Nick Saban talks NIL after Ohio State AD claims recruits want $5,000 per visit - al.com The first time a 17 year old demands a payday from Alabama for gracing him with his presence, Saban will be gone. I mean, we've all imagined what it would be like to be that wide-eyed teenager showing up on campus and seeing your dreams starting to come true, pinching yourself because you can't quite believe you're being treated like a king for a couple of days by men and institutions you idolized growing up. And you don't have to pay for their time! How the worm has turned.
What the OSU AD said may be true, but until he provides actual proof, its grand standing in front of Congress to get them to act. It wouldn't be hard to name names of recruits and provide records of the actual payments. But no one would do that because their career would be over.
The athletic director of one of the most successful athletic departments in history seems like a reliable enough person to be believed. I know you're a big nil fan so of course you're defending it but everyone with common sense knew it would just become paying kids to pretend to be students in order to let weird old men with money live vicariously through 18 year olds they aren't related to. It didn't take as long as I figured to devolve into that though.
It's not about taking his word, it should be easy to provide proof that it is happening. And I believe it is. Why hasn't he done it? Because he would be drummed out of OSU and college athletics. Rather than crying to Congress and at the same time continuing to pay the money to recruits, take a stand and say NO, and every time a recruit asks for money publicly call them out. Yes, I am very open about my support of NIL. That shouldn't matter. If the AD's and colleges want change then the simple answer is to be the first one to say no to NIL and accept what that means to your program.
Not everything has to be done publicly despite what it seems like in today's social media world. Personally I'd see a 67 year old man publicly calling out high school students as pretty juvenile. Them asking for money to visit campus is a favor to OSU in that they now know not to waste a time on the "recruit". A professional adult would simply tell the prospective independent contractor that they aren't interested and move on. Paying for a visit isn't paying for name, image or likeness. NIL was never about that. Was very easy to see it was about old boosters paying players.
I don't disagree with what you are saying. What I want to see is if these AD's and coaches will stand by their principles and move on from a recruit that asks for money. Have they? No one knows. What we are seeing is AD's like Smith testifying in Congress, asking for help. But unwilling to tell their coaches to turn away recruits. OSU is still pulling down big names in recruiting. Why isn't anyone exposing what is going on? Because it is career suicide.
You don't know what they're doing. Personally I like to assume people are mostly honest and doing right until shown otherwise. I have no reason to assail this guys character. Guess you figure the opposite. That's ok too, just different view on the world. I don't know anyone who has an issue with student athletes being paid for their fame, ie... commercials, merchandise licensing, etc... but I also haven't seen any of that from nil. What I have seen is basically independent contractors who put on uniforms to associate with schools for money. Disappointing but saw it coming. It's been good for my personal life though as I spend way less time on football as a whole, only watched UF games this year, don't even know who is in the top 10 anymore save #1.
I'm not assailing his character, just asking for proof to verify his statements. Saying in front of Congress that recruits are asking for money is a big accusation. Just because he is an AD doesn't mean his statements shouldn't be confirmed with proof. Especially when asking for the federal government to intervene.
"I said long ago, and got very criticized for (saying) 'Is this what we want college football to become'? So, it's becoming what it's becoming." You can blame the greedy, money-hungry nature of America for college football becoming what it's becoming, Nicky.
It happens daily there too and he’s still there. Saban isn’t part of that loop and coaches never are. Coaches make offered and boasters make it happen. Always been tgat way and always will be unless they go with the nfl model where it’s impossible .
Given the state college football is in with NIL, it gets pretty simple. Any recruit that asks for money just for a visit will either be paid (foolishly) by the school or they won't. In this case paying for a visit isn't a guarantee of a signing. Actually could be a red flag that the kid is not as confident in his abilities to make it to the NFL and is just trying to make a little money anyway he can. At the end of the day, these recruits are just looking for a program that can get them into the league. If they can make a little scratch along the way all the better. There are only a handful of players that move the needle for making large sums of money on NIL. Think Caleb Williams or Trevor Lawrence when he was in school.
There are other ways (but they won't even be considered, much less accepted): 1) Require players to meet the same admission requirements as non-atlete students. And/or, 2) go to the purest student-athlete model, and stop offering athletic schlorships.
In some cases, it's not necessarily the kids. Not all but many of these highly talented kids now have entourages that act as gatekeepers. I saw it starting in the 1980s in Memphis with AAU basketball. You had to deal with an "uncle" first and then maybe a second "uncle," and then you finally got to the parent(s) and, lastly, the kid. We could tell who was really, really good depending on how many "uncles" he had attracted. LOL! I think it has gotten easier to see which kids have been raised differently . . . trying to keep them humble when everyone wants their piece . . . by seeing if they have an entourage and, if so, how big it is.
What that means is dropping out of Power 5 and being a nobody on the football field. Pandoras Box is wide open. The only change I see coming is the price escalation for recruits visiting.
Agree, except you are being kind with: Not all but many of these highly talented kids now have entourages that act as gatekeepers. I would replace "Gatekeepers" with "Blood Sucking Vampires." or "Don King wannabees".
NIL really has nothing to do with it. These guys are now professional athletes playing college football and there is a definite scale of how much money they will get. If you don’t pay they don’t play.
If you have to pay a kid thousands to get him to come to the facilities and be pampered, how much will he demand to show up at practice and be yelled at? Sounds like these kids need to just be passed up on.
The NFL model won’t make it impossible. The third party money is deeply rooted in college football, and with the collectives, it’s entrenched more now than ever before. That money is never going away. It will always be there to circumvent any type of salary restrictions. You could reinstate the rules on transfers to try to limit movement. Require them to sit out a year unless they’ve graduated, but the NCAA is so scared of litigation, that isn’t going to happen either. You’re seeing them give free passes to guys on their second and third transfers already. With salaries, it’s possible you could lock them in to multi year contracts that restrict movement, but then the schools would need to hold up their end of that deal too which would mean less opportunity for them to bring in new players.
