Here's why Nick Saban and Notre Dame's Pete Bevacqua are wrong about NIL ruining college football

New York Yankees President Randy Levine, Vice Chair of 'Saving College Sports' Board, joins Brian Kilmeade to break down the 'Wild West' of college sports. Levine highlights the escalating issues of name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals, the chaotic transfer portal, and athlete eligibility impacting student-athletes. He details the financial strain on universities and President Trump's efforts to find legislative solutions, hoping for a bipartisan fix within 90 days.

The future of college football is once again up for debate, with prominent voices from major conferences and teams giving their opinions on NIL as the federal government works through potential legislation to regulate the sport.

Wednesday provided an opportunity for one of college football's most important figures, former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban, to give Congress his thoughts directly. Saban made several accurate and valuable points about the current direction of the sport and his issues with it.

Namely, that the unlimited transfer portal and "arms race" for spending in major college football are changing the sport. He's right that the endless transfer system has its flaws, and that spending money on players has dramatically impacted roster construction. But he also brought up a result of NIL that, well, is simply not realistic as to what college football is and has been for decades.

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Nick Saban, former head football coach at the University of Alabama, testifies before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in Washington, D.C., on June 3, 2026. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

"That is not the same thing as turning NIL into a pay-for-play