It’s not often that Nick Saban is the second-most-powerful man in the room. But last Thursday night in Tuscaloosa, the seven-time national championship-winning coach warmed up a crowd of graduating seniors at the University of Alabama for the President of the United States.
Since Bear Bryant is no longer with us, Donald Trump is literally the only person who could upstage — if only briefly — the G.O.A.T. in Alabama, and Saban acknowledged the pecking order, laughing that he felt like he was the opening act for the Rolling Stones.
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Look a little closer, though, and it sure seems like Saban is actually the man behind the curtain, whispering in the ears of the powerful and guiding them toward his own ends. Saban may not be winning games any more, but he’s only shifted the playing field into boardrooms, courtrooms, hearing rooms … and it turns out he’s a formidable force there, too.
There’s an old line in the Yellowhammer State that the five best-known people in Alabama are, in order, the head coach at Alabama, the head coach at Auburn, the starting quarterbacks for Alabama and Auburn … and the governor of the state. In his day, Bryant danced around the demagogue that was Gov. George Wallace — Wallace’s 1963 “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” happened just steps away from Bryant’s office — and the Bear even flirted briefly with a run for public office.
Although former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville rode his six-game winning streak over Alabama all the way to Congress, Saban has kept his political views largely under wraps. He’s close friends with former West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, but that’s not necessarily a sign; normal people have friends on both sides of the aisle. Saban actively and vocally supported his players who protested during the Black Lives Matter movements of 2020, and advocated for vaccination during the pandemic.
U.S. President Donald Trump is planning on forming a White House committee on college sports just days after discussions with former Alabama coach Nick Saban. (Saul Loeb/Getty)
(SAUL LOEB via Getty Images)
Publicly, at least, Saban employs politics with an eye toward execution rather than party loyalty — as in, he’ll appeal to whoever has the power to enact actual change, regardless of whether there’s a (D) or an (R) after their name. And when Trump — who loves football, and has a tendency to act quickly when he hears an idea he likes — is in the process of forming a presidential commission within days of talking to Saban, it’s clear Saban still knows exactly how to get things done.
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Midway through his tenure at Alabama, Saban — who had already won three national championships at the time — pivoted his entire philosophy from a run-first defensive suffocation to an air-it-out swarm. The result? Another three championships, Heismans for quarterback Bryce Young and wide receiver DeVonta Smith, and four — and counting — starting quarterbacks in the NFL.
In other words, the man knows how to seize opportunity when it presents itself. Thundering from a Saturday-morning pulpit fires up the choir, but whispering in the ear of the president of the United States … now that’s how you get the whole congregation to pay attention.
The idea of Saban running the famously headless, leaderless sport of college football isn’t a new one. No less than the Oracle of the SEC has advocated for Saban to claim the throne.
“I think the solution to college football is you need to quit wasting time being on TV and you need to be what everybody in my business has suggested,” Paul Finebaum told Saban at an event last May. “You need to be the czar of college football. If you agree to that right now, we can solve a lot of problems.”
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Saban demurred at the time, but it’s clear he’s keeping a close eye on the direction of the sport. At a public forum last May with Sen. Ted Cruz, Saban called for “rules that create some kind of competitive balance, which right now we don’t have in college athletics. It’s whoever wants to pay the most money, raise the most money, buy the most players is going to have the best opportunity to win. I don’t think that’s the spirit of college athletics.”
Whether Saban’s on the right or wrong side of NIL and progress isn’t the issue, it’s a question of who he can get to listen to him. Clearly, he has the president’s ear. And while the effect of an executive order or a White House commission on the ongoing House settlement is — at best — murky, what’s indisputable is that Saban is still very much involved in the direction of his sport.
While he was on the sidelines, Saban reshaped the entire college football universe in his image. You didn’t really think he’d stop bending the world to his will just because he’s not coaching, did you?
