re: Nick Saban pushes for players to 'unionize,' has 'no problem' with athletes being paid

quote:

---

You think there is disparity right now in college football? There's going to be more in the future."

---

He didn’t mind as long as it was tilted in his favor.

Nick knows anything like “unionizing” will likely never happen until he is done coaching. Therefore he can be for it. Much like he was for the nine game conference schedule when he knew it would never get adopted. Then when it was actually on the table and possible, not so much.

quote:

---

Let’s stop pretending that Saban is at the forefront of NIL or that he’s driving change. His comments always sound reactionary.

---

He’s consistently adapted while bitching about having to do so. The man knows self-preservation. People misunderstand the bitching as not wanting to adapt instead of, more accurately, having to do so and not caring for the ramifications of everyone else doing the same.

If your program doesn’t already have a mature or rapidly maturing NIL solution like Alabama and others, your school is fricked. He’s just being grumpy about what that means for college football as a man who started out at a smaller school like Kent State.

If you go to college and take classes you are a student. There are academic standards set in place at different universities…. Meaning the NCAA or any conference governing body can’t force a school to lower their standards just to gain athletes.

College sports were built on the same foundations of HS sports as clubs and amateur teams. Now that it has become something tied to big money through TV deals, merchandise sales, and large scale gambling we are at a crossroads.

Either keep it as an amateur sport that’s a club/privilege/opportunity earned from auditions and talent, or separate it all together from the schools and start an amateur league.

If the student athletes unionize then it will open a can of worms like never seen from other organizations on campuses which in turn will alter the identity of a student on scholarship VS one who is not. This is about money, control, and power over a game which has now become more important than academics on some University campuses.

The NCAA has sat and done nothing since NIL was instituted and not come up with creative ways to allow students to participate while also containing pay for play. If they restricted the transfer portal then that would at least start some type of cap.

The problem is that we as a culture and nation lowered our standards for education by placing winning a football game over getting a QUALITY degree. Because we have given football and other popular sports so much money and power, we are now discussing allowing sports to alter the way we handle all scholarships in academia. If you don’t see that this would happen then you are blind and don’t understand how this will work.

Getting the federal government involved is one of the dumbest things to do ever. They already fricked up student loans when they federalized them back in 2007. Since then college tuition has skyrocketed because they can charge whatever the frick they want and the federal government wrote the checks. You do NOT want Congress or anyone from DC involved in this. The NCAA should do its job or dissolve. Let the conferences take over and set new guidelines across the board that ensure students can’t just jump teams each year due to being bought. frick the NCAA and frick DC.

quote:

---

The world they sang about was a more simple one. But their lyrics no longer make sense here in 1984

---

The BLM marches were for the same reason Martin Luther King was marching in the 60s. Nothing new under the sun Junior.

Ha, good one. Question, is that you in the avatar??

At this point most should agree that taking financial accountability in a mature logical way is nary impossible. The NIL and magic portal are more rightly defined as a feeding frenzy. Kids still have zero say in what they are asked to do.

How about negotiating with the players in their own CBA about such stuff as, how much money does a player make when a school sells their name on the back of a jersey? How long should practices be and how many? How do the players feel about how long the summer session is and how many times can you be with a coach? How often does a player get to travel through the magic portal? How long is a player committed to staying with a football program before transferring?

Truth is we are past the old concept that these guys are just here for a diploma. This is a billion-dollar business and players are the main assets. They should have a say as employees. Coach Saban is right. If the grownups can only throw cold hard cash, and greed at these problems, let the kids be totally invested and see what they can do in a CBA.

Leadership makes billions off of labor; shares none of it. Fans mad at labor for wanting an equal share.