Deion Sanders believes that Nick Saban retired because he simply is not interested in dealing with the modern era of college football. He thinks that the greatest coach of all-time ultimately decided that all of the extra obstacles and challenges of NIL and the transfer portal led him to call it a career.
Especially the lack of authenticity.
Saban, who got his first head coaching job at Toledo in 1990, won seven national championships and 12 conference titles. The Crimson Tide reached the College Football Playoff with one loss this past season.
It’s not that Coach Prime thinks his Aflac co-star couldn’t keep winning. That is not the concern.
Sanders offered his thoughts on Robert Griffin’s podcast, RG3 and The Ones. He thinks that Saban ultimately became exhausted by the grind of the NIL era. At 72 years old, can you blame him?
Mainly because I know him and I know his art and I know he loves this game. But when you’re sitting there watching how this thing plays out and you’re watching the obstacles you gotta go through and you’re seeing — you’re dealing with parents that are parents-slash-agents, homie-slash-the bagman. You’re dealing with so much craziness.
— Deion Sanders
Being a college football coach today, more than ever, requires around-the-clock attention. As soon as the regular season ends, the focus shifts to bowl games. Meanwhile, high school football players are deciding on where to play on the next level and players are seeking new opportunity through the transfer portal. Once that portion of the calendar ends, focus shifts to spring ball. And then it’s another transfer window. That’s followed by fall camp, which leads back to the start of the cycle.
Amid all of that constant work, there is a lot of relationship building. To make it even more frustrating, many of those relationships don’t prove valuable in the long run when a player commits elsewhere.
From there, you factor in the money. Players are able to be paid. They want to get paid.
There are a lot of additional headaches that enter the equation when finances are involved.
Deion Sanders does not think that the game has passed Nick Saban by. Rather, he feels like the old-school approach is simply too much to keep up after more than 20 years.
And I get it, so I know he’s getting it at a whole ‘nother level, because I get it when I’m meeting with parents and these young men. Old school guys that were built and built their lives on hard work, dedication and trying to treat people right, they don’t see that formula work anymore. But it still does, but they don’t have the time. Coach has done some tremendous things in our game. Coach is financially secure, times 20. It’s like, “Man, I don’t need this. I don’t need this.”
— Deion Sanders
Saban has said that NIL and the transfer portal were not what drove him to retire. That may be true. Sanders agrees that Alabama was still on a great path. He just thinks that it became far too exhaustive.