re: Is Saban correct about NIL ruining college athletics as we know it?

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Is Saban correct about NIL ruining college athletics as we know it?

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1. The fans may not like it, but a bunch of people are still going to watch the games.

2. Escalating coaching salaries have contributed to the desire of players to make money too. Coaching staffs making $15,000,000 to lead an extracurricular activity at an institute of higher learning is fricking ridiculous and part of the problem.

3. All of this has been a long time coming because fan expectations of players are way too high.

You all want…

A. NFL caliber players. You don’t want to see a 5’7” 150 lb. accounting major with a 5.0 40 catching jailbreak screens. And Connor Couchass in Wyoming who couldn’t give a frick about LSU sure as hell doesn’t want to see that either. He will watch, though, if the next Randy Moss is catching that screen.

It’s not JUST the brand that drives ratings. It’s the brand plus a lot of guys who will be playing on Sunday.

B. The best players you can get regardless of where they come from or if they are legitimate college caliber students. You will sign a 5 star kid from Los Angeles who can barely spell his name over a 4.0 GPA 3 star kid from Baton Rouge if it means the difference in winning a championship - and then bitch about the 5 star not having loyalty or valuing a college education while you do it.

You all want 85 ambitious, dedicated NFL caliber players with unwavering loyalty to a school who value education as serious students and are content with everyone around them making 6-8 figures off their heroics as they put their bodies and futures on the line with every snap. That’s an awful lot to ask.

Sorry, but the true and loyal student-athlete on one ends meets the win-at-all-costs multibillion dollar industry of fans, coaches, and administrators on the other end was an imbalance that was bound to crack at some point.

The amateur nature of college football was on borrowed time for a while. The 50 year free trial offer has expired, and now you’re going to have to start paying players for their contribution to a sport that you all let get out of hand because you care way too much about winning.

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The coaches getting paid argument is flawed. They are the tippy top 1% of their vocation for a reason. Most start out as GAs living out of the dorms and maybe getting minimum wage. They hustle their way up the chain just like a CEO climbs the corporate ladder. A kid coming on campus making millions before taking a single snap has barely climbed out of bed.

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In the last few years there have been girls who haven’t graduated from high school who make more money from TikTok than a lot of us will see in a decade of working legitimate jobs.

The world’s not fair, and people are worth whatever someone is willing to pay them.