Attorney in $2.78 billion NIL settlement blasts Nick Saban, Trump for ‘unneeded’ meddling

Attorneys representing athletes in the announced NCAA legal settlement of Name, Image and Likeness rules are accusing former Alabama coach Nick Saban of “unneeded self-involvement” after his reported talks with President Donald Trump.

Saban reportedly met with Trump last week in Tuscaloosa during the president’s trip to the University of Alabama to address graduates. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is mulling over issuing an executive order to address college football’s NIL payments.

Attorneys at Hagens Berman law firm said in a statement that Saban’s involvement, and talk of an executive order, was “unmerited and unhelpful.”

A pending $2.78 billion settlement with the NCAA, announced last year, resolves three antitrust lawsuits and would pay out damages to college athletes over a 10-year period.

It would also eliminate rules prohibiting schools from making direct payments to athletes, and expand compensation and benefits available to athletes. It would be one of the largest class action settlements in history.

The firm’s managing partner and co-founder, Steve Berman, the court-appointed co-lead counsel, blasted Saban’s involvement.

“While he was a coach, Saban initially opposed NIL payments to athletes, pushing to add restrictions and red tape through national legislation to add ‘some sort of control.’ During his time scrutinizing the athlete pay structure, he made tens of millions of dollars and was previously the highest-paid coach in college football,” Berman said.

“Coach Saban and Trump’s eleventh-hour talks of executive orders and other meddling are just more unneeded self-involvement. College athletes are spearheading historic changes and benefitting massively from NIL deals. They don’t need this unmerited interference from a coach only seeking to protect the system that made him tens of millions.”

The settlement is currently being reviewed by Judge Claudia A. Wilken of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

NIL began in the summer of 2021 when the NCAA allowed student athletes to begin profiting off their name, image and likeness.

The former Alabama coach, who retired in 2024, said NIL and the way it had changed players’ attitudes was one of the reasons that made him leave the game.

However, the coach’s objections have dealt with the steady escalation of payments among larger schools.

Saban last year said he doesn’t think the way many collectives are operating is sustainable.

“The people who are supporting this, they really get no benefit for it,” Saban said. “I’m sure there’s going to be some instances in the future where those people don’t want to continue to support players that aren’t there. How would you feel if you gave $500,000 to your program, and it was to pay certain players, and those players all left after one year? You would say, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to continue to do this.‘”