One week ago, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith spoke to the U.S. House of Representatives about Name, Image and Likeness and the impact it has had on college sports. Of his comments, one stood out among the recruiting industry.

Per his written testimony, Smith stated it has become a “practice” by recruits to request $5 thousand from a school in order to secure just a visit. Once on campus, further NIL conversations are had, essentially amounting to a pay-for-play system.

The claims weren’t a bombshell. Instead, it was the latest example of a big collegiate name commenting on the madhouse that’s developed through player compensation. On Wednesday night, Alabama head coach Nick Saban — no stranger to his own revelatory NIL comments — chimed in when asked if a recruit has ever requested money to come to Tuscaloosa.

“Not that I know of,” Saban said. “I don’t know of anybody that’s asked us for that. But look, name, image and likeness is not really name, image and likeness. I think we all understand what it’s become and what we allowed it to become.”

Penn State head coach James Franklin loosely confirmed Smith’s claim, according to the Reading Eagle. Infamously, Saban said Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies bought its recruiting class of 2021, listed by 247Sports as the highest-rated in recorded history.

There’s been an overall outcry from coaches and administrators nationwide about the nature of NIL dealings since the Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA two years ago (NCAA v. Alston). Saban and a contingent of head coaches and officials from the Southeastern Conference took a trip to Washington in June to lobby for Congressional support in NIL legislation.

Saban continued: “I said long ago, and got very criticized for, is this what we want college football to become? So it’s becoming what it’s becoming. And that’s OK. I mean, we’re just adapting to what we have to do to be able to compete whatever the circumstances are. Do I think that it would be judicious to have some guardrails on some things? I think you can figure that one out just as well as anybody else.”

Multiple elected officials have brought forth bills that would regulate NIL at the college level to varying degrees. There have been bi-partisan efforts, but it remains unclear the likelihood the federal government will try to fix a system many have compared to the Wild West.

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Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].