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Just hours after he made comments urging members of Congress to support the Protect College Sports Act, former Alabama coach Nick Saban joined long-time university administrator Gordon Gee in penning a letter to Congress. They pushed the governing body to adopt the working legislation.
The bill is awaiting a full Senate vote after passing the Senate Commerce Committee on June 18. Senate leaders have been negotiating final changes to the bill, circulating many of them on Monday evening.
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Nick Saban and Gordon Gee are on board with the proposed legislation now, even if they may have some minor quibbles with individual sections. They wrote in support of the Protect College Sports Act:
“Between the two of us, we have spent more than a century in college athletics,” the joint letter, shared by Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger, read. “One of us has led some of America’s most respected universities — Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Brown, Colorado, and West Virginia. The other spent decades coaching young men at the highest and most storied levels of college football to become leaders in business, medicine, politics, law, and yes professional sports.
“We have stood on opposite sidelines. We have not always rooted for the same teams. But we have never been more united than we are today. … Congress must pass the Protect College Sports Act.”
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The letter then went on to praise the Senators for their work in delivering a “comprehensive, bipartisan legislation that addresses a real crisis.” It noted the recent flip in support for the bill from the Big Ten and the SEC, long holdouts over individual provisions in the legislation.
The two then noted that the Protect College Sports Act isn’t just about football. It’s about the thousands of other athletes impacted by the bill.
While noting that no single law solves every problem, the letter notes that this one “creates a better path forward.” It praises the framework the bill would put around transfers, eligibility, rosters and NIL, saying it will help college athletics reach its “full potential.”
It concludes with a nod to President Trump‘s leadership on the issue, likening it to President Roosevelt doing similar for athletics in 1906. Then it hammers home the overarching message.
“Reasonable people can disagree about details, and debate has made this bill stronger,” the letter read. “But there comes a moment when leadership requires moving forward.
“Congress rarely gets to strengthen an institution that has shaped generations of Americans. This is one of those moments. Pass the Protect College Sports Act — not for universities, and not for coaches, but for the young people whose futures college sports will shape.”
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