This is an opinion column.

Nick Saban has asked the question for years. Each time, his tone made no bones about his disgust with the game-changing subject at hand, from the hurry-up, no-huddle offense to pay-for-play deals disguised as NIL benefits.

He finally may have answered his own question in the affirmative.

What does the greatest college football coach of all time want college football to be? Professional football, apparently.

Is there any other way to interpret the glowing comments the Alabama coach made at the SEC spring meeting about the National Football League’s relentless pursuit of parity and a level playing field? Saban suggested that college football would be better off with an NFL-like salary cap and players’ union rather than the current jumbled assortment of NIL state laws and the NCAA’s see-no-evil approach to tampering.

“We have some schools in some states that are investing a lot more money in terms of managing their roster,” Saban said. Unlike last year, when he leveled a similar accusation in a more strident way at Texas A&M, he refrained from naming those investors and igniting a verbal firefight.