Nick Saban Says Texas A&M ‘Bought Every Player on Their Team’

The gloves have come off in college football’s new “arms race,” as Alabama coach Nick Saban accuses Texas A&M of buying “every player on their team” through a series of lucrative Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals.

At an event for the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, Wednesday night, Saban sounded off on Texas A&M’s star-studded 2022 recruiting class. However, the Alabama coach pointed out that his Crimson Tide had navigated the new NIL waters “the right way.”

In what is sure to make for some awkward moments on the set of their AFLAC commercials, Saban also took a shot at Jackson State’s Deion Sanders.

A&M has only produced one Top 5 recruiting class this century. Then, suddenly, it produces the #1 class in the land with the advent of the new NIL deals. Not that A&M did anything wrong or illegal in structuring their recruiting class that way. However, to Saban’s point, the implications for college football are grim and troubling when other rich and powerful institutions such as Alabama, Texas, Notre Dame, and others follow the Aggies’ lead and begin recruiting with the dollar instead of the scholarship and opportunity to win.

While most agree with college football players having the ability to get paid, few would agree that arming 17-year-olds who lack education and emotional maturity with million-dollar deals is a good thing. Nor would most agree that allowing the recruiting and transfer process to turn into a bidding war among the most prosperous college programs is ideal.

What is the ideal solution? Who knows? But, ideally, someone will figure it out very soon.