I don't want to turn this into an Anti-Saban Manifesto, but Nick Saban has a lot of balls taking a run at Texas A & M: Alabama Football Coach Nick Saban says Texas A&M 'Bought Every Player,' Questions Whether Current NIL Model is Sustainable - ESPN
For a hundred years, college football has exploited the college football player. College Presidents and Conference Commissioners have become rich by tilting the rules of college football in favor of the institutions.
And in the last 15 years, no one, and I mean no one, has manipulated the rules of college football in their favor better than Nick Saban. In college football it is simple, you get the best players, you win 90% of the time. The Nick Saban Scam promised the best facilities, the best coaching, and the best CHANCE to get paid in the NFL if you went to Alabama. He exploited the college athletes as much as the next guy.
If the new model is all good college athletes get paid, there will not be a surplus of talent pooled around programs like Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State selling that NFL Dream. College football athletes will go where they can market their image and make money now, they won't have to HOPE for a later payday.
Good for A & M's Jimbo Fisher if he's finding ways to get his players paid. That should be the mindset of all football coaches under the new college football rules. I also agree with Fisher when he says of Saban "some people think they're God."
I have said it before, schools pay players in scholarships, but players own their images and should be able to market that. I applaud the new college football rules and I'm glad Fisher is facilitating revenue streams for incoming students. He's exploiting the system IN FAVOR of the athletes? Wow, what a novel idea!
You'll find out Nick Saban isn't the best coach around when he's not getting all the best players. Right now he sounds like an oligarch whining about democracy coming.