re: Saban in Congressional roundtable speaking about NIL today

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Gus, I do appreciate you responding. I am not trying to be obtuse and if you carefully read what I wrote I am not making things up. However, I do feel like we are both genuinely trying to understand our disagreement, but to some extent we are talking past each other. Given that I will try again.

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I get heated because something I, along with MILLIONS of alums, sidewalk and actual, have an incredibly strong passion for is being destroyed by people that think they understand, but really don't seem to. I do apologize for coming across as uncivil at times. That said, by reading the rest of your response, I can now see we are literally WORLDS apart in our view of this issue.

I will try to briefly respond to each one:

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- college football players have been being mistreated in a college football market value sense for that last 20-30 years , their earnings from the college football business were a pittance compared to what the coaches and administrators received.

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This quote alone is why I now know that you and I will never see things the same way FOR THIS SUBJECT.

There is no way in hell anyone will ever convince me that college football players are MISTREATED in any college football market at any time.

If you want to dismiss the value of a scholarship, then I can't help you. If the value of a scholarship is so overvalued in your opinion, then why are so many college students in major debt from college loans? Many of them are going to be stuck in debt for many, many years to come.

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I believe Saban wants another system just like the failed one that has existed for the past 20-30 years. A set of rules (NCAA regulations) with an enforcement agency (the NCAA). I would rather have free markets letting institutions pay what they want for players ( they already do this with coaches, and Saban personally benefited from that).

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I'm almost speechless after reading this. This proves my point that you think college football players should be paid a salary, which will absolutely destroy the college sports environment that has created the very fanbase that has created the demand. I guarantee you that they will lose MILLIONS of fans. Look at the attendance of minor league baseball, G-League basketball and the USFL/XFL. That is what college football and basketball arenas will look like in 10 years if the players become employees. The strong connection to the schools that MOST fans have is the reason for the passion for their school's athletic teams. If you can't understand that, then you will never understand my perspective (which I would bet the vast majority of fans agree with).

As far as what coaches make, the vast majority of their salaries are NOT paid by the schools. They are paid by alumni groups. I really don't see how much money the coaches are being paid can be used to push for players being paid. They are really not related.

Do you think every Walmart employee should make at least $100,000 since the higher ups make millions?

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let the players go play where they want, it is supposed to be a free country, I sure as hell do not want someone to tell me where I can or cannot go to WORK for money

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No one is telling ANYONE where they can or cannot WORK for MONEY. That is a major flaw in your reasoning. College football is NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A JOB, no matter how much money is involved. Look at the money that Little League Baseball makes. Should all of those "mistreated" kids be paid a salary to "work"?

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NIL and the money flowing through it are just a small symptom of a much larger problem, it is like a small crack in a hugely out of balance business system that is college football today.

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Not to be rude, but people that want to turn college athletics into professional athletics are THE problem and it is a HUGE crack in the system that is college football today.

After responding to all of that, I realize I was wrong when I said we are WORLDS apart in our outlook of this issue.

We are actually UNIVERSES apart in our outlook.

All of that said, I do apologize again if I come across as uncivil and do appreciate your civility. We are just going to have to agree to disagree.

War Eagle!

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The 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and all of its derived labor laws and anti-trust laws, might not agree with your assessment. I suspect the Supreme Court won't agree with you either.

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Unpaid internships? Mine was unpaid back in the 90s.

Gus you and I have also disagreed, strongly, but I absolutely, sincerely respect your passion.

Unpaid internships are now considered caca because of some court cases over them. At my former employer, we paid interns a higher hourly rate than some people who’d been on staff for a decade, just no PTO or benefits.

Again, things change. That’s what frustrates me about “back in my day …” comments. That day is over. You might be surprised to know that I am a Boomer who in his heart of hearts is as resistant to change as anyone here. But I managed to survive to retirement and walk out the door to retire on my own terms in a business that is dying, while many of my friends and colleagues didn’t get to, by being a chameleon who could adapt and roll with the flow.

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Scholarships are the piece. What percentage do you think of just college football players could afford to pay their way through school while playing football? There are plenty of doctors, lawyers and teachers that would like to be afforded the same.

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If given the option of $180,000 a year or a scholarship, everyone is picking the money.

How much money is the doctors and lawyers generating for the schools while they’re there? The answer is none and that’s why your argument doesn’t make any sense.

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I’m going to say again, and I’m going to get downvoted all to hell as I have before but that’s OK, the reason people are so butt hurt about this is that college football fans in particular because “they pay the bills and they support the teams and they buy the merchandise” think they are the predominant party in the equation.

And their desires are not being and won’t be considered moving forward.

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That would be an interesting choice not to listen to the fans at all going forwards. If fans don't want the product the money will eventually dry up

I agree with Saban. It was particularly powerful when he said Terri asked him why they’re even having them over. We’ve been dumbing down college athletics for years now. It’s been a facade for quite some time. We should just call it what it is, a minor league football league. And regulate the salaries, make it come from TV money because of donor fatigue. They aren’t going to pay millions for unproven 18 year olds forever. The filthy rich didn’t get filthy rich by putting money into something with no return, and that’s EVEN IF the player pans out. What, they get to watch a better football season? Yay.

The old school, classic spirit of college football, objectively and certainly isn’t there anymore. We all love it so much so we will keep watching. Put LSU on the helmets, but call it what it is. The minor leagues.

Yea.. the crazy shite he did with recruiting and the players while he was at LSU was very questionable

Nick Saban is the new face of an old scam

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Saban and all these highly overpaid coaches are the reason NIL came to be. Paid so much money for coaching a game with Rediculous pay outs when they get fired the players wanted a piece of the pie. Saban needs to go home and repent. He was part of the problem.