Nick Saban wants players to be able to get paid, but ‘I don’t want them to be employees’

WASHINGTON — On Capitol Hill, within a U.S. Senate building and in front of several sitting senators and political figures, college football’s most legendary living coach stumped for college athletes to be paid, just not as employees; attributed his retirement to the current unregulated nature of the college athletics pay system; and criticized booster-led collectives that, he says, have transformed the sport into a “pay for play” industry.

In a teal suit and dotted blue tie, former Alabama coach Nick Saban spoke as one of nine members as part of a roundtable discussion organized and led by Sen. Ted Cruz, the lawmaker’s attempt to highlight the need for congressional action related to college athlete legislation.

Two months removed from announcing his retirement, Saban offered a thundering message to the college sports world: Pay the players — but with limitations.

“I’m for student-athletes being able to share in some of this revenue,” he said. “The No. 1 solution is if we could have some kind of a revenue-sharing proposition that did not make student-athletes employees. That may be the long-term solution.

“I don’t want them to be employees, but I want them to share in the revenue some kind of way.”

Much of the 100-minute discussion was focused on Saban’s thoughts, insights and opinions, including a story he shared about how the current state of the sport contributed to his leaving the game after 50 years as a coach.

At some point before his retirement decision, his wife Terry approached him with a question: Why are we doing this?

“She said, ‘All [the players] care about is how much you’re going to pay them. They don’t care about how you’re going to develop them, which is what we’ve always done. So why are we doing this?’” Saban said. “That was kind of a red alert that we really are…

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Publish date : 2024-03-12 19:38:17

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