The Big Ten has proven that it is the conference to beat when it comes to football, as the Indiana Hoosiers just gave the conference its third straight National Championship. It all started with Michigan back in 2023, Ohio State in 2024, and now Indiana in 2025.
Before the National Championship, however, legendary football coach Nick Saban spoke on ESPN College Gameday and took a shot at the power conference when it comes to NIL. Saban said that it is easier for Big Ten teams to have an advantage when it comes to NIL money because nobody would want to go play in the North without being paid some serious cash.
"In this day and age of the culture we have now in college football, paying players, name, image, and likeness, transfer, it’s an advantage for the Big Ten," Saban said. "You’ll never convince me otherwise. The North. Because people in the South would not go to the North unless you paid them."
NEW: Nick Saban trolled the Big Ten over why it has an NIL advantage over the SEC😂
— On3 (@On3) January 19, 2026
“In this day and age of the culture we have now in college football, paying players, name, image and likeness, transfer, it’s an advantage for the Big Ten. You’ll never convince me otherwise. The… pic.twitter.com/lzq0kIEgM3
Has anyone thought to tell Saban that maybe players want to go play in the North because those teams are the ones winning National Championships right now? The Big Ten has now won three National Championships in a row, and the SEC is quickly losing ground as the best conference in college football.
This seems a bit of a stretch even for Saban to say, and it certainly won't make any teams in the North happy, especially Michigan. The Wolverines do have a lot of money to offer to recruits, but that doesn't mean the players are picking the schools just because of the money.
Going to the Big Ten right now just simply seems like the better move for some players who want to win a National Championship. Saban's SEC bias is showing, and someone should really warn him against that.