College coach paid millions of dollars for expulsion
When college football coaches are fired, their huge paychecks reveal a system in which failure still equals success.
ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” on Nov. 11 was filmed live from the Marine Corps Depot at Parris Island, South Carolina, on Veterans Day. So the commander called.
President Donald Trump also participated in the program and touched on many topics including college sports. He was asked if he thought former Alabama coach Nick Saban would be an option to improve college sports.
“I know him and we got to know him because he brought his team to the White House,” Trump said. “He’s won a lot and I’ve gotten to know him. You know he’s a great guy and someone who should really be involved in college sports in terms of making sure everything works out. You know, it’s a shame that a lot of the minor sports in college, for most people, are going to be completely abolished, and a lot of those training grounds are disappearing.
“And, you know, Nick knows this better than anyone. He will, and he’s been really proactive about this. I think they should give Nick Saban a good, hard look at this. And we all, from my standpoint, I’m going to listen to Nick. I know him very well and he’s a great guy and what a great coach.”
Trump’s vision for college football
Trump’s vision for college sports is more in line with the Senate bill proposed by Democrats. The SAFE Act is a sweeping bill that would require the Federal Trade Commission to oversee college sports. This is the polar opposite of the Republican-sponsored SCORE bill in the House, which would provide antitrust exemptions to the federal government for establishing and enforcing rules related to NIL, player transfer, and eligibility.
The SAFE Act also provides an extension of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to college sports, allowing conferences to pool media rights to increase revenue and fund all sports. The SAFE Act ensures that all sports are funded and are not eliminated due to lack of funding.
In a follow-up, McAfee asked the president about the NIL and the big business of college sports and its sustainability.
“I think everyone understands that players are worth paying for and the value of players, but I think a real market with guardrails would be really good,” McAfee said. “This could be something, along with preventing wars and tariffs and building up $17 trillion. We might as well keep it on the table.”
“Well, this is a very serious problem, because even in football, where you give quarterbacks $12 million, $13 million to $14 million, all of a sudden it’s going to spin out of control,” Trump said. “And even the rich universities are going to fail because they can’t do this. And you know, they give out scholarships the old-fashioned way and they’ve done a lot of good things, but maybe they can pay for it somehow.
“But when they start bidding on expenses, look, the NFL and every league has a cap. There’s no such thing in college sports. A 350-pound guard comes along and he’s phenomenal, and that’s the difference between great teams and terrible teams. They gave him $10 million when they say that’s the difference. It’s going to start happening right away. All of a sudden you’re going to have NFL-like salary numbers. I don’t care, no matter how rich the college is, it’s not going to make that much money. Even the most successful universities cannot do this.
“Unless we fix this, bad things are going to happen. That’s why guys like Nick Saban, I’m working with Nick right now, guys like Nick Saban and other guys are coming together because they have to do something. Universities can’t afford that. And what they’re doing, I don’t want to use certain sports because it’s degrading, but they’re actually a lot They’re trying to eliminate sports, you know, what you would call minor sports. But the big sports, they’re being squeezed out even though there’s a lot of interest in the great sports, and frankly, even though college football is so big, if you don’t have a really strong cap, no matter how wealthy the universities are, they’re going to go under.”
