After wondering aloud whether President Donald Trump’s proposed college sports commission was even needed, Nick Saban has now apparently met with the booster who could help him run it.
Saban has met privately with Texas Tech booster and billionaire Cody Campbell about the proposed body, according to Yahoo Sports.
Campbell is the current chairman of the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents and a founding board member of the school’s Matador Club donor collective.
That collective has been instrumental in Texas Tech embarking on a major spending campaign in the NIL market this offseason to attract athletes to the school’s sports programs, especially its football team.
Campbell has authored three pieces for the conservative online publication The Federalist stating that the President and U.S. Congress should directly intervene to “save college sports.”
“The challenge is much bigger than just name, image, and license agreements (NIL) and the transfer portal,” Campbell wrote in one piece.
“Saving college sports this time will require comprehensive federal legislation that touches some of the most complex areas of law. This gives Congress and the Trump administration an opportunity to manifest leadership that will sustain our intercollegiate athletics system for another 120 years.”
While exact details on the nature and power of such a commission remain an open question, the body is still in active development with Saban involved, and that “further direction from the White House is expected,” according to the Yahoo report.
That direction includes an effort by people around the President scouting potential members of the proposed commission from the ranks of the major conferences, athlete groups, and the NCAA itself.
Should it come to fruition, the group would comprise 10 or fewer people with an emphasis on political diversity, per the report.
Last week, it was reported that President Trump was considering the creation of a federal commission to look into the state of college sports, and that Saban was being floated as a potential co-chair of the body.
The group is expected to include college sports “stakeholders”, businessmen with “deep” connections to college football, and “perhaps, even a former coach and administrator,” according to Yahoo.
If it goes ahead, the commission would investigate the general college sports landscape, including transfer portal usage, booster payments to players, athletes’ employment status, and even reportedly the composition of conferences and their media contracts.
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