Alabama football head coach Nick Saban is going to be short-handed for the team’s bowl game due to a slew of transfers this season, and he let the media know all about it and his dislike for the transfer portal on Friday.

It is probably safe to say that the Alabama Crimson Tide’s stranglehold on the top of the college football world has finally ended. The university became a national powerhouse and then an NFL factory as Saban was able to put together the best-recruiting classes every year over the last decade. However, the introduction of NIL rules finally allowed players to make money off their likenesses and gave more schools a better chance of competing with the top programs.

Due to the influence of NIL rules, the NCAA transfer portal has become as prominent as recruiting in the spring. It has had a massive effect on Alabama football in recent years, and 12 scholarship players in 2022 alone have entered the portal. Four of them have moved on since then, however, others have yet to find new schools.

Nick Saban revealed Friday that he offered many of them the chance to compete in the team’s Sugar Bowl game against Kansas State on New Year’s Eve, but they all turned the 71-year-old down.