Nick Saban pumps brakes on NIL commission, reveals talk with Donald Trump

Former Alabama coach Nick Saban on Wednesday questioned the need for a national commission on college sports that he is expected to co-chair.

Last week, CBS Sports confirmed Saban and Texas Tech’s NIL collective founder Cody Campbell were jointly expected to lead the commission that would be created by President Donald Trump to influence the future structure of college athletics.

“I don’t know a lot about the commission, first of all,” Saban told The Paul Finebaum Show. “Secondly, I’m not sure we need a commission. I think a lot of people know exactly 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 to move it forward.”

But Saban later told Finebaum that, “I don’t think I should be at the tip [of the spear]. I think I’m someone that has lots of experience and certainly would like to help anyone who would seek our help to try to help fix it. Because I spent my whole life — 50 years — trying to help players be more successful in life. I want to see us continue to be able to do that, not just in football but in all sports across the board.”

Saban met with Trump after the President visited Tuscaloosa on May 1 to give a commencement speech for Alabama graduates. The meeting also involved Alabama Senator and former SEC coach Tommy Tuberville, who told Tide 100.9 radio last month that “Trump wants to help on this NIL,” but added, “I don’t know how he can do it through an executive order.”

Saban told Finebaum that Trump told him, “all my friends are saying college football is really messed up. Let’s get together so we can figure out how to fix it.”

After the meeting, the Wall Street Journal reported Trump was considering an executive order involving NIL in college sports.

As for the commission, which was also reported in the days following the meeting, Saban told reporters Wednesday morning, “To be honest with you, I don’t really know much about this commission. I don’t really know what this commission would do. I think we know what needs to be done, I just think we’ve got to figure out who’s got the will to do it. I learned one thing about coaching for all these years that when you get into a subject like this that’s very complex, it’s probably good not to talk about it off the cuff.

“I’ll find out more about it, and if there’s something I can do to help college football be better, I’m always going to be committed to do that. I was committed to do that as a coach, to help players be more successful in life and I would continue to do the same thing now.”

Saban told Finebaum the meeting with Trump was “how this all started,” but, “I really don’t want to get into the whole implementation of what I would do.”

He then provided a few ideas of what he would propose.

“The first thing is everybody’s got a different state law, which creates advantages and disadvantages,” Saban said. “Everybody is trying to create advantages. Probably need an interstate commerce type something that gets it all there.

“I don’t think it’s in the best interest 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. 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 having an ability to play at the next level. We’ve got to have a system that enhances all three of those.”

Saban, Tuberville and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey were among the golfers at Wednesday’s Regions Tradition Pro-Am in Hoover, Alabama.

Said Sankey to Finebaum on the commission: “I think what’s important to remember is that’s a lot of ‘sources say.’ I deal with reality. There’s plenty of commentary about this possible commission. I’ll go back to the work we’ve been doing educate House and Senate members. I know the President of the United States is an enormous sports fan. He’s been at our games. Last year the Georgia game in Tuscaloosa for the University of Alabama. He’s been at national championship games in January 2018 and January 2020 involving our teams. He’s been back then at a regular-season game.

“So I know he’s aware. I’m not gonna overreact or react to what’s reported about commissions. I think there are a lot of wise people who can provide input. Hopefully people come to me for counsel from time to time. But what I do focus on is our realities, which is we’ll continue to work through Congress because that’s an opportunity to set national standards. We need Democrats and Republicans to do the really hard work they do every day, but also to come together around college sports — our Olympic movement, our non-revenue sports, around supporting a structure of regulatory common sense for college athletics that provides economic opportunities for young people. We also don’t have any real consumer protection around what young people may be signing, who’s representing — their agents or NIL negotiators or NIL entities.”

Sankey, Saban and other coaches and athletics directors have spent time on Capitol Hill in recent years lobbying for legislation around college athletics. Saban has cited issues such as protecting the NCAA from litigation about antitrust violations that have underpinned recent court victories against the organization, as well as future structure concerns such as employment status, unionization and Title IX that are not specifically addressed in the ongoing House vs. NCAA class-action settlement.

“There’s a lot of good work that can be done,” Sankey told Finebaum. “We’ll continue to focus on that and we’ll adapt to more than just ‘sources say’ and respect that there’s a lot of people in Washington that have an interest. What we need is a focus on participating in collaboration and problem solving.”

The House settlement, which could be approved by a federal judge within days, would create a system of revenue sharing that allows schools to directly pay athletes. That alone has led to concern about non-revenue sports being cut by schools to divert financial resources to paying players in revenue-generating sports led by football and men’s basketball.

“We got to protect Olympic sports, whether they produce revenue or not because it’s opportunities for young people to get an education,” Saban told Finebaum. “It trains a lot of people for the Olympics. There’s a lot of things about college football that I think is worth trying to make sure we can keep intact so that people can continue to have opportunities and be successful.”

Saban, who visited Tuberville in Washington earlier this year, told Finebaum he felt college sports’ perceived problems were fixable.

“I’m not opposed to players making money,” Saban said. “I don’t want anybody 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 interest of the student-athletes across the board, or the game itself.

“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 I think — not just me but a lot of people — but we just got to get everybody together to do it.”

Repeated Saban: “I just think we got to have some people get together and push it forward. I think there’s a lot of people out there that know how to fix it. I just think we’ve got to push it forward and get everybody together. Some of it may need to be done on the federal level, and that’s where we’re gonna have to get people together.”

Saban also reiterated his assertion that his retirement last year was unrelated to the state of college sports.

“I didn’t get out of coaching because the system in college football right now,” he told Finebaum. “I got out because of my age. I thought it was affecting the program. I didn’t want to ride the program down. I think the people at Alabama now will do a great job there.”