Saban was the perfect fit for the system that they already had in place . The perfect storm. He had the ‘name’ as a closer and they had the resource to close deals.
All That and a Bag of Mail: Bama's Latest Scandal Here's a good resource from way back before NIL was legal.
I will acknowledge that he may not be the best person to say it. But it wouldn’t have been any different if Fisher, Riley, Swinney, Smart, or any other top coach said it. My point that someone with some stature needed to say it. Cheating has always been a part of the college football landscape, and the NCAA and the conferences did a piss poor job of policing themselves. But what players got with cars, low paying jobs that don’t exist and $100 handshakes pales in the comparison to what is going on now. NIL benefits a very small number of the college football players. If they want to whore the sport out to collectives then create a minimum and create a cap. At least that way all of the players get something and the Mr. and Mrs. Rashada’s of the world get held in check. This NIL turd will go down the bowl drain and take a lot of good with it.
Oh I agree with most of that. I just resent the uneven application of punishments for programs that tried to play his game. I also believe Saban and Bama called the NCAAs bluff and employed an instutionalized system of rule bending/breaking that would have shut down our program. There has been so much smoke on bama over the years followed by crickets from the NCAA yet our very own coach had a no contact penalty levied on his for two years...
No arguments from me here. And we have to look no farther than our own front yard. Mullen got a no contact, Galen got a show cause, and Pell never came close to college job again.
Insightful that he gave a glimpse into how it looks, practically. Assistant coach straight up asking for a specific $$$ amount. I'm shocked none of this is considered improper benefits by the NCAA.
Saban never opens his mouth unless there is some aim or goal in what he says....similar to telling the Bama boosters all about how ATM scored the #1 recruiting class in 2021. It was all about loosening up wallets. The year before that he was bragging about his QB's $1M NIL deal for a kid who had never started a collegiate game to make sure the kids knew that coming to Bama would be monetarily lucrative. So what is his goal this time?
Spurrier on Alabama: “In 12 years at Florida, I don’t think we ever signed a kid from the state of Alabama. Of course, we found out later that the scholarships they were giving out at Alabama were worth a whole lot more than ours.”
Trying to keep the price down so his boosters can stay at the top. I’m not sure they have the deepest pockets, just the dedication.
So the guy making $11M/year, as the highest paid state employee, and running a program historically known for paying players under the table, is complaining? Nick is right about not paying unproven players, though. Some alumni are willing to hand out cash to 18 year old kids who have not played a college down. What could go wrong? Rashada was the first fire cracker amongst coming explosions. The sadly ironic, but amusing, thing is we have millionaire coaches complaining about pay, alumni nervously dumping good money into risky "investments", and the schools/conferences publicly complaining about NIL while privately thrilled that the expense of compensating players is not put on them. Integrity of the college game? Fans who love watching STUDENT athletes? Irrelevant. Well, those who posted that UF should focus not on academics but solely on football should like the way this new system is shaping up (if UF buys in) b/c it doesn't have a damn thing to do with academics at Universities.
The only thing I know for sure is the Saban said it. There has been no confirmation regarding any other part of this story... This story runs around that Saban is "taking a stand" on NIL, but there is no actual evidence that he did so, only his unconfirmed story about three other unidentified people. The takeaway might as well be Nick Saban rates the NIL value of a five star quarterback at over one million, and the value of a five star corner at less than eight hundred thousand... But again there is no actual evidence that Nick or 'Bama would not pay $800,000 for a five star corner, just that Nick said that was true.
I could absolutely see Nick just doing this so when they pay the ask to five star corner, he can also give the NIL deal as evidence the Nick believes in hims, even though he is just paying market price.
