Nick Saban Seriously Said He Wants to Get Back to a Time When College Football Had 'Parity'

Hats off to Nick Saban for looking Paul Finebaum in the eyes and delivering that sentence while being 100 percent serious. That's a level of commitment to the bit I'm not sure I could ever muster.

If there ever was any parity in college football — there really wasn't, but you could make an argument there have been a few eras where the sport was at least a little more open than it has been recently — the man who singlehandedly ended it is now opining for its return? If that was really his goal, he'd retire. But we all know that's not what he's going for here.

While there are certainly issues which need to be addressed, if you're someone who is wholeheartedly opposed to NIL and the way college football is going, I'd ask you to look at who its most ardent opponents are. They're not coaches at schools which have been struggling recently. They're Saban and Dabo Swinney.

Saban is saying he wants to go back to the age when college football supposedly had parity while the sport is actively experiencing the first small spike of parity we've seen in a long time. What he actually wants is to go back to when Tennessee couldn't pay a five-star quarterback $8 million legally and Texas A&M couldn't buy a No. 1 recruiting class. He wants to be the school handing out the biggest bags under the table.

There are definitely issues with the way NIL has been rolled out and become a bit of a free-for-all. But when the guy at the very top is saying something is bad, you should probably ask if he's actually looking out for the health of college football or just Alabama. There are going to be plenty of schools who are very happy with the way things change in the NIL era.

Nick Saban wants the return of parity in college football. I've really seen it all.