ESPN has been all-in with its support for the Protect College Sports Act. Former Alabama head coach and College GameDay analyst Nick Saban, who helped craft the legislation, has been one of the bill’s most ardent supporters on the network, pushing several arguments that are strongly contested by the bill’s opponents.
Former Miami Marlins executive David Samson sees no problem with ESPN’s heavy-handed approach to aligning its business, political, and editorial objectives, but others are wondering exactly what part of college football needs saving, as interest in the sport seems to have peaked in its current era of athlete empowerment.
“You know, every Saturday, College GameDay is hitting us over the head with this bludgeon that college football needs to be saved,” Barstool Sports personality T-Bob Hebert said on Wake Up Barstool Tailgate. “And I love Coach Saban. I love what he’s done for the game. He awoke LSU and led us to heights that we never would have gotten to otherwise. He did the same for Alabama. I have suffered more at his direct hands than any other person in my entire life, and yet I have more begrudging respect for him than any other person in my entire life.
“But I’m sorry, I don’t think that I am with him when he tells me college sports are broken. Why? Because it doesn’t resemble the era in which you had massive advantages over your inferior opponents that could hoard more talent than any of them.”
Every Saturday the idea that College Football is broken is shoved down our throats by the powers that be, but every Saturday I have the time of my life
I’m not sure that CFB needs saving https://t.co/ikw1Sr1AkY
— T-Bob Hebert (@TBob53) October 27, 2026
Thorton clarified that he has massive respect for Saban’s accomplishments, but that he loves the current landscape where any team can be upset on any given Saturday, before acknowledging that things do feel a little different in the NIL/ transfer portal era.
“I definitely don’t have the relationship with my team’s roster or a lot of teams’ rosters that I used to have in the past. Definitely got more of a mercenary feel, which is not my favorite part, and that does take away some luster,” Hebert admitted. “But when I watch the games themselves, there’s not as many blowouts. There’s a lot of great underdogs to cheer for.
“There’s home crowds watching shows put on that they never would’ve expected and never would’ve gotten in the past. And it’s like, yeah, you know what? The portal, NIL, the football we’re watching on Saturday, it’s pretty damn cool.”
Hebert pointed toward the chaos in current conference standings, where UCLA leads the Big Ten, Kentucky is first in the SEC, and Utah sits atop the Big 12, as evidence of how fun the sport has become.
“It just goes on and on,” he said of how many more programs are in the mix now.
Hebert is far from the only one to wonder whether college sports needs protecting or if the PCSA was actually written with that goal in mind. In late September, Domonique Foxworth wondered if the bill was an attempt by coaches and administrators to claw back control. Saban’s colleague at the Worldwide Leader, Stephen A. Smith, has publicly questioned the bill’s true intent.
The players have finally accrued some power after decades of free labor under an unjust system, and as Hebert points out, the on-field product has never been better. So, what exactly is college football being saved from?
