Nick Saban used the White House college sports roundtable on Friday to press a point he’s made more often since leaving the sideline: the system is drifting away from the “student” part of student athlete.

Saban, the legendary Alabama coach, spoke during a March 6 meeting in the East Room that brought together NCAA president Charlie Baker, commissioners from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC, and media executives including Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro. The discussion focused on NIL, transfers, eligibility, and the growing financial pressure on athletic departments.

Saban’s comments centered on how roster churn and NIL bidding wars are reshaping the choices athletes make, and what schools are able to provide beyond a paycheck.

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“All athletics. I’m talking about football, basketball, Olympic sports, revenue, nonrevenue, it doesn’t matter,” Saban said. “My goal as a coach for my players, our players, was to help them be more successful in life; that we would create an atmosphere and environment that would help them through personal development, academic support – 668 degrees in 17 years at Alabama – and help them develop a career as a football player. That was our goal, so that they were creating value in life, and we were preparing them for their future past athletics. So, what happened?”

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Saban then tied the shift to the current decision making incentives.

“In this current system that we have, that became impossible to do, because people, instead of making decisions about creating value for their future, they were making decisions about how much money could they make at whichever school they could go to or transfer to.”

In another portion of his remarks carried by outlets covering the event, Saban described why he believes a new framework is needed.

“I think we need to come up with a system, and, obviously, we have to do it with the president’s leadership and also with Congress probably … to allow student-athletes in all sports to enhance their quality of life while going to college but still provide opportunity to advance themselves beyond their athletic career, which is what the philosophy of college athletes and getting a college education has always been about.”

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The meeting’s broader context was the same one college leaders have been wrestling with since the NCAA’s NIL restrictions fell after the 2021 Supreme Court decision: the sport is now a patchwork of state laws, collective-driven pay structures, and rapid transfers, with schools trying to keep up financially while also protecting non-revenue programs.

President Donald Trump closed the roundtable by saying he plans to issue an executive order within a week and argued that Congress needs to act on national NIL standards. He also acknowledged legal challenges are likely.

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Other attendees echoed parts of Saban’s education and structure concerns, even if they emphasized different levers.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise spoke about limiting movement and controlling eligibility timelines, advocating a model that would rein in repeated transfers.

Urban Meyer, the former Florida and Ohio State coach, targeted the collective system and described it in blunt terms. “I think if the collective goes away, college sports gets better immediately,” Meyer said.

The meeting also leaned heavily on the financial knock-on effects beyond football and men’s basketball. Trump and others repeatedly referenced the risk to Olympic sports and women’s sports if athletic departments keep reallocating money to keep up in the NIL market.

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Saban’s main message, though, stayed in one lane: the system is supposed to produce more than Saturday results and Sunday paydays, and he said the current incentives make that harder to deliver.

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