Legendary college football coach Nick Saban is being enlisted by President Donald Trump to rein in college sports’ name, image and likeness (NIL) era.
Saban, a national champion at both Alabama and Louisiana State, is expected to co-chair the President’s commission on college sports alongside Texas Tech board of regents chairman Cody Campbell, sources told The Athletic.
The President is said to be ‘very engaged’ on NIL because he believes collegiate athletics are a national issue. Similarly, Trump fought COVID-era measures to limit the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, arguing at the time it would be a ‘tragic mistake’ to cancel the season due to the sport’s national importance. The season was ultimately played, although it was heavily impacted by COVID-19.
Trump recently asked aids to begin researching the creation of an executive order to better control the NIL landscape, which Saban has repeatedly attacked both before and after his 2024 retirement. In fact, both Saban and his former SEC rival, ex-Auburn coach and current Republican US Senator from Alabama Tommy Tuberville, lobbied the President about the issue just last week.
Since 2021, and under pressure from states and the courts, the NCAA has allowed student-athletes to profit from their name, image or likeness. It is too early to know what a Trump executive order would entail.
Saban has been critical of the NIL funding in the past, largely because he was concerned about the effect on college football. The NIL era also has brought a rise to the transfer portal era, with thousands of students across all sports seeking to move schools – some of them for bigger paydays.
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with former Alabama football coach Nick Saban as he arrives to deliver commencement remarks at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa
President Donald Trump gives a commencement address at the University of Alabama
‘Each year, it’s gotten a little worse,’ Saban said last December on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on ESPN. ‘The first year we had name, image and likeness four, five years ago, we had a $3 million, and everybody was happy. Then the next year it was $7 million, then the next year it’s $10 million. Then this year it’s $13 million. Now they’re looking at $20 million. I mean, where does it end?’
A recent Houston Chronicle report projected the Texas Longhorns would have a budget of $35 million to $40 million for its 2025 football roster, depending on the fallout from the House v. NCAA settlement, which allow schools to pay athletes directly.
Saban has previously said the current model is unsustainable for college sports, and Trump apparently agreed.
The NCAA has declined to comment on a potential executive order.
Meanwhile, an attorney in the $2.8 billion legal case reshaping college sports said Monday he thinks ‘the agreement we will reach with the NCAA will solve the judge’s concerns’ over roster limits that have delayed final approval.
Steve Berman, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, told The Associated Press that all is on track to file paperwork by Wednesday, which is U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken’s deadline for addressing concerns that prevented her from granting approval to the deal last month.
Berman said he created a chart listing the several dozen athletes who lodged objections to the agreement based on roster limits. He said he thinks almost every one will be offered a solution.
‘We’re still negotiating, and I’m confident that everyone who lost a roster spot will have a chance to get a spot back,’ he said.
He did not go into detail about whether those spots would be on their previous teams or new ones.
NCAA vice president of external affairs Tim Buckley said the NCAA would not comment on the litigation while negotiations are ongoing.
Attorney Steve Berman arrives at federal court on April 7 in Oakland, California
Wilken looked favorably on other key components of the settlement – namely, the up to $20.5 million some schools can pay their athletes for name, image likeness (NIL) deals and the nearly $2.8 billion in back pay that will go to players who said the NCAA and five biggest conferences wrongly kept them from earning NIL money.
But she asked lawyers to rework the part of the deal that will replace scholarship limits with roster limits. It’s a proposal that could make more overall scholarship money available but could cost thousands of athletes their spots on rosters in moves that began shortly after Wilken gave preliminary approval to the deal last fall.
The NCAA’s first response to Wilken’s request – which included the idea of ‘grandfathering in’ current players to their roster spots – was to change nothing, arguing that undoing roster moves already in play would create more turmoil in an already chaotic process.
Wilken wasn’t moved, saying in her April 24 order that ‘any disruption that may occur is a problem of Defendants’ and NCAA members schools’ own making.’
Berman acknowledged that the objectors likely wouldn’t approve of the new deal being worked on.
‘But I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal,’ he said, because it is designed to find roster spots for virtually all the individual athletes who objected.
Berman also criticized Saban’s push for Trump to sign an executive order, saying such an action would result in lawsuits.
‘But here, the question is, ”Why does the president need to get involved?”‘ Berman said, while outlining the financial gains players have made in the NIL era.
‘Just because Nick Saban thinks he knows better and resents change? This is a coach who made more money off college football than any other coach, did absolutely nothing to make it right for these student-athletes. Why should he drive the president’s thinking?’
Saban made more than $11 million in his last year at Alabama and USA Today reports he earned more than $150 million over his illustrious career.
