Nick Saban urges Senate to pass legislation to fix college sports, but coaching contracts glossed over
The ongoing debate over whether Congress should intervene in college sports took center stage in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday as Nick Saban headlined a group of witnesses warning that the current system is unsustainable without federal legislation.
There’s little doubt that NIL and the transfer portal have created a host of challenges. Some schools are spending upward of $40 million on football rosters for the upcoming season, while constant player movement has left athletic departments scrambling to adapt.
It's easy to see why many schools believe they're facing an increasingly difficult road ahead. Obviously, this is the main reason why Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) spent countless hours piecing together a bipartisan bill.
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Yes, there were also plenty of points made from witnesses regarding some conferences (SEC and Big Ten) essentially standing on their own above others like the ACC and Big 12 in terms of revenue generated through television deals.
But, there seemed to be a slight disconnect between those testifying on Wednesday and the fans who live for college sports.
The invited guests included Saban, Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua, Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould, West Virginia President Gordon Gee and Utah DE Lance Holtzclaw, who all testified before the Senate Commerce Committee.
Sen. Maria Cantwell pointed out that she believes the reason why both the ACC and Big 12 sent letters of support for the Protect College Sports Act centered around those conferences not wanting to be left for dead, like the Pac-12 was just a few years ago following a raid on their teams.
"They think that [what happened to the Pac-12 is] what's going to happen to them next. That somebody's going to come and rearrange the deck chairs of those conferences, steal the schools with the eyeballs."
As for the portal, Nick Saban did not have a problem bringing up the current situation between Ole Miss and Clemson, which some on social media thought was a former Alabama coach taking another shot at the Rebels.
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"We have nothing to control tampering. You know, Clemson had a player that was on campus for a whole week, and they (Ole Miss) come and got him off the campus and took him someplace else," Saban lamented.
There were also some witnesses who decided to play the hits, especially when discussing the current models around NIL and collectives that have been a strong arm of financing for rosters across.
Heading into the hearing, we all wondered how former Alabama coach Nick Saban would handle the moment, given that both the SEC and Big Ten came out against the bill on Tuesday evening.
But, it didn’t take long for him to get going, though he could’ve used a cup of coffee of Ted Cruz.
"I could use a little bit of that Cuban coffee becuase I didn’t sleep much last night because of this hearing," Saban pointed out. "What is our guiding principles for the future of college athletics?"
The conversation quickly shifted to the cost of rosters, which I don't think the Crimson Tide are going to get much sympathy from.
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As Nick Saban mentioned, the former Alabama coach insists that the current system is going to be the downfall of athletic programs across the country.
"But that is not the same thing as turning NIL into a pay-for-play system. It is not the same thing as using collectives and outside entities to create a bidding war for recruits and transfers. When the system becomes whoever raises the most money gets the best players, then we are no longer talking about college athletics as millions of fans and I have known it."
OK, but while Nick Saban and others brought up the current system that in their eyes will officially open the dam, there was little talk about how much money coaches are currently making in college athletics.
We can discuss the costs of rosters, but at the same time we are seeing head coaches across college football making upward of $13 million per season for their services.
So, the argument over roster costs can fall on deaf ears for some, which was evident by the reaction on social media from those who were.
But, maybe the most important witness of the day was Utah defensive end Lance Holtzclaw, who was asked for his thoughts on the current system, along with what he thought about sports agents currently working within the space.
No matter who was speaking on Wednesday, there is not going to be much sympathy from the fans regarding the current problems.
For over three hours, Senate Commerce Committee members asked about the state of college athletics, and what could be done to fix it. During that time, we heard about how bad NIL and the transfer portal are for the game, but we barely heard anything about the lucrative salaries of coaches across different sports.
We were consistently told that the portal is this horrendous apparatus and that agents are not helping the current problem, which I understand to a degree, but there was a lack of discussion around coaches being used for leverage to land the next job or how an opening at one school can lead to frenzy at another.
One of the most interesting aspects of this hearing was where witnesses were seated. Lance Holtzclaw transferred to Utah after his former head coach Kalen DeBoer left Washington for the Alabama job, which was vacant because the key witness retired.
So, Nick Saban and Lance Holtzclaw sitting at the same table during this hearing is fitting for the state of college athletics.
Now, we move to the next phase, which will have amendments presented to the current legislation.
This could start next week, and the reactions from Wednesday's hearing will continue for days to come.