After 17 seasons at Alabama and coaching in some capacity since 1971, Nick Saban finally called it a career earlier this month.
Saban retired shortly after the end of the college football season as a seven-time national champion – six with Alabama, and one with LSU.
Saban, 72, left the sport as NIL has become much more prominent, a phenom unimaginable even a decade ago.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Several notable names in the sport, like Reggie Bush, have said NIL played a role in Saban’s retirement, and former college coach Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., agrees.
“I kinda saw it coming. He never mentioned it, but he and I have been working on an NIL bill, along with a lot of other coaches and [athletic directors] for the last couple years, and he just got tired of it,” the senator said on OutKick’s “Dont @ Me with Dan Dakich.”
However, with being the coach with the most college titles, Tuberville says there was not much else Saban needed to do from the sidelines.
PETA AGAIN CALLS FOR GEORGIA TO END USE OF LIVE BULLDOGS AFTER MASCOT’S DEATH
“It wasn’t just NIL – I think he had gotten to a point where he wanted to do maybe something else. He accomplished so much,” he said.
“I hate to see him go from college sports. I think he will stay active in some way, I don’t know what it is. But man, the success he had, it will never be duplicated – in our lifetime, anyway.”
Saban boasts an all-time record of 292-71-1 at the college level, including a 19-12 record in bowl games and a 9-5 record in the College Football Playoff. At Alabama, he went 206-29.
Nine of Saban’s 11 SEC titles came with the Crimson Tide, and his 292 wins are the fifth-most in Division I history.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.