Former Alabama HC Nick Saban Plans to Speak Out for 'Meaningful Change' in CFB
Nick Saban is done with coaching, but he isn't done with college football.
"If my voice can bring about some meaningful change, I want to help any way I can, because I love the players, and I love college football," the retired Alabama coach told ESPN's Chris Low. "What we have now is not college football—not college football as we know it. You hear somebody use the word 'student-athlete.' That doesn't exist."
He will have the platform to do just that when he joins ESPN's College Gameday during the upcoming campaign.
To say it is a turbulent time in college football would be quite the understatement.
From a macro level, this offseason has largely been defined by conference realignment to the point the Pac-12 is all but gone. Oregon, USC, UCLA and Washington are going to the Big Ten, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah are going to the Big 12, and California and Staford are going to the ACC.
Elsewhere, Texas and Oklahoma are joining the SEC.
Then there is the College Football Playoff, which will expand to 12 teams for the next two years but might be even larger in the near future. ESPN's Pete Thamel reported Wednesday that the CFP management committee discussed potentially increasing to 14 teams as soon as 2026 during meetings.
Throw in name, image and likeness opportunities for players and the ever-expanding use of the transfer portal, and today's college football looks nothing like the version of the sport that Saban dominated for so long as a seven-time national champion head coach.
He stressed he is supportive of players having the opportunity to make money but expressed concerns with the current system.
"But what you have now isn't name, image and likeness. A collective has nothing to do with name, image and likeness," Saban said.
"Listen, I'm for the players," he continued. "It's not that I'm not for the players. I want to see the players have a great quality of life and be able to create value for themselves. But we've gone to nobody talking about education, nobody talking about creating value for their future, to talking only about how much money can I make while I'm in college.
"I think the consequence of this could come down the road when some of these guys get 28 and 29 years old that maybe they didn't prepare themselves for when they can't play football anymore, which is what you should do when you go to college."
While Saban will no longer be on the sideline for the Crimson Tide, it seems like he will remain a prominent voice for the sport as it attempts to navigate an uncertain future.
