Kirby Smart believes Nick Saban would be great as college football commissioner

Amid the widespread changes currently taking place across college sports, and an uncertain future that will include some form of revenue sharing with student-athletes in addition to NIL and the transfer portal, many in college football are seeking guidance.

Pundits like ESPN College GameDay’s Kirk Herbstreit and FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt have called for a commissioner of college football to help reestablish some standard governance over the sport. But who has the gravitas to handle such a massive responsibility?

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and Penn State head coach James Franklin, as well as ESPN icon Dick Vitale, have championed former Alabama coach and current ESPN analyst Nick Saban for the role, with Franklin even joking Saban is the “obvious choice.”

“I think one of the most important things that we can do is let’s get a commissioner of college football that is waking up every single morning and going to bed every single night, making decisions that’s in the best interest of college football,” Franklin said this week, according to the AP.

When asked about Franklin’s recent comments during a Sugar Bowl press conference Monday, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart — who spent 11 seasons working under Saban, including eight as Alabama’s defensive coordinator before taking over at his alma mater in 2016 — cautioned that a “commissioner of college football” isn’t the end-all, be-all solution many are suggesting.

“I don’t know if it’s as simple as saying let’s name a commissioner and that solves all our problems, (because) I don’t think that’s the case,” Smart said Monday. “I think we’re governed by separate circumstances: conferences govern us, the NCAA governs us, now we have courts governing us, and nobody is over all of those. I think a commissioner would be a nice thing in theory, but what can they effectively get done if everybody can’t agree on something.”

That said, Smart knows if anyone has the proper wherewithal to make a positive difference as college football’s first “commissioner,” his mentor would be a “great” choice.

“And Nick would be great, I know he’s a huge advocate for college football, he wants to make it better. He’s always been a person that believed in leaving it better than you found it,” Smart said of Saban. “And I have a lot of respect for the way he does it. But I’m probably not the guy that can tell you what a commissioner can and can’t do in terms of making it a better process for all of us.”

Lane Kiffin endorses Nick Saban for commissioner of college football

Lane Kiffin, who has been outspoken about many of these topics in the past, believes his former boss would be perfect for the job.

Anyone who has been on X recently knows that Kiffin has taken exception to the CFP and its decision to leave SEC teams out of the playoff. He drew some attention for his comments throughout the first round of the College Football Playoff, particularly because they produced lopsided outcomes.

One of Kiffin’s biggest gripes of the CFP was how Ole Miss was one of a slew of three-loss SEC teams to miss out on the field while SMU and Indiana — teams who lost by multiple scores in the first round — made the 12-team bracket.

Whether having Nick Saban in a national commissioner role will solve all of these issues the college football faces remains to be seen, but either way he has Kiffin’s vote.

Barkley Truax contribued to this report.