Nick Saban jokes about why Big Ten has NIL advantage over SEC
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Nick Saban won a record 7 national championships in the South — 1 at LSU and, of course, 6 at Alabama.
Now, though, the SEC is in a bit of a title drought. No SEC team will be in the national title game for the third year in a row. Meanwhile, if Indiana takes down Miami on Monday night, the Big Ten will have 3-straight champions to boast about.
On Monday’s edition of the “Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN, Nick Saban joked about why the NIL era is an advantage for northern Big Ten schools:
“To me, in this day and age, the culture we have now in college football, fans, players, Name, Image and Likeness, players transferring, it’s an advantage for the Big Ten. I don’t care, you’ll never convince me otherwise,” Saban said. “Because people in the South would not go to the North unless you paid them.”
Saban is obviously joking, but the Playoff title game is in Miami on Monday night. The biggest bowl games in the sport are played in California (Rose), Texas (Cotton), Arizona (Fiesta), Florida (Orange), Louisiana (Sugar) and Georgia (Peach). Indiana is the only “northern” state ever to host a title game, back in 2022 at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Big Ten schools do have plenty of money. So too do programs in the SEC. The rivalry between the 2 biggest conferences in college sports doesn’t appear to be cooling off any time soon.
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Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
