Nick Saban Pontificates On Recruiting & NIL Deals
Saban: "A&M bought every player on their team. Made a deal for name, image and likeness. We didn’t buy one player."
Saban accuses A&M of breaking Texas laws prohibiting high school athletes from profiting off NIL. Fisher has long said no A&M recruit in the class of 2022 had name, image and likeness (NIL) deals in place prior to arriving to College Station.
Saban went on to say he didn’t know if Alabama was “going to be able to sustain that in the future, because more people are doing it” in terms of setting up NIL deals prior to players’ arrivals to their respective colleges.
There is an embedded YouTube video of Saban ponticating in the following link.
I love the hypocrisy by Saban here, Like every recruit before NIL had dodge chargers before enrolling at bama. For being the best coach ever he sure does complain alot. Wasn't he a part of the no more satellite camp movement as well. And for god sakes can we PLEASE just start buying top classes until rules are actually followed.
Sam Webb this morning hinted strongly that Notre Dame is dishing out "strong-ass offers" (thank you to Will Wade) on the NIL front. This is based on discussions with recruits and their families. He didn't name them but did say "northern schools at the top of the recruiting charts" - so pretty obvious who he was referencing.
Of course we already knew this but it does confirm how ND is suddenly beating out OSU, Bama and Georgia for 5 stars.
Good for ND. Michigan should get on NIL.
Agree 100% - start with Dante Moore. Other 5* QBs are getting $1 million NIL deals - we could put that together at MGoBlog.
If true, good for ND to try to compete. I do think, like a lot of things, the numbers being thrown around are a bit hyperbolic; there was an article recently (maybe the Athletic) where they talked to a bunch of NIL collective types and they said the idea guys were making millions wasn't right but lots of guys are getting $250k-$500k offers.
This market does feel a bit like a sugar rush where schools are throwing around promises and really not considering the long-term implications in terms of budgets and market rates. For example, if ND scuttles a bit this year (for all the issues people have with Kelly as a person he absolutely exceeded ND's recent historical performance and that's a tall ask for Freeman to replicate right off the bat) and loses some of these top-rated recruits you could see them bounce and then if you're ND do you readjust your NIL offers to lower-rated kids or do you stick to the numbers because you're known as a 'strong ass' school?
It's like how NBA free agency leads to mediocre guys getting max salaries because teams have money to spend but a limited number of candidates who are actually worth it. It's a problem I could see UM also running into.
Maybe I'm just naive, but I don't understand the NIL thing right now. I understand if you're an established player, such as Bryce Young, you're going to get money. But there are all kinds of 5-stars and 4-stars who do nothing noteworthy.
Chris Hinton was a 5-star. How much is/was he worth to your company for an NIL deal? He was an undrafted free agent and really never made any significant plays at Michigan. Probably the most recognizable thing about him is that he's Chris Hinton, Jr. and his dad was a star player. I'm not bringing this up to bash Hinton, who was a fine player for Michigan, but just to point out that I have no idea how much that's worth.
Recruiting rankings are so volatile that, according to these numbers, you could pay a 5-star $1 million who totally flames out and meanwhile a 3-star kid who doesn't blow up until his junior year might not be worth anything until he's almost done with college.
I mean - your analysis is right, I guess it is like the pros. You get 1st round picks and big $ free agents that flame out while some undrafted guys emerge as superstars.
The system will have to adapt and figure out where the market value of the players shakes out. I guess you will probably see contracts with a guaranteed amount plus performance bonuses or something to that effect.
Right, but if you're an NFL franchise, that's baked into the system and you're dealing with 22-year-olds who have been to college and have (hopefully) learned how to be pros.
Imagine back in the day being the guy who offered a $500,000 NIL deal to J.T. Turner. You're an outside investor and you get absolutely nothing on your return, based on the coaches' development of an 18-year-old kid. It's just such a wild gamble. I can't wrap my head around it.
I am actually agreeing with you. We are just too early into this.
Give it a few years, the market will build a risk premium into the NIL market. I mean, just look at our mullet-headed friend at OSU last year. I am sure that Ewers got a pretty penny to play skool (since he didn't play much football) at OSU last year and whoever paid it can't be very happy.
I think the vast majority of NIL is really about pay to play. It's just about getting good recruits to go to your school and win games for the team you cheer for.
You're describing NIL as what it is supposed to be, not what it is. There are probably a handful of players nationwide with enough of a profile to warrant major promotional deals (your national player of the year candidates). There are probably a couple athletes at each P5 school that warrant local promotional deals (car dealership, restaurant, stores, etc.). Everyone else should get no more than a few bucks here or there to promote something on social, show up at a club party, or work a camp.
If your school has more than 3-4 athletes earning $50k+ a year in NIL it is almost certainly pay to play and not really NIL.
You're making the mistake in thinking that NIL is largely really a way for players to profit on NIL.
NIL is a way for boosters to funnel money to players.
How much were those players worth to those boosters handing them money under the table prior to NIL? Why would the same people care about value now when they didn't before?
Incentive-laden contracts. The brighter your star, the more you earn. This isn’t that hard to grasp how investors at that level hedge their money. These people take calculated risks; their not the Dolan or Ford families.
There is a dogfight going on and our pilots are not engaged.
I won't say "good for ND," but I will say "that's the game and I don't resent ND for playing it."
If ND, the only institutions in major college sports that can equal Michigan for its pride in doing things a certain kind of way, can get that eagerly on the NIL train, Michigan needs to, as well.
Michigan's in decent shape right now. But we're looking at serious multi-program deficits in a couple of years if things aren't changed fast.
With the transfer portal, it could go downhill much quicker than in a couple years. If they have a good season this year and players aren't seeing the kind of NIL benefits others are, they'll jump ship quick.
Sam Webb also said a week or so back that he's shocked that more coaches aren't publicly snitching on each other, then this happens
Saban has bought every player at Alabama since 2007.
Boo hoo, NIck. Just a year ago you were a happy braggart. Remember?
I dislike Alabama because they win too much.
I do not resent Nick Saban uniquely. I think he's an excellent coach; there's a reason players want to play for him. I think that, despite his gruff exterior, he cares for the guys that play for him. I appreciate his willingness to frankly speak his mind on issues like spread offenses but not be so thick-skulled as to not adapt to them when they are clearly effective.
And while Bama obviously cheats, I don't consider them uniquely bad offenders. Ole Miss cheats a lot; why aren't they winning titles every year? It's not because they aren't paying. It's because Nick Saban is really good at what he does, and I respect that even as I resent Alabama's success because they're winning and we aren't winning that much.
But:
C'mon.
It's one thing to observe troubling trends. It's another to get indignant because TAMU bought players. Nick Saban coaches for *Alabama*. This has been going on at his program for decades, and absolutely has been going on in a huge way with him.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Maybe the most outrageous thing I've ever seen from Saban.
I believe Saban wins because he's good; like Lance Armstrong, he cheats in a game of cheaters, but he works hard and works well and the teams he's beating all cheat too.
But, like Lance Armstrong, this is a moment where he is flying waaaaaay too close to the sun.
The thing that got Armstrong wasn't the cheating to win 7 Tours. It was destroying people to stay on top, and then retiring, and then coming back. Floyd Landis finally had enough, and the house of cards collapsed.
Probably won't have that kind of impact... but Nick Saban sounds like Lance Armstrong complaining that Jan Ullrich was doping here. Unreal.
I mean ---- isn't this is simply Saban telling his boosters to "step it up" ---- but Saban doing it in an indirect way as opposed to a direct way?
Saban gets to take a shot at Jimbo Fisher (and also Deion Sanders!) along the way, which he probably views as an extra bonus, but I think that's all Saban's motivation is here.
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As for Saban saying "We didn’t buy one player" --- I think he 100% legitimately believes that, but it's based off of his own definition of the word "buy." If Jimbo himself is involved in helping set up deals for HS players before they arrive and Saban is not - then Saban's statement is true if you consider that act "buying."
I've never believed Saban to be an outright liar, unlike the likes of Urban or other college football coaches.
Yeah, I largely agree with this.
Whatever else one might say about Nick Saban, you can't say that he shoots from the hip or doesn't see the whole board. Sure, he doesn't like how NIL is changing the landscape of the sport *right now* because it's a new wrinkle that threatens his supremacy over the sports. But he also said the same thing about spread offenses in 2012 before adopting Air Raid pass spreads, so this is probably just standard issue kvetching before going whole hog into, I dunno, a Nickelodeon TV show for Bama recruits or wherever NILs-for-HS-recruits leads us.
I think you're right Nittney. Seth wrote one of the best pieces here a couple years ago about the dirt of recruiting and I think he mentioned how Saban insulates himself enough from the payoffs that he gives himself plausible deniability. He may have been doing it for so long that he's gone into Costanza mode of "It's not a lie if you believe it."
Jimbo Fisher just went nuclear on saban for his press conference.
-- “Some people think they’re God,” Fisher says. “We build him up to be the czar of football.
-- “Go dig into his past,” Fisher says of Saban.
-- Jimbo Fisher said he ignored Saban’s call today. “We’re done,” Fisher said.
-- Fisher said there is a reason he has not worked with Saban since LSU. “I don’t want to be associated with him,” he said.
-- Fisher said Saban was “soliciting funds from the crowd” in Birmingham before talking about Texas A&M. “When you walk on water, I guess, it don’t matter.”
-- Fisher said he does not know what collectives are doing. “You can call me anything you want to call me. You can’t call me a cheat. I don’t cheat. I don’t lie.” Fisher said his “old man” would have slapped him and “maybe someone should have slapped [Saban].”
-- “It’s despicable for what it does for the sport, and the operations and the way things were done the other way, when the parity was there. ... There never has been parity. Certain people never followed the rules anyway.”
Just some good old fashioned WV feuding, Devil Anse would be proud
" I don’t cheat. I don’t lie.” Fisher said
...his ex-wife disagrees.
wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Can't choose between "Well, pot, quite nice to meet you. I'm kettle." and "Shocked, shocked that football players are being paid."
It really must bother him that now any lowly school can do what he's been doing for a decade.
Yep, this is it. Same as Dabo crying about it. These guys had an "edge" (cheating is technically an edge, I guess) and are throwing a fit that it's not exclusive to the SEC/Ohio/Clemson. Remember when Saban wouldnt shut up about satellite camps that were objectively positive for recruits and schools because he didn't think of it first?? While I agree regulation is badly needed, just hilariously transparent projecting by Saban here.
Saban is brilliant. While making it seem as though he's concerned about high school players being bought and the possibility of non-revenue sports being cut, he is actually telling the crowd that he needs more money to compete. A lot of what he said is true, even when he said that Alabama didn't buy one player. They bought 27!