Nick Saban: College sports changes should keep athletes as a priority

Nick Saban: College sports changes should keep athletes as a priority

It’s a changing world in college football. In short order last week, Oregon and Washington opted to jump from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten, before Arizona, Arizona State and Utah announced their moves to the Big 12, decimating one of the sport’s power conferences.

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz expressed concern about the move on Saturday, saying he didn’t think it was good for players in non-football sports. On Sunday, Alabama football’s Nick Saban discussed the changes.

“There’s a lot of traditions that we’ve had for a long time in college football,” Saban said during a Sunday press conference. “I think we’re in a time of evolution for whatever reason and some of those traditions are going to get sort of pushed by the wayside I think, and it’s sad. Whether it’s good, bad or indifferent for college football, I think you have to define what is good, bad, what is good and bad for college football.”

Some Olympic sport athletes took to social media to express their displeasure over leaving the Pac-12, forcing them to travel coast-to-coast for away games in their new conference. Drinkwitz had shared their concern, noting how it could cut into already-short sleep schedules and impact athletes personally in academically in a negative fashion.

Saban said he hadn’t heard anyone else’s comments on the matter, but said he wanted players considered as the college sports landscape evolves.

“One thing that I would just hope that we would keep in mind in all the choices and decisions that we make relative to what we do in college athletics is the student-athlete,” Saban said. “They’re here to get an education, we’re going to help they try and develop careers on and off the field and hopefully some of the decisions that we make for college athletics in the future will impact them in a positive way. And I hope that we can keep that as a priority in terms of what we decide to do in the future of college football and college athletics.”