Nick Saban praises Trump's executive order cracking down on pay-to-play in college sports

Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban joins 'Fox & Friends' to discuss the impact of President Donald Trump's executive order on college sports.

Former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban gave kudos to President Donald Trump for signing an executive order that set new restrictions on payments to college athletes on Thursday. 

The order prohibits athletes from receiving pay-to-play payments from third-party sources. However, the order does not impose any restrictions on NIL payments to college athletes by third-party sources.

"I think President Trump's executive order takes a huge step in providing the educational model, which is what we've always tried to promote to create opportunities for players, male and female, revenue and non-revenue, so they can have development as people, students, and develop careers and develop professionally if that's what they choose to do," Saban told "Fox & Friends" on Friday. 

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President Donald Trump shakes hands with legendary Alabama football coach Nick Saban before delivering a special commencement address to University of Alabama graduates at Coleman Coliseum. Graduation occurs over the weekend.  (Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News)

"I think we sort of need to make a decision here relative to do we want to have an education-based model, which I think the president made a huge step toward doing that, or do we want to have universities sponsor professional teams? And I think most people would choose the former."

The order states that "any revenue-sharing permitted between universities and collegiate athletes should be implemented in a manner that protects women’s and non-revenue sports."

"The Order requires the preservation and, where