaMoon]

It is infuriating to me.

While he is, without much debate, the greatest of all-time, what 5 to 10 more seasons would have done for his career numbers would have been amazing. He was 292-71-1. If he averages 11 wins per year (which is not off the pace he set at Alabama) for 5 more seasons he reaches 347 wins. If he coaches 10 more seasons at 11 wins per year, he's at 402 wins.

Joe Paterno is still credited with 409 wins. At 402 wins, only Joe Paterno, Eddie Robinson, and Joe Gagliardi would have been ahead of him. Maybe he tapers off the last few years and misses 400 wins. Still it is maddening that he didn't get the chance.

I don't think he would have coached another 10 years regardless and getting to 400 (even if so) would have been tough as he got older.

I don't think the overall wins total matters as much as the NC to seasons coached.

Had he not spent so much time in the pros imagine what his win totals could have been. But, he soaked up all the knowledge he had from all of his influencers and coaches and he "cashed it in" so to speak after just 28 seasons as a college HC and won over 80% of his games.

And when he figured out the NC winning formula starting with LSU in 2003, in the next 20 years he won 7 NCs. Simply amazing!!!

EDIT: he won 7 NCs in 17 years (from 2003 to 2020 his last one).