Deion Sanders says Alabama football coach Nick Saban used him as a pawn to get more money from his boosters.

Deion Sanders, the head football coach at Jackson State, claimed Nick Saban called him out for illegal recruiting for his personal gain.

“Coach Saban used me and used Jimbo Fisher as pawns in his plea for help from his boosters and his donors,” Sanders said.

He claimed that Saban attacked him because his team was able to recruit some fine players like Kevin Coleman and Travis Hunter last year.

Alabama’s coach Saban alleged at a news conference with local business leaders in Birmingham on Wednesday that Jackson State paid $1 million to the top recruit in the class of 2022 to sign with Sanders and the university. He went on to attack Jimbo Fisher of Texas A&M for buying “every player on their team” using the name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals.

Fisher dismissed the claim and asserted that Texas A&M did not buy any player nor did they break any rule.

“Some people think they're God. Go dig into how God did his deal. You may find out about…a lot of things you don't want to know,” Fisher said. “We built him up to be the czar of football”.