Nick Saban retiring from coaching surprisingly had nothing to do with NIL

Nick Saban. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Nick Saban retiring from coaching surprisingly had nothing to do with NIL

By Andrew Kulha | Last updated Sep 29, 2026 11:00 PM ET

There's been this impression, right or wrong, that legendary Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban retired due to NIL and the changes it has brought upon college football.

That's not actually the case, per Saban himself.

In fact, Saban recently revealed on ESPN's "Get Up" that he was comfortable with NIL. He certainly wasn't comfortable with the state of the sport and NIL and the transfer portal getting out of hand, but the idea of players getting paid and building teams with a select amount of money wasn't foreign to him.

“Well, that’s not why I got out of coaching,” Saban told ESPN's Mike Greenberg when asked if he would ever consider getting back into coaching, specifically as it relates to NIL (h/t On3). “We had three years of this, you know, my last three years. I coached in the NFL, so I was used to managing the salary cap and that type of thing.”

Rather, it was simply an age thing for Saban. He's a spry 74-year-old, but the demands of being a television analyst are much different than the demands on a head coach at a place like Alabama.

Nick Saban says he retired because of his age

Not NIL and where the game is going pic.twitter.com/J24JzMzos2
— Brandon Walker College Football Show (@BFWshow) September 29, 2026

Saban built up a championship standard over the years, and it takes a lot of work to keep a team operating at that standard. There's also a lot of pressure. His replacement, Kalen DeBoer, is finding that out in Tuscaloosa.

Nick Saban wanted out of the pressure of the college football coaching game

Saban isn't retired in general, because he is on television a lot as an analyst, but now he has time to do things with his family that he was never able to do as a head coach.

“Coaching is not a job, it’s a way of life,” Saban explained. “So, how about let’s do something else and have some fun doing something else, and not live under this stress level that we’ve lived under for 50 years.”

Saban was the head coach at Toledo in 1990. He then went to the NFL for a few seasons, where he was the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns from 1991 to 1994.

He returned to college, where he coached Michigan State from 1995 to 1999 and then LSU from 2000 to 2004. It was at LSU where he won his first national championship in 2003.

Saban went back to the NFL as head coach of the Miami Dolphins from 2005 to 2006 and then started his dynasty at Alabama. From 2007 to 2023, he won six national championships.

Andrew Kulha

Andrew Kulha is probably the only sports writer you know who also doubles as a mortician. Spooky! @KulhaSports

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