Saban Giving an Opinion to Trump? There's Nothing Wrong With That: Inside the SEC
Nick Saban would probably never admit it publicly, but he was tiptoeing through a perception minefield last week — something he's been very good at over the years.
This was a little different, though. When President Donald Trump invited himself to speak at the University of Alabama commencement, and school officials had to scramble to set up a special ceremony to accommodate him (it hasn't had a commencement speaker for years), Saban was tapped to make the introduction. It's not clear who did the asking, but Saban had spent a lifetime of not getting involved in politics if for no reason than by doing so he would immediately alienate half his fan base and players.
Saban called the introduction an honor, and then completely avoided saying anything political during his brief time on stage, reserving his comments to the graduating senior class even though one of them did come across as a little dated:
"I feel like I'm the warm-up band for The Rollings Stones," he said with a smile. "And the first song they're going to play is 'Start Me Up.'"
But since then Saban has drawn some fire not for introducing the controversial president but for what was apparently said either behind the scenes, or on Air Force One, when the Wall Street Journal subsequently reported that "The Trump administration is considering an executive order that could increase scrutiny of the explosion in payments to college athletes since 2021, after the president met with former Alabama coach Nick Saban, White House officials said."
Supposedly, Saban told the president that he believed the influx of money had damaged college athletics. That was nothing new, he's expressed that opinion before. As someone who covered the coach during his entire time at Alabama, it's my firm belief that NIL and the transfer portal both significantly contributed to his decision to step down when he did at the end of the 2023 season. No one should have been surprised when he recently called the current landscape of college football "unsustainable," and suggested if he was still coaching he'd rather be in the NFL.
The criticism came Monday from the attorneys from Hagens Berman, who are representing current and former college athletes in the ongoing House vs. NCAA case that appears to be close to a settlement. Two weeks ago, Judge Claudia Wilken of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, issued a 14-day deadline for the sides to reach an agreement on a key point, roster sizes, or risk the entire thing being thrown out. That deadline is today.
“While he was a coach, Saban initially opposed NIL payments to athletes, pushing to add restrictions and red-tape through national legislation to add ‘some sort of control.’ co-founder and managing partner Steve Berman said. "During his time scrutinizing the athlete pay structure, he made tens of millions of dollars and was previously the highest-paid coach in college football.
“Coach Saban and Trump’s eleventh-hour talks of executive orders and other meddling are just more unneeded self-involvement. College athletes are spearheading historic changes and benefitting massively from NIL deals. They don’t need this unmerited interference from a coach only seeking to protect the system that made him tens of millions.”
Let's get a couple of things straight here. First, Berman gets his money from large class-action lawsuits, and he's representing the side that wants as much money going to the players as possible. He's doing exactly what he should be doing, defending his clients.
Second, it appears that Sen. Tommy Tuberville is the one pushing for an executive order. The former Auburn coach told Ryan Fowler's radio show (Tide 100.9 in Tuscaloosa) last Wednesday: "Hopefully we'll get to sit down with Coach Saban. President Trump wants to help on this NIL. I don't know how he can do it through an executive order. But possibly we can sit down and talk some insight of what Coach Saban thinks about it, what I think about it and we can come up with some sort of agreement because right now it's in a tailspin."
Consequently, the whole notion that Saban has essentially tried to sabotage years of negotiations and the settlement is ridiculous. Moreover, Saban has time and time again voiced an opinion about what he believes is in the best interest of the sport, regardless of how it might impact him. Sometimes he won the arguments, and other times he was out-voted. When that happened his attitude was usually "Ok, this is the way it's going to be? Then we'll adjust and still beat you."
Remember, Saban is no longer coaching, so there's really nothing for him to gain out of this, and if there was ever a commissioner or czar of college football he's the one person nearly everyone would want to do it. Moreover, the stance of the SEC, and commissioner Greg Sankey has repeatedly said, is that national standards are needed for college athletics as a whole, and with uniformity.
“Student-athletes want to know their competitors from other states are governed by the same rules,” Sankey said at SEC Media Days last year. “Uniformity will ensure a high school student being recruited by universities across the country knows there is a consistent set of rules guiding their NIL activity.”
How many people think Ohio State essentially bought the national championship last year?
How many believe Texas is trying to do the same thing this year?
How long does anyone think fans will put up with that?
That's at the crux of what Saban supposedly said. If it's all a football championship-or-nothing approach, titles will often go to the highest bidder. Boosters will stop giving. The other sports that don't make money will be cut. Schools won't have much choice. Those things seem to be a given at this point.
The House settlement incudes whats essentially a $20.5 million salary cap for revenue-sharing at each Division I school (starting the beginning of the next academic year, July 1), plus $2.77 billion in back payments to athletes who participated in an NCAA sport between 2016 and 2024. It'll also establish a clearinghouse for NIL deals and new enforcement protocols. Considering it's already May, everyone in college athletics is eager to have a resolution.
It should also be noted that even if Trump decided to do something in terms of an executive order, it's not clear what that could, or would, include, or if it would hold up in court. Note the following reports:
• From Sportico’s Michael McCann: “For starters, an executive order can’t conflict with a federal statute. If a court finds that college athletes are employees within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act or the Fair Labor Standards Act, they will be employees. If a court finds they aren’t employees under those laws, then they aren’t employees. Then there are state laws governing labor and employment. An executive order can’t compel a state to interpret its own laws a certain way.
"Trump might decree that antitrust law be interpreted a certain way in relation to eligibility claims. That type of decree would impact how the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and other federal agencies interpret antitrust law in the context of college sports, but it wouldn’t stop athletes from continuing to bring private antitrust actions against the NCAA. ... It could run afoul of Equal Protection if college athletes are denied the same rights, including for employment and other economic opportunities, that their classmates enjoy. An executive order might also run afoul of the First Amendment to the extent it limits how college athletes express themselves.
• From The Athletic’s Ralph Russo and Chris Vannini : “A congressional aide told The Athletic that an executive order might not stabilize the college sports system, which requires legal certainty and a limited safe harbor from litigation. Legal protections and the pre-empting of state NIL laws can only be addressed through congressional legislation.”
Tulane sports law professor Gabe Feldman added: “The challenge with any ruling or order is that there are multiple levels that would need to be addressed. This is not just an antitrust issue; it’s also a labor and employment issue. It’s also a Title IX issue. There’s also contract issues, right of publicity issues. There’s a lot in there.”
Agree, disagree, plan to keep arguing, whatever. Saban is entitled to his opinion (and gets paid a lot to give it on ESPN), plus there's probably no one on the planet more knowledgeable about college football and what it takes to be successful. The real issue here is the timing, and he obviously had very little control about the president asking what he thought.
SEC Aiming for Softball Record
The 205 SEC Softball Tournament is being played in Athens, Ga., and the format is now a single-elimination tournament featuring 15 teams (every league school minus Vanderbilt). Being a final opportunity for teams to add to their resumes, the games on the first days could arguably be just as important as the championship — which is really saying something.
Why? Because NCAA bids and seeding are at stake. That's always the case but it's different this season on both ends.
Auburn (6-18) and Missouri (6-18) finished at the cellar of the league standings, but there was a big difference when compared to RPI rankings. In that metric, Mizzou and Kentucky were at the bottom at No 31, and No. 32, respectively. That would normally put them on the bubble, except the NCAA requires an overall record of at least .500 to be considered for the tournament, and the Tigers finished the regular season 25-30. They need to run the table at Athens to qualify. Instead, they lost Game 2, ending their season.
Kentucky is 29-26 after losing Game 1 of the SEC tournament. It'll probably make the NCAA field, but not by much. Even so, it'll probably be a No. 3 seed in a regional.
Meanwhile, the rest of the teams in the SEC tournament are all hoping to host regionals. Alabama was definitely on the hosting bubble along with Mississippi State, and maybe even Ole Miss and Georgia. A good showing could go a long way in avoiding having to play the entire NCAA tournament on the road. Meanwhile, the top seeding in the NCAA tournament could be on the line as Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Texas A&M, which all have byes into the SEC quarterfinals, can make a case to have the most favorable spot in the NCAA bracket. All are considered locks to host super-regionals if they advance, along with maybe Arkansas and Florida.
Regardless, the league could have 14 teams in the NCAA Tournament this year, with at least nine hosting a regional, and probably six hosting a super regional. The record for most teams from one conference playing in the Women's College World Series is four, set by the SEC in 2016.
NCAA Tournament Dates
Selection show
Sunday at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN2
Regionals
May 16-18
Super Regionals
May 22-25
Women's College World Series
May 29 - June 5/6 | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Did you Notice?
• The report this week that Texas is expected to spend $35 million to $40 million on its team this season came from the Houston Chronicle's Kirk Bohls, who is highly respected as a sports journalist. The school is trying to spin the figure, saying its figure exaggerated and misleading, however it includes a $20.5 million revenue-sharing allotment. Meanwhile, Indiana coach, and former Saban assistant at Alabama, Curt Cignetti Jr., told CBS: "This is an unprecedented couple days, weeks, where everybody's waiting on this rev share, and the five or six out there that have unlimited NIL resources, it's kind of scary for everybody else. I think our little pot of gold is pretty nice, but we're not at $40 million. Or $30 million. Or even $25 million."
• While we're at it, Ohio State is set to play its football assistant coaches nearly $12 million this season, with four topping $1 million. Defensive coordinator Matt Patricia will get $2,5 million, with offensive coordinator Brian Hartline making $2 million. After winning the national title defensive coordinator Jim Knowles left and signed a three-year deal averaging $3.1 million per season at Penn State. Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly went from making $2 million at Ohio State to $6 million a season back in the NFL with the Las Vegas Raiders.
• Sean Miller's contract is expected to be formally approved by the Texas Board of Trustees today, and pay him $31.8 million over the next six seasons, including $4.8 million his first year. Meanwhile, coming off his first nation contract Todd Golden has a new contract at Florida for $40.5 million over the next six years. Both deals put them easily in the sweet 16 of coaching salaries in mens basketball, eight of which are in the SEC. Meanwhile, Bucky McMillan's new deal at Texas A&M is for $16 million over five years.
• Mizzou men's basketball coach Dennis Gates, who is just outside of that top 16 in salaries, had an interesting comment on adding a general manager for his program: “I’ve been president of basketball operations. I’ve been the GM. I’ve been the head coach. I’ve held those titles. I just know there’s only 24 hours in a day. There’s a lot of needs and growth that our game is taking on in a transformational way because NIL is growing. The need to have relationships with agents, consistently, is growing — in addition to high school (recruiting), in addition to being ahead in the transfer portal, trying to figure out who’s out there. Agents know who’s out there because they’re their clients. That’s a big part of it.”
• Remember Jeff Long, the former Arkansas athletic director who had the same role at Pitt, Kansas and Eastern Kentucky? He was named to the College Football Playoff Committee last week, replacing Steve Wieberg (the former sports journalist who graduated from Mizzou). His term will be just one year, though, as Wieberg stepped down for personal reasons.
• Finally, Tony Barnhart, known as “Mr. College Football," announced that this season, his 50th covering college football, will be his last. He plans to spend it on a “Thank you” tour of SEC football venues and will write an essay at each stop that will be used for a book.
Inside the SEC appears every week.
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Christopher Walsh is the founder and publisher of BamaCentral, which first published in 2018. He's covered the Crimson Tide since 2004, and is the author of 26 books including Decade of Dominance, 100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die, Nick Saban vs. College Football, and Bama Dynasty: The Crimson Tide's Road to College Football Immortality. He's an eight-time honoree of Football Writers Association of America awards and three-time winner of the Herby Kirby Memorial Award, the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s highest writing honor for story of the year. In 2022, he was named one of the 50 Legends of the ASWA. Previous beats include the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, along with Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks. Originally from Minnesota and a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, he currently resides in Tuscaloosa.