WHEN NICK SABAN RUNS A PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION, TRUMP DIDN’T GO WRONG
He has rejected those who’ve wanted him to be college football’s commissioner, but Saban said yes when Trump asked him to co-chair a commission to clean up NIL, transfers and competitive balance
You can ignore President Trump’s hokey impression of a helpful Sean Connery. “Let the bloody bloke build his golf courses,” he said joyfully in announcing a trade deal with the United Kingdom. But please, dazed Americans, do not dismiss how Trump will help college sports because of the man he has positioned to fix the messes.
Nick Saban is co-chair of a commission to clean up NIL’s financial mayhem, zaniness within transfer portals and stinking boosters who introduce millions to athletes in their mid-teens. If one person is a near-universal choice as a supreme authority to create reform, it’s Saban, who generally is regarded as The College Football Commissioner if he didn’t openly resist such talk. One person he couldn’t snub was Trump, who will be “very engaged” with Saban and Texas Tech board of regents chairman Cody Campbell.
“We need some sort of national standard,” Saban told Congress last year.
He is in charge of the national standard.
The Supreme Court never thought about the future when it allowed NIL and made a ruling enabling blurry transfers. Here comes Saban, who met with Trump last week and won’t have to answer to two almighty commissioners, Greg Sankey of the Southeastern Conference and Tony Petitti of the Big Ten. They are in business together in trying to stockpile postseason tournament bids in football and assume even more power with a combined 34 member institutions. Saban isn’t the pope, but for those who care, white smoke might have billowed.
Capable of communicating with millions of fans on his frequent ESPN appearances, Saban won’t be stopped from wooing people in regenerating order. Remember, Trump knows sports and understands the Saturday thrills of college football, sitting as he does in stadiums. A presidential commission should protect a public good from the claws of greedy boosters and athletes, as we saw when Nico Iamaleava tried to renegotiate a $2.4 million deal this year at Tennessee — too much money for an average passer — and moved on to UCLA. Michigan landed quarterback Bryce Underwood for $12.5 million, when Oracle’s Larry Ellison paid the money because his wife is an alumna. Let Saban make all his reports on an industry of flaws.
Does the President of the United States have more urgent matters? Some will say his involvement is excessive, but he spent Thursday changing the global trading system. So he appointed Saban when football only has a playoff system and no real institition. Tom McMillen, the Democratic congressman traditionally involved with prominent athletic directors, told The Athletic: “I give President Trump a lot of credit. This is a time to bring the best minds in college sports together, in higher education, and figure a model out. He’s always had a big interest in sports. It really fits his kind of whole M.O.”
His M.O. also includes the NFL, eight years after Trump attacked owners when they didn’t fire Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during national anthems. "Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he's fired. He's fired,’ " Trump said then. "You know, some owner is going to do that. He's going to say, ‘That guy that disrespects our flag, he's fired.’ And that owner, they don't know it [but] they'll be the most popular person in this country." Then Trump posted: “If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL, or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect. ... our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU'RE FIRED. Find something else to do!”
Now, with Kaepernick left to appear at the Met Gala nine years after his final NFL game, Trump gets along with commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners. They stood side by side in Washington, where the 2027 draft will take place at the National Mall.
“I don’t think there’s ever been anything like that. It’s going to be beautiful. It's going to be something that nobody else will ever be able to duplicate,” Trump said. “The draft is a celebration of one of our country's most cherished cultural institutions, and annual highlights for football fans everywhere, everyone in the world is going to be watching. We look forward to welcoming people from across the nation, from all over the world.”
Why wouldn’t Trump place the nation’s most popular sport in his back pocket. He spent hours listening to Saban complain about everything, including the absence of competitive balance. “We don't have it in college athletics,” Saban said. “It's whoever wants to pay the most money, raise the most money, buy the most players is going to have the best opportunity to win. I don't think that's the spirit of college athletics.”
As he introduced Trump for a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Saban said the other day, “I’ve got to be honest with you. I feel like I’m the warm-up band for the Rolling Stones. And the first song they’re going to play is, ‘Start Me Up.’ ”
When you start up Nick Saban, he’ll never stop.
Sure beats Sankey and Petitti.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.