Nick Saban doubles down on NIL in college football

Aside from his war of words with Jimbo Fisher this offseason, Nick Saban has been a consistent critic of how NIL has worked in college football so far.

While the Alabama head coach supports the ability of players to profit off themselves, he believes the sport needs one, simple rule governing how it should be done.

"We need some kind of transparency in name, image and likeness deals to verify that players are doing what they need to do to have the opportunity to make money in name, image and likeness," Saban said. 

"And believe me, I'm all for players making as much as they can make, okay? But I also think that we've got to have some uniform, transparent way to do that. 

"Our players did extremely well last year in name, image and likeness because they got agents, they had representation, they had people who wanted them to actually endorse something for them, and they did very, very well. That's public record, and you can see how well they did."

The new NIL rules mean that agents, marketing companies, and managers are getting involved in the process.

"Student-athletes need some protection from unfair name, image and likeness representation or deals," Saban said. 

"You could have a player, and we've had this happen to us in the past, that thinks he's signing one thing and he signs something else and gives up his freedom of choice in the future as to who represents him. We have no oversight right now for players when it comes to this."

The consensus among college football coaches and decision makers appears to be broad support for NIL, but almost uniform displeasure with how it's been rolled out.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and others have taken their concerns to Washington, D.C., with an appeal for Congress to make the rules if the sport can't.