Nick Saban reiterates call for competitive balance in college football: 'There is no salary cap'

Since the introduction of NIL, Nick Saban has been steadfast in his desire for competitive balance.

Over the last two years, the Alabama head coach discussed the role of NIL collectives to help make his point, even calling out Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M in May 2022. Wednesday night, he used another example.

Saban drew from his time in the NFL, pointing out the rules in place at the professional level help ensure there’s some sort of balance.

“My big thing is every competitive venue that you can name for me has some rules and regulations that regulate competitive balance,” Saban said on Hey Coach and The Nick Saban Show. “Whether you have a salary cap in the NFL, whether you have rules relative to if you have a losing record, you get to draft faster, you get to play an easier schedule next year. If you have a really good team, you draft later, you play a harder schedule next year. All those things are for competitive balance. That’s why you have salary caps. That’s why you have all these rules, even though you have free agencies and guys can leave and do all that, they have contracts.

“We have no contracts in college and we have no competitive balance. There is no salary cap, aight? Whoever wants to raise the most money and pay the player the most, they have the best opportunity to have the best team.”

Many of Saban’s recent comments about competitive balance stem from conference realignment. Considering the idea of mega-conferences — the Big Ten will move to 18 members and the SEC will move to 16 members next year, along with multi-billion dollar media deals — he wondered what that would mean for a level playing field.

Just a couple weeks before the transfer portal opens, Saban pointed out how NIL can impact players leaving their schools in, effectively, “free agency.”

“You’ve gone from a transition of what you call development of people who are supposed to be going to college, in my opinion, to develop value for their future, to a culture of where can I make the most money while I’m going to college?” Saban said. “Everybody can have their opinion on whether that’s good or bad, but my issue is some kind of way, the players should be able to benefit. But they should be able to benefit equally at whatever Division I school they go to.

“In other words, just because School A over here has a bigger collective and is willing to pay guys more money, that gives them a better opportunity than School [B] over here that doesn’t have those same resources, so you’re not creating a competitive balance. So the haves are going to get further over here and the have-nots are going to get further over here. But if you look at the NFL, if you ask what would be the perfect season for the NFL, it would be for everybody to be 8-8 when they go into the last game and nobody knows who’s getting in the playoffs. All 32 teams got a chance to get in the playoffs. More fans, more TV, more everything is better.”

Nick Saban: If college football doesn’t have competitive balance, ‘you don’t have as many good games’

This year, the College Football Playoff race looks wide open. The top five teams are undefeated as they vie for the four spots. That, of course, will change when No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Michigan square off this week. TV ratings have also been strong all year, led by the Pac-12 as the conference goes through its strong send-off.

To keep eyes on the game, Saban said maintaining some sort of balance is critical. If things tilt too far in one direction, people might stop paying attention.

“Everything is better if we have competitive balance,” Saban said. “If we don’t have competitive balance, then you don’t have as many good games. We start to lose interest. People want to come and see the Tennessee game, the LSU game. People want to come and see this game this weekend and we play Auburn, aight? That’s good. That’s a good thing for college football, and we should have the same balance with all those teams in terms of, how can you put your roster together and what restrictions and rules do you have and guidelines do you have so that everybody’s got the same thing?

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t be paying players. I’m great with that. I like the quality of life that we’ve been able to create. But it’s got to be done with some kind of parameter that controls competitive balance.”