Former Alabama Crimson Tide legendary head coach Nick Saban has been one of the key figures in the fight to preserve college sports both during his career and after retiring, and on Wednesday, his thoughts were heard by the United States Senate.
After a bipartisan bill from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) known as the Protect College Sports Act was introduced last week, Saban expressed a strong support for the legislation ahead of the hearing and continued that when he took to the microphone.
“My first year we had an [NIL] collective at Alabama, it was $2.7 million. The next year $7 million, next year $10 million, then I retired. Next year, $17 million, next year $24 million, now you have schools that have close to $40 million rosters,” Saban detailed. “If we continue to do that, we’re gonna lose Olympic Sports, we’re gonna lose non-revenue sports, we’re gonna lose scholarships, and basically what’s gonna happen is that football and basketball succeed and we have club sports for everything else.”
“It’s become an arms race, who spends the most has got the best chance to win. But I think it’s a race to the bottom because if you don’t spend to win, you lose your fan base and you don’t have any revenue.”
While it does seem the new bill has a significant amount of additional hurdles to clear in order to receive a final pass both through the Senate and the House to pump the brakes on the rapid changing of college sports, having voices like Saban speak in support of it certainly should help.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.
