Nick Saban reacts to Donald Trump’s executive order on college sports: ‘A huge step’
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Nick Saban reacts to Donald Trump’s executive order on college sports: ‘A huge step’
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday on college sports. Alabama football coach Nick Saban supports the order. Saban: “I think we sort of need to make a decision here relative to do we want to have an education based model?” The House of Representatives recently passed a bill to improve revenue sharing for college sports, but the Senate has yet to act on the bill. The bill is expected to be voted on by the Senate in the coming weeks. The House passed the bill on July 1, and the Senate will vote on it on July 26.
“President Trump’s executive order takes a huge step in providing the educational model that has always been what we’ve sort of tried to promote to create opportunities for players, male and female alike, revenue and nonrevenue, so that they can have development as people, students, and develop careers and develop professionally if that’s what they choose to do,” Saban said Friday while appearing on Fox News.
Trump released the executive order amid a turbulent time in college athletics. The House settlement went into effect July 1 to attempt to provide a path forward with revenue sharing, but plenty remains unanswered to where many in the sport have argued the importance of congressional action and help from Washington.
“A national solution is urgently needed to prevent this situation from deteriorating beyond repair and to protect non-revenue sports, including many women’s sports, that comprise the backbone of intercollegiate athletics, drive American superiority at the Olympics and other international competitions, and catalyze hundreds of thousands of student-athletes to fuel American success in myriad ways,” part of the executive order from Trump read.
Trump wrote it’s the policy of his administration “that all college sports should be preserved and, where possible, expanded.” Trump also wrote it’s common sense that college sports aren’t and shouldn’t be professional sports.
One of the solutions the president offered is the involvement of the secretary of labor and the National Labor Relations Board in deciding the status of collegiate athletes. Other measures include legal protections for college athletics from lawsuits, protecting the development of the U.S. Olympics team and prohibiting third-party pay-for-play.
“I think we sort of need to make a decision here relative to do we want to have an education based model?” Saban said Friday. “I think the president made a huge step toward doing that. Or do we want to have universities sponsor professional teams? I think most people would choose the former.”
Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.