If you were surprised by this one, we’d like to sell you the NIL rights to the Brooklyn Bridge.
Confirming the report that President Trump will be forming a commission on college sports, TheAthletic.com reports that former Alabama (and Michigan State and LSU and Miami Dolphins) coach Nick Saban will be named the commission’s co-chair.
The other co-chair is expected to be a “prominent businessman with deep ties to college athletics.”
The development should raise crimson flags for the players who have finally secured the freedoms that they had been wrongfully denied for years. Under the guise of fixing a problem that a corrupt system created, the commission undoubtedly will work to re-tilt the playing field in favor of the institutions — to the detriment of the kids who play the college sports that generate the revenue.
Saban’s point of view on the matter has been abundantly clear. Before resigning from his job as the head coach at Alabama, Saban said to himself, ‘Maybe this doesn’t work anymore, that the goals and aspirations are just different and that it’s all about how much money can I make as a college player?’”
The hypocrisy oozes from that attitude, given that Saban consistently made as much money as he could as a college and pro coach.
Before that, Saban complained that changes to the old ways, forced by the implosion of longstanding antitrust violations, threatened the sport’s parity. The truth was it threatened his ability to take advantage of the prior system, where there was little actual parity — and where Saban’s team dominated.
Saban wanted parity of resources because he knew that, under those rules, he had the recruiting skills to leverage parity of resources into disparity of results.
In 2023, Saban argued for an NFL-style set of rules. But the NFL’s rules were negotiated with a union operating as a multi-employer bargaining unit. That gives the NFL’s 32 independent businesses an antitrust exemption, allowing a draft and spending limits and rules regarding when and how a player can change teams.
The union approach is the best, and most fair, way to fix the current problem. The colleges, however, want to have it both ways, limiting player pay and mobility without having to deal with the rights and protections a union could negotiate. And Saban will soon have a key position of influence when it comes to attempting to jam through Congress a law that will give the colleges what they want: The ability to enact sweeping rules without having to grant the players the power of collective bargaining.
If it works, maybe Saban will get back into coaching again. Especially if the new rules don’t impact how much he can be paid, or when and how he can jump from one school to another.
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