Nick Saban points out accountability issue in college football that must be fixed

While guest-starring on the Pat McAfee Show live from the University of Miami, where ESPN's College GameDay is stationed this weekend, former Alabama coach Nick Saban offered some wise advice on the nature of the current transfer portal climate.

Nick Saban isn't against transfers or players cashing in on their NIL value. However, he sees a fundamental flaw in the way business is being carried out in college football. It's not like the actual work force, he argues. Instead, players are allowed to take advantage of the teams paying them in a way that would never work out in the NFL or basically any real-life profession.

“I think maybe we should come up with some parameters where a player has a responsibility and obligation, whether it’s a contract or something," Saban said, adding that college football is the only place where those parameters don't exist.

"If you’re gonna pay players — we all get paid, we all have a responsibility to do certain things to be paid. But right now in college football, that’s not the case. You can pick up your bags and walk whenever you want and you don’t have any obligation, so there’s no cause and effect for ever leaving the job that you have."

He adds: "That’s a lesson we all need to learn, you know, from a responsibility and accountability standpoint.”

Saban's point isn't to reject transfers or players who seek higher income from other schools. He just wants to see the players be taught an accountability and responsibility that they'll need for virtually any other job they hold in the future, professional sports or otherwise.

“‘I made a commitment here, I got to stay here for two years, I can only transfer once as an undergraduate’ — whatever the rules may be, but there’s some kind of responsibility and accountability that goes with — ‘you’re getting paid, you have an obligation to do certain things to get paid,’” the legendary coach explained.

Nick Saban sympathizes with college football coaches who, right now, are having to pay premium talent and then hope that talent fulfills the obligations and accomplishments you expect, because there is no contract binding the kid to practice hard or perform well once he's already been paid.

Not that most athletes still don't work hard and do right by their schools. But the chaos can come from the fact that college football teams have no way to guarantee players actually do the job they were paid for.

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