Nick Saban: CFB Has 'Created a System That Promotes Self-Indulgent Behavior'

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban has once again taken aim at the current state of college football.

During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday, a discussion on how today's game differs from the past prompted Saban to declare that the new structure within the sport has led to more of a focus on individual success than team development.

"What we've created is a system that promotes self-indulgent behavior. In other words, 'How does this affect me?' We used to be on a team where the first thing that you thought about was, 'How does this affect the team?'" Saban said. "If you made a mistake, or whatever, it killed you because you let your teammates down. I don't know if you could blame the players for this, but I think you can blame the system to some degree because it promotes this. Everything about the system promotes this."

Saban discussed the NIL rules that have generated monetary benefits for players and the loosened transfer rules that allow players to move from school to school as they please.

He said the overall development of these players will be stunted because they don't have the structure of the past.

"The real bottom line of it all is, everything is based on performance," he said. "So what kind of value are you creating for yourself if you're not committed to being the best player that you can be? You're not creating value yourself, you're not creating value for your future, it's gonna affect where you get drafted. All these things are anti-development, I call it, which is not a good thing for college players."