Looks like good times are about to roll in Kalen DeBoer’s Alabama. Things have been tough for the debut coach in 2024. Having been made to fill the GOAT Nick Saban’s shoes, DeBoer’s Natty dreams did not come true. They got halted by a 9-4 overall record. As Bama preps to write a block-buster story this season, the excitement meter has hit the top notes. That’s because they have one of their most famous events scheduled on Thursday, May 1. The University of Alabama’s special commencement ceremony. And it’s going to be a star-studded evening where the world of sports and politics is going to amalgamate. And who is going to help with the amalgamation? A former head coach who now holds a prestigious seat in the world of politics.
Former Alabama head coach and current ESPN College GameDay analyst Saban will join President Donald Trump on the May 1 event, where the university president, Stuart R. Bell, will also be in attendance. The University of Alabama had made a press release confirming the same. Trump is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the special commencement ceremony beginning at 6:30 pm CT inside Coleman Coliseum on the Alabama campus. Not just this, there will be another special person who has a common connection between politics and sports.
Tommy Tuberville told Ryan he’ll be in Tuscaloosa for the UA commencement event Thursday with Donald Trump and Nick Saban. “Hopefully we’ll get to sit down with Coach Saban. President Trump wants to help on this NIL. I don’t know how he can do it through an executive order. But… https://t.co/FHQdUWJbrv
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) April 30, 2025
That’s none other than Tommy Tuberville. He now holds the seat of the senior senator from Alabama. But before heading into politics, he had coached for the Auburn Tigers, Texas Tech Raiders, and Cincinnati Bearcats. As Tuberville joined analyst Ryan Fowler, he shared some inside scoop. On April 30, analyst Mike Rodak reported, quoting the Senator, “Hopefully we’ll get to sit down with Coach Saban. President Trump wants to help on this NIL. I don’t know how he can do it through an executive order.” There has been a buzz for quite some time that the 47th President could influence amateur athlete pay-for-play in one of several directions this year. The NIL industry has grown exponentially since debuting on July 1, 2021. Some 300,000 athletes combined to make an estimated $917 million in the first year of NIL. The very next year, it shot up to $1 billion.
And with a new U.S. President in the White House for the first time since NIL launched, it’s likely to demand attention. However, it will be a game of patience for Alabama as it’s not going to be an easy process. As Tuberville addressed the elephant in the room, “In the federal government, we can do some things, but we just got to get it passed. I think we can get it on the floor. The problem is getting it passed through a Democrat group that really wants nothing to do with making this country better any better…It’s a hard, hard way to go, but if anybody can get it done, it’s President Trump. So hopefully we can have some discussion and get on the right track towards helping on the NIL and helping out college sports.”
Alabama stands at No. 11 among all college football programs with an adjusted revenue of $142,369,686. So, a NIL boost would be a boon for them. Meanwhile, Alabama has been the hot favorite of whoever held the President’s chair for quite some time now.
Alabama Crimson Tide’s history with US Presidents
John F. Kennedy was the first president to attend an Alabama football game. He watched the Crimson Tide beat Oklahoma 17-0 at the 1963 Orange Bowl in Miami. It marked a tense time, as a few months removed from the Cuban Missile Crisis, Alabama traveled to Miami for the Orange Bowl. While the Alabama fans’ national title dream got crushed by Georgia Tech, they had Kennedy as their special guest, who arrived by helicopter, accompanied by his friend Bud Wilkinson, who coached the Sooners.
After that, in 1976, Bear Bryant, after whom Alabama have its favorite stadium is named, paid a visit to Gerald Ford’s rally. Then in 1978, Ford paid a visit at Alabama University’s Honors Day. But what made him return to Tuscaloosa since he was voted out of office in 1976 by Jimmy Carter and returned to Colorado? Alabama’s then school president, Davis Matthews, was on Ford’s cabinet as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. And the tradition continued.
In 1992, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton was still just a candidate running for president when he attended a game between Alabama and Arkansas. And what about Donald Trump and his connection to the Alabama Crimson Tide? It’s been an old one. He attended Alabama’s National Championship Title game against the Georgia Bulldogs. Trump took the field with a few members of the military before the game as part of the national anthem salute. However, he left after halftime and was not in the building when Tua Tagovailoa completed a comeback from 13 down. He called the victory “a win for ages.” Having already wooed him, Trump may be preparing to throw a game-changing NIL pass straight into Alabama’s hands.
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