Nick Saban issues grim warning to college sports under current NIL landscape

Nick Saban didn’t hold back when he spoke about the current landscape on NIL and how it will damage college sports. During his testimony for the “Protect College Sports Act,” Saban what’s going on now is not sustainable.

“It’s become an arms race, who spends the most has got the best chance to win,” Saban said. “But I think it’s a race to the bottom because if you don’t spend to win, you lose your fan base and you don’t have any revenue.”

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As Saban said, schools might overspend to try and compete for championships. But if they’re already behind the eight-ball, those schools are ultimately losing money with no return on investment.

In that case, those schools might be more inclined to save money, see what sticks and let their sports play out. If that doesn’t lead to success on the field, court or whatever surface, that’s when the fanbases check out.

The Protect College Sports Act was introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) at the end of May. Its introduction came after the SCORE Act publicly collapsed in the U.S. House of Representatives and was once again pulled from the House floor ahead of a potential vote.

Saban has been an adviser to President Donald Trump as he takes interest in settling the college athletics landscape. The legendary Alabama coach was part of a roundtable in March about the subject and serves on committees related to college sports. Saban has been vocal about the need for change, particularly to make sure Olympic sports have support.

“I really think that the concern is the health of college athletics, not just football,” Saban said on The Paul Finebaum Show last month. “I think people look at football and basketball. But how about the 22 other sports we have that are really, probably, non-revenue sports that create lots of opportunities, actually trained 85% of our Olympians in the last Olympics? We’re the only country in the world that the university system and college athletics actually develop our athletes for the Olympics.

“So if we’re creating a situation where there’s not enough balance between the revenue sports and the non-revenue sports. Then, people are going to start dropping these sports, which you saw Arkansas drop tennis … the other day. That’s exactly what we don’t want to see.”

The Protect College Sports Act takes aim at transfers and coach movement. It notably includes what’s been called the “Lane Kiffin Rule,” which states coaches cannot leave their team before a season ends. While Kiffin’s name is not directly in the bill, Sen. Ted Cruz said his high-profile departure from Ole Miss for LSU played a role in adding the provision.

Nick Schultz contributed to this report