Former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban is reportedly adding a new title to his resume after retiring from coaching following the 2023-24 season.
The now ESPN television personality will co-chair President Donald Trump’s commission on college sports, according to The Athletic. He is expected to serve in this role alongside billionaire businessman and Texas Tech University board chair Cody Campbell according to Yahoo Sports.
Yahoo Sports reported that the commission is expected to look at the rocky landscape of college sports, including the frequency of player movement in the transfer portal and the debate of college athlete employment and payment through “name, image and likeness” deals, also known as NIL deals. Since 2021, the NCAA has allowed players to profit off of NIL, and it is set to begin allowing college athletes to participate in revenue sharing this fall following the settlement of lawsuits brought forth by former athletes.
This comes after Trump reportedly met with Saban last Thursday when the two were in Tuscaloosa to speak at a special commencement ceremony. People familiar with the meeting told the Wall Street Journal that Saban discussed his concern about NIL with Trump and that he “believed the influx of money had damaged college sports.”
Trump reportedly agreed with Saban and said that he would look into creating an executive order. Saban also proposed “reforming” NIL due to it causing an uneven playing field.
Saban did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Saban has previously been an advocate for regulating college sports, including speaking out against the current NIL and transfer portal structure. Although he insisted it was not a factor in his retirement when speaking to ESPN, he did mention it being an issue after making the move to step down as head coach.
“Now, I think everybody is frustrated about it. We had an SEC conference call, 14 coaches on there, and there’s not one guy you can talk to who really understands what’s happening in college football and thinks that it’s not an issue,” he said.
Saban also discussed college athletics when he visited Capitol Hill last March, just months after leaving his role at Alabama. He testified at a roundtable discussion hosted by Texas senator Ted Cruz, advocating for revenue-sharing in college athletics and discussing issues with NIL and the transfer portal.
“I’m for student-athletes being able to share in some of this revenue,” Saban said. “I think the No. 1 solution to all this is if we could have some kind of revenue sharing proposition that did not make student-athletes employees.”
He added that he believes that revenue-sharing could be the long-term solution, and that it could create a better quality of life for student-athletes.
“You could still emphasize development, personal, academic, brand, and athletic development, with a system like that,” Saban said. “And it would be equal in all institutions. Somebody couldn’t go out and raise more money at one school to create a competitive advantage over another.”
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