Former Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban Testifies in Congress

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban testified in Congress on Wednesday morning in support of the Cruz-Cantwell College Sports Bill, and during his testimony, Saban detailed what Alabama's collective generated during his tenure in Tuscaloosa, supported regional conferences, and called for limitations on agent fees for NIL representation.

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"My first year we had a collective at Alabama, $2.7 million," Saban said on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. "Next year, $7 million. Next year, $10 million. I retire, next year, $17 million. Next year, $24 million. Now you have schools with close to $40 million rosters.

"If we continue to do that, we're going to lose Olympic sports, we're gonna lose non-revenue sports, we're gonna lose scholarships, and basically what's going to happen is we're gonna have football and basketball succeed, and we'll have club sports for everything else."

Kirby Smart echoed the sentiment during SEC spring meetings last week in Destin, Florida.

"Again, my biggest concern for our sport is we're going to ruin all the other sports," Smart said last week at SEC spring meetings, "and people say, 'Well, that's just the way it is.' I don't agree with that because we fund Olympic sports with our program. We develop Olympians. We go to class with people that go throw a javelin. We go sit in class with an extra person that swims and dives. You learn culture by being with those people, but that's the assumption that we're talking about student-athletes, which most of y'all would argue in this room, that there is no student in the athlete. I still think the best thing for a young student is to go get a degree and train to be a professional while also training to be a professional athlete, both of those. We're going to lose that if we keep spending because not everybody can spend at the rate that we're spending."

During his testimony in Washington, D.C., Saban used an analogy of a Ferrari going 100 miles an hour toward the Grand Canyon, saying that "we need to tap the brakes. I think that's what we all need to do here."

Texas Republican Ted Cruz and Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell proposed the Cruz-Cantwell College Sports Bill, which Saban is testifying in support of. Senators Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Chris Coons of Delaware also co-sponsored the bill, titled the "Protect College Sports Act of 2026."

At the heart of the legislation is creating a national NIL framework, replacing the current "Wild West" that sees state laws governing NIL in college sports. The proposed bill would establish a federal right for athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness (NIL) by requiring contracts to disclose compensation and obligations. Additionally, NIL agents would be required to register with states, and their agent fees would be capped at 5%.

Nick Saban supported the agent cap, saying, "There should be regulation, should be rules, and they should be registered." He also supports regionality for conferences, saying, "I don't think it's fair for someone at USC to have to go to Rutgers, whether field hockey or a football game. That's crazy." USC (Southern California) is located in Los Angeles, while Rutgers is located in New Jersey.

USC will travel to Rutgers on September 19 before returning to Los Angeles to face Oregon a week later. In October, the Trojans will play at Penn State on October 10 and at Wisconsin on October 24 (October 17 is the Trojans' bye week) before returning home to face Ohio State on October 31. USC will have another bye week on November 1 before traveling to Indiana on November 14.

While the SEC has been more regionally aligned with its conference additions of Texas A&M, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas over the last 15 years, it's still 975 miles from Columbia, South Carolina (home of the South Carolina Gamecocks), to Norman, Oklahoma (home of the Oklahoma Sooners). South Carolina will go to Oklahoma on October 31 before returning home to face Texas A&M on November 7. South Carolina will then travel 920 miles to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to take on the Razorbacks the next week.

While Saban is testifying in support of the Cruz-Cantwell Saving College Sports Act of 2026, the SEC and the Big Ten released a joint statement opposing the legislation.

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.