May 17—President Donald Trump can be seen at college football games, UFC events, and even NASCAR races. Trump enjoys appearing at sporting events, and recently has entered himself into the college athletics space, attempting to create order in a wild west that is college sports.
It was inevitable that the NIL system currently in place was going to cause issues. This spring marked the first player to sit out of practice over money disputes. The players currently have all the power and there are no guardrails on how much schools can pay players, making it unfair in some sense.
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NIL hasn’t been used like it’s intended so far. Originally, NIL was put in place so players could make money off autographs and jerseys with their name on them. But now, it’s used by boosters to pay players to play for their alma mater.
Trump is stepping in. Trump is reportedly creating a College Sports Commission, which will reportedly be led by former West Virginian and college football legend Nick Saban and Texas businessman Cody Campbell. The commission will regulate the transfer portal, boosters and college athlete employment.
This would be the first leader of college sports and potentially create a system that has structure.
Saban might not be the only West Virginian on the commission. In a recent interview with Sirius XM, Rich Rodriguez showed interest in helping his friend, Saban.
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“I’m going to give him my cell number if they want an active coach on the deal, ” Rodriguez said. “I’ll be on that sucker. I’ve got some experience. I can help from a current standpoint. I don’t know if they need me, though.
Like Saban, Rodriguez has been coaching for a long time, not as long as Saban and a lot fewer championships, but he’s seen the change and evolution of the sport.
All spring, Rodriguez voiced his problems with the NCAA. Rodriguez didn’t like the roster limit to 105, how there’s a spring portal, where a player you coached all spring can just leave, and how there are no limitations to how much a player can be paid.
Rodriguez has the background to be a candidate for the commission.
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So far, it sounds like Saban will lead. Rodriguez agrees it should be the greatest college football coach of all time as the leader.
“He is the greatest college football coach of all time, ” Rodriguez said. “He has a great grasp of the game in general … He’s truly about college football.”
Almost all professional sports leagues have a commissioner who settles issues throughout the league. College football doesn’t because it’s governed by the NCAA. After NIL was passed, the NCAA lost all its power, leaving it to the schools and players, creating chaos.
There’s no movement to create guardrails, and it’s starting to get out of hand. So much, that Trump felt the need to step in.
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College sports, and more specifically college football, is a billion-dollar entertainment business. There needs to be structure before it falls apart even further. Saban’s the favorite to lead the next generation of college athletics, and West Virginia’s very own, Rodriguez, could be helping out, too.
“College football is such a great entity, it’s hard to screw it up, ” Rodriguez said. “You can do whatever you want. There’s still going to be that passion for your school and that level of athletes. We’ve done enough things to screw it up in the last couple of years.”
