Nick Saban calls for college football to align with academic calendar, create national legislation

Penn State quarterback Beau Pribula’s decision to leave the Nittany Lions prior to the College Football Playoff sent a shockwave through the college football world. He announced he planned to enter the transfer portal, calling it an “impossible” call to make by leaving the program before the postseason.

In the time since, conversations began about the timing of the transfer portal windows. This year, players could enter the portal Dec. 9 – the day after the CFP rankings reveal and bowl assignments – and the window closes Dec. 28. Another window will open in the spring.

Alabama coach Nick Saban sees a way to address those early departures. While also citing the lack of rules and guidelines around college football, he also called for the sport to align its calendar with academics. His idea was similar to something On3’s Andy Staples suggested, as well.

“You really can’t blame the players because if you’re going to have integrity, you’ve got to have integrity through a set of rules,” Saban said Friday on ESPN College GameDay. “I mean, we have a Constitution, we have a Bill of Rights – that’s what this country was built on. We have no rules in college football. The academic calendar and the football calendar do not match up relative to the season. It should never be that a player can leave his team before the end of the football season. You don’t need to be a free agent twice a year. You can be a free agent once a year.

“If it was in May, season’s over. People say, ‘Well, I couldn’t go to spring practice.’ Well, you can find out what your role on your team’s gonna be in spring practice. You might start and not need to transfer. I don’t know the answers, but right now, we have no rules and no guidelines in college football. And I’m not trying to take away any options from the player. But you shouldn’t be able to leave your team before the end of the season. I don’t think that’s good for the player, and it’s certainly not good for your team and your teammates.”

Nick Saban: ‘We probably need some national legislation’

NCAA president Charlie Baker has spoken multiple times about the need for Congress to help step in with national legislation. Multiple bills have been proposed, including the Protecting Student Athlete’s Economic Freedom Act, which made it to the House floor this past summer.

Nick Saban has also spoken on Capitol Hill about the need for a national NIL bill, doing so at a roundtable with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who’s been at the center of the federal push for legislation. He reiterated that call and also said athletes should have to sign contracts with the schools to help avoid situations such as Beau Pribula’s.

“I personally think we probably need some national legislation to make the rules the same in all the states because right now, different rules govern each state in terms of what you can and can’t do with players,” Saban said. “I think it’s up to the NCAA to sort of [say], we’ve gone overboard a little bit to give these players all these opportunities. You have to have contracts.

“If you have a contract, you have a responsibility, and you have to fulfill the contract. … It’d be for coaches and players, and the players should make money. I’m not against the players making money. They should make money. But they should have a contract and a responsibility to fulfill, just like a coach does, and there’s some penalty if you leave a team and you have a contract. Just like most coaches have buyouts, and they pay them if they leave. … I think the NCAA is afraid of lawsuits, so they need some legal protection from litigation for this to get fixed.”