The trend of football prospects forgoing their final years of high school certainly isn’t a new one. However, with NIL regulations currently in place, it provides further motivation for student-athletes to do so. A recent example is Quinn Ewers, the country’s top quarterback prospect in the class of 2022 who decided to enroll at Ohio State in August.

Back in 2017, Nick Saban spoke about players skipping bowl games to get a head start on preparing for the NFL while wondering if it could open the door for rising seniors leaving high school early if the NCAA were to introduce a signing period prior to football season. He was asked about the trend again on Thursday during his call-in radio show, warning that prospects could use it as an opportunity to profit without necessarily earning it.

“I think it is a factor but I think you (have) to thoroughly evaluate and investigate each player individually as to the circumstances,” Saban said, according to AL.com’s Mike Rodak. “People seem to think they can get rewarded for non-performance. That’s not really how we all grew up. That’s not really what we believe in. But there seems to be more and more people who are sort of inspiring folks to not do things, as if that’s going to create value for them.

Saban added that there are players are currently on the Tide’s recruiting radar that are not currently playing, but added that “there’s a reason” for them not doing so.

“I think there’s a bit of a difference in that and each one has to be evaluated individually,” he said.