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.
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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.
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"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.
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