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Former Alabama coach and current ESPN analyst Nick Saban spoke in support of "Protect College Sports Act of 2026," a bipartisan bill introduced to “protect the name, image and likeness rights of, and provide protections for, student athletes and to promote fair competition among intercollegiate athletics, and for other purposes.”
The bill aims to address transfer regulations by instituting a one anytime-transfer then a requirement to sit for a year, barring a coaching change, if an athlete seeks to transfer again.
Saban, a seven-time college football national champion coach, said he was a proponent for this change on May 3 in a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing and brought up the Luke Ferrelli situation.
"Now, we have this unbelievable number of players that get in the portal every year, and we have nothing to control agents. We have nothing to control tampering," Saban said.
"Clemson had a player that was on campus for a whole week, and they came and got him off campus and took him someplace else."
Saban was referring to Ferrelli, a former Cal linebacker Luke who transferred to Clemson on Jan. 7 then re-entered the portal on Jan. 16 to transfer to Ole Miss on Jan. 22.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney called out Ole Miss and coach Pete Golding on Jan. 23 and accused them of tampering.
Swinney said Golding was contacting Ferrelli, the reigning ACC defensive rookie of the year, despite him transferring to Clemson, being enrolled in classes and participating in team workouts. Swinney stated that Golding texted Ferrelli while he was in class saying, "I know you're signed. What's the buyout?" with a photo of a $1 million contract.
"These kinds of things going on in college football are absolutely not what anybody, any of us signed up for relative to the educational institutions that we've all tried to represent," Saban said.
MORE: Clemson football's 2027 recruiting class surges into top-10 rankings after recent haul
Clemson turned in the evidence to the NCAA and is awaiting a ruling from the organization.
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said NCAA president Charlie Baker and his staff "promised" him that Clemson's tampering claim against Ole Miss will "be dealt with."
"There has to be repercussions for improper behavior," Phillips said May 13 at the ACC spring meetings. "Until that occurs, I think the tampering piece, maybe, stays at the level where that it's at now."
Golding isn't sweating the NCAA's investigation.
"I think a lot of things make headlines," Golding said May 27 at the SEC spring meetings. "There's a lot more people involved that everybody might not know. I'm not gonna sit up here and say whatever we did or we didn't do, was it right or was it wrong?
"But, you know, when you go through what we went through (with tampering), and what you're seeing day-in and day-out, some things you feel like shouldn't matter that, you know, they're making a big deal about."
USA TODAY Sports reported that Golding told the NCAA he will "expose rampant tampering in the sport" if he is sanctioned. Golding declined to comment when USA TODAY Sports asked if he threatened the NCAA.
Tampering in college athletics is when teams contact players who are on other teams. That is against the rules.
In many cases, teams will do that to try to get players into the transfer portal. However, accusations are rarely publicized.
Teams are not allowed to tamper with athletes, according to NCAA bylaw 13.1.1.4. Here's what the full rule says:
"An athletics staff member or other representative of the institution's athletics interests shall not communicate or make contact with the student-athlete of another NCAA Division I institution, or any individual associated with the student-athlete (e.g., family member, scholastic or nonscholastic coach, advisor), directly or indirectly, without first obtaining authorization through the notification of transfer process.
"Before making contact, directly or indirectly, with a student-athlete of an NCAA Division II or Division III institution, or an NAIA four-year collegiate institution, an athletics staff member or other representative of the institution's athletics interests shall comply with the rule of the applicable division or the NAIA rule for making contact with a student-athlete."
Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Nick Saban testimony about Dabo Swinney's tampering claim vs Ole Miss
Continue reading...
The bill aims to address transfer regulations by instituting a one anytime-transfer then a requirement to sit for a year, barring a coaching change, if an athlete seeks to transfer again.
Saban, a seven-time college football national champion coach, said he was a proponent for this change on May 3 in a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing and brought up the Luke Ferrelli situation.
"Now, we have this unbelievable number of players that get in the portal every year, and we have nothing to control agents. We have nothing to control tampering," Saban said.
"Clemson had a player that was on campus for a whole week, and they came and got him off campus and took him someplace else."
Saban was referring to Ferrelli, a former Cal linebacker Luke who transferred to Clemson on Jan. 7 then re-entered the portal on Jan. 16 to transfer to Ole Miss on Jan. 22.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney called out Ole Miss and coach Pete Golding on Jan. 23 and accused them of tampering.
Swinney said Golding was contacting Ferrelli, the reigning ACC defensive rookie of the year, despite him transferring to Clemson, being enrolled in classes and participating in team workouts. Swinney stated that Golding texted Ferrelli while he was in class saying, "I know you're signed. What's the buyout?" with a photo of a $1 million contract.
"These kinds of things going on in college football are absolutely not what anybody, any of us signed up for relative to the educational institutions that we've all tried to represent," Saban said.
MORE: Clemson football's 2027 recruiting class surges into top-10 rankings after recent haul
Clemson turned in the evidence to the NCAA and is awaiting a ruling from the organization.
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said NCAA president Charlie Baker and his staff "promised" him that Clemson's tampering claim against Ole Miss will "be dealt with."
"There has to be repercussions for improper behavior," Phillips said May 13 at the ACC spring meetings. "Until that occurs, I think the tampering piece, maybe, stays at the level where that it's at now."
Golding isn't sweating the NCAA's investigation.
"I think a lot of things make headlines," Golding said May 27 at the SEC spring meetings. "There's a lot more people involved that everybody might not know. I'm not gonna sit up here and say whatever we did or we didn't do, was it right or was it wrong?
"But, you know, when you go through what we went through (with tampering), and what you're seeing day-in and day-out, some things you feel like shouldn't matter that, you know, they're making a big deal about."
USA TODAY Sports reported that Golding told the NCAA he will "expose rampant tampering in the sport" if he is sanctioned. Golding declined to comment when USA TODAY Sports asked if he threatened the NCAA.
What is tampering?
Tampering in college athletics is when teams contact players who are on other teams. That is against the rules.
In many cases, teams will do that to try to get players into the transfer portal. However, accusations are rarely publicized.
Teams are not allowed to tamper with athletes, according to NCAA bylaw 13.1.1.4. Here's what the full rule says:
"An athletics staff member or other representative of the institution's athletics interests shall not communicate or make contact with the student-athlete of another NCAA Division I institution, or any individual associated with the student-athlete (e.g., family member, scholastic or nonscholastic coach, advisor), directly or indirectly, without first obtaining authorization through the notification of transfer process.
"Before making contact, directly or indirectly, with a student-athlete of an NCAA Division II or Division III institution, or an NAIA four-year collegiate institution, an athletics staff member or other representative of the institution's athletics interests shall comply with the rule of the applicable division or the NAIA rule for making contact with a student-athlete."
Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Nick Saban testimony about Dabo Swinney's tampering claim vs Ole Miss
Continue reading...
