The Godfather of college football goes scorched earth when talking about Name, Image, and Likeness. At a speaking event for the World Games in Birmingham, Nick Saban sounded off on how he felt about the direction college football is going.
Last year at the Texas High school Coaching Association, Coach Saban said QB Bryce Young NILs were totaling about million dollars. It seems odd that Coach Saban would throw other programs under the bus that are doing the same as Bama as far as NIL opportunities.
The schools mentioned were Texas A&M, Jackson State, and Miami. Why mention these three schools specifically, well I can only think about who Alabama is having to truly recruit against. Coach Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M brought in the highest rated class in modern recruiting history.
Texas A&M
Saban pointed that result at the possibility that they paid for all of their players in this past recruiting cycle. Coach Fisher has proclaimed that they did no such thing in previous conversations. These conversations date back to early signing day in December and again on national signing day in February.
Although what Saban said could be possible, we have no way of knowing if that is 100% true. Last year the Aggies beat Alabama on the field. It was the first time a former Nick Saban assistant had beat him.
Jackson State
Furthermore, it was unfortunate and odd that he would go after Coach Deion Sander program Jackson State. Coach Sanders, also known as Coach Prime, brought in the best recruiting class in the FCS division. The class was highlighted by the commitment of cornerback Travis Hunter.
Hunter was the top-rated recruit in the country. His high school performances are remarkable to say the least. Coach Prime was able to flip Hunter from Florida State, which is Coach Prime’s alma mater.
Coach Saban said “Jackson State paid a guy a million dollars last year that was a really good division 1 player to come to (their) school. It was in the paper. They bragged about! Nobody did anything about it.”
Coach prime response:
Miami
As for Miami, the Hurricanes have always been the easy target for the NCAA. The Hurricanes program has been penalized numerous times in the past for players being paid by the boosters. Fortunately, the game has finally changed in favor of the Hurricanes.
Lead booster and CEO or Life Wallet, recently went onto the Finebaum show to give great detail as to how the NIL deals with Miami Hurricane players are benefiting his company.
Miami is particularly interesting for many reasons. When Miami was on top of college football, Miami had players on their roster getting outside benefits from boosters. The Nevin Shapiro case comes to mind. With that being said, A dominating Miami program would all but effectively take most of the star recruits Alabama would get out of south Florida.
With Coach Mario Cristobal leading the program, it shouldn’t be long before Miami is competing with the best in the country on the field and in recruiting. Just think about it, Arizona Cardinal and former Houston Texan J.J. Watt stated he wanted to be a Hurricane.
Coach Saban didn’t mention Miami football, but he did target the basketball program instead. Knowing that an investigation into the Basketball program would eventually cross over to the cash cow in Football.
The school and city are second to none in academics, location, and opportunities .
Coach Saban sounds spooked by the changes in college athletics and mainly football. It might be the beginning of the end for the Godfather of college football.
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