How Nick Saban is Winning the Future of College Football

Conversations around the Transfer Portal and NIL dominate college football discussions this offseason. The competitive environment of big-time college football is the wild west for all. The NCAA was not ready. An antiquated NCAA system collided with an abrupt Supreme Court Ruling to produce chaos. With all the uncertainty, how are Nick Saban and Alabama Football negotiating these challenges?

Free Agency in College Football

Student-athletes are entering the transfer portal in droves thinking of the promise of greener pastures elsewhere. They are searching for more desirable situations instead of staying put in their current program. Long gone are the days of seeking to “bloom where you are planted.”

Now the complexity has grown exponentially. NIL opportunities add a major variable for both high school recruits and underclassmen.

The resulting mess is an almost lawless free agency in a completely unprepared college football system. As expected, one of the people who is not unprepared is Nick Saban.