Many people have had something to say about Nick Saban’s opinions on the new name, image, and likeness landscape in college football. First it was Jimbo Fisher, then it was Deion Sanders and now a Miami booster wants to publicize his opinion.
Billionaire John Ruiz, also known as the “NIL King” for the University of Miami, believes Saban is out of line in saying college football needs to do something about the new reality.
“This was a very, very poor display of judgment and character,” Ruiz told Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. “It felt like a little teenager whining about why previously they had free reign and all of a sudden when you level the playing field [it changes for Saban]. It was very ugly of him.”
According to Jackson, Ruiz has helped over 100 Miami college athletes receive NIL deals, and he is expanding to helping athletes at other Florida schools as well.
While Saban seems to be focused on the parity of college football, Ruiz believes that is now where the Alabama head coach’s comments were actually proof of how involved he is in the entire process.
“It’s totally inappropriate the way he conducted himself and handled everything,” he continued. “More egregious is the very statements he made contained multiple NCAA violations of how he is involved in the process of the collectives and speaking to the kids about it and getting the kids involved.
Finally, Ruiz mentioned how Saban seems not to understand how the NIL policy is designed.
“He was asking for collectives to be formed and provide payments to players because they would be at a disadvantage competitively [otherwise],” Ruiz said “That is not what the NIL laws are designed to accomplish.”
As for Fisher, Ruiz believes the Texas A&M head coach responded properly after Saban called him out.
“I thought Jimbo handled himself very well, [basically saying], ‘I know a lot about things you do.’ But he didn’t throw him under the bus,” Ruiz said.
