Nick Saban outlines how he would combat recent changes in college football

NIL and the transfer portal have tilted college football in favor of the athlete in recent seasons.

Before retiring, the now former Alabama head coach Nick Saban explained why the current landscape of college football isn’t necessarily fair to the majority of programs across the NCAA.

“I’m all for the players,” Saban told ESPN’s Rece Davis. “I want the players to have a good quality of life. But I think in some ways, all competitive venues — I don’t care if it’s the NFL, Major League Baseball, I don’t care what you look at — they have some parameters that create parody and competitive balance.

“I like to see the players benefit, but I’d also like to see it be that every school has the [same] opportunity because there’s some kind of defined circumstances and guidelines that make it the same for everybody. … They all would have [an equal] chance to compete, and I don’t think the landscape that we have right now allows that.”

While head coach in Tuscaloosa, Saban was able to see his players go from broke college kids to, in some cases, six-figure per-year (and in even rare cases, seven) athletes suiting up for him every week.

At the same time, there is no parity between NIL at Alabama and somewhere like Vanderbilt. For example, Vanderbilt has a 1,000-yard receiver on its team and Alabama doesn’t, the Crimson Tide’s WR1 is probably taking home more cash through NIL than the Vandy standout.

Saban is calling for a middle ground.

“I’d also like to see whatever that solution is, not eliminate other sports and other opportunities because of financial ramifications that would create where we can have gymnastics or we can have track & field,” Saban continued.

“You know, 82 percent of the participants in the last Olympics were trained in college. I think that development and the opportunities created by college athletics — if we can keep that intact — I think that would be beneficial to a lot of people. At the same time, we improve the quality of life of the participants.”

It’s safe to say that Nick Saban will step down from his duties as Crimson Tide headman having changed the lives of hundreds of collegiate athletes to have played for him on Saturdays. In turn, he molded them into ready-made machines for Sundays.

Now, he gets to sit back and watch the fruits of his labor continue to grow into top draft picks, Pro Bowlers and productive members of society.