INDIANAPOLIS — Alabama football coach Nick Saban and Georgia coach Kirby Smart both called for increased regulation on name, image and likeness (NIL) deals for college athletes during their joint College Football Playoff news conferences Sunday.
Without more regulation, Saban and Smart said the same teams are going to continue to dominate college football.
Right at the top of that list are Alabama and Georgia, who meet Monday for the national title for the second time in the past five years. Alabama is vying for its sixth national title in the past 11 years.
“You’re going to have the haves and have nots, and the separation that is already there is going to grow larger,” Smart said. “The schools that have the capacity and the ability and are more competitive in the NIL market are going to be schools that step ahead on top of other schools. So I don’t want [recruiting] decisions to be based on that, but ultimately a lot of young men want to make their decision based on that.”
Alabama was ranked No. 2 and Georgia No. 3 in ESPN’s 2022 signing class rankings. Texas A&M, another SEC school, was ranked No. 1. SEC schools have won 11 of the past 15 national championships.
Saban said the NIL rules were a “positive thing for players” and that their ability to earn money wasn’t a “bad thing.” But he is concerned about how the NIL rules are being used to lure players to schools.
“I don’t think that was the intention,” Saban said. “I don’t think that would be the NCAA’s intention. I think we probably need some kind of national legislation to sort of control that to some degree, because I think there will be an imbalance relative to who can dominate college football if that’s not regulated in some form or fashion.”
The Sports Business Journal reported in December that Alabama quarterback Bryce Young had 14 NIL deals over the course of the 2021 season with an estimated value of more than $1 million. Young, who works with CAA Sports, added more than 57,000 followers on Instagram.
Saban reiterated that he’s not against players making money, but also said that maybe there should be an agreement between both the school and player “as to what their commitment is to what they choose to do … making commitments and fulfilling them.”
As for the transfer portal, Saban said: “I don’t know if you want to call it a fad or whatever, but anybody that’s a little discontented with the program that they’re in, just get in the transfer portal and see what my opportunities would be someplace else. I don’t know that was the intention originally. I hope it doesn’t continue to be that way.”
Saban said he understands that most of the transfer portal activity is based on playing time.
“But when you have 85 guys on scholarship, everybody can’t start,” he said.
One of Alabama’s best players this season was receiver Jameson Williams, who transferred from Ohio State. Williams leads the Crimson Tide with 15 touchdown catches.
Smart said the transfer portal would impact the way Georgia evaluates prospects during the recruiting process.
“It does make you think hard about the kind of kids you recruit and what their beliefs are and what their goals are and how they got here,” Smart said. “I think a lot of what you look at when you recruit now is: What is the history of the student-athlete? You’re trying to put a likelihood of when things get tough — because they will get tough, they will get tough in college athletics; your time demands, practice demands and competitive demands will get tough — how will they respond?”
