Now nearly a year into the rev-share era, the cap in place under the House settlement is expected to grow this summer. But as schools are finding other ways to fund their rosters, Nick Saban called for “equilibrium” in college football.
As Ross Dellenger previously noted, schools are finding ways to blow past the rev-share cap. Following the transfer portal this offseason, On3’s Pete Nakos also reported the expectation is “multiple” rosters could cost upward of $40 million this year.
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As he evaluated the state of the game, Saban reflected on comments he made late in his tenure at Alabama about the role of collectives and the idea of “pay-for-play” in college football. While programs have been able to turn around in the new era, he also pointed to the salary cap in the NFL and other pro leagues while arguing for more balance with regard to spending.
“Well, the first time somebody had a collective – and I’m not going to mention any names because I got in trouble for that before – I just made the statement, they didn’t do anything wrong, but is this what we want college football to become?” Saban said Wednesday on The Paul Finebaum Show. “And that’s exactly what happened.
“I like the fact that some programs have been able to improve because of the circumstance, but I also think there should be some equilibrium. One team shouldn’t have a $40 million roster and another team have a $5 million roster, and they’re out there playing each other. … Every league – NFL, basketball, hockey – they all have a salary cap or something that creates parity in the league so everybody has an equal opportunity to win.”
Once the House settlement received final approval, a $20.5 million cap went into place as schools began to directly share dollars with athletes through revenue-sharing. That figure is set to grow to $21.3 million on July 1, per terms of the settlement agreement.
Looking beyond football, Nick Saban said he has questions about the future of college sports as a whole. He was in attendance for a roundtable on college athletics hosted by President Donald Trump and has spoken in support of the executive order Trump signed last month.
In Trump’s order, he took aim at eligibility, and the NCAA advanced conversations about a new age-based rule this week. It also called for a limit to transfer movement.
But Saban called out issues he sees with Olympics sports and how schools balance support for those programs with revenue programs such as football and basketball. Last week, Arkansas announced its plans to discontinue its tennis programs, which Saban also noted while vouching for non-revenue sports.
“I really think that the concern is the health of college athletics, not just football. I think people look at football and basketball. But how about the 22 other sports we have that are really, probably, non-revenue sports that create lots of opportunities, actually trained 85% of our Olympians in the last Olympics? We’re the only country in the world that the university system and college athletics actually develop our athletes for the Olympics.
“So if we’re creating a situation where there’s not enough balance between the revenue sports and the non-revenue sports. Then, people are going to start dropping these sports, which you saw Arkansas drop tennis … the other day. That’s exactly what we don’t want to see.”