Nick Saban Jokes NIL Contracts Give Big Ten 'Advantage' in College Football

Nick Saban joked Monday that the NIL age in college football is an advantage for Big Ten schools in particular.

"In this day and age of the culture we have now in college football, paying players, name, image and likeness, transfer, it's an advantage for the Big Ten," he said during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. "You'll never convince me otherwise. The North. Because people in the South would not go to the North unless you paid them."

If Indiana wins the national championship on Monday night against Miami it will be a third straight natty for the Big Ten following Ohio State's title last year and Michigan's in the 2023 season. Before that, schools that are now in either the SEC or ACC won 17 championships across an 18-year span.

Has NIL changed the course of college sports in general? Absolutely. Has it given the Big Ten some sort of outsized edge? No, probably not, but it made for a good joke nonetheless.