Alabama coach Nick Saban on SEC foe's historic recruiting class: '(Texas) A&M bought every player'

Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban has been supportive of players getting paid through Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals since its approval by the NCAA. 

But he is not a fan of college football programs being directly involved in those payments, a practice that is still considered an NCAA violation.

Speaking about programs who have manipulated the new NIL rules, Saban didn't hold back.

"You read about it, you know who they are," Saban said during a speaking engagement in Birmingham, Alabama on Wednesday night. "I mean, we were second in recruiting last year. (Texas) A&M was first. A&M bought every player on their team. Made a deal for name, image and likeness. We didn’t buy one player. Alright? But I don’t know if we’re going to be able to sustain that in the future, because more and more people are doing it."

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Texas A&M not only signed the highest-rated recruiting class in the country last year, it was also the highest-rated recruiting class in the modern history of recruiting rankings.

And with the class came loud rumblings that the Aggies paid those players eight figures combined (more than $10,000,000 total). 

Saban isn't alone in expressing his frustrations.

Upon learning that star receiver Jordan Addison had entered the transfer portal, Pittsburgh Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi reportedly reached out to USC coach Lincoln Riley to speak to him about possible tampering. 

According to SI's Ross Delleger, the NCAA is beginning to crack down on direct program involvement in NIL deals.

""University administrators, part of a task force to review NIL, are finalizing additional guidelines that are expected to clarify that boosters and booster-led collectives are prohibited from involvement in recruiting, multiple sources tell Sports Illustrated. The guidelines will provide more guidance to member schools on what many administrators say are NIL-disguised “pay for play” deals orchestrated by donors to induce prospects, recruit players off other college teams and retain their own athletes."

Two things have become clear:

1. The NCAA legally can't keep athletes from profiting off of their own name, imagine and likeness - their brands

2. The NCAA is having a difficult time policing programs who are using the new NIL rules to directly pay players, or directly set up deals for players, that result in  commitments to their school.

More change is coming.

And clearly even some of college football's legendary coaches are fed up.