Saban, an AD and a Utah Athlete Make Their Case at the Senate's College Sports Hearing
By faNILy Team ·
The Senate Commerce Committee spent Wednesday morning on college sports, and it had a headliner. Former Alabama coach Nick Saban sat alongside Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, West Virginia president emeritus Gordon Gee, Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould and Utah athlete Lance Holtzclaw to weigh in on the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act of 2026.
The hearing was the first public test for the bill from Chairman Ted Cruz and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell. Here's what stood out.
Both parties say the system is broken
The tone from the dais was unusually aligned for this Congress. Cruz called it "a moment where we can come together," according to Sportico. Cantwell said, "We agree that college sports is in crisis, and the system is unsustainable."
Sportico noted the bill would codify the revenue-sharing caps from the House v. NCAA settlement, give limited antitrust exemptions for NCAA eligibility and transfer rules, allow media rights pooling and set out athlete protections.
Saban's warning
Saban has been one of the loudest voices for guardrails, and he didn't change his tune. In testimony highlighted by the committee's Democratic staff, he warned: "When the system becomes whoever raises the most money gets the best players, then we are no longer talking about college." He also said women's, Olympic and other non-revenue sports "create opportunities for thousands of young men and women."
Money for women's and Olympic sports
That theme ran through the morning. Cantwell pointed to media rights pooling as a way to unlock new revenue, citing expert analysis that it could generate $4 billion to $8 billion in additional revenue, and she argued that money should go to women's and Olympic sports. Gould said "more certainty allows the leaders in our industry to make the appropriate decisions to fund broad-based programs."
An athlete's view
Holtzclaw, the lone current athlete on the panel, focused on what instability feels like from the locker room. He asked how an athlete can learn a system with three different coaches in three years, and stressed how much of an athlete's education and life development is tied up in that stability. It's a reminder that the transfer portal and coaching carousel hit athletes as hard as anyone.
Not everyone's on board
The bill isn't a done deal, even with bipartisan sponsors. Sportico reported that the Big Ten and SEC said the bill as drafted would likely expand litigation rather than reduce it. Player advocacy groups have also mobilized against it, saying it would undercut gains athletes have won in court. Those are two very different objections from two very different camps, which tells you how hard it is to write one law for all of college sports.
Why fans should care
For fans, the stakes are practical. The bill touches which sports schools keep, how conferences line up and whether games stay easy to watch locally. For athletes and families, it would put NIL rights and protections like a medical fund and agent rules into federal law.
What's next
A hearing is only the first step. The committee would still need to mark up and vote on the bill before it could reach the full Senate, and any final version would need to be squared with the House. The power conferences' opposition will be the key thing to watch as senators try to build a bigger coalition.
We'll keep tracking the bill as it moves, with a focus on what it means for fans and the athletes they follow.