"You really can’t blame the players": Nick Saban defends players leaving their team ahead of bowl games

Nick Saban offered his opinion on the growing culture of bowl game opt-outs in college football. Players departing their teams ahead of the postseason schedule has been a subject of discussion in the landscape.

In his appearance on “College GameDay” in South Bend on Friday night, Nick Saban defended the actions of players who have had to leave their teams ahead of bowl games. Instead of criticizing the players, the coach rather called for a college football calendar that aligns with the academic calendar.

“You really can’t blame the players,” Saban said. “Because if you’re gonna have integrity you have to have integrity to a set of rules. We have a Constitution, we have a Bill of Rights, that’s what this country is built on.

"We have no rules in college football. The academic calendar and the football calendar do not match up relative to the season. It should never be that a player can leave his team before the end of the football season.”

There's a significant flaw in the scheduling of the transfer portal and this has generated a lot of debates in the past few years. This year, the transfer portal opened on Dec. 9 and it is scheduled to close on Dec. 28. This places players in some constraint regarding the postseason.

Nick Saban calls for national legislation in college football

With a lot of issues being dealt with in college football, Nick Saban believes there's a need for national legislation to address this. The legendary coach, who spoke on Capitol Hill about NIL earlier this year, suggested some new policies needed in college football on "College GameDay."

“I personally think we probably need some national legislation to make the rules the same in all the states because right now, different rules govern each state in terms of what you can and can’t do with players,” Saban said.

“I think it’s up to the NCAA to sort of [say], we’ve gone overboard a little bit to give these players all these opportunities. You have to have contracts. “If you have a contract, you have a responsibility, and you have to fulfill the contract. … It’d be for coaches and players.”

NCAA President Charlie Baker, like Nick Saban, has consistently advocated for Congressional intervention to establish national legislation addressing the challenges facing collegiate athletics. He underscored the urgency of creating a standardized framework to manage issues like NIL and athlete compensations.

Among the legislative efforts, the Protecting Student Athletes’ Economic Freedom Act stands out, having progressed to the House floor this past summer. This bill represents a significant step toward unifying the patchwork of state-level policies currently governing NIL.