Report: Nick Saban invited to testify at hearing on Senate bill related to college sports
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Nick Saban has been invited to testify as a witness at Wednesday’s hearing on the bipartisan Senate bill related to college sports, Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported. He is the first known witness on the list, which is still being finalized.
The Protect College Sports Act was introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) earlier this week. Its introduction came after the SCORE Actpublicly collapsed in the U.S. House of Representatives and was once again pulled from the House floor ahead of a potential vote.
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Saban has been an adviser to President Donald Trump as he takes interest in settling the college athletics landscape. The legendary Alabama coach was part of a roundtable in March about the subject and serves on committees related to college sports. Saban has been vocal about the need for change, particularly to make sure Olympic sports have support.
“I really think that the concern is the health of college athletics, not just football,” Saban said on The Paul Finebaum Show last month. “I think people look at football and basketball. But how about the 22 other sports we have that are really, probably, non-revenue sports that create lots of opportunities, actually trained 85% of our Olympians in the last Olympics? We’re the only country in the world that the university system and college athletics actually develop our athletes for the Olympics.
“So if we’re creating a situation where there’s not enough balance between the revenue sports and the non-revenue sports. Then, people are going to start dropping these sports, which you saw Arkansas drop tennis … the other day. That’s exactly what we don’t want to see.”
More on the Protect College Sports Act
The Protect College Sports Act takes aim at transfers and coach movement. It notably includes what’s been called the “Lane Kiffin Rule,” which states coaches cannot leave their team before a season ends. While Kiffin’s name is not directly in the bill, Sen. Ted Cruz said his high-profile departure from Ole Miss for LSU played a role in adding the provision.
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“It is absolutely the Lane Kiffin provision,” Cruz said on Andy & Ari On3. “That is how we envisioned it and that’s what we drafted. It says that a university cannot recruit or hire a head coach or an offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, while the season is happening or during the playoffs.”
The bill also includes the option to pool media rights and create an agent registry that limits fees to 5%. A a minimum threshold of 75% of the 138 FBS schools must be reached to get pool rights. Quick math shows that even if the Big Ten and SEC did not sign off, but the rest of FBS did, that figure would reach 75%.
However, the SEC pushed back on that idea in a statement Thursday. Commissioner Greg Sankey also told reporters such those supporting the pooling of media rights ” have no idea how hard those conversations would be.”
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