'Chaos,' Nick Saban Calls for Rule Changes to CFB Calendar, Transfer Portal in Video

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban is calling for Congress to provide the NCAA with legal protection to make changes to the college football calendar ahead of the third year of the expanded College Football Playoff.

Saban spoke about the issue Thursday, hours before three quarterfinal games kicked off the day prior to the Friday opening of the transfer portal.

"This whole college football calendar needs to change," Saban said. "That would be my New Year's resolution."

Saban specifically pointed to the multiple playoff teams who are being led by coaching staffs preparing to leave for another program in 2026 as a reason to adjust the calendar.

Oregon's offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator are leaving for head coaching jobs at Kentucky and Cal, respectively, while multiple Ole Miss staffers are preparing to join former head coach Lane Kiffin at LSU.

Kiffin, in fact, agrees with Saban's statement that the schedule needs to be changed:

Saban suggested college football should move the transfer portal to May, while shifting spring practices later in the year, in order to match academic calendars and allow teams time to make post-season coaching changes.

According to Saban, however, it might take help from Congress to protect the NCAA from antitrust lawsuits in order to move the portal.

ESPN's Dan Murphy reported back in December that athletic directors believe either gaining antitrust protection from Congress or opening collective bargaining with players are the "only two paths to a future in which the college sports industry can enforce rules and defend them in court."

"I don't think there's anybody in authority in college football except the conference commissioners, so if they can't get together on it, you're gonna have a problem," Saban said Thursday. "Everybody's going to be having their own self-interest in mind."

Saban continued, "The NCAA doesn't seem to be in control of the way things are happening right now. And I think if we're going to change things in college football, we've got to get Congress to have some kind of anti-trust legislation, because the NCAA can't enforce their own rules. So even if they try to change this, somebody might sue them, and they might not be able to do it. That's how we got where we are right now."

Multiple efforts to push for legal protection of college sports against antitrust lawsuits have failed this year in Congress despite pressure from the NCAA.

The latest attempt to pass one such bill, which was nicknamed the SCORE Act, fell short of a final vote in December amid pushback from members of the House of Republicans and labor organizations including the AFL-CIO.

That leaves the NCAA heading into the 2026-27 academic year without a clear plan for how to enforce roster-building rules going forward.

The college football transfer portal is currently set to run from Jan. 2 to Jan. 16, potentially involving a historic amount of money going to star players. According to ESPN's Max Olson, top quarterbacks "are expecting deals in the $3-4 million range," with the biggest stars "potentially commanding as much as $5 million" this winter.