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Wednesday provided an opportunity for one of college football's most important figures, former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban, to give Congress his thoughts directly.Saban made several accurate and valuable points about the current direction of the sport and his issues with it.Namely, that the unlimited transfer portal and "arms race" for spending in major college football are changing the sport.
He's right that the endless transfer system has its flaws, and that spending money on players has dramatically impacted roster construction.But he also brought up a result of NIL that, well, is simply not realistic as to what college football is and has been for decades.ZERO BS.
JUST DAKICH.TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD.
DOWNLOAD NOW!Nick Saban, former head football coach at the University of Alabama, testifies before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in Washington, D.C., on June 3, 2026.(Win McNamee/Getty Images)"That is not the same thing as turning NIL into a pay-for-play system," he said, referring to allowing players to earn income from their name, image, and likeness.
"It is not the same thing as using collectives and outside entities to create a bidding war for recruits and transfers.When the system becomes whoever raises the most money gets the best players, then we are no longer talking about college athletics as millions of fans and I have known it."NICK SABAN URGES SENATE TO PASS LEGISLATION TO FIX COLLEGE SPORTS, BUT COACHING CONTRACTS GLOSSED OVERPete Bevacqua, the current athletic director for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, said something similar."If you continue to have all of your resources pooled into football with escalating roster fees, and not knowing where that ends, I believe the inevitable outcome is there's going to be a small handful of schools that will differentiate themselves from others and play football at a super league level," Bevacqua said.
"I don't think it's good for college football t...