Nick Saban gets phone call during press conference, struggles with voicemail function

It has been a busy day at the SEC spring meetings with Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Eli Drinkwitz and others coaches in the league meeting with the media.

Saban covered a variety of topics with reporters in attendance. And as he was talking with the media, someone also wanted to talk with him.

The college football legend’s phone rang while Saban was at the podium, leading to a funny moment that was captured on video. Saban was in the middle of talking about NIL and players being paid as his phone went off.

Saban pulled out his phone, glanced at it and remarked: “I don’t even know how to turn this thing off.”

Nick Saban’s phone went off while meeting with the press at SEC meetings. See what happened next. pic.twitter.com/6xXAP9a6xw

— Michael Casagrande (@ByCasagrande) May 30, 2023

As for what Nick Saban was talking about when his phone went off, the seven-time national championship winning coach said among other things on Tuesday that it’s time for college football to be more like the NFL.

“Unionize it, make it like the NFL,” he said, according to Action Network’s Brett McMurphy. “Make it the same for everyone. Everything they do for NFL is to create parity. If they have every team at 8-8 going into final week of the season, the NFL would love it.”

Nick Saban indifferent on SEC football scheduling: ‘Whatever happens, happens’

Another hot topic at the spring meetings is scheduling and if the SEC should move from eight conference games to nine.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban has found himself one both sides of the fence and attempted to act indifferent towards the decisions at the spring meetings this week. According to On3’s Jesse Simonton, Saban simply said, “whatever happens, happens,” when asked about scheduling.

Brett McMurphy also provided a quote from the Crimson Tide coach revealing that he would even be in favor of playing only power conference games if that’s what the league wanted to do.

“Things go into this like TV contracts. I’m sure a lot of those things will factor into it,” said Saban. “I’ve always been in favor of playing all games against Power 5 opponents.”

Reports had recently surfaced suggesting Saban had drifted back towards the side of not wanting to increase the SEC slate to nine games, especially after he didn’t take to well to the rumored annual opponents ‘Bama would face in a nine-game scenario. But now, sounds like he’s not terribly invested in the decision, but perhaps just wants to see the Tide get a fair shake if there are permanent opponents.