Former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban is uncertain about the necessity of the NIL commission proposed by President Donald Trump, despite potentially being appointed as a co-chair.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that Trump, who recently met with Saban at an Alabama commencement address, was contemplating the establishment of a commission to investigate the challenges facing college sports, as reported by the Athletic. One of these perceived issues is the pay-to-win nature of college football following the introduction of NIL (name, image, and likeness).
In 2021, the NCAA eased its regulations on allowing student-athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness. Since then, the earnings of some college football players have even surpassed those of certain NFL players.
Former Texas quarterback, Quinn Ewers, who was recently drafted by the Miami Dolphins, reportedly declined the chance to remain in college and earn $6 million for the 2025 season.
Ewers will now earn a fraction of that amount this year after agreeing to a four-year $4.3 million contract with the Dolphins.
However, Saban, who has been identified by Trump as a potential co-chair of the commission alongside Texas Tech’s board of regents chairman Cody Campbell, recently confessed to SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum that he is unsure whether such a commission is necessary.
“Well first of all, I don’t know a lot about the commission first of all,” Alabama’s seven-time National Championship-winning coach Saban initiated.
“Secondly, I’m not sure we really need a commission. I think that a lot of people know what the issues are in college football and exactly what we need to do to fix them. I think the key to the drill is getting people together so that we can move it forward. So I’m not opposed to players making money, I don’t want anyone to think that.
“I just think the system, the way it’s going right now, it’s not sustainable. And probably not in the best interests of the student-athletes across the board or the game itself.
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“So I think we need to protect the brand and the competitive advantages and disadvantages that are being created right now and I think we can fix all that. But I think we know how to do it and not just me, but a lot of people, we’ve just got to get everybody together to do it.”
Since retiring as a coach in January 2024, Saban has stayed close to the college football scene as an analyst for ESPN’s College GameDay.
In his conversation with Finebaum, Saban conceded he didn’t see himself as “he should be the tip of the spear” for the commission, but mentioned, “I would just like to help anyone who seeks it fix.”
The former Alabama head coach shared his vision for the future of college football with Finebaum, emphasizing the importance of player development on multiple fronts: “Well I think first of all, the way all of this started was when President Trump spoke at a commencement at Alabama, you know he said ‘all my friends are saying college football’s really messed up, let’s get together so I can figure out or we can figure out how to fix it.’ So that’s how this all got started.”
Saban continued, outlining his reluctance to delve into specifics but highlighting the need for uniformity: “I really don’t want to get into the implementation of what I would do. The first thing is, everybody’s got a different state law which creates advantages and disadvantages and everybody’s trying to create advantages so probably need an inter-state commerce type something that gets it all there.”
He also expressed his stance on the employment status of players and compensation: “I don’t think it’s in the best interests of the players to necessarily be employees and I think authentic name, image and likeness is good for players. But I don’t think pay-for-play is necessarily what we want.”
Saban concluded by reinforcing the educational aspect of college sports: “What is college? We all went to college to create value for our future. I think we want to keep some semblance of that in terms of guys becoming and developing as people and students and developing a career off the field as well as developing the ability to play at the next level. So we’ve got to have a system that enhances all three of those.”
