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Nick Saban Appears Before Congress to Support College Sports Reform Bill

The former Alabama coach urged lawmakers to pass the Protect College Sports Act, calling the current NIL and transfer portal system broken.

Title: A-Day Game football scrimmage for University of Alabama, with coach Nick Saban analyzing every move. Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Physical description: 1 photograph : digital, TIFF file, color.

Notes: Title, date, subject note, and keywords provided by the photographer.; Gift; George F. Landegger; 20
Title: A-Day Game football scrimmage for Universi…      Nick Saban    Carol M. Highsmith / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
By Free News Press Editorial Team
Published June 4, 2026 at 1:51 PM PDT

Nick Saban went to Washington.

The legendary former Alabama head coach appeared before Congress to support the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act, a bill aimed at bringing structure to the current era of name, image and likeness deals and the transfer portal, according to ESPN.

Saban told lawmakers the legislation would help to bring order to a system that badly needs fixing. The act is described as bipartisan, meaning it has support from both Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

The appearance marks one of the more prominent public roles Saban has taken since retiring from coaching. College athletics has operated under significant uncertainty since NIL rules took effect and the transfer portal expanded, and multiple legislative efforts have stalled in recent years. This bill represents the latest attempt to establish a federal framework for how college athletes are compensated and how movement between programs is governed.

No vote date has been announced.

Rece Davis, David Pollack, and en:Nick Saban, next to the College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy, doing pre-game analysis from the sideline of the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Rece Davis, David Pollack, and en:Nick Saban, nex…      Nick Saban    Bobak Ha'Eri / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)