Fifteen months after calling it a career, Nick Saban might not be done impacting college football. This time, it’s not about recruiting or championships—it’s about reform. According to reports, President Donald Trump is considering signing an executive order to increase scrutiny around name, image, and likeness (NIL), and that potential move was sparked by a recent meeting with none other than the former Alabama HC. Saban, long a vocal critic of the way NIL has exploded without oversight, reportedly made his case to Trump behind closed doors. The topic: how the NIL market has, in Saban’s words, “damaged college sports.”

But for some in the sport, the meeting was more than a policy conversation—it was a signal flare. David Pollack, former Georgia LB and ESPN analyst, made it plain on his show with Brent: “The guy that can fix it is Nick Saban. The guy he’s meeting with is the guy that can fix it. That that’s who I want to fix it.” The endorsement wasn’t just about Saban’s stature. It was about experience. Nick Saban lived the problem firsthand. He saw the new NIL era fracture locker rooms, gut roster continuity, and push an already cutthroat sport toward chaos.

Pollack didn’t mince words either: “Everybody knows NIL’s broken. Like there’s not a coach in America that doesn’t know NIL’s broken.” And he elaborated on why Saban’s insight is more than just valuable—it’s essential.

Pollack added, “The system needs more accountability for players, for coaches together—like both of them to have accountability, to have more rules, more guardrails to protect the sport, to protect the stuff that’s going….We can go prove that and why you should fix it. Nick Saban lived it. Like, he was in it. He retired because of it.” According to Pollack, this wasn’t just about players cashing checks—it was about a fundamental shift in how authority, culture, and team-building work in the modern college football landscape. “The kids walking into his office and being like, ‘I want a raise or I’m leaving.’ Like, to build a roster. He understands that inside and out.”

It’s that kind of understanding that reportedly led Trump to take the meeting seriously. According to insiders, the discussion between Saban and Trump took place on a Thursday night, and NIL dominated the agenda. Nick Saban expressed concern about the unregulated surge in NIL dollars and its long-term impact on competitive balance in college athletics. Trump, sources say, agreed with Saban’s take and instructed aides to begin exploring what a potential executive order might look like. The reported goal? Create more structure, more fairness—and maybe even some restraint.

Saban, by all accounts, didn’t just vent—he offered solutions. He reportedly expressed interest in “reforming NIL,” not scrapping it, but rebuilding the framework to promote an even playing field. It’s consistent with what Saban has said publicly for the past two years: that the sport needs “competitive balance” and that unchecked financial leverage tilts the field toward the biggest boosters, not the best coaches or programs. He’s never opposed players being paid—he’s opposed to chaos. And now, even in retirement, he may have found a platform powerful enough to enact change.

Pollack wrapped it all up with clarity: “I don’t know how Trump stays involved in this, but I love that. Here’s the thing—I love that he’s talking about it, because the more we talk about it, the better. The more this, that we continue to try to push… I don’t like being one of those people to go, ‘It su-ks, it’s terrible. I don’t know how to fix it.’ What’s the solution? Yeah. I mean, Nick Saban can fix it. Like past coaches in this era can fix it. Like coaches that are at smaller schools that are suffering the consequences of this can fix it. Like more eyeballs, more attention.”

He may no longer pace the Alabama sideline, but Nick Saban’s voice—and what it represents—could be the last, best hope to save the sport he spent a lifetime perfecting.

Nick Saban, NIL & The Oval Office, McCann weighs in

Things got a little spicy on The Paul Finebaum Show when Sportico legal expert and UNH Franklin Pierce Law professor Michael McCann joined the broadcast to break down one of the more eyebrow-raising headlines in college football. Nick Saban reportedly sharing his thoughts on NIL with the POTUS.

Paul asked the million-dollar question—what does a conversation like that actually mean, and could it cross any lines? McCann didn’t see an issue with Saban chiming in. “Well, I think Nick Saban could certainly share his viewpoints with the president or others. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that,” he told Finebaum.

But here’s the twist: it’s not what Saban says, but how the president chooses to run with that information. “I think it’s what the president does with that information, and then takes it to sort of insert himself into this topic. And I think that’s where it becomes potentially problematic, not only for the president, but again, I don’t think the NCAA wants this.”

McCann added, “Who knows what Nick Saban said, or the manner in which he said it… I don’t think he was acting as some emissary of the NCAA, or anything like that. It was just sharing his viewpoints as a obviously super successful coach who knows a lot about college sports, but what the president then does with that is sort of the trickier part, and that’s not necessarily unique to sports, either.” He’s just a legendary coach with a point of view—but once politics and sports mix, the legal waters get murky fast.