Nick Saban knows exactly what to do to fix all the issues that plague college athletics at the moment. If only anybody would listen to him.
The legendary coach won several national titles at Alabama and has now successfully transitioned to television as an analyst for ESPN’s College GameDay. And with the entire world of college athletics stuck in a darkest timeline of total chaos, Saban says he has it all figured out.
In his regular appearance with GameDay co-star Pat McAfee on his licensed ESPN daily show, Nick Saban said that he could wave his magic wand and have it all fixed instantly in a few easy steps. But apparently nobody wants to hear what he has to say, which is odd because Saban was supposed to co-chair a presidential commission designed to fix college sports… only to say that he didn’t think a commission was needed.
“I’ve got College sports figured out but nobody wants to listen..
There’s a way to do this that satisfies everybody”
Coach Saban #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/rgkM5IbyZw
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 30, 2025
“I got it figured out, nobody will listen, so you know, what are you going to do?” Saban scoffed. “We got to have some kind of antitrust exemption. You got to get the political parties together on it. I think the college people have to get over the fact that a graduate student can be a graduate assistant, get paid, is not an employee, so players don’t have to be employees.”
“You do the same thing in football. Put some restrictions and determine what you can and can’t negotiate. Shouldn’t be anything that has anything to do with athletic development. We already have those restrictions, 20 hours a week, whatever it is, that practice time. So there is a way to do this that satisfies both parties, that gives cover to both groups, so that we can move forward,” Saban continued.
It’s the most insane of ironies. As a whole, college football has never been bigger or more popular across America. The interest in the sport is at all-time highs and every metric is rising through the stratosphere. Things like NIL and an expanded playoff that were always treated as some kind of boogeyman for the sacred nature of the sport have only helped to lead it to greater heights.
But at the same time, nobody in college athletics has taken any responsibility for building a structure in place that could operate in this new world. So while college athletics have never been better, it is also simultaneously facing a crisis of epic proportions.
“I got killed in the Wall Street Journal for saying things like college football is messed up. But the thing about it is, everybody just looks at the playoffs have created tremendous interest in college football. There’s a whole bunch of teams now that have a chance to get in the playoffs. There’s more interest than ever, higher TV ratings and all that. But the underbelly underneath that is not really good,” Saban argued. “It’s not really good for the development of players. It’s not really good for all the sports that we try to sponsor in college.”
“And I think we got to decide do we want to be a professional development league or are we really going to have college athletes who go get an education and develop value for their future as they’re playing and making money? I want them to make money. I think they should make money, but there should be some restrictions on how they go about doing it. And the movement to me is a bigger issue than making money, everybody being able to transfer all the time, that’s not a good thing.”
And as always, this is where the rubber meets the road. Who is actually going to take responsibility to fix it? The NCAA has been passing the buck to congress, almost begging them to take action, which is certainly a recipe for inaction and disaster. Donald Trump’s famed commission that was apparently going to be led by Nick Saban went the way of his vaunted “healthcare plan” almost as soon as it was announced.
So if you’re following along at home – Nick Saban knows how to fix college football… but noobody will listen to him… except for Donald Trump, who asked him to lead a commission… the commission may or may not exist… Saban wants congress to fix it with legislation… but congress pulled the legislation because it didn’t have enough support…. leaving us… back where we all started with nobody having any idea what they’re doing.
As always, fixing college football is somebody else’s problem to actually deal with.
About Matt Yoder