“You can actually buy a championship”: Nick Saban addresses parity in NIL-driven CFB now rectified by House vs NCAA settlement

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The all-new House vs. NCAA settlement has triggered a dynamic shift in the outlook of college athletics. Legends of the game like Nick Saban now believe that disparity in college football will significantly reduce now that the ground rules have been set and a cap has come into the picture. There will also be a regulatory committee to monitor these funds and regulate the dealings.

Earlier, this was not the case. One of the reasons why coaches like Saban decided to step down was that the sanctity of college athletics was depreciating. While speaking to the “Pure Athlete” podcast, the veteran coach mentioned the parity in college football’s system of paying athletes.

Up until now, programs would have NIL collectives that would funnel the money to players and help head coaches recruit via high school commitments and transfer portal moves. A program with a big budget to manage the roster had a significant edge over teams with less money.

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That created a lot of imbalances in the competition and player distribution across conferences.

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“This is a step in the right direction. You know, this house settlement that just occurred does give some guidelines. I think good coaches just want to be in a situation where they have a fair chance to compete,” Saban said on the podcast on Saturday (Timestamp – 19:58).

“And I think the system that we had in college football the last few years, you can actually buy a championship if you were in a school that could raise, you know, a significant amount of funds in a collective.

“You may be operating with a $30 million collective and playing against teams that have a $3 million collective. So it would be very much like Major League Baseball,” Nick Saban said.

Nick Saban opens up on his accidental entry into coaching

While speaking to the panelists of the “Pure Podcast” on Saturday, Nick Saban mentioned that he never fancied a coaching career, nor did he think of pursuing it as a full-time job. He was playing baseball and football simultaneously.

Don James, who used to be his head coach at Kent State, asked him to become his graduate assistant in his senior season. Miss Terry, Saban’s wife, had one more year at college, and Saban had nothing else to do.

The 73-year-old recalls that he always wanted to settle down with a stable lifestyle, working at a dealership or a path laid down by his father. But as soon as he ventured into coaching, within two years, he became an assistant and was promoted to secondary at Ohio State in 1980.

Nick Saban, a 7x national champion, never turned back since then, and the rest is history.

About the author

Deepesh is a football enthusiast with years of experience covering NFL and NCAA. As an editor and published author of thousands of articles, he shares his passion for the game through compelling stories from on and off the field. When he’s not working, you can find him hitting the weight room, coding, or playing chess—or binge-watching his favorite series as a self-proclaimed movie buff.

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