Nick Saban is no stranger to Capitol Hill so his appearance at a roundtable hosted by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was almost routine.

The retired Alabama football coach appeared alongside Crimson Tide athletics director Greg Byrne for this discussion on the future of collegiate athletics. It’s part of the ongoing unsuccessful effort to pass a national law related to athlete compensation and name, image and likeness regulation.

This multi-year effort has yet to produce a bill that’s reached the floor of Congress. It’s been sold as an existential problem facing collegiate athletics as schools and athletes navigate an increasingly unregulated marketplace.

While there were several panelists including ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, NIL attorney Darren Heitner and the president of an association representing collectives, Saban seemed to get a majority of the questions.

His answers, for the most part, remained consistent with previous statements on these matters. Saban’s not against NIL, but is opposed to the way collectives have changed the game.

“The whole idea of boosters being able to contribute to collectives which really establishes a pay-for-play model,” Saban said seated next to Byrne who was wearing a pin with the logo of Alabama’s official collective on his suit jacket. “I don’t think is in the best interest of college athletics in the future, nor the participants — the student-athletes themselves. It doesn’t enhance them creating value for their future like we were all dedicated to for many, many years.”

Cruz, a ranking member of the senate’s commerce committee, came right out and asked Saban the question that’s dominated the conversation since his Jan. 10 retirement.

Did the current chaos within collegiate athletics lead to his decision to step away?

“All the things I believed in for all these years, 50 years of coaching, no longer exists in college athletics. So it was always about developing players. It was always about helping people be more successful in life.

“My wife even said to me, we had all the recruits over on Sunday, and she would always meet with the mothers about how she was going to help impact their sons and they’d be well taken care of. She came to me right before I retired and said ‘Why are we doing this?’ I said what do you mean? She said ‘All they care about is how much you’re going to pay them. They don’t care about how much you’re going to develop them, which is what we’ve always done. So why are we doing this?’

“To me, that was a red alert that we are creating a circumstance here that’s not beneficial to the development of young people. Which is why I always did what I did. My dad did it. I did it. So that’s the reason why I liked college athletics more than the NFL.”

Saban initially denied the current state of the sport contributed to his retirement but last week told ESPN it was a factor. He said 70 to 80% of returning players wanted assurances of playing time next year and/or wanted to know how much they’d get paid to come back.

Saban also spoke about competitive balance as it relates to collectives making aggressive pushes on the transfer and recruiting market.

“It’s whoever wants to pay the most money, raise the most money, buy the best players, is going to have the best opportunity to win,” Saban said. “I don’t think that’s the spirit of college athletics. I don’t think that’s ever been the spirit of what we want college athletics to be.

“That’s my main concern. The combination of pay-for-play, free agency and how that impacts development.”

Saban was also asked by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) about the NCAA’s issues with regulating NIL.

“I don’t think there’s any question the NCAA has had a difficult run here over the last five or six years especially,” Saban said. “They couldn’t enforce their own rules because of litigation. That put them in a difficult circumstance and I don’t think they managed it very well so I don’t disagree about some of the comments you made about how they handled the situation.

“But I also think they’ve been put in a difficult circumstance because of not being able to enforce their own rules because of a lot of litigation that has come up through the court system that made it impossible for them to do that.”

The roundtable lasted a little more than 90 minutes.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.