This morning on ESPN's First Take, Nick Saban argued player and coach pay are "totally different markets." "That's like asking me 'Does a student's scholarship equal the professor's pay?' I mean, how much value does a coach create for a university?" 📺 💰️

Sep 29, 2026 · 7:10 PM UTC

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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Coaches are directors, players are actors. Would anyone say Scorsese is more valuable than De Niro? Both should be paid what the market says they're worth.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
What a fucking loser. Made millions off the backs of players and even paid some off under the table but it’s fuck them now
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Coaches are overpaid as it is. Millions to coach a college football team while professors make 50k, 60k, or 70k is insane. You do not need a college degree to be a great head coach.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
SHOCKER a former coach thinks coaches making ungodly amounts of money is a completely different conversation than paying the athletes actually playing the games. Saban got the platform to make his case. Cool. Now Thunder will patiently wait for ESPN to bring on a current or former PLAYER and give them the same platform to explain what value they create for these universities. Seems only fair, brother.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
And the answer is "none without the players," right?
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Oh cool, do we put students on TV in billion dollar TV deals Nick? I want to tune into Econ 101.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Man, a remarkably weak argument from Nick here. Not really an argument at all. Just “it’s different.” Coaches are still a competitive force…if the goal with salary caps are to promote an equal playing field, why should we not have some sort of cap on how much they can earn? It’s definitely an interesting question that deserved a much better answer than this.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Is that why the major sports leagues pay the best players considerably more than the coaches? In the nfl the highest paid coach makes $20 million a year (Andy Reid), there are 143 players that make $20-64 million a year.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
He’s not wrong at all. People in the replies seem way too emotional.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Didn’t Alabama boosters also pay for his houses?
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Why is Saban (and SEC guy) still around making choices about these matters. No one voted for him and most dislike him. He left FB because of NIL. He wants all those SEC brown bags back...
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Saban is a POS...got generational wealth from revenue generated by college athletes but he resents them getting a share Fuck him and everyone who supports this shit
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
I guess Nick Saban doesn’t believe in free markets or capitalism unless it benefits him
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
WTF is he talking about. ALL of this money comes out of the schools operating budget. Whether it be student scholarships or staff payroll. That's SAS’s whole point, so Nick is lying. Secondly you can't play football without players so there's no “money generation” without them.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Coaching salaries have 3x’d over the last 15 years. Player pay is on track to 4x in 3 years. One is reasonable growth with the growth of the sport. The other is out of control spending being led by 6 college booster programs. It’s hilarious that people can’t see the difference in the 2.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
"they're totally different markets, we just have to put a cap on one of them because reasons"
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Replying to @awfulannouncing @BrendonKleen14
There 👏 is 👏 no 👏 player’s 👏 market 👏
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
When one man limits the earnings potential of another man via the use of government force, that is evil. Having the federal government involved in college sports is the kiss of death.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Saban got millions from the state of Alabama to coach at the university. He made millions on sponsership money as well. All while his players were either scraping by or being helped out by boosters Saban knew. Saban controlled the flow of money. But NIL enters & Saban gets mad.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
hahaha OF COURSE!! There's enough money for everyone but the players. Weird how it always works like that lol.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
You got paid millions off your 5 star recruits and they didn't get a fcking dime. They kids are finally able to get theirs. Sit thr fck down Nick
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
True. A student-athlete attends a college or university to learn AND play sports. A coach is an employee akin to a professor. Not the same.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
I can't remember the last time I saw coaches blocking and tackling out on the field in a college football game. Can't remember one being carried off on a stretcher either. Must have been before my time.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Without the talents of players, there’s no team, no coach and no program. It’s that simple. The only thing that use to distinguish one from the other was a contract, which is an old adage that doesn’t stand up in the NIL era. That “different market” shit is wild….Smh.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Athletes are the reason we watch and pay. I've never payed for tickets, gas, parking, food. To watch coaches and administrative stand on the side. It's entertainment athletes generate the đź’°
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
hate it all you want.. he's not wrong. Saban WAS the generator at Alabama. The Alabama brand also has value, being coached by Saban had value when being evaluated by the NFL. Those things are completely ignored.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
I don’t know about everyone here but I pay to watch players play not the coaches coach so he can kindly fuck off
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Lot's of academic students have an aggregate amount of scholarships in monetary value that surpasses the annual earnings of their professor's annual salary at Colleges @stephenasmith this is the craziest hypocrite analogy a drool gremlin could ever utter on the world wide web
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
If a contract is the best way to handle a market… then players should get contracts too! Nick Saban is very smart about one thing—coaching football. But he is a fucking idiot when it comes to anything else and we should stop pretending he’s an expert in crafting public policy.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Schools should pay coaches not players. They should offer scholarships and then NIL should be NIL. Rev share is stupid.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Fun fact: Economists can (and do!) estimate the value a coach or player creates for a team! It’s part of the reason that 5 years of Joe Burrow costs $275 million and 5 years of Zac Taylor costs $22 million. Now ask yourself why NCAA QBs need salary caps and not their coaches? 🤔
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Imagine they had a model similar to professional sports, where the athlete’s value is correctly recognized as being FARRRR greater than that of the coaches.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
If you cap the players, then cap the coaches as well.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
Hypocrisy on a grand scale. College players are now pros and in the pros, players make more than coaches. Saban only gives a sh^t now because making huge dollars is no longer the exclusive province of coaches.
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
If Sabans argument that players and coaches have different markets why not allow the market to dictate monetary compensation vs artificially seeking congress to limit one but not the other? Congress has lost the plot and appears beholden to highest bidder
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Replying to @awfulannouncing
"That's like asking me 'Does a student's scholarship equal the professor's pay?" who watches lectures every Saturday on ESPN? what a dumb take.
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