Since Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) went into effect on July 1st, 2021, the college sports landscape has experienced change and confusion more dramatic than even conference realignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A month earlier, on June 21st, 2021, the Supreme Court obliterated the NCAA’s mafia-like hold on college athlete compensation by ruling the organization violated antitrust law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe NCAA is not above the law,\u201d wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh at the time. \u201cThe NCAA couches its arguments for not paying student athletes in innocuous labels. But the labels cannot disguise the reality: The NCAA\u2019s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At that moment, athletes celebrated while coaches seethed for it was a shift in the balance of power towards the former.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No longer would college athletes have to bow down to powerful programs and coaches; now athletes have more influence in determining their futures<\/a> and dictating their paths by leveraging their NIL potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that has infuriated many coaches, especially football coaches like the all-mighty Nick Saban<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “That [NIL] creates a situation where you can basically buy players,\u201d said Saban last year<\/a>. \u201cYou can do it in recruiting. I mean, if that\u2019s what we want college football to be, I don\u2019t know. And you can also get players to get in the transfer portal to see if they can get more someplace else than they can get at your place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, we all know recruiting has always been a system of buying players. That’s exactly why big college programs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new stadiums, practice facilities and locker rooms.<\/p>Saban vs NIL<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n