Ever since Nick Saban announced his retirement from college football, the former Alabama coach has been educating people on the negative impact of NIL. Saban believes that NIL takes away the student from “student-athlete” as college football players with NIL’s rampant growth are focusing more on money than growth. Saban last month cleared his stance that he is not against players earning money and having a good quality of life.
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What irks Nick is the shift in culture that NIL has brought to college football. Saban argued that college students only care about how much money they can make in college and not focus on education and growth [via Fox News]. Academic education is equally important as Saban feels these players aren’t preparing themselves for life after football retirement which is when college education comes as an asset. He thus believes that the current collective-driven system should be replaced by a revenue-sharing model.
Popular NFL analyst and American journalist Roland Martin, however, had a contradictory opinion. In his latest YouTube video, Martin reminded people that before NIL was a thing, almost all teams used to poach players by paying them under the table. But now a player has much more freedom to pick his team as he knows he will get money through his NIL. Martin also hit back at Saban by pointing out how most college athletes come from poor backgrounds. He says,
“SMU, TCU, Texas A&M, we can go the entire Southwest Conference; The SEC, the Big 10, the pack 10, all of these conferences were paying players [under the table]. Now we have a system where the money is no longer under the table. It’s now above the table and so now people are saying, ‘Oh my goodness, this is just not right, this is just not fair’.”
For most kids, earning as much money as they can is important because their parents work minimum wage to feed them. They also have their siblings to take care of. Martin also labeled Saban’s argument as “utter nonsense” as he questioned why Nick isn’t asking the same question to coaches who pocket millions themselves. Also considering the short-lived career tenure of a football player, Martin’s argument of allowing players to earn as much as possible has merit.
I mean these guys all they care about is the money because see what Nick Saban is describing is the good old days when it’s about developing [players]. Guess what y’all? All that development talk don’t help nothing when most of these black kids are coming from homes where Mama and Daddy are working minimum wage jobs, when you’ve got brothers and sisters coming up and still living in poverty, it doesn’t help you”
Saban however still makes a very interesting point on revenue sharing which ties very well into his narrative of holistic growth and development
Nick Saban Urges Congress For a Revenue Share System
“What’s the difference for a student-athlete who plays a sport? I just want to replace the collective NIL model with a revenue-sharing NIL model because the sports do create revenue. Everybody can still have name, image and likeness opportunities, which is a good thing for student-athletes.”
“I didn’t want my age to be a detriment to the University of Alabama, to the football program and the chances of it being successful.”
