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Today’s Case

Former Alabama head football coach shares thoughts on NIL

One of college football’s greatest coaches provides his take on NIL.

Earlier this month, Saban participated in last week’s Congressional hearing on NIL - a roundtable titled “Safeguarding Student-Athletes from NLRB misclassification.”

Select quotes from Saban:

• “It’s whoever wants to pay, the most money raised, the most money to buy the most players is going to have the best opportunity to win.”

• “You’re going to create a caste system where the rich will get richer and the poor get poorer, and eventually the fans will look at it like, ‘I really don’t want to watch the game.’”

• “I’m for student-athletes being able to share in some of this revenue. The No. 1 solution is if we could have some kind of a revenue-sharing proposition that did not make student-athletes employees. That may be the long-term solution.

• “If we revenue shared a certain amount, it’d be the same [in each state]. That’s the issue right now. We don’t have that. We have collectives in some states raising huge amounts of money and competing against those who don’t have those kinds of funds to pay players

And a separate Saban quote from an ESPN article:

• "I thought we could have a hell of a team next year, and then maybe 70 or 80 percent of the players you talk to, all they want to know is two things: What assurances do I have that I'm going to play because they're thinking about transferring, and how much are you going to pay me?"

The Verdict

• What Saban gets right

  • I agree with his take on revenue sharing, as this looks to be inevitable it will happen in the near future. Paying athletes who play the game a piece of the money they generate is only fair.

  • Not making student-athletes employees is something I also agree with, due to the fact that making athletes employees would cause an elimination of sports (or converting to club sports) for non-revenue generating teams.

• And what he doesn’t

  • I don’t agree that NIL is the only thing athletes and recruits are asking programs for. While it’s certainly one part of something players are inquiring about, I doubt it’s the sole reason for the majority of players on whether to stay with a program or transfer.

  • Saban also notes that fans might not want to watch the game in its future state. While that may change in the future, college football games continue to sell out, and attendance and ratings are up compared to previous years.

Sharpie signs former Washington stars to deal

Michael Penix, Jr. and Rome Odunze will sign their rookie contracts with Sharpie products. Check out this video for more!

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^{I discuss insights and news related to name, image and likeness in 3 minutes or less every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 12p ET/9a PT.}

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