Nick Saban encourages federal passage of imperfect Protect College Sports Act

A final draft of the overhauled Protect College Sports Act has been distributed to Senate members, though further movement — including a potential floor vote later this week — remains up in the air, according to Yahoo! Sports‘ Ross Dellenger. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) still needs to issue a cloture vote to officially start that process, which isn’t expected before Thursday.

Given the uncertainty surrounding next steps for the landmark collegiate athletics legislation, including potential pitfalls in the House of Representatives and with concern over the upcoming midterms, supporters of the bill have become more and more vocal in recent days. Especially once the Big Ten and SEC publicly backed the Protect College Sports Act on Friday after weeks of back-and-forth negotiations.

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That includes ESPN analyst and former Alabama head coach Nick Saban, who had a part in helping draft some of the bill’s principal features and appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee in early June in support of the bill co-sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). Saban once again called on legislators to pass the admittedly imperfect Protect College Sports Act during his Nick’s Kids Foundation annual luncheon Tuesday at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“Look, I’ve been involved in this for months and months, and years actually, in trying to get some legislation together that would enhance the future of college sports in a sustainable way. … I do think that this (PCSA is) not perfect but it certainly addresses 80% of the needs,” Saban said Tuesday, via WBRC-6’s Jonathan Hoppe. “I would encourage all the people in Congress, whether it’s Senate or House, to support this bill so at least we can get a start on making progress to protecting college sports. Not just football, not just basketball, but women’s sports, Olympic sports. … I think that’s something that’s worth protecting, and that’s what this bill really tries to do.”

"It's not perfect, but it certainly addresses 80% of the needs."

Nick Saban urging members of congress to pass the Protect College Sports Act. @WBRCnews pic.twitter.com/pCXBUmVzpr

— Jonathon Hoppe (@jahop23) August 4, 2026

Last week, the Big Ten and SEC released a short joint statement in support of the Protect College Sports Act following a round of votes among their respective presidents and chancellors after multiple concessions were made to the bill’s language last week.

“The Big Ten Conference and Southeastern Conference support the Protect College Sports Act as currently drafted,” the joint statement read, “following detailed and productive negotiations with Senators Cruz, Cantrell and Schmitt and their respective staffs. We appreciate the substantial work that has gone into this effort.”

Among the concessions made was an additional $22.5 million player retention pool that effectively elevated each program’s annual revenue-share/NIL cap to nearly $50 million, as well as language that closed loopholes that allowed team multimedia rights holders, sponsors or apparel companies to redirect revenue to individual rosters.

The bill still includes language that caps conference expansion to 19 teams — meaning the 18-team Big Ten can only add one more school — as well as the purported “Lane Kiffin Rule” that establishes a season-long suspension for any head coach that leaves for another job before the conclusion of their current season. Kiffin infamously left Ole Miss in late November to take the LSU  job just prior to the Rebels’ first-ever appearance in last season’s College Football Playoff.