Legendary Alabama head coach Nick Saban suffered just 18 total regular-season losses across his 17-year tenure with the Crimson Tide.
Saban and his Crimson Tide teams were consistently regarded as a top team in the nation throughout the majority of his 17 years at Alabama. Saban’s work ethic and dominance are a far cry from today’s game, however, as a handful of some of the top teams in the nation have recently suffered shocking losses over the last three weeks of the 2026 regular season.
Saban took a moment to comment on the intensity of today’s game, as the former Crimson Tide head coach believes numerous programs have changed their work ethic as a direct result of the NIL era.
“I talked to a college coach this week who has a bye week next week, and all he’s doing is meeting with agents.” Saban said. “It’s the middle of the season. Guys are worried about how much playing time am I getting, what I’m going to do if I don’t get enough playing time. I’m playing well, so how much money am I going to make next year there or someplace else? The reason we’re seeing a lot of these inconsistencies in performance is people are struggling to sustain their intensity week in and week out. Maybe it’s people are more conditionally committed to their team because the circumstances we’re putting these players in. If you can’t sustain intensity, you can’t sustain the level of performance you want to sustain, you can’t play smart, you can’t play with intelligence. It all starts with your mental energy, and that starts with your commitment to your team and to your development as a player.”
Alabama, Texas and Georgia each suffered a shocking loss during Week 7 of the regular season this past Saturday. NIL has undoubtedly played a direct role in how each coaching staff around the nation operates, and a plethora of both fans and analysts around the college football would undoubtedly agree with Saban’s recent comments.
