From the moment college football players gained both the freedom to change teams and to make money — freedoms college coaches have enjoyed for years — it was clear that former Alabama coach Nick Saban didn’t like it.
He ultimately didn’t like it enough that he decided it was time to move on.
In an interview with ESPN, Saban mentioned some of the changes that the new age of player empowerment had brought to the game.
“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 said, via Will Backus of CBSSports.com. “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.”
They had success, frankly, because in a climate where all things were equal financially, Saban could recruit the best of the best players. Once the players had the ability to change teams and to make money, it became harder for him to stack the deck — and to keep the deck stacked — the way he once did.
“I want to be clear that wasn’t the reason, but some of those events certainly contributed,” Saban said. “I was really disappointed in the way that the players acted after the [Rose Bowl loss to Michigan]. 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 ass and being frustrated and throwing helmets and doing that stuff . . . that’s not who we are and what we’ve promoted in our program.”
Football players get frustrated. Football coaches get frustrated. They’re human. Sometimes, they act on it. The idea that players reacted in a human way to a frustrating outcome shouldn’t be an indictment of the players.
It’s understandable that Saban would be chagrined by the impact of the new order of college football. His cheese got moved. It was obvious from the start; he complained enough about it to make it clear he feared not being able to have the same kind of dominance he had enjoyed when players had little or no power.
We wrote about it. Some scoffed at our interpretation of reality. Some suggested that Saban was playing the long game, that he was simply providing fair notice to college football that, if the system doesn’t change, he’ll take full advantage of it and keep on kicking everyone’s ass.
Ensuing events prove that take dead wrong. The world changed. He lost control over the program. If he was 10 years younger, maybe he would have adjusted. Maybe he would have attempted to go to a school with enough money floating around both to finance the program and to pay the players. In this new era of big-time college athletics, Alabama simply doesn’t have the cash to keep pace with the biggest schools backed by the richest boosters.
So he tapped out. He folded the tents. If he was sufficiently jaded by the way the game has changed, would he have taken a job with ESPN that will give him a platform to comment on college football, each and every week.
He’s not jaded. He’s realistic. The Tuscaloosa gravy train had pulled into the station. He didn’t want to start over with a bigger program that can buy the best players. It’s not about players throwing helmets. It’s about other programs in position to throw money that his couldn’t.