The Nick Saban-led college sports commission hatched by President Donald Trump now appears unlikely to come into being any time soon, according to a report Thursday by Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports.

Multiple reports in the last two weeks suggested that Saban would serve as co-chair of the proposed commission, which would be charged with tackling issues in college sports such as NIL. The idea spawned from a meeting between the President and the former Alabama football coach at or after Alabama’s commencement ceremony — at which both men spoke — on May 1.

According to Dellenger’s report, the commission idea is not completely dead, just “paused.” The pause would allow members of Congress — including Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Cory Booker — time to craft potential federal legislation that would supersede various state laws regarding college sports that often come into conflict with each other.

Since that first meeting with the president, Saban — who now works as a college football analyst for ESPN after retiring from Alabama in early 2024 — has sought to distance himself from the idea of such a commission. He has repeated told reporters he believed it to be unnecessary, and that those in charge of college sport could get together and solve problems without a formal government-backed body getting involved.

“First of all, I don’t know a lot about the commission,” Saban told the SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum on May 14. “Secondly, I’m not sure we really need a commission. A lot of people know exactly what the issues are in college football and exactly what we need to do to fix them. I think the key to the drill is getting people together so we can move it forward.”

Other college sports stakeholders have questioned the need for a commission. ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas — a former player at Duke — said as much in an interview Wednesday with On3 Sports.

“We’ve had the Knight Commission, we had the Rice Commission,” Bilas said. “Anything with commission on it is probably not going to accomplish anything.”