NFL legend Brett Favre isn’t holding back when it comes to the current state of college football. When asked about the single biggest thing ruining today’s NIL era, the former Green Bay Packers QB pointed to what Nick Saban has always treated as non-negotiable: loyalty.

“Well, I think the one thing that comes to mind, loyalty is certainly something we’ve lost or will continue to lose,” Favre said.

Favre’s primary concern is the erosion of team-building, arguing that the constant threat of players seeking better deals elsewhere makes it nearly impossible to foster the deep bonds between players, coaches, and fans that once defined the sport. This lack of loyalty has Favre worried about the future of the College Football Hall of Fame. He’s raised the point that if a player bounces around to three or four different schools in four years, they never really establish a place called home.

“I was voted into my university, the Southern Miss Hall of Fame. I played four years there. Fast forward to now, if I were playing now and having a great year as a freshman, and someone offered me, just say, $5 million to go play elsewhere,” Favre said. “I’d be a fool if I take that. I would leave and then probably would leave from there. Probably would leave from there. Where’s the loyalty?”

The whole Hall of Fame was built on the idea of legendary careers at specific universities, and Favre fears that if players are just “renting” jerseys for a season at a time, then what’s left of future Hall of Famers? You can’t be giving Hall of Fame honors to someone who stayed in a program for more or less nine months.

Favre also believes this whole “pay-to-play” culture is exactly why we’re seeing legendary coaches like Nick Saban walk away from the sidelines. The last thing coaches like Nick Saban want to deal with is the constant headache of “re-recruiting” their own roster every single semester.

Even though he’s still a big fan, Favre has zero interest in jumping into the college coaching ranks himself by any means. He’s joked that he loved coaching his high school ball in Mississippi, but the current college landscape is way too much for him to want any part of it. Safe to say, he’s sticking to his podcast and media appearances to voice his concerns, hoping that someone finds a way to bring a little bit of that “old-school” loyalty back to the gridiron before it’s gone for good.

The NIL situation has gone so far out of proportion that even President Trump had to step in and take measures.

A Presidential push for NIL regulation

Donald Trump is getting very involved in college sports. In recent months, he has held meetings with college leaders and formed committees to study issues such as NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) payments and whether college athletes should be treated as employees. He is also asking Congress to pass a new law called the SCORE Act to bring clearer national rules. Trump believes the current system is messy and full of lawsuits, and he wants to bring order and stability.

Trump recently met with sports podcaster Josh Pate in Georgia before a rally. He has also publicly said he supports keeping college sports focused on the “amateur” model, where athletes are students first. Last July, he signed an executive order that he said would help “save college sports.” The order supports scholarships for smaller, non-revenue sports and tries to stop “pay-for-play” deals while still allowing athletes to earn money from real NIL opportunities.

He also told the Secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board to clarify whether college athletes are employees or not. Trump believes college sports should stay different from professional sports.

Donald Trump’s biggest argument is that if schools spend too much money paying football and basketball players, what happens to the other 36 university sports? Colleges support more than 500,000 student-athletes and provide billions of dollars in scholarships each year. It’s only fair to allocate the funds in a fair way.

The word is that Trump has already spoken with famous coaches like Nick Saban and Urban Meyer about possible solutions. Some reports say he may ask Saban to lead a presidential commission to study NIL and find long-term answers.

While Trump’s interest is unprecedented, the path to federal legislation is complex, leaving the future of college athletics uncertain as stakeholders from sports and politics navigate this new landscape.