Chris Fowler, the voice of ABC’s marque Saturday night college football game, visited with Paul Finebaum on Thursday and offered his thoughts on the Nick Saban-Jimbo Fisher feud.

Finebaum asked Fowler if the paying of players, however it’s done, will have an impact on the sport itself of college football, and fan engagement in terms of audiences each week.

“There will be a percentage that are totally disillusioned,” Fowler said. “This is not the college football they remember watching as a kid. Some of the things they love about the sport maybe are eroding, or have eroded very quickly and they might drift away. But I don’t know how big a percentage that will be. Others might be excited that there’s this roster fluidity, teams can go from nowhere to top through NIL and the portal.”

Fowler also said during the conversation that this issue is indicative of the SEC.

“Look how overheated your callers are,” Fowler said. “Look how passionate they are. Look how one guy wants to hit Jimbo Fisher with a metal chair, somebody else is declaring war, it’s blasphemy, I’ve only watched the last half hour, you live this 365. It shouldn’t surprise anyone. Nick Saban knows full well that Fisher is using the system in place. He doesn’t like the fact that A&M signed 24 guys on the ESPN Top 300. But at the same event, Saban is calling on Alabama business leaders to pony up because we’re going to have to do it because some people are doing it. There’s a lot of mixed messaging in all of this.”