Nick Saban is widely recognized as one of the handful of best coaches in the history of college football.
Now retired, college football needs him to lead the way to save the sport from itself.
Saban, the former head coach at Alabama, testified in front of Congress last week to ask for legislation to college sports in the name, image and likeness (NIL) and transfer portal era.
NIL and the transfer portal have brought upheaval to college sports in recent years. Athletic programs now have the opportunity to pay — above the table — players to come to their school. It’s evened things out in college football. Indiana, national champion? Never would have thought it.
The cynic might bring up the fact Saban has found his breaking point because other schools have caught up with his former school when it comes to getting the elite players and funding high-level facilities for their football programs.
I wouldn’t call those cynics wrong. But that doesn’t make him wrong.
Saban — speaking to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee — is in favor of the proposed Protect College Sports Act.
I’m not quite sure what the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has to do with college athletics. Commerce, there is money. Science? Transportation? Nope and nope. But it’s Congress, they know better than we do. Just ask them.
The act would give the NCAA an antitrust exemption to enforce rules that have been challenged in court and won by athletes.
• It would limit athletes to only transfer one time without penalty.
• It would limit athletes to a maximum of five years of eligibility.
• It would prohibit former professional athletes from playing in college.
The proposal has some good points. Five years of eligibility is enough and former professional athletes have no business getting back into college sports. It’s happening in men’s basketball. Those players have had their chance in college, just because you washed out in the pros, you shouldn’t get a second bite at the apple. You made your decision, live with it.
Another part of the act would be to set a limit on what schools can spend on NILs. A salary cap of sorts, because colleges can’t seem to force themselves to stop spending, they need somebody to lay down a budget on paper.
That spending has had consequences. In the face of what universities are saying are rising costs in the “major” sports, they are cutting others.
In the past few weeks, several decided to cut men’s and women’s tennis programs in an attempt to balance the books.
Arkansas was one of those schools. According to ESPN, the university spent a combined $2.35 million on the men’s and women’s teams in the 2025 fiscal year. In sports such as football or men’s basketball, that $2.35 million would cover perhaps a player or two when it comes to NIL money for a season.
The operating expense per Arkansas tennis player in 2025? For the men, it was $41,772, the women was $41,582.
The revenue brought back? $3,202 total for the men, $82 for the women according to the university. Boy, those are not great.
There was a bit of an outcry at Arkansas about cutting the programs and the university has gotten short-term funding to keep the men’s and women’s teams alive for now.
But that decision came with the proviso alumni and other program supporters need to find a way to fund a “significant endowment” to keep the teams going in the future.
I’m afraid that’s going to turn into the norm with a lot of the Olympic sports at the collegiate level — find your own funding or the program is done. On Friday, Missouri Western announced it was “pausing” its women’s tennis program.
I’m not a fan of inviting the government into your house to make rules because your family couldn’t come up with a solution. But if it settles down the recent ruckus for a little while, it’s not a bad thing.
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Tom Rackers is the sports editor at the Jefferson City News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @tjrackers.
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