With the rules of college football changing more than ever before, only one man’s voice is as commanding: Nick Saban. Sensing the future of college athletics, the former head coach of Alabama is raising the red flag over how more nuanced NCAA rules on NIL apply. College GameDay discussed the issue in the context of several players of UNLV redshirting the ongoing season to get a favorable NIL deal in 2025.

While everyone recognized the seriousness of the issue for the future of college football, Nick Saban went ahead and called for a government intervention. “Well, I actually think there needs to be some kind of Federal Legislature, because right now every state has a different law on how you can manage your college program. It’s interstate, you know? It should be a national program.”

This is not a matter of rules; this is a matter of the young athletes out there. Because of this, it is evident that NIL’s current state is a problematic area that is leaving players exploited, according to Saban. He added, “We need to have some kind of protection from litigation, and I don’t think players should be employees. I think we need to have a system that needs to emphasize education.” It puts into question who has the best interest of college players in their minds. Agents? Well, Saban doesn’t seem to think so!

Nick Saban shares his thoughts on the impact of NIL in college football. pic.twitter.com/b5nOieXsF2

Moreover, transferring ultimately impacts the education of college athletes.  Saban pointed out that when athletes switch schools, they face a stark reality: “When these guys transfer, they have about a 20% less chance of graduating, and we have got guys transferring three or four times.”

It is a call by Saban, but everybody, coaches included, participating in college football should embrace change. He is identifying the importance of adopting a set of rules to keep college sports safe but also making sure that those athletes get paid their worth. Nobody wants to move the earlier era of ambiguity where college football athletes were not paid. Saban hints at sharing revenue, like they do in professional leagues in the US. For that to happen, all the stakeholders need to come together.

The implications of NIL on college football

As college football players wade through the ill-defined territory of NIL financial agreements, what has been brewing in the present is slowly beginning to come to the surface. Looking at Saban’s view, one can see more clearly how this contributed to the emergence of many problems. From money, young athletes can make poor decisions such as transfers in an attempt to get to the next big team with the best offers.

Saban explained, “People don’t ever really think about the 40% of the guys who get in the portal who lose their scholarship cause they got in the portal and didn’t get an opportunity to go someplace else because they thought the grass was gonna be greener.” Such a bitter fact makes millions of players feel the pain when short-term dreams can be pulverized by a long-term perspective. Here, the prospect of a high payoff is always attractive, but the hazards are not so colorful.

Furthermore, the rapid rise of NIL has also fostered a culture that prioritizes financial gain over the essence of college football: teamwork and dedication. Saban emphasized, “There’s a lot of consequences of this kind of behavior, and the culture we’ve created in college athletics. We’re not trying to create value for people’s futures; we’re trying to see how much money we can make right now while we’re going to college.”  It is vivid and touches upon the problem closely related to the current state of business, focusing on the importance of proper relations between commercial success and the roles that learning and teamwork play.

In other words, the very nature of college football is at risk, should the concept of a coherent framework of college football regulations never be realized. It is made clear that the prospects for a revenue-sharing system could help make the situation more fair and financially profitable for players, who could, at the same time, remain members of a structured educational program. The strategic approach towards general and program-specific NIL is not new to Saban, as he proves to be passionate about both the game and its players.

In the process of evaluating the current and future state of play, there can be no doubt that college football finds itself at a precipice as we go further into this. The call for federal intervention also remains more forceful than ever, and the time for action is high in response to Saban. Whether or not this cry for change leads to meaningful reforms remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: this is where the future of college athletics lies – in striking the right balance that is close to perfect between business and education.