Nick Saban is not the only college football coach who is frustrated with the current system of Name, Image and Likeness. However, his intentional ignorance toward the landscape that existed prior to NIL is getting rather tied.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith spoke to the House Committee on Small Business last week. He said that it has become commonplace for recruits to ask for $5,000 just to take a visit to campus.
Obviously, that is very different than NIL’s original purpose. By allowing athletes to profit from their Names, Images and Likenesses without any rigid or enforced guidelines, the NCAA created a professional amateur sport. College football is a professional sport.
Players — not all players but a large portion of them — are on the payroll of an NIL collective. Schools with larger payrolls can afford better talent and more of it. Schools with smaller bankrolls face a greater struggle on the recruiting trail, and in the transfer portal.
Quite a few coaches have lobbied for change to the current system. They have asked for regulation.
Saban is among them. He issued a warning that sounded more like a threat than a caution, ripped collectives, jabbed at Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M (among others) over parity, and called out what has essentially become a pay-for-play system. Those are just a few of many examples.
Most recently, Saban was asked about the Buckeyes AD’s recent anecdote about recruiting visit price tags. Although he said that he didn’t “know of” any prospects who asked for money to visit Alabama, he was quick to express his frustrations with a system in which that can occur.
Look, name, image and likeness is not really name, image and likeness. I mean, I think we all understand what it’s become and what we allowed it to become. And I said long ago — and got very criticized for — is this what we want college football to become? So, it’s becoming what it’s becoming. And that’s okay.
— Nick Saban during a press conference on Wednesday
Nick Saban is right, and wrong.
Name, Image and Likeness is not really Name, Image and Likeness. That is 100% true.
The NCAA just let it rip without any clear boundaries. NIL has created a professional model for amateur sports.
Even though there has been a lot of good to come from NIL, there have been a lot of issues. Like tampering. Collectives add another element to the whole thing.
It all could have been foreseen, but nobody — especially the NCAA — did anything to prevent it.
Saban is right.
He is also wrong.
For Saban to say “what it’s become” is a tired narrative. It completely neglects the reality of college football prior to NIL.
This “pay-for-play” model has been around for a long time. Players were paid, under-the-table, long before NIL.
There has been an increase in the amount of spending with NIL. Dollar amounts are greater in the new era. Money is more important than ever. All of that is true.
But for Saban to pretend like this has not always been the case is willful neglect. To pretend or imply that not even one Alabama football player ever received any sort of kickback (whether financial or in form of, say, a Dodge Charger), at any point under his direction is a hard sell. It’s getting old.