Nick Saban wants to be voice for change in college football

NT80 · February 22

Saban told ESPN.... "What we have now is not college football -- not college football as we know it. You hear somebody use the word 'student-athlete.' That doesn't exist."

"But what you have now isn't name, image and likeness. A collective has nothing to do with name, image and likeness," Saban said.

Saban said he would like to see any player compensation model that is created to be brought in-house at the various schools and taken away from donor-based collectives. Of course, then there could be Title IX issues.

And while Saban wants to see players get their share of the financial pie, he said the only way any of this works is if there's also a commitment on the players' side.

"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," he said. "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."

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/39572219/nick-saban-wants-voice-change-college-football

NT93 · February 22

He lost me at “a coach has a contract.”

Mean Green 93-98 · February 22

Quote

"I wonder what fans are going to say . . ."

Does he not realize that the vast majority of college football fans hate the way things have been going with NIL and virtually unlimited transfers?

El Paso Eagle · February 22

14 hours ago, NT93 said:

He lost me at “a coach has a contract.”

And if a Coach leaves under contract he pays a penalty. So a player could still leave but they would have to reimburse the school some fixed amount

rcade · February 22

Saban saying that a coach's contract is an example of solving the problem is hilarious.

Coaches began this money grubbing era of no loyalty by getting ridiculously huge salaries and leaving their jobs the nanosecond a bigger one came open.

UNTLifer · February 22

1 hour ago, rcade said:

Saban saying that a coach's contract is an example of solving the problem is hilarious.

Coaches began this money grubbing era of no loyalty by getting ridiculously huge salaries and leaving their jobs the nanosecond a bigger one came open.

I think I would put the onus on athletic departments offering crazy money.

rcade · February 22

10 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

I think I would put the onus on athletic departments offering crazy money.

There's blame to go around. The ADs offered crazy money because it took crazy money to land a top coach.

Have any of those coaches given back a big chunk of their salaries to the betterment of college football or student athletes?

NT80 · February 22

I don't mind coaches getting what the market pays. It's a career for the coach. The market makes them overpaid. Schools pay a LOT for a quality coach because they see it as an investment in Marketing for the school if they win.

The players are Students, not career employees. They are getting free education in exchange for playing their sport. If they want to quit being a player and go coach for $$ then that is their option too.

We would never have a statue of Joe Greene in front of the stadium if he had played college football today. He would have been bought after his first season here by a P5 school to go play for them.

Edited February 27 by NT80

rcade · February 22

42 minutes ago, NT80 said:

The players are Students, not career employees. They are getting free education in exchange for playing their sport.

If playing their sport was only worth a free education, Nick Saban wouldn't have amassed $150 million in career salary as a coach. There wouldn't be all these billion-dollar TV broadcast deals.

You can't let that kind of money flood in and expect your actual product -- the players -- to be doing it without significant monetary compensation.

There are a lot of college sports where the players only get a free education. Even some tiers of college football. We could all start watching them instead and say to hell with the P5, er P4, er soon to be P3.

Instead of doing that I'm trying to get over my fear of needles so I can get me a Chandler Morris back tatt.

Edited February 22 by rcade

rcade · February 22

1 hour ago, rcade said:

There's blame to go around. The ADs offered crazy money because it took crazy money to land a top coach.

Have any of those coaches given back a big chunk of their salaries to the betterment of college football or student athletes?

When people give me a Puking Eagle for a comment like this, I can never tell whether I made them puke or the state of college football did.

NT80 · February 22

38 minutes ago, rcade said:

If playing their sport was only worth a free education, Nick Saban wouldn't have amassed $150 million in career salary as a coach. There wouldn't be all these billion-dollar TV broadcast deals.

You can't let that kind of money flood in and expect your actual product -- the players -- to be doing it without significant monetary compensation.

There are a lot of college sports where the players only get a free education. Even some tiers of college football. We could all start watching them instead and say to hell with the P5, er P4, er soon to be P3.

Instead of doing that I'm trying to get over my fear of needles so I can get me a Chandler Morris back tatt.

Alabama, the University, paid Nick Saban as an employee. They agreed he was worth what they paid based on the Marketing he could bring the school.

Players are not the product. The sport is the product. The sport is only as good as the coach and the players he recruits and trains make it. The players are compensated with education currently. That's what they agreed to in their Commitment letter.

You could work for Apple. Apple makes billions but you make only what you agreed to be hired for, not how much Apple earns.

If you want to make college players employees then there needs to be different contracts and rules from what it is now. Wages, hours expected, level of results expected, etc. You can be fired. You will need to pay for your school too as part of your employment unless negotiated. If you want to re-negotiate wages or resign to go to another school that will need to be in the contract also.

rcade · February 22

12 minutes ago, NT80 said:

You could work for Apple. Apple makes billions but you make only what you agreed to be hired for, not how much Apple earns.

Apple would pay me what I am worth to Apple.

I would not work for Apple in exchange for a free college education.

I am fine with college athletes being paid salaries, job requirements, benefits and limits on when they can switch schools. That would be way better than the NIL and transfer portal free-for-all. I like athletes getting paid but when they can take the money on Monday and quit the sport on Tuesday that's all kinds of wrong.