Penn State Coach Calls for Nick Saban To Be CFB Commish
By: Robert MacRae December 29, 2024

On Sunday, Penn State head coach James Franklin reiterated his belief that college football needs a commissioner.

And this time, Franklin suggested a name for that role.

During his Fiesta Bowl media availability, Franklin called for Nick Saban to be college football’s commish, saying Saban is the “obvious choice” if the NCAA were to appoint a commissioner.

“It’s one of these things that we can’t just keep talking about that this is a challenge and a problem in college football,” Franklin said. “We’ve gotta come up with some solutions. We’ve been talking about this for a while, and a lot of different people have brought it up. I’m one of the people that feel very, very strongly that we need a commissioner of college football. We need somebody that’s waking up every single morning and going to bed every single night thinking about what’s in the best interest of college football.”

“I think one of the most important things that we can do is let’s get a commissioner of college football that is waking up every single morning and going to bed every single night making decisions that’s in the best interest of college football,” Franklin added. “I think Nick Saban would be the obvious choice if we made that decision. Now, Nick will probably call me tonight and say, ‘Don’t do this,’ but I think he’s the obvious choice, right?”

Franklin discussed a few specific things that he’d like to see happen under a college football commissioner – eliminate conference championships, start the season a week earlier and have every conference play the same number of games.

“When you have a committee sitting in a room trying to compare apples to apples, or oranges to oranges, it’s hard to do that when not everybody’s playing under the same model,” Franklin said. “Get rid of the conference championship game. That will shorten the season and help with the window a little bit.

“The other thing that I think is very, very important is that everybody’s playing the same number of conference games, whether that’s eight, nine, whatever the number is – everybody’s playing the same so again, the committee can compare apples to apples. And then I think we start a week earlier. Let’s start a week earlier because I think if you can take some of the stress off of the academic calendar…

“God forbid we talk about academics, right? That used to be every conversation started with academics and that’s becoming less and less. Maybe I’m old school and maybe a traditionalist, but I still believe in the model. Rather than just saying this is a problem, I thought I would throw out a few recommendations.”

The 73-year-old Saban, who won six national titles as Alabama’s head coach, has spent the 2024 season as an analyst for ESPN’s College GameDay show after retiring from coaching following the 2023 season.

–Photo courtesy Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images