Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban to co-chair commission on college sports, per reports
According to reports, former Alabama head coach Nick Saban will co-chair a presidential commission on college sports.
My thoughts....
A few years back when the groundwork was being laid for paying players, I said they need to be smart about it. But everyone at the time was advocating for athletes and not giving any thought to the health of college sports, and what that means for stability, for fans, and for future opportunities for athletes in general. I was part of tiny minority who thought it was heading down a bad path.
Saban is getting attacked because of all of the money he made coaching college football vs. what the athletes made. They aren't looking at the big picture. Just class warfare nonsense, pitting coaches against players.
Coaches don't have a problem with players getting paid. It's the inability to sustain rosters and build any kind of culture because of the combination of NIL + unlimited transfers and the influence of donors, agents, and collectives. It is rapidly becoming a corrupt system, just as I thought it would. Giving agents a seat at the table when there is no requirement to disclose the terms of NIL deals has been a disaster. Gambling entities are seeing dollar signs. It's clearly not a sustainable model. We have to consider what's good for college sports, not just what's good for the elite athletes. Pro leagues, for example, have guardrails like salary caps and binding contracts.
The current model in college sports will eventually limit opportunities for more athletes than it will benefit. Non-revenue sports are threatened. Donor fatigue will also eventually set it. How many times can a collective go back to the well? Also - though it hasn't happened yet - many fans will eventually lose interest. And without fans, there's nothing. No NIL. No revenue sharing. No overpaid coaches. No billion-dollar TV contracts. Nothing.
