Current NCAA landscape is a ‘race to the bottom’ if spending isn’t reined in: Saban
Nick Saban testified in support of the bipartisan Protect College sports Act, warning that the NCAA is headed for disaster unless major changes are made. He compared the situation to a car speeding toward a “Grand Canyon,” arguing that escalating roster costs have created an “arms race” that threatens non-revenue sports, Olympic programs, scholarships, and overall fairness.
Saban said the NCAA struggles to enforce its own rules as enforcement efforts frequently enough lead to lawsuits. He pointed to litigation such as a case brought by Mississippi quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, where a state court ruled in his favor on eligibility, highlighting broader legal uncertainty for the NCAA.
The bill introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell is intended to impose a clearer federal regulatory framework for college athletics, including limits and rules around player transfers, payments, midseason coaching changes, and a ban on professional players reentering the NCAA.It would also address NIL-related issues (including so-called “collectives”), establish a student-athlete ombudsman for oversight, apply a five-year eligibility standard, and include measures aimed at reducing disparities between wealthy conferences and the rest.
Former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban testified in support of the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act in the Senate on Wednesday, issuing a stark warning to the chamber that, without serious change, the NCAA is like a car driving “150 miles an hour toward the Grand Canyon.”
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced the Protect College Sports Act last week, marketing the bill as a bid to “restore order” to and “save college sports” by providing a regulatory framework to an NCAA rattled by litigation and disputes over its rules. The bill would roll out several regulations on the industry, including clarifications on player transfers and payments, rules on midseason coach movement, and a ban on professional players from reentering the NCAA.
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In his testimony, Saban, the former Crimson Tide coach of 17 years and current ESPN announcer, described the exponentially rising roster costs at the University of Alabama and across the NCAA landscape.
“My first year we had, collectively at Alabama, $2.7 million,” Saban said. “Next year: $7 million. Next year: $10 million. I retired. Next year: $17 million. Next year: $24 million. Now you have schools that have close to $40 million rosters.
“So if we continue to do that, we’re going to lose Olympic sports, we’re going to lose non-revenue sports, we’re going to lose scholarships, and basically what’s going to happen is we’re going to have football and basketball succeed, and we’ll have club sports for everything else with no scholarships. That’s horrible.”
Saban compared the “arms race” between schools to spend the most on their rosters to get the best players as “a race to the bottom.”
“To put this in perspective, if you had the biggest, baddest Ferrari that you could ever have, and it was going 150 miles an hour toward the Grand Canyon,” Saban said, “somebody needs to tap the brakes, and I think that’s what we all need to do here.”
Saban likened the Senate bill to the rules governing professional sports leagues, such as the National Football League and the National Basketball Association.
“They all have some kind of rules that govern how they compete,” Saban said. “It creates parity, it creates something that gives you the opportunity to have a framework to build a fair play system in, which I think is really, really important. I think this bill does that. Right now, in college football, we have no rules.
“We have state laws, it’s different in every state, and we have litigation. The NCAA cannot enforce their own rules, because every time they try to enforce the rule, there’s a lawsuit.”
Saban pointed to a lawsuit filed by Mississippi quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who sued the NCAA for ruling he would not be eligible to play one more season with the Rebels or any other college team. Chambliss, who had missed a season of play at his previous school, Division II Ferris State, because of medical reasons, argued he should receive another year of eligibility. The Mississippi state court ruled in his favor.
The Chambliss lawsuit is one of many legal battles the NCAA is fighting over various regulatory matters, including whether to pay former college athletes for their lost name, image, and likeness profits. These lawsuits have caused a major headache for the NCAA as the association navigates uncharted territory, where big-name college athletic departments are shelling out millions of dollars on their rosters for high-profile sports such as football and basketball.
Saban and other NCAA voices, such as Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, who also testified on Wednesday, are supporting Cruz and Cantwell’s bill for several reasons, including its five-year eligibility standard and provisions to close loopholes that allow universities to evade their annual player compensation cap. One of the biggest of these NIL loopholes is called collectives, which Saban described as “an organization that raises money basically from alumni to be able to pay players and disguise it as marketing opportunities.”
Cruz and Cantwell’s bill would also include protections for NIL for student-athletes, a one-time transfer standard, protections against midseason coach transitions, and the creation of a student-athlete ombudsman position for oversight.
It also aims to tackle the imbalances between the wealthiest conferences, such as the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten, and the rest of the nation’s athletic conferences.
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