James Nnaji The NIL signing has Nick Saban on his toes
The 2025 college basketball season was interrupted by the fact that former NBA draft pick James Nnaji joined the Baylor basketball program midseason. James Nnaji was selected 31st overall in the 2023 NBA Draft, and after the trade, the Knicks currently own his draft rights. The Bears added Nnaji because he had never played college basketball or the NBA, but the move sent ripples through college basketball.
One of the biggest names in college sports and a legendary college football coach, Nick Sabanaddressed the Nnaji situation on the latest episode of “The Pat McAfee Show.” Saban has made it clear that he likes players being able to earn money, but he doesn’t like the constant transfers and how clouded the selection rules are. He also said he got a lot of complaints from John Calipari and Tom Izz despite not playing basketball.
Saban said: “I want them to make money. I think they should make money, but there should be some restrictions on how they do it, and movement is as big a problem to me as money itself. I mean, anybody can make transfers at any time. I mean, that’s not a good thing.
“Now we even have a basketball player going to Baylor after playing in the NBA. I mean, you’ve heard me say it before: You want a quarterback drafted by the New York Giants? He’s going to play at Penn State. What about that? How crazy. I’ve got Calipari and Izzo blowing me up. I’m not even going to play basketball.”
One of the big reasons Saban retired in the first place was the questions raised in college football, and college sports in general, about the lack of guardrails in the NIL and the overemphasis on the transfer portal.
Nick Saban has also consistently tried to fix college sports. While the NCAA said that no one who plays in the NBA would be eligible, Nnaji never played in the NBA, which is a big loophole.
2025-12-31 20:54:00
