Earlier Wednesday, Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders and Alabama head coach Nick Saban were guests on ESPN’s SportsCenter.
During the interview, the duo spoke about the new name, image and likeness rules that allow players to receive payments. Saban made it clear he’s on board with NIL, but thinks steps need to be taken to ensure a level playing field.
“I think a couple things are a concern,” Saban said on the show. “We allow alumni through collectives to get involved in recruiting and other things — that’s something we’ve always guarded against in college football. I think what kind of competitive balance are we able to create if we allow that to happen — which is not going to be great for fans.”
After Saban spoke about “collectives” Sanders clapped back suggesting Jackson State isn’t even close to being on a level playing field.
“First of all, we can’t compete,” Sanders said. “We don’t have collectives. We don’t have anything like that. We’re trying to rally up boosters and you talk about collectives? I don’t even know the definition of a collective. In its ‘name, image and likeness,’ I’m having kids that are getting compensated, but when you talk about name, image and likeness — I haven’t seen anything on any thing. We talk about these kids making millions of dollars — what are they on? Where is the name, image and the likeness, or is it just the collectives paying these kids to participate in this or that college?”
Deion and company will never have the resources of a college football program like Alabama. However, the Jackson State program has still landed a crop of talented recruits.