Nick Saban is headed to Washington, again. Less than a year after Saban and a contingent from the Southeastern Conference spoke with lawmakers about name, image and likeness, Saban and his former boss, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne, will attend a roundtable hosted by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

The summit is set for March 12 at 9 a.m., according to a press release issued by Cruz’s office. Other attendees include standing Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Haley and Hanna Cavinder, the first college athletes to sign a NIL deal, president of The Collective Association Russell White and prominent NIL attorney Darren Heitner.

In the meeting, they’ll discuss “the urgent need for Congress to find consensus and pass bipartisan legislation to codify NIL rights for student-athletes,” per a release provided by Cruz’s office. Cruz, like many lawmakers, has introduced various forms of legislation. Cruz’s proposal was released in August 2023 and would create uniform NIL rules while empowering the NCAA, which has suffered repeated legal blows of late.

Each of the collegiate figures scheduled to attend next week has seen first-hand the change NIL has brought to the sport. The Cavinder twins were also the first athletes to be handed an NCAA punishment due to NIL violations. After a Miami-based booster was found to have incentivized their commitment, women’s basketball coach Katie Meier was suspended for three games. Heitner, who provides counsel for Florida’s The Gator Collective, stepped into the public eye during the Jaden Rashada recruitment sweepstakes.

Then there’s Saban, who decried a player’s $1.3 million request last offseason. This past week, ESPN’s Chris Lowe quoted Saban’s frustrations that “maybe 70 or 80 percent” of UA’s roster asked him about playing time and more money after the loss to Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

“Obviously, we’ve been in a constant state of transition for the last several years and this was another major change. We’re all trying to make sure we are supportive of the young people in our program,” Byrne told reporters on Feb. 26 after the seismic federal court decision in Tennessee and Virginia vs. NCAA that essentially barred the sport’s governing body from enforcing its NIL laws.

The Dartmouth men’s basketball team voted to unionize on Wednesday after its legal win, though it faces multiple appeals. Saban told ESPN last month that “the word ‘student-athlete’. That doesn’t exist.”

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].