At the urging of Nick Saban and others, President Donald Trump has gotten involved to try and fix the many issues that have arisen in college sports with unregulated NIL. NIL, which stands for Name, Image, Likeness, was initially pushed for and ultimately established as a mean for athletes to get a slice of the pie as institutions constantly profited off of athletes working for free.
Instead, it has turned into an unregulated pay-for-play scheme that has turned college sports upside down. Pay-for-play together with the Transfer Portal has fundamentally changed collegiate sports, particularly college football, to something almost unrecognizable.
Every change in college sports has seemingly been to the detriment to fans. The almighty dollar has been the driving force behind every decision. And in the interest of fairness, it's the almighty dollar that is the driving force behind a lot of college football's decision makers pushing back against NIL. Because what's coming next is likely revenue sharing, and schools do not want to have to share money with the players.
Saban has been outspoken against the unregulated nature of NIL in college sports for a while now. People have taken that as sour grapes for a coach who stacked talent in Tuscaloosa and won at a never-before-seen level. But Saban is retired now. He's not advocating for Alabama; he's advocating for college sports in general. A sport he gave the majority of his professional life to. He sees a major problem and wants it to get fixed.
Saban was an obvious choice to be named co-chair of President Trump's Commission to study college sports. Many fans have argued that college football needs a commissioner and if that day ever came, Saban would be the most obvious choice. He's the greatest coach in the history of the sport and understands it at a fundamental level that most never will.
But Saban won't be alone leading this commission. Texas billionaire and Texas Tech Board chair Cody Campbell will co-chair the commission with Saban., The two might have very differing agendas.
Saban, Campbell, not likely to see eye-to-eye on NIL
Before the NIL era, Texas Tech was a middling team in the Big 12. They would have flare ups from time-to-time where they would win 10 games or so, particularly under the late, great Mike Leach. But the Red Raiders were far from a legitimate power in the sport.
The best players weren't flocking to Lubbock to play for Tech. Until now.
According to ESPN, Texas Tech spent north of $10 million to bring in one of the top Transfer Portal classes in the country. The Red Raiders have purchased a contender in the Big 12, and a team that will be a popular pick to make the College Football Playoff this season.
If there were guardrails and regulations against NIL, that would have been unlikely to happen. It stands to reason then, that Campbell, the leader of Tech's NIL efforts, would have zero incentive to return to any kind of status quo. This era has led to a significant raise in his team's profile. Going back would likely change that.
It's that fact that likely means that Saban and Campbell will have differing agendas. There's no going completely back. College sports are forever changed. But there does need to be guardrails to maintain a semblance of competitive balance.
Now that most players have used their COVID years, you're going to see more and more of a swing in college sports toward the "haves" and away from the "have nots." Some teams will no longer be able to compete. Some might drop sports altogether. None of that is good for the athletes.
It remains to be seen what comes out of this presidential commission. It will be interesting to see if Saban and Campbell can find common ground to make some needed adjustments to the current landscape of college sports.