Mar 22, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; President of the United States Donald Trump during the Division I Men's Wrestling Championship held at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show" on Nov. 11 was being filmed live from the Marines depot at Parris Island, S.C. on Veterans Day. So the Commander-in-Chief called.

President Donald Trump joined the program and touched on a number of topics, including college sports. He was asked whether he felt former Alabama coach Nick Saban would be a choice to fix college sports.

“Well I know him, and I got to know him because he brought his team to the White House," Trump said. "He won a lot, and I got to know him. He’s a fantastic guy, and you know he’s somebody they should really get involved in college sports in terms of making sure it all works out because what’s happening, it looks like it’s not working out too well. Colleges, for most of the people, a lot of the lesser sports are being totally terminated, you know that, it’s a shame. It was almost like a training ground for the Olympics, and a lot of those training grounds are being lost.

"And you know, Nick knows this stuff better than anybody. He’d be, and he’s really active in it. I think they ought to let Nick Saban take a good, strong look at it, and we all, I could tell you, from my standpoint, I’d listen to what Nick has to say. I know him well, and he’s a fantastic guy, and what a great coach.”

Trump's vision for college football

Trump's vision for college sports aligns more with a Democrat-sponsored Senate bill. The SAFE Act is a far-reaching bill that requires the Federal Trade Commission to oversee college sports. It is nearly the polar opposite of the Republican-sponsored SCORE bill in the House, which seeks antitrust exemptions from the federal government to make and enforce rules on NIL, player movement and eligibility.

The SAFE Act also provides for the expansion of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to college sports, allowing conferences to pool media rights in an effort to increase revenue and provide funding for all sports. The SAFE Act ensures all sports will be paid for, and not eliminated due to a lack of funding.

In a follow-up, McAfee asked the president about NIL and the big business of college sports and its sustainability.

"I think we all understand that the players deserve money, I think we all understand their value, but I think an actual market with guardrails would be something that would be really good," McAfee said. "This could be something, along with stopping wars, and building in tariffs and $17 trillion, maybe just put that on your desk."

“Well it is a very serious problem because even football where they give quarterbacks $12 million, $13-$14 million… all of a sudden you’re going to be out of control," Trump said. "And even rich colleges are going to go bust because you’re not going to be able to do this. And you know they had the old way, they gave scholarships, they did lots of good things, but there could be some form of payment.

"But when they start bidding up the costs, look the NFL and all the leagues have caps. You don’t really have that in college sports, and when the guard comes along that weighs 350 pounds and he’s phenomenal and they say it’s the difference between having a great team and a lousy team, they gave him $10 million, that’s going to start happening pretty soon. All of a sudden you’re going to have like NFL-type payrolls. I don’t care how rich the colleges are, you don’t make that much money, even the most successful. They’re not going to be able to do this.

"Bad things are going to happen unless we figure this out. That’s why a guy like Nick Saban, now I’ve worked with Nick, but a guy like Nick Saban and some others getting together because they’re going to have to do something. Colleges can’t afford it. And what they’re doing, I don’t want to use any particular sport because it’s degrading, but they are really terminating a lot of sports, you know, sports you would call them lesser sports. But big sports, good sports. Sports where there have tremendous interest, they’re getting rid of them, and frankly the college football is very big, but as big as it is, if they don’t do some very powerful caps, these colleges are all going to go out of business, no matter how rich they are.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump on rising NIL bidding wars: 'These colleges are all going to go out of business'

Reporting by Matthew Glenesk, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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