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Comments
My take on this: Did Jimbo buy his class using NIL? Absolutely! Did Jimbo break any rules? No.
Would A&M have been able to sign the No.1 class without NIL? No way.
Saban is just mad because Jimbo used NIL faster or better or both. Saban is doing the exact same thing.
Saban is coming out of this looking worse than Jimbo.
I watched it. Saban isn't mad. He just wants BAMA boosters and businesses to get more involved and up their NIL game. He's competing in the off-the-field, offseason game of recruiting. Smart had better be doing the same thing or Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Arkansas are going to swoop in with their oil money and buy their programs to the top. It's inevitable, IMO.
You can't blame em...it's allowed. That's all Saban was trying to get across. Like Jimbo, he can't actively get involved with the NIL bidding wars. If they want to maintain dominance, they can't do it the old fashioned way. Old fashioned, being 2020 and prior. LOL
When Saban, Jimbo and Kirby point their sights on a desired recruit, it's up to the Collective, Boosters and Businesses to step in and make the offer. That's the reality of it. If a coach, assistant, or School representative, gets directly involved...that's a problem.
The real issue for all BCS schools is that NIL is now being used to buy what is supposed to be an amateur enterprise. I concede it is not any longer and perhaps never was.. To provide balanced access from all involved in the BCS, these collectives should be clearly identified as an official arm of the school program they represent. A ceiling amount should then apply to all of these collectives and decisions should be made between the collective and the football program. The pot available should be reviewed carefully by an independent agency to insure excess has not occurred. NIL for "amateur" sport should be incorporated under the collective and distributed from the annual budget. This would provide equal competitive compensation somewhat akin to what professional teams provide with their agreed upon maximum payment for each team.
The problem with all that, is two-fold.
First...players only compete at the College level for 3-4 yrs, so, creating a Player's Union to represent players interests in collective bargaining is not practical. That means every issue will go to court for enforcement and could be tied up for years in litigation. By then, the student-athlete has graduated and moved on.
Second...the NCAA does not have the authority to enforce anything. If they try to do anything, it will be challenged in court under anti-trust laws.
That's why the NCAA bent over on the transfer portal. Prior to current transfer rules, if a player transferred, he had to petition the NCAA for waiver. If the waiver was denied, it was challenged in court. So, the NCAA finally just threw their hands up (figuratively) and said, okay everybody gets 1 free transfer without applying for waiver.
It's going to require Federal Law to give the NCAA an antitrust exemption, otherwise...what you see is what you get. If you want things to change, petition your State Congressional and Senate Representatives. The NCAA can't help you.
Why doesn't the NCAA ban any discussion of NIL before the student is enrolled at the school, and also ban any coordination between schools and the companies signing the kids to NIL?
Of course, such rules could be secretly violated. But just like other NCAA rule violations, there would be high stakes for anyone getting caught.
I agree with most commenters that Saban's not wrong but that Fisher didn't break the rules. Still, Saban's got a point (similar to what Smart has said previously): NCAA has got to get a handle of the situation or else it becomes basically schools bidding for players.
The NCAA doesn't have the authority to issue or enforce any such ban. The antitrust lawsuit won on player's behalf at the Supreme Court level is settled law until Congress changes the law.
Technically, School Coaches and Administrators are banned from direct involvement in NIL deals, yet they all have NIL advisors on staff to guide their student-athletes in finances and tax issues.
A coach, Sports247, ESPN, Rivals and others identify the top Football players and their target schools/players every year. I don't have to talk to Coach Smart, to know which players to direct my money to. Smart, Saban, Fisher...none of them, have to directly communicate which players they want. We all know, by the end of Summer. You can't stop a Booster, Business, Collective, from offering a kid an NIL deal, as things stand right now. THAT'S illegal.
If you can prove a Coach was directly involved, then maybe you've got something. Other than that...Good luck with enforcement as long as the NCAA doesn't have antitrust protection. The NCAA would be in court every day of the year...and lose.
I see no hope for anything approaching competitive equity if unrestricted collectives pay the game into a distant memory. I do hope we can get Congress to provide that antitrust exception. If so, student athletes could still get reasonable NIL compensation from the team's collective, but the same financial ceiling for each collective would apply to all BCS schools, insuring that the highest bidder doesn't win each case whether it is retaining a proven entity already on the team (eg. Brock Bowers) or a very well sought after recruit.
Fisher has decided to call out Saban in the press. Thats fine and dandy in May. He better hope he can coach this fall. I'm pretty sure Bama has that game circled and Saban will be ready.
LOL...I think their fans have it circled too. From what I heard on the Paul Finebaum Show today, I expect there will be a lot of fights at that game...just between the fans. Texas A&M and BAMA fans, officially hate each other now. 🤣🤣
Saban didn't say anything that the rest of us didn't already suspect. What I think they should do, is have a cap on the NIL, much like the salary cap of the NFL.
If it takes an act of Congress, that's fine by me.
Whatever it takes, NCAA needs to get a handle on NIL, settle on a solution, and lobby Congress -- if necessary -- on legislation that protects athletes' rights while also protecting the sport.
I think it's going to take a come-to-Jesus moment for Congress to get on board. A kid is eventually gonna get screwed by a deal or a School and go public as in sue a University or Collective. It's bound to happen sooner or later. We'll all find out where some of the bodies are buried from one of the kids being bought. That's kinda what happened at USC and Ole Miss.
Once that happens, the NCAA will have some Congressional support. Right now, they see it as bad politics to get between a kid and a bag full of money as long as the SCOTUS says it's legal and the NCAA is in violation of antitrust laws. There's not much sympathy on the side of the NCAA, Big Business and Universities. Especially in these times of want. They could care less about Football or any other Collegiate Sport....right now. That will change soon enough, IMO.