Alabama Crimson Tide's legendary head coach Nick Saban recently sat down with Sports Illustrated to discuss the current state of the NIL landscape. While he has no problem with players earning compensation from their name, image and likeness, he is not a fan of the mechanics surrounding NIL collectives, according to SI's Ross Dellenger.

“The issue is, when you create those [collectives] for people, are you establishing a pay-for-play type of environment that can be used in recruiting? So now, all the sudden, guys are not going to school where they can create the most value for their future,” Saban told SI.

“Guys are going to school where they can make the most money. I don’t think that is even the best thing for the player.”

Saban asserts that athlete compensation should be standardized and equal across a team, which is not the case today when student athletes are deciding which college to attend.

“You went to college. I went to college. Why were we going? We had goals and aspirations for how we wanted to create value for our future. Sometimes these things can be a distraction academically as well as athletically,” Saban explained. “But I’ll say it again: I think name, image and likeness is good for players.”

Although Saban said he isn't exactly sure what the solution is, it could start at the federal level.

“I think one of the things is everybody having a different state law. A lot of people blame the NCAA for a lot of this, but the NCAA sometimes gets caught,” Saban explained. “Because of the changes we’ve had in what’s legal and not, they can’t enforce their own rules and they’re in a little bit of a dilemma, too.”

Alabama Crimson Tide's Nick Saban makes some great points with his NIL comments to Sports Illustrated, and the full interview paints a clear picture that he believes the quality of life for players when they're going to college needs to be more equal.

“Players should create their opportunities, and what we’ve done now is some schools are creating opportunities for them. I don’t think that was the intent.”