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Former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban gave kudos to President Donald Trump for signing an executive order that set new restrictions on payments to college athletes on Thursday.
The order prohibits athletes from receiving pay-to-play payments from third-party sources. However, the order does not impose any restrictions on NIL payments to college athletes by third-party sources.
“I think President Trump’s executive order takes a huge step in providing the educational model, which is what we’ve always tried to promote to create opportunities for players, male and female, revenue and non-revenue, so they can have development as people, students, and develop careers and develop professionally if that’s what they choose to do,” Saban told “Fox & Friends” on Friday.
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President Donald Trump shakes hands with legendary Alabama football coach Nick Saban before delivering a special commencement address to University of Alabama graduates at Coleman Coliseum. Graduation occurs over the weekend. (Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News)
“I think we sort of need to make a decision here relative to do we want to have an education-based model, which I think the president made a huge step toward doing that, or do we want to have universities sponsor professional teams? And I think most people would choose the former.”
The order states that “any revenue-sharing permitted between universities and collegiate athletes should be implemented in a manner that protects women’s and non-revenue sports.”
“The Order requires the preservation and, where possible, expansion of opportunities for scholarships and collegiate athletic competition in women’s and non-revenue sports.”
No clear guidelines for how those sports would be accounted for were provided in the initial announcement. However, Saban seemed confident that college sports are safe.
President Donald Trump poses with Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban and members of the Crimson Tide ceremony honoring the college football playoff champion Crimson Tide on the South Lawn at the White House on April 10, 2018. (Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports)
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“I think the clearing house is there to authenticate name, image and likeness. In other words, is your marketing value relative to what you’re getting paid to do a marketing opportunity? When you cross that line, that’s when it becomes pay for play,” he said. “So you have collectives that raise money that pay players, and they really don’t do a relative marketing job to earn that money, and that’s where this whole thing has kind of gotten sideways. I think this whole clearing house is there to sort of protect the collective affecting competitive balance in college sports.”
“I’m for keeping all the sports that we have as many as we can have, but there are financial concerns relative to how many sports can you promote that don’t create revenue,” Saban added. “I think one of the things people need to understand about college sports, they say it’s a business, but it’s really not a business. It’s revenue-producing, and two sports have created the revenue to have 20 other sports. And I think that’s why it’s important we have a system in place. I think President Trump’s made the first step…that would protect the opportunities that we’ve been able to provide male and female non-revenue sports. I think it’s everybody’s goal to keep all those opportunities intact.”
FILE – President Donald Trump gestures as Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban (L) smiles at a ceremony honoring the college football playoff champion Crimson Tide on the South Lawn at the White House on April 10, 2018. (Geoff Burke-USA Today Sports)
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Saban and Trump met back in May to discuss the current state of college athletes and NIL deals. Saban retired in 2024, largely due to the new culture.
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
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