Since the NCAA announced that college athletes can make money off their name, image, and likeness (NIL), a number of college coaches have spoken out about their disdain for the new deal, and have expressed their concern for the state of the future of college sports.
And one coach in particular?
Legendary Alabama head football coach, Nick Saban.
In fact, he’s not afraid to point fingers and call people out about it, either.
According to ESPN, he threw Texas A&M under the bus, after the Aggies beat out ‘Bama for the number one recruiting class in the nation this year:
“I mean, we were second in recruiting last year. A&M was first. A&M bought every player on their team — made a deal for name, image, likeness. We didn’t buy one player, all right? But I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to sustain that in the future because more and more people are doing it. It’s tough.”
Saban said that Alabama players made a total of $3 million in NIL money last year, doing it the “right way,” and only 25 players benefited off the deals.
The famed football coach isn’t the only one to call out A&M so far, as Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said in February:
“Texas A&M was going to incur a luxury tax in how much they paid for their signing class.”
Of course, that prompted a fiery response from A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher, who said during his signing day news conference that those people spreading rumors were “clown acts” and “irresponsible as hell.”
Saban said the main issue with NIL is:
“Coaches trying to create an advantage for themselves.”
He said coaches know how much money is available from school donors and their pool of resources to offer athletes. He said that’s not the way things are supposed to be, but continued:
“That’s what it’s become. And that’s the problem in college athletics right now. Now every player is saying, ‘Well, what am I going to get?'”
He also weighed in on the situation on Travis Hunter, the number one player in the country who flipped his commitment from Florida State to Jackson State, an HBCU school, because he was offered $1 million to go there:
“Hell, read about it in the paper. I mean, Jackson State paid a guy $1 million last year that was a really good Division I player to come to the school. It was in the paper, and they bragged about it.
Nobody did anything about it. I mean, these guys at Miami that are going to play basketball there for $400,000, it’s in the newspaper. The guy tells you how he’s doing it.”
