The Clemson Tigers were the only team during the long and storied reign over college football of Nick Saban to go toe to toe with the greatest to ever do it and come out on top multiple times.
On two separate occasions, Dabo Swinney’s Tigers claimed national title’s over Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide during what became a rivalry and arms race between the two programs for the ages.
Things have changed over the last couple of years and Swinney’s teams missed the final three editions of the four-team College Football Playoff and Saban did not win another title after Alabama’s run in 2020.
Now, Saban has officially hung it up and has been out of the game for more than a year, however he seems to be sticking true to his word from when he retired that he wanted to spend his days helping the ever-evolving mess that college sports have become in recent years.
Saban — who many have dubbed as the future “commissioner” of college football appears set to join President Donald Trump’s commission on college sports as the co-chair, and while what this actually means remains to be seen, it’s a significant development.
For as much criticism as Swinney received for taking a long time to adapt to the portal and NIL era, Saban was never more of a fan of it than Swinney was. Saban was simply better than just about anyone when it came to adapting, keeping his program close to the very top until the very end of his career.
With that being said though, Swinney and Saban are likely fairly aligned on what they would like the future of the sport to look like.
Saban receives a significant amount vitriol largely because of how much he won, but the reality is that he — like Swinney — want to see the game in the best position possible to continue impacting young lives in a positive way.
It does not seem out of the realm of possibility at this point that Saban is going to be making — or at the very least advising those who make — decisions surrounding the future of college football.
For as horrifying as that may have seemed to Clemson fans even just a short year ago, most have gotten to the point where they agree something needs to be done in order to save the sport.
Tigers fans will never be Saban fans, but it seems safe to say he won’t use his powers to steer the game in a direction that is negative for Clemson.
Nobody knows what the future holds, though it seems like a certainty Saban will be at the forefront.
That might not be such a bad thing for the Tigers.
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