“Empty gesture to appease somebody important”: Insider scoffs at college sports commission after Nick Saban's disapproval 

CBS Sports' Tom Fornelli shared his thoughts following an update regarding a college sports commission and Nick Saban's disapproval of being a part of it. On Monday, Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger reported that officials from the Power Four conferences are circulating a draft of a document that would prevent colleges from violating new rules enforced by a potential college sports commission.

The agreement would affect NIL opportunities for student-athletes. The retired Alabama Crimson Tide coach voiced disapproval over college football's handling of NIL and how players are more interested in money than education. However, he shared on the May 14 episode of "The Paul Finebaum Show" that he doesn't believe a commission is needed to fix the NIL system.

On Wednesday's episode of "Cover 3," Fornelli said a college sports commission isn't necessary and is unsure if the proposed plan to enforce new rules will be successful. However, he thinks it could happen to appease U.S. President Donald Trump.

"Ultimately, what I think it is is it's an empty gesture to appease somebody important who kind of said he thinks that this is what college football needs," Fornelli said (Timestamp: 14:51). "So just to make sure that person doesn't get angry at them and start tweeting in all caps about it, they're going to do it."

Tom Fornelli points out his issue with a potential college sports commission

Fornelli believes the potential college sports commission would be more of a rebranding for the NCAA than a fix for the NIL issues. The college football insider doesn't think the enforced rules will stop colleges from following them.

"It's just the NCAA," Fornelli said (Timestamp: 14:22). "You change NCAA to CSC. You change NCAA president to SCS CEO. Other than that, it's the same d*** thing."

He added, "Guess what the NCAA does(Timestamp: 14:31)?" "Comes up with rules that everybody agrees to follow, and then when you don't follow them, you get, you know, you get punished." The CSC is going to come up with a bunch of rules that everybody agrees to follow, and when you don't follow them, you are going to get punished. It's a rebranding. That's it."

Fornelli's co-host, Danny Kanell, pointed out that the proposed draft circulating among the Power Four conferences doesn't prevent student-athletes from having issues with it. He also noted that the enforced rules could lead to lawsuits from players over NIL if it is approved.