Nick Saban Slams College Football Players’ Judgment in NIL Era

Nick Saban shared his sharpest rebuke of what College Football has become yet on Friday during President Donald Trump's College Sports Roundtable. Saban was one of 50 guests at the meeting, none of whom were current players.

Per Saban, "People, instead of making decisions about creating value in their future, started making decisions about how much money they could make at whichever school they could go to or transfer." Saban had said in January that College Football was "unsustainable" in its current form.

“Players need to get compensated, no doubt. But it has to be done in a way where, you know, in some kind of way, have competitive balance, you know, and that every school has the same thing. One school can’t spend $30 million for players while another schools spending $3 million," said Saban. “All I’m saying? The people out there need to know this model is unsustainable. It’s not good for players."

Of course, Saban saw the writing on the wall with this back in January 2024 when he retired after 17 years with the Alabama Crimson Tide. Perhaps no blue blood program has collapsed under the weight of NIL/rev-share quite like the Tide.

Saban, unlike Trump, has been vocal about how good NIL/rev-share is for players and wants it to stay. In September, Saban explained what he'd prefer it to look like: prioritizing players remaining with the school that signed them.

“It’s really different. Not in a good way from a developmental standpoint. A good way from a quality-of-life standpoint [for players],” Saban said.

“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].”

Trump Vouches For Women's Sports During College Sports Roundtable

Trump voiced displeasure with how much players are getting paid and attacked the trend of judges granting players eligibility.

The president centered his message around the survival of women's sports and seemingly called out Trinidad Chambliss's recent ruling to receive an extra year of eligibility with the Ole Miss Rebels, and the Michigan Wolverines' contract for Bryce Underwood last season to complete his flip from the LSU Tigers.

“If this doesn’t work, college sports will be destroyed,” Trump said. “Women’s sports will be destroyed.

“The amount of money being spent and lost by otherwise very successful schools is astounding, just in a short period of time. It’s only going to get worse. It’s crazy. Young people are being signed, 17-year-old quarterbacks for $12 million, 13 million, 14 million.

“We have a seven-year freshman. We’re seeing things that we’ve never seen before. We have college players that don’t want to go to the NFL because they’re making more money in college, right? A lot of really bad things are happening, but basic questions like who is eligible to play are now virtually unregulated and decided randomly by judges rather than by reasonable, agreed-upon rules that could be very simple and very simply drawn."

We'll see what regulations and/or Executive Orders are in store. It may be problematic for the new era of players to cap their earnings after four years of players cashing out on their names, image, and likeness.