Nick Saban is keeping it real about the factors that led to his retirement. The revelations showcase the innermost thoughts of a very wealthy former collegiate coach who is a borderline hater of the evolution of a game that benefitted him more than any player he’s ever coached.
Alabama took a 27-20 overtime loss to Michigan in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1. If it wasn’t the pivotal moment that made him decide to retire, it certainly was a moment that influenced his decision.
“I want to be clear that wasn’t the reason, but some of those events certainly contributed,” Saban told ESPN about contributing factors to his retirement decision. “I was really disappointed in the way that the players acted after the game. You gotta win with class. You gotta lose with class. We had our opportunities to win the game and we didn’t do it, and then showing your a** and being frustrated and throwing helmets and doing that stuff … that’s not who we are and what we’ve promoted in our program.”
Nick Saban Made Almost $100 Million Coaching Players Who Couldn’t Get Paid
However, Saban, still used to how he usually interacts with players, was even more surprised when he returned to Tuscaloosa after the Michigan loss. His players had turned into businessmen right before his eyes, and the conversations felt more like a hiring interview, except the student-athletes were on the verge of firing him.
“I thought we could have a hell of a team next year, and then maybe 70 or 80 percent of the players you talk to, all they want to know is two things: What assurances do I have that I’m going to play because they’re thinking about transferring, and how much are you going to pay me?” Saban continued. “Our program here was always built on how much value can we create for your future and your personal development, academic success in graduating and developing an NFL career on the field.
“So I’m saying to myself, ‘Maybe this doesn’t work anymore, that the goals and aspirations are just different and that it’s all about how much money can I make as a college player?’ I’m not saying that’s bad. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying that’s never been what we were all about, and it’s not why we had success through the years.”
Although the new name, image, and likeness era has changed the power structure, leaving the players to seek out self-interests over team loyalty and collegiate athletic program development, one thing is for sure: Saban can’t keep counting more millions that way.
Saban Doesn’t Have Same Control: NIL and Transfer Portal Explosion Changed The Game
Ironically, Saban acted alongside Deion Sanders in AFLAC commercials last year. In one commercial, you saw the old and new generation of collegiate coaches, one rich from college wins rooted in a non-NIL system and an old-school mentality and the other with a losing season and a winning personality that brought Colorado University the most notoriety, attendance, and merch sales it has ever experienced.
Along with his son Shedeur Sanders, who led the 2023 faces of the new NIL jiggy era, waving watches in opponents’ faces and getting boots on his Rolls-Royce, Saban unknowingly handed the torch over to Sanders in the only way he unwittingly knows how: during a paid commercial.
How? Because the former NFL athlete was placed on the same commercially viable pedestal as Saban, with only his HBCU championship wins to back him and a slew of transfers heading to Boulder.
Sanders fully accepts today’s reality and makes a brand from it.
End Of an Era, Dawn Of a New Greed?
That’s the irony of Saban’s perspective on player development: he should get paid, but the kids should wait, have poise, and fall in line. However, his coaching peers don’t even adhere to that mantra. Coach Jim Harbaugh electrified the 2023 NCAA football at Michigan with an undefeated record to winning the national championship, only to leave for the Los Angeles Chargers right after.
Just like the student-athletes, they are chasing both legacy and the bag; however, in Nick Saban’s mind, only student-athletes should wait for their turn to cash in. So Nick Saban did the only thing he could do under the circumstances: bow out gracefully.
Saban’s net worth at the time of his retirement was $93.2 million, earned through a contract extension and salary boost in 2022. He earned $13,142,857 for each national title he delivered for the Crimson Tide, so if any benefitted from the past system it’s him.
Thank you for your service, but now your athletes are taking their talents to South Beach, the mountains of Boulder, and anywhere else, their chances of cashing in on a career that might not yield a professional turn will take them.
Get over it.
