Nick Saban calls for commitment from players amid NIL contracts

As former Alabama coach Nick Saban rides off into retirement he’s still very present at the forefront of the sport and likely will remain so in the coming years.

Saban has already agreed to take a role on ESPN’s ever-popular College GameDay program, which will give him a voice on one of the sport’s largest platforms. Already he’s using it to voice his thoughts on some of the issues of the day.

Including NIL.

And Saban believes we’re rapidly approaching a period in time where players need to be contractually bound in certain ways to ensure the system can continue on in its current format.

“Just like an NFL player has a contract or a coach has a contract, something in place so you don’t have all this raiding of rosters and mass movement,” Nick Saban said in an interview with ESPN. “I wonder what fans are going to say when they don’t even know the team from year to year because there’s no development of teams, just bringing in new players every year.”

That’s certainly one concern. Another is the pilfering of rosters by coaches looking to get an edge.

With few rules and regulations around the NIL space currently, it’s a bit of a “wild, wild west” for coaches and players alike. Saban’s not entirely sure what the solution is, only that that sport needs one.

It’s incumbent on the people in positions of power — NCAA president, conference commissioners, university presidents — to make it happen.

“They would be more qualified [to serve in a college football commissioner’s role] than I am. They’re in it every day and know all the issues,” Nick Saban said. “That’s why I’m hesitant to come up with a firm solution because you don’t know the consequences of the solution relative to, ‘All right, do we have to pass antitrust laws to be able to do it this way? What does it all entail?'”

As Congress continues to sift through the various possibilities for the sport given a number of cases circling the governing body, the exact regulatory framework the sport will work under going forward is likely to shift.

Nick Saban will be a part of the conversation, a meaningful one, going forward.

“It’s one thing to come up with a solution,” he said. “It’s another thing to implement it. I’m just here to help.”