Skip to content

Ad Disclosure

Alabama’s Nick Saban calls for legislation ‘to control’ NIL

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Nick Saban’s most recent comment on name, image and likeness opportunities has captured the attention of an entire sport. The Alabama head coach believes there needs to be some sort of regulation moving forward.

Speaking with the media on Sunday, just one day before the Crimson Tide take the field against Georgia for the national championship, Saban addressed how NIL is impacting college athletics. While it’s mostly garnered a lot of support over the past several months, Saban says there needs to be some sort of control.

“Name, image and likeness is a positive thing for players. They’ve got the opportunity to earn money,” Saban said, per Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing. What is concerning is how that’s used to get players to decide where they’re going to school. I don’t think that was the intention.

“We need some kind of national legislation to control that. There will be an imbalance as to who dominates college football if it isn’t regulated.”

The interesting aspect of Saban’s comments is how they’re being interpreted. Some believe it’s the head coach warning others about how Alabama would be even further ahead in a sport it has absolutely dominated for over a decade.

Others believe Saban is worried about losing important recruiting battles and could level the playing field — at least to some degree — across the sport.

Regardless of how it’s interpreted, it’s hard to imagine NIL will negatively impact Alabama in any capacity.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB