When Nick Saban is mad and wants to vent, it’s apparent he prefers to go scorched earth and take everyone down with him.
That’s what we all witnessed on Wednesday night when Saban channeled his inner-Nino Brown and attacked his fellow coaching “Kareem Akbars” over alleged NIL and recruiting improprieties.
At an event with local business leaders in Birmingham, Nino….I mean Nick, first sounded off on fellow SEC member Texas A&M.
“I mean, we were second in recruiting last year,” ranted Saban. “A&M was first. A&M bought every player on their team — made a deal for name, image, likeness. We didn’t buy one player, all right? But I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to sustain that in the future because more and more people are doing it. It’s tough.”
This isn’t the first time Texas A&M was taken to task for recruiting.
In February, Ole Miss’ head coach Lane Kiffin took a swipe at the Aggies as well.
“Texas A&M was going to incur a luxury tax in how much they paid for their signing class,” quipped Kiffin.
This also wasn’t Saban’s first attack on NIL and the new age of college recruiting.
Last month Saban attacked the infant NIL system, essentially stating it enables players to be bought.
“The concept of name, image and likeness was for players to be able to use their name, image and likeness to create opportunities for themselves. That’s what it was,” said Saban at the time. “So last year on our team, our guys probably made as much or more than anybody in the country.”
“But that creates a situation where you can basically buy players,” Saban continued. “You can do it in recruiting. I mean, if that’s what we want college football to be, I don’t know. And you can also get players to get in the transfer portal to see if they can get more someplace else than they can get at your place.”
His most recent attack is much harsher as he took direct aim at Texas A&M with unsupported accusations.
He blasted the Aggies with “alternative facts”, a tactic widely employed by supporters of the corrupt previous presidential administration.
Just throw it out there and see if people will flock to agree, even if it lacks facts.
To those of us with common sense and morals, Saban’s rambling sounds more like whining and petty, unsupported tattle-telling.
Why else start off by mentioning Alabama was second in recruiting to A&M last year?
That’s where the bitterness commenced.
Remember the Aggies shocked the Crimson Tide last season, handing them their first loss of the season.
Don’t think that wasn’t on Saban’s mind as he was preparing his verbal bazooka for his competitors.
Saban called out how coaches can use the budget from the school’s collective- a group of program supporters who pool their resources to offer deals to athletes- to entice athletes.
To him, the NIL system is just “coaches trying to create an advantage for themselves.”
The hypocrisy.
Saban Threw Stones In His Glass House
Isn’t this what schools like Alabama, Texas and LSU partake in?
They construct multi-million locker rooms to entice recruits to play for the Crimson Tide, Longhorns or Tigers.
Is that not what programs do when they leave conferences for bigger ones in order to reap the financial rewards of lucrative media deals?
Are those not advantageous for each program and coach?
Saban makes $9.5 million annually and escalation clauses ensure he’s the highest-paid coach in the sport.
His quarterback, Bryce Young, reportedly secured roughly $1 million in NIL deals from brands like CashApp, Subway and BMW of Tuscaloosa.
And mind you, most of those deals came before he became a full-time starter.
To be fair, Nick Saban’s gripe isn’t with players earning through NIL deals.
“I think it’s a good thing that players now have an opportunity to work and make money through name, image and likeness,” Saban said during this past National Signing Day. “I would hope we come up with some system in the future where – and I’m not accusing anybody of anything. But I don’t think players should make a decision about where they go to school relative to how much money they’re gonna make in name, image and likeness.”
Apparently, Saban’s bile rises only when other programs outshine Alabama, for two months later, Saban made not one but two blatant accusations.
After attacking the Aggies, Saban took aim at Jackson St. and Deion Sanders.
“Jackson State paid a guy $1 million last year that was a really good Division I player to come to the school. It was in the paper, and they bragged about it. Nobody did anything about it. I mean, these guys at Miami that are going to play basketball there for $400,000, it’s in the newspaper. The guy tells you how he’s doing it,” seethed Saban.
The player he referred to was Travis Hunter, who passed up his commitment to Florida State in favor of the Jackson St. Tigers.
Hunter’s decision, along with the one by fellow top recruit Kevin Coleman, who also chose Jackson State, enraged college football purists who raged over their decision to attend an HBCU instead of a P5 school.
This is why Nick Saban’s NIL/recruiting rampage reeks of the bitterness over losing a few battles in the recruiting war.
The Response
After Saban’s attack, Texas A&M head football coach Jimbo Fisher vigorously defended his program and players.
“It’s despicable that we have to sit here at this level of ball and say these things to defend the people of this organization, the kids, 17-year-old kids and their families,” Fisher said. “It’s amazing. Some people think they’re God. Go dig into how ‘God’ did his deal. You may find out about a lot of things you don’t want to know.
“We build him up to be the czar of football. Go dig into his past or anybody that’s ever coached with him. You can find out anything you want to find out, what he does and how he does it. It’s despicable; it really is.”
“You’re taking shots at 17-year-old kids and their families that they broke state laws, that we bought every player in this group,” said Fisher. “We never bought anybody. No rules were broken, nothing was done wrong. These families, it’s despicable that a reputable head coach can come out and say this when he doesn’t get his way or things don’t go his way.
“The narcissist in him doesn’t allow those things to happen. It’s ridiculous.”
Deion Sanders teased an upcoming response as well.
“You best believe I will address that LIE coach Saban told tomorrow,” tweeted Sanders.
He even shared a laugh with Travis Hunter on Twitter over Saban’s accusations.
Saban’s true beef isn’t with NIL or player compensation.
It’s really about the competition catching up to, and in some cases surpassing, his success.
And he isn’t letting their come up arrive without challenge from college football’s “kingpin”.
Nick Saban could have easily blasted the system and demanded that limitations and rules be established and enforced as it relates to the intersection of recruiting and NIL.
Instead, in true Nino Brown fashion, Saban sat in his witness chair, channeled Nino’s final words on the witness stand, and pointed the finger at others by airing out a subject coaches keep under wraps.
“I told you, this thing is bigger than Nino Brown, and I got a list to prove it. If I’m going down, I’m taking a whole lotta’ people with me!”
Someone should tell Saban how things ended up for Brown after his testimony.
