CFB analyst weighs in on “the hypocrisy argument” around Nick Saban being picked by Donald Trump to fix college football

On Jan. 10, 2024, Nick Saban, arguably one of college football's greatest coaches, announced his retirement after 17 seasons at Alabama, where he won six national championships and nine SEC titles.

After retirement as a football coach, Saban joined the ESPN College Gameday crew as an analyst, where fans loved seeing his chatty and witty version.

Now, Saban is popularly discussed to be given the responsibility of fixing college football's bigger problems, like NIL and the transfer portal. The aim is to provide more structure to the concept that's fair to both players and the teams.

President Donald Trump is expected to name Nick Saban the commissioner of college football, while some believe he is the best person for the job, others argue that the former Alabama coach never had a problem taking millions of dollars in salary, and now opposes players benefiting financially.

Discussing the situation on Daily Wire's "Crain & Company" show, Jake Crain said:

It's not Nick Saban's fault that we didn't have NIL, Nick Saban never said players should not get paid for their name, image or likeness. I think Nick Saban was one of the biggest names in the forefront of trying to take care of student athletes. I go back to what I said about the amount of money, right, the amount of millionaires, and they put in a lot of work to the players, but look at how much money he made the players."

"I get the hypocrisy argument," Crain added (Timestamp: 7:10), "when people talk about Saban but guess what, that's everybody else unless you're gonna let a current player do it."

Why did Nick Saban retire?

One of the main reasons behind Nick Saban's decision to retire was college football's rapidly changing landscape. He shared that most players prioritized money and sought assurance about playing time, which influenced their transfer decisions.

Saban believed this ideology didn't go with how he looked at things, which was building a future with personal development, academic success and an NFL career.

"So I'm saying to myself," Saban told ESPN in March, "'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."

Nick Saban announced his retirement days after losing to Michigan in a 27-20 national championship showdown on January 1, 2024.