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SEC Media days: Saban on NIL

Hoyacane1620

Hoyacane1620

Heisman Winner
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"Well, I don't dislike name, image and likeness. I'm all for the players. I want our players to do well. Our players made over $3 million in name, image and likeness. I'm all for the players being able to do as well as they can and use their name, image and likeness to create value for themselves. We have a great brand at Alabama, so players are certainly -- their value there is going to be enhanced because of the value that our brand can help them create.
"But the thing that I have sort of expressed, not concerns about, but there's got to be some uniformity and protocol of how name, image and likeness is implemented. I think there's probably a couple factors that are important in that. How does this impact competitive balance in college athletics? And is there transparency to maintain fairness across the board in terms of college athletics? How do we protect the players? Because there's more and more people that are trying to get between the player and the money.

"In the NFL they have guidelines for agents because the NFL Players Association sort of has rules and regulations about how they should professionally help the players. That's something that we really want to make sure that our players are not being misguided in any way. The biggest concern is how does this impact and affect recruiting? On the recruiting trail right now, there's a lot of people using this as inducements to go to their school by making promises as to whether they may or may not be able to keep in terms of what players are doing.
"I think that is what can create a competitive balance issue between the haves and have not's. We're one of the haves. Don't think that what I'm saying is a concern that we have at Alabama because we're one of the haves. Everybody in college football cannot do these things relative to how they raise money in a collective or whatever, how they distribute money to players.

"Those are the concerns that I have in terms of how do we place guidelines around this so that we can maintain a competitive balance. There is no competitive sport anywhere that doesn't have guidelines on how they maintain some kind of competitive balance. I think that's important to college football. I think it's important to fans. That's why they have rules in the NFL where you have a salary cap, you have difficult schedules if you have a successful season, you draft later if you have a successful season, you draft early if you have an unsuccessful season.
All these things are created so there is competitive balance, which is great for the game and it's great for fans. Name, image and likeness is not an issue for us at Alabama. Our players I think did better than anybody in the country last year."

​

 
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"How does this impact competitive balance in college athletics? And is there transparency to maintain fairness across the board in terms of college athletics?"

Funny coming from him. Yeah let's go back the way it was when Alabama and a small handfull of other schools could get away with making large illegal payments to secure players while 95% of the other programs would get put on probation for the same thing. I think Sabans definition of competitive balance is him having every unfair advantage possible.
 
kendallcanes said:
Saban preaching competitive balance. Let me stop everything I am doing and listen to his concerns.
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This is like the Big POT describing other pots........no kidding.....the author of the book on "bags' crying about "competitive balance", "equity" and "fairness"..
What a hypocrite
Fart Irish GIF by alimacdoodle
Typical Saban, expect no less.
 
Go Canes!! said:
Conceptually he’s not wrong, but everything he says comes across like nails on a chalkboard to me.
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He’s wrong about there being a structure or uniformity for compensation, because he intentionally blurs the lines between two fundamentally different ways to get paid:

1. Employee compensation (salary, etc). The NFL pays its players, the NCAA does not. This is where the NCAA would have had jurisdiction and could have set a standard but declined to do so. This is where agents thrive, because they work on behalf of the professional player within the system of employment that the NFL has adopted. NCAA has no parallel, so his concept fails completely.

2. Every other way possible in human existence to generate revenue. In sports, this is most often endorsements or representation. This is where agents work to negotiate on behalf of their client, but they are not required to be used, nor should they be. They also would never work to limit the amount their client would make, in fact having this process more uniformly implemented may cause earnings to increase.

Nick should have advocated for something different when the NCAA was still “protecting amateurism“. Thats when they had the power to do something. He should have said “we need to use all of our billions to create an even payment structure that guarantees X amount per team or player.” That would never have worked, but at least he would have a shred of credibility when he’s professionally complaining today.
 
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All of this is laughable in a world where his conference is doing everything they can to distance themselves as haves in a world of have nots via realignment....you can't wax poetic on NIL while trying to distance yourself financially with media rights deals
 
Hoyacane1620 said:
"Well, I don't dislike name, image and likeness. I'm all for the players. I want our players to do well. Our players made over $3 million in name, image and likeness. I'm all for the players being able to do as well as they can and use their name, image and likeness to create value for themselves. We have a great brand at Alabama, so players are certainly -- their value there is going to be enhanced because of the value that our brand can help them create.
"But the thing that I have sort of expressed, not concerns about, but there's got to be some uniformity and protocol of how name, image and likeness is implemented. I think there's probably a couple factors that are important in that. How does this impact competitive balance in college athletics? And is there transparency to maintain fairness across the board in terms of college athletics? How do we protect the players? Because there's more and more people that are trying to get between the player and the money.

"In the NFL they have guidelines for agents because the NFL Players Association sort of has rules and regulations about how they should professionally help the players. That's something that we really want to make sure that our players are not being misguided in any way. The biggest concern is how does this impact and affect recruiting? On the recruiting trail right now, there's a lot of people using this as inducements to go to their school by making promises as to whether they may or may not be able to keep in terms of what players are doing.
"I think that is what can create a competitive balance issue between the haves and have not's. We're one of the haves. Don't think that what I'm saying is a concern that we have at Alabama because we're one of the haves. Everybody in college football cannot do these things relative to how they raise money in a collective or whatever, how they distribute money to players.

"Those are the concerns that I have in terms of how do we place guidelines around this so that we can maintain a competitive balance. There is no competitive sport anywhere that doesn't have guidelines on how they maintain some kind of competitive balance. I think that's important to college football. I think it's important to fans. That's why they have rules in the NFL where you have a salary cap, you have difficult schedules if you have a successful season, you draft later if you have a successful season, you draft early if you have an unsuccessful season.
All these things are created so there is competitive balance, which is great for the game and it's great for fans. Name, image and likeness is not an issue for us at Alabama. Our players I think did better than anybody in the country last year."

​

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Sounds like he is signaling to the powers to be that he wants "uniformity" with NIL so they can use NIL and the good ol' bag game to keep his advantage. I like seeing him uncomfortable.
 
I listened to Lane Kiffin's press conference, too. He was pretty low key for him. Funny as always. One of his best quotes that perfectly describes the way he works:

"We don't think out of the box; we make a new box"
 
The little twerp got some pr schooling before this. He worked these talking points in pretty well, with comments from his consultant in ( ).

1. I'm all for the players ( I know people won't believe you Nick but you just have to work it in)
2. Need to maintain competitive balance (yes, Nick, people know you don't really want a level playing field. Just say it)
3. How do we place guidelines around this? ( Yes, your butt boy is out and the NCAA is winding down so you want rules to lock in the status quo hierarchy. Pretend it's a good thing for everybody. Most people don't pay much attention. Just make it sound like a +)
 
I'll agree with Saban when he agrees there should be caps on GA's and "off field analysts" or utilizing the grey, blue, green, black or yellow shirts. And whatever other loophole Saban works to his advantage
 
IndayArtHauz said:
He’s wrong about there being a structure or uniformity for compensation, because he intentionally blurs the lines between two fundamentally different ways to get paid:

1. Employee compensation (salary, etc). The NFL pays its players, the NCAA does not. This is where the NCAA would have had jurisdiction and could have set a standard but declined to do so. This is where agents thrive, because they work on behalf of the professional player within the system of employment that the NFL has adopted. NCAA has no parallel, so his concept fails completely.

2. Every other way possible in human existence to generate revenue. In sports, this is most often endorsements or representation. This is where agents work to negotiate on behalf of their client, but they are not required to be used, nor should they be. They also would never work to limit the amount their client would make, in fact having this process more uniformly implemented may cause earnings to increase.

Nick should have advocated for something different when the NCAA was still “protecting amateurism“. Thats when they had the power to do something. He should have said “we need to use all of our billions to create an even payment structure that guarantees X amount per team or player.” That would never have worked, but at least he would have a shred of credibility when he’s professionally complaining today.
Click to expand...

Precisely. Regulating employer-compensation via some kind of CBA and salary cap like the professional leagues have is not comparable to saying somebody can only make X amount off their NIL which is the only way you’re really going to impact things here.
Forcing agents to go through some sort of certification or whatever to participate is just window dressing.

Saban is simply frustrated that the new reality with NIL has opened the door for other programs to be more competitive on the recruiting trail than before. Winning + black-market bag game is no longer sufficiently enough to stave off threats that were previously less competitive.

The feigning concern about “haves” vs “have-nots” is total bull****.
 
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kendallcanes said:
Saban preaching competitive balance. Let me stop everything I am doing and listen to his concerns.
Click to expand...
You mean like when he was quietly utilizing 10 analysts before anyone else had caught on to his "enhanced" coaching staff? Competitive balance is only something he's concerned about now that some others are poised to catch up with him.
 
NCCanefan said:
The little twerp got some pr schooling before this. He worked these talking points in pretty well, with comments from his consultant in ( ).
Click to expand...
Absolutely. It seems that the heat he got from his little tirade a few months ago actually had an effect. His rant has since been refined.
 
Saban is simply crying about the seats at the table of 'haves' increasing in number. Competitive balance is laughable coming from him. He's NEVER been into competitive balance. I'll argue that NIL is good even for the teams who are 'have nots' because there will actually be a greater amount of 'competitive balance' because there will more people at the 'haves' table and it will dilute the imbalance of the previous way of doing things. More teams will get the best players and if all the best players aren't stacked at 5 or so schools.. well that's an increase in competitive balance. That over all dilution of the best teams will mean that that 'have nots' have a better chance of punching out of their weight class. So little nicky, NIL is a good thing even for the teams who can't compete money wise because you wont have the advantage you're used to having.
 
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