Nick Saban blames uptick in firings across college football on NIL, pay-for-play era

Black Sunday came a full month early this season after two more Power Four coaches — Florida‘s Billy Napier and Colorado State‘s Jay Norvell — were fired Sunday following the Week 8 slate of games. The ousters of Napier and Norvell bring the current number of FBS in-season firings to nine, including six within the Power Four ranks.

That includes at Penn State, which parted ways with longtime head coach James Franklin a week prior amid a disappointing three-game losing streak in Big Ten play. The Nittany Lions now owe Franklin a roughly $49 million buyout, which is the second-largest in college football history behind only the $76 million Texas A&M owed Jimbo Fisher following his 2023 firing. Napier is owed a $21 million buyout from Florida, half of which is due within 30 days of Sunday.

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Included among the Power Four’s other recent in-season firings are Arkansas‘ Sam Pittman, Oklahoma State‘s Mike Gundy, UCLA‘s DeShaun Foster and Virginia Tech‘s Brent Pry. Stanford‘s Troy Taylor was fired in March after allegations of bullying within the athletic department.

Of course, not everyone is exactly happy with this new trend.

Nick Saban on boosters pressuring ADs to fire coaches: ‘It’s the way of the world’

Legendary former Alabama head coach-turned-ESPN College GameDay analyst Nick Saban bemoaned the uptick in in-season firings, but isn’t exactly surprised by it given the immense pressure being exerted by wealthy boosters who are donating millions to both support revenue-sharing and NIL opportunities.

“You know, I’m not (surprised) because everybody’s raising money to pay players,” Saban told ESPN’s Mark Schlabach. “So, the people that are giving the money think they have a voice and they’re just like a bunch of fans. When they get frustrated and disappointed, they put pressure on the (athletic directors) to take action, and it’s the way of the world.”

Saban’s comments come days after he issued a public rebuke of Franklin’s firing during his appearance on last Saturday’s College GameDay in Athens.

“It’s unfair as hell,” Saban told Franklin last Saturday. “For you to go to the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, get to the final four (of the CFP), come out being ranked (No. 2) this year — an expectation that you created by what you accomplished at Penn State — and for those people not to show enough appreciation for that and gratitude for all the hard work that you did, I’m saying it’s unfair.”

Of course, there’s potential for even more in-season firings still to come, with rampant hot seat speculation surrounding Auburn‘s Hugh Freeze, Florida State‘s Mike Norvell and Wisconsin‘s Luke Fickell, just to name a few. FSU athletic director Michael Alford and Badgers AD Chris McIntosh both issued public statements of support for Norvell and Fickell on Monday.

“It’s really different,” Saban told ESPN. “Not in a good way from a developmental standpoint; a good way from a quality-of-life standpoint (for the players). But we need to find a system that improves the quality of life of players but still focuses on the right stuff — development, getting an education, all those kinds of (things).”