Coaches across the country are finally saying out loud what everyone’s been thinking: the current setup is absolutely broken. Dan Lanning has been campaigning since the summer to end the season by January 1st and reclaim Saturdays from the NFL. Curt Cignetti has also voiced frustration. However, Nick Saban has been the most vocal advocate, using his College GameDay to reiterate his demands for fixing this mess.

Nick Saban didn’t mince words when Rece Davis asked him about his New Year’s resolution for college football. “We need to change the calendar,” Saban said. “Okay, so chaos in college football starts tomorrow. The portal opens. There’s already been 120 starters say they’re getting in the portal from big, powerful schools. So what happens if Ole Miss wins and Oregon wins? 

“So Oregon’s got two coordinators trying to take guys from their team to their team and guys from other teams to their team. And Ole Miss has got six coaches going to LSU, trying to take guys to LSU from their team. But they got to play a game, right? So now is that chaos, or is that chaos? This whole college football calendar needs to change. That would be my New Year’s resolution. Playoff teams are trying to prepare for the biggest games of their season, while their coaching staffs are simultaneously recruiting for other programs and watching their rosters get pillaged through the portal.​”

When asked who has the authority to actually fix this, Nick Saban was blunt about where the power lies and where the problem is.

“Well, I don’t think there’s anybody in authority in college football except the conference commissioners. So if they can’t get together on it, you’re gonna have a problem. But everybody’s going to be sort of having their own self-interest,” Saban said.

“But unless they make the portal in May, which I’ve said before to kind of match up with the academic calendar, change spring practice till after that so that you can get your team together and work over the summer just like an NFL team does. They don’t have their team together until after the draft, after free agency—it’s May. So do the same thing in college football, and you wouldn’t have these issues with coaches changing jobs because everybody could finish the season with their team, which is what’s best for the players.”

Nick Saban’s solution is to move the portal to May, shift spring practice to accommodate it, and let teams operate like NFL franchises do after the draft. It makes too much sense, which is probably why it hasn’t happened yet. 

The reason the change hasn’t happened yet comes down to the fractured power structure Saban alluded to when he said conference commissioners are the only real authority in college football. Each conference has its self-interest, its own television contracts, and its own incentives that don’t necessarily align with what’s best for the sport as a whole.

Add in the fact that ESPN, Fox, and CBS all have billions of dollars invested in broadcasting rights with specific scheduling windows built into their contracts, and you’ve got a recipe for institutional paralysis. 

Curt Cignetti mirrors Saban’s frustration

Curt Cignetti has been dealing with a different but equally frustrating calendar issue. The Hoosiers found out late on a Friday night they’d be facing Alabama in the Rose Bowl on Thursday, which forced them to completely blow up their normal routine. Indiana arrived in Los Angeles on Monday, three days before kickoff, and Cignetti was visibly annoyed about how the compressed timeline disrupted everything.

“The last two days have been fairly disruptive, with the travel day and then a first practice on site,” Cignetti said during his opening statement Wednesday morning. “So, as the leader, the head coach, I feel there’s a lot of loose ends we’ve got to tie together today.” 

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Indiana had to change everything about their normal operating schedule to play on a Thursday. This turned their normal Saturday into Sunday and advanced their calendar to counteract the abnormal nature of finding their opponent late.

The frustration in Cignetti’s voice was palpable as he discussed how the travel day and first on-site practice fell short of his standards. “Our travel day really was a Wednesday. Up until that day, I really liked where we were,” Cignetti said.

“I didn’t think we had a great practice the travel day because we had to move everything up. And the players, on a travel day, they’re used to having a walk-through. And then we got here, and we’ve never had a great practice first day on site, ever. And it wasn’t a horrible practice, but it didn’t meet the standard. So that’s why I feel the sense of urgency, like, to get it right today, to get everybody thinking the way we want them to think.”

If the greatest coach in college football and one of the best active coaches are voicing frustration over the same issue, then the commissioners must pay heed to the issue and address it.