{"id":376,"date":"2026-06-03T15:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/?p=376"},"modified":"2026-06-03T15:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:59:16","slug":"nick-saban-lends-support-to-college-sports-bill-as-sec-big-ten-push-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/?p=376","title":{"rendered":"Nick Saban lends support to college sports bill as SEC, Big Ten push back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">WASHINGTON &#8212; <\/span>Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban and other college sports figures testified Wednesday in support of a bipartisan bill aimed at overhauling a system where players can increasingly earn millions of dollars while moving freely between schools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee held the hearing as they push <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/nil-college-congress-cantwell-cruz-b715ea4cb6ffbc302bfc3fd41b00e157\">legislation unveiled<\/a> last week that supporters hope can break the congressional gridlock over how to regulate college athletics. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The bill, introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., would regulate payments to athletes, limit them to one \u201cfree\u201d transfer during their careers and create a \u201cLane Kiffin Rule\u201d restricting coaches from leaving programs during the season. Cruz touted the proposal as \u201cthe last, best hope we have to save college sports.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cIf you had the biggest, baddest Ferrari that you could ever have and it was going 150 miles an hour toward the Grand Canyon, somebody needs to tap the brakes. And I think that\u2019s what we all need to do here,\u201d Saban said in his opening remarks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Notably absent from the the witness list, which included Notre Dame\u2019s athletic director and the commissioner of the PAC-12 conference, was any representative from the Southeastern Conference, where Saban won seven national championships between Alabama and Louisiana State University<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The SEC <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/nil-congress-cruz-cantwell-ncaa-sec-big-ten-7200613b49a022dd3b27f53203a5a756\">and the Big Ten,<\/a> the two most powerful conferences in college sports, oppose the bill, arguing it \u201cleaves critical issues unresolved.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Cantwell said the legislation is intended to restore competition to college athletics by ensuring success is determined by how universities \u201cbuild a team, and not because they have a billionaire in their back pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">She also addressed the conferences\u2019 opposition directly, suggesting they fear \u201cthat somebody\u2019s going to come in and rearrange the deck chairs of those conferences, steal the eyeball schools, and then basically leave everybody with everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/US\/wireStory\/nick-saban-lends-support-college-sports-bill-sec-133555965\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON &#8212; Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban and other college sports figures testified Wednesday in support of a bipartisan bill aimed at overhauling a system where players can increasingly&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}