Former Auburn linebacker Chandler Wooten isn’t losing sleep over Nick Saban’s recent push in Congress to rein in NIL earnings and bring college football back closer to the old model. Saban, the ex-Alabama and LSU coach, told lawmakers on Capitol Hill, “It’s become an arms race who spends the most has the best chance to win… But I think it’s a race to the bottom because if you don’t spend to win, you lose your fan base and you don’t have any revenue.” Wooten fired back, arguing that Indiana’s College Football Playoff title win in January completely undermines that claim.
“He lost me when he started yapping about competitive balance… like we didn’t just witness Indiana win a national championship,” Wooten posted on X.
Having played before COVID-19, sat out the pandemic-hit 2020 season, and then returned during the NIL era, Wooten holds a predictably strong perspective on the issue.
His point stands: spending has reshaped the game, but it’s not everything. If money alone decided titles, Texas Tech would’ve scored in the CFP, Texas would’ve made the playoff, and Florida or Auburn would’ve been far more competitive. Hell, the NFL’s highest-paid roster would win the Super Bowl every year if that logic held—but it doesn’t. Great coaching still matters in college football, and that won’t change.
To Saban’s credit, his statement isn’t false. But it’s only true for the schools he’d never defend: the Group of Six programs. His timing is also convenient, coming as Alabama drifts toward irrelevance in late December and early January under Kalen DeBoer. Let’s not forget Saban is still on the payroll, with an office on campus, making half a million a year as an advisor. Clearly, some of that money is funding trips to D.C. to complain about a system he thrived in before retiring.
Player empowerment must come first in college football. The athletes are the product. Saban needs to accept that the current NIL system is what’s best for them. There are real tax implications with these deals, but fair state tax codes could shift the burden to the right parties, letting players keep what they’ve earned.
The market is now giving players their rightful value. It’s absurd that a retired Saban is trying to take that away. Frankly, it’s a sad use of his time.
Maybe if he just took the Alabama head coaching job back and got the Crimson Tide winning again as everyone in Tuscaloosa prays for each night he could quit being a grump and stop raining on the parade of players who are no longer making older generations rich for free.
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