Nick Saban goes scorched earth on Texas A&M: They 'bought every player on their team'
Nick Saban hasn’t been shy about voicing his disdain for the current NIL landscape in college athletics.
He’s not against players getting money, he just wants to make sure players aren’t being paid to head to specific schools in order to ensure “parity” in the game.
But, on Wednesday, he certainly didn’t hold back. As you can see below, he gave a lengthy answer about NIL while speaking at an event. He said Texas A&M, in particular, bought the players in the 2022 recruiting cycle:
“I know the consequence is going to be difficult for the people who are spending tons of money to get players,” Saban said at a 50-day countdown event for the World Games, which will be held in Birmingham in July (via AL.com). “You read about it, you know who they are. We were second in recruiting last year. A&M was first. A&M bought every player on their team. Made a deal for name, image and likeness.
“We didn’t buy one player. Aight? But I don’t know if we’re going to be able to sustain that in the future, because more and more people are doing it. It’s tough.”
Saban wasn’t done yet, though. He also called out Miami and Jackson State for being open about what they were doing:
More from Saban tonight: “These guys from Miami that are going to play basketball there for $400,000. That’s in the newspaper! The guy tells you how he’s doing it! But the NCAA can’t enforce their rules because it’s not against the law, and that’s an issue, that’s a problem." https://t.co/9uOzSOFpK1
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) May 19, 2022
There’s sure to be plenty of fallout from those comments. We’ll see what happens as other coaches get word of Saban’s response.