Nick Saban's New Year's Resolution For College Football

Former Crimson Tide head coach and current ESPN College GameDay analyst Nick Saban waived his hypothetical magic wand on the College Football Playoffs pregame show on New Year's Day. The seven-time national champion left coaching after the 2023 season but still has a strong pulse on the sport and discussed what he would change about the sport if he were in charge.

"We need to change the calendar," Saban said. "So chaos in college football starts tomorrow, the portal opens. There's already been 120 starters say they're getting in the portal from big Power 4 schools. What happens if Ole Miss wins and Oregon wins. So Oregon's got two coordinators trying to take guys from their team to their team and guys from other teams to their team and Ole Miss has got six coaches going to LSU trying to take guys from their team, but they've got to play a game. Now, is that chaos or is that chaos? So this whole college football calendar needs to change. That would be my New Year's resolution."

Saban lamented that while many people have discussed altering the calendar, there's no one in charge to make the change.

"I don't think there's anybody in authority in college football except conference commissioners," Saban said. "So if they can't get together on it, we're going to have a problem. But everybody's going to be having their own self-interest in mind. Unless they make the portal in May, which I've said before, to match up with the academic calendar, change spring practice till after that so that you can get your team together and work over the summer. Just like an NFL team does, they don't have their team together until after the draft, after free agency, it's May. So do the same thing in college football, and you wouldn't have these issues with coaches changing jobs, because everybody could finish the season with their team, which is what's best for the players, that's number one. Because there would be no hurry, because now there's a hurry, because all the recruiting calendar is hurry up and get a coach or you can't take advantage of an early-signing date, and you can't take advantage of the portal."

The former Crimson Tide head coach called on the government to pass legislation that would help the NCAA enforce its own rules and give the sport leadership that it desperately needs.

"The NCAA doesn't seem to be in control of the way things are happening right now. I think if we're going to change things in college football we've got to get congress to have some kind of anti-trust legislation, because the NCAA can't enforce their own rules, so even if they tried to change things somebody might sue them and they might not be able to do it. That's how we got to where we are right now."

Saban's cohorts on the ESPN College GameDay panel then volunteered the veteran coach to spend time with the conference commissioners in an attempt to unite the sport and legislate positive changes for the game.

"I would really love to do it for the sake of the players in college football," Saban said.