Nick Saban: College football heading toward 'semi-pro direction' with NIL, expanded CFP

Bowl Season is all about traditions. Whether it be a ride through Disneyland for the Rose Bowl or a mayonnaise bath after the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, there are plenty of rituals that come with this time of year.

Those games have looked different over the last few years, though. Some players are opting out to prepare for the NFL Draft, and others are entering the transfer portal. The College Football Playoff is also part of a rotating group of bowl games, a number that will increase with the expanded 12-team CFP.

While tradition is still part of the experience, Nick Saban wondered if the new-look bowl games are part of a bigger shift in college football.

“We’re moving in the sort of semi-pro direction in terms of, there’s pay-for-play now. We call it name, image and likeness, but that’s pay-for-play, basically — and I’m all for the players sharing in what’s happening,” the Alabama head coach said Wednesday. “You’ve got guys transferring from one team to the next at will with very little guidelines as to how to control any of these things, and we’re gonna have a playoff very similar to the NFL.

“And I’m not saying any of those things are bad. I’m just saying they’re all completely changes from what we had five years ago, 10 years ago, whatever.”

Nick Saban: As the College Football Playoff expands, ‘it’s all gonna be about the playoffs’

For non-CFP bowl games, opt-outs are common. Rather than play in one more game after a six-win season, players could enter the portal when the window opens. As of Dec. 28, more than 1,900 players have transferred so far this cycle. There’s also the draft, with a Jan. 15 deadline for players to declare and get ready to head to the NFL.

To Nick Saban, it’s what he expected would happen. In 2015, he spoke about the impact of the College Football Playoff could have on the importance — or lack thereof — of other bowl games.

With a 12-team format looming, he’s seeing that prediction become reality.

“I made the statement way back when we started the playoffs, way back when we expanded the playoffs to four teams, that as soon as you have a playoff, it’s gonna minimize the importance of bowl games,” Saban said. “And that’s exactly what has happened. The more we expand the playoffs, the more we will minimize the importance of bowl games and the significance of bowl games.

“So no longer will you have the tradition of anybody getting reinforced for having a positive season. It’s all gonna be about the playoffs.”

As the CFP expands, though, there’s one less group of teams that can make it. The Pac-12 is now effectively the “Pac-2” as Oregon State and Washington State assumed full control of the league earlier this month. However, the Pac-12 will no longer be the 108-year-old conference we’ve known. Conversations are ongoing about a “5-plus-7” model to make up the new-look CFP. That would put the five highest-ranked conference champions in the field with seven at-larges.

Saban said the Pac-12’s fate is part of the “business” of college football. While he added that aspect of the sport not necessarily a “bad” thing, it’s the way things will be.

Sometimes, Saban said, it means traditions will go away.

“The traditionalists who think there should be a Pac-10 and a conference that used to be, that ship’s already sailed,” Saban said. “It’s never gonna happen again. Decisions are gonna be made for business reasons, not traditional reasons.

“And I’m not saying that’s bad, either. I’m just saying it is what it is. That’s the landscape of college football, has changed dramatically. We all have to adapt to it and be able to continue to compete at a high level.”