Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher waged a recruiting war this past offseason, as Alabama football hauled in one of the best classes ever, only to be bested by Texas A&M. Saban then went on the attack, saying Fisher “bought every player” with name, image and likeness (NIL) deals.

Well, that set Fisher off, who went on a wild rant, calling the Crimson Tide coach a “narcissist” while imploring people to “dig into his past.” Amid the whole feud, both Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher seemed to express a desire for transparency when it comes to a program's NIL deals.

On Friday, ESPN obtained a sampling of 23 universities' NIL documents and data, which revealed Saban and Fisher's clandestine moves.

“Across the board, schools provided few to no records. In the case of Saban's Alabama, the university declined to release any information. And at Fisher's A&M? The university said it would provide hundreds of records, but still hasn't; records that officials did release omitted financial terms, athletes' names and sports; and though A&M did end up releasing a per-sport breakdown, it came months later after ESPN made a subsequent request.”

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It should be noted that schools “provided few to no records.” However, Alabama football and Texas A&M were among the schools that declined to release any NIL information.

So much for transparency from Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher. It raises the question. Why would they be unwilling to release NIL data?

The answer to that question may be one that the sport doesn't want to hear. Of course, there are no such rules that call for uniform transparency or deal-disclosure when it comes to NIL.

Maybe there should be.