Nick Saban’s Retirement: A Reflection on the Evolving Landscape of College Football

• Nick Saban says all the things he believed in during his coaching career ‘no longer exist’ in college football.
• If Nick Saban thought he could no longer develop and help athletes, then the golf course is the right place for him.
• Nick Saban earned every bit of his salary at Alabama. Put your feet up, GOAT. You’ve earned it. Hand the baton to a new, hungry generation of coaches who think they can still help players earning NIL.

After listening to Nick Saban bemoan the direction of college football during a congressional hearing this week, I feel more certain Saban made the right decision to retire.

A hallmark of Saban’s greatness was his ability to evolve — if sometimes begrudgingly — to changes within the sport. But adjusting to a landscape in which players enjoy more power, freedom and compensation than ever before became the straw that broke the GOAT’s back.

“All the things I believed in for all these years, 50 years of coaching, no longer exist in college athletics,” Saban, 72, said on the Hill. “It’s always been about developing players. It was always about helping people be more successful in life.”

It’s not about that anymore? Not at all? That’s hard to believe.

I’m supposed to think a coach can’t develop players just because athletes collect booster dollars and they can transfer freely? A coach no longer can help athletes find success?

Consider me skeptical.

What Terry Saban told Nick Saban about NIL

If Saban doesn’t think he can help college athletes anymore, then he’s right where he needs to be: Out to pasture.

Saban added that his wife, Terry, also found the coaching enterprise to be less fulfilling after NIL arrived.

“She came to me right before I retired and said, ‘Why are we doing this?’ ” Saban told lawmakers. “I said, ‘What do you mean?’ She said, ‘All they care about is how much you’re going to pay them. They don’t care about how much you’re going to develop them, which is what we’ve always done.’ “

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Where is it written that a coach can’t develop players who are paid? If the only way you can help people is if they’re trapped within your program, unable to transfer without penalty, then maybe you should re-evaluate your leadership style.

My employer pays me wages. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t be writing this, I can assure you. I can change jobs without penalty if I so desire. But my bosses still can develop me and help me.

Here’s what changed for Saban: The good ol’ days, as the Sabans viewed them, ended a few years ago when coaches were stripped of omnipotence after the dawn of NIL, coupled with the removal of transfer penalties.

Players and boosters enjoy more power than ever.

You don’t have to like NIL collectives, but the Supreme Court and federal antitrust law stand in the way of the NCAA reverting to a time when athletes couldn’t earn money.

NIL, transfers reduced Nick Saban’s power, control. He retired

I believe Saban when he says he’s OK with players earning some coin, but I think he’d like to control how the players are compensated and the relative amount they’re compensated. He wants to control every facet of his enterprise. He says he’s up for revenue sharing with athletes. He’s down with NIL collectives. Saban isn’t the only coach who thinks along these lines. Collective bargaining and revenue sharing are worthwhile ideas.

Saban clearly is uncomfortable with boosters acting as general managers, cutting checks to acquire and retain talent.

Ask someone around Saban’s age for their thoughts on what has become of their profession, and they’ll probably tell you it used to be much better. I’m not just talking about coaches. Do this in any profession.

I’ve lost count of how many former journalists tell me the industry used to be so much better back in the day. I’m sure you hear it in your line of work, too.

In some cases, it’s true that things might have been better back in the day. Heck, I’d like a piece of those gluttonous expense accounts of which retired journalists tell tales.

In other cases, things just changed. For the better? For the worse? Depends who you ask. You adapt, you endure, or you quit. Saban quit. He earned that right. Absolutely, he did.

You won’t hear me grumble about how much Saban earned during his coaching career. In a pure business sense, he was worth every penny — and more — to Alabama. Not just to the football program. To the university at large.

So, Saban should enjoy the fruits of his hard labor. Live it up a little in his retirement mansion at the beach. Play some golf. Flip a few burgers on the grill. Read a Grisham novel.

Do anything but coach. Saban lost the appetite for that once college sports evolved to the point where he just couldn’t stand the framework.

Saban claims that what he believes in no longer exists in college football, so it was time to go. Time for Saban to put his feet up and make way for a new generation of coaches who might still think you can develop and help young athletes, even if they’re earning booster dollars and aren’t strapped to a program by transfer restrictions.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s SEC Columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. He writes twice a week for the SEC Unfiltered newsletter, emailed to you for free. Sign up here. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered.

2024-03-16 10:01:27
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