Nick Saban is one of the few remaining sane people in CFB...

[sWiley]

Great article to read, and Saban is 100% right on the money. The transfer portal and unregulated NIL deals are ruining college sports. It is not the way....


"I don't want to go down that road of bidding for players out of high school. I don't," Saban said. "But if we go through this recruiting class this year and we lose all the players, because they're making a hundred thousand dollars going someplace else, then what can you do?

"The hard thing is there are no guardrails on this road. You can do whatever the hell you want, and in the end, most of this is not good for the players. You know, there are some terrible statistics out there about guys that transfer and how many of those guys graduate, terrible statistics on that. And we're enticing a lot of that."

"This is not professional sports. I mean, we have free agency and no salary cap. That's basically what we have, right? There's no professional league that has that circumstance because none of them are stupid enough to have it, and that's what we have."

Saban: NIL application 'completely out of control'

Alabama coach Nick Saban says he was wrong to "single out" Texas A&M and Jackson State but stands by his criticism of the application of name, image and likeness rules.

www.espn.com

 

[FranklinRaider315]

I watched the YouTube video of him blasting Jimbo and Deion. Good stuff.
😂😂

 

[MidTennMtneer]

And boy did Deion and Jumbo fire back. Jumbo especially saying Saban hasn't always been "God" and dig in to his past.

Who knew NIL would turn in to a Coaches Soap Opera.

 

[coachchia]

This is the pot calling the kettle black...
Bama has, past and over the last few years, paid their players... I know this factually due to former players giving me the 411...

 

[AustinLewis]

In the SEC (and probably every conference), if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. It's just a matter if you are dumb enough to get caught. The pressure of win - or else - kinda reinforces that mentality.

Tin Foil Hat moment :
Saban's comments (re: Fisher / Sanders) were calculated. Saban is trying to move the needle for more regulation for NIL and saying what he did moves the needle.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

In the SEC (and probably every conference), if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. It's just a matter if you are dumb enough to get caught. The pressure of win - or else - kinda reinforces that mentality.

Tin Foil Hat moment :
Saban's comments (re: Fisher / Sanders) were calculated. Saban is trying to move the needle for more regulation for NIL and saying what he did moves the needle.

Or he's trying to make the boosters at Bama start putting out.

 

[FranklinRaider315]

In the SEC (and probably every conference), if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. It's just a matter if you are dumb enough to get caught. The pressure of win - or else - kinda reinforces that mentality.

My other school to the west has an atrocious record of unsuccessful cheating in basketball for decades. 😂😂
I’ve even accused previous admins of actually conspiring with the big Tiger Basketball boosters to run cost /benefit analyses of getting caught cheating in exchange for a good 6-7 year run of sellouts and record season tickets sales at the expense of keeping Tiger Football out of consideration for P5 conference expansion.

 

[MTTim]

My other school to the west has an atrocious record of unsuccessful cheating in basketball for decades. 😂😂
I’ve even accused previous admins of actually conspiring with the big Tiger Basketball boosters to run cost /benefit analyses of getting caught cheating in exchange for a good 6-7 year run of sellouts and record season tickets sales at the expense of keeping Tiger Football out of consideration for P5 conference expansion.

I played a couple of games of poker with Dana Kirk at Colonial and heard much more than I should have.

 

[FranklinRaider315]

I played a couple of games of poker with Dana Kirk at Colonial and heard much more than I should have.

Coaches Kirk, Fowler and Finch were all hired in ‘79, my Senior year at Memphis St. Coach Kirk made some mistakes but there were a lot of folks who facilitated those mistakes. I liked him. Fowler was just getting started in his career. Moved over to run the Tiger Clubs, forerunner to the Tiger Scholarship Fund when Kirk got fired. They pretty much ate every meal with us in the Athletic Dorm training table cafeteria. So did the late Eugene Smith and the late John Cothern.
Cothern was our NCAA “Compliance” Officer.

 

[RaiderDoug]

This is the pot calling the kettle black. Bama's been buying guys for years. Good for them.

But really, this just strikes me as Saban whining that he's losing some of his competitive advantage on the recruiting trail.

NIL comes with a whole host of problems, but this is like Hitler complaining that Stalin is just too mean.

 

[MTLynn]

 

[Brew_Raider]

This falls right in line with his stance against no huddle offenses and how awful the transfer portal is.

His school now makes money on no huddle offense coaching clinics and he/his staff have been openly accused of tampering with kids in the portal by other coaches.

And Mr. Integrity, Alabama has never had an issue with breaking rules to play players. Your freaking QB was a millionaire with NIL deals before becoming a starter.

What a narcissistic hypocrite.

It must be difficult for him dealing with the #2 recruiting class in the country.**

 

[sWiley]

I don't like Saban either. And all the bad things said about him here are true and then some.

But, he's right about NIL and the transfer portal being a poison to college athletics. Straight poison. They have got to set it up in a way that allows kids to make NIL money, but at the same time not basically go to the highest bidder when being recruited. Recruiting and NIL have to be two completely separate entities, and there has to be SERIOUS consequences put in place to assure that, up to the point of a school losing it's ability to have NIL deals for X amount of years, reduced scholarships, no bowl participation, etc.

People need to remember these are student athletes. Less than 1% of college athletes go on to play major professional sports for a living. The other 99% have to fall back on their college education to get through life. This is not professional sports and it never should be. College athletics will assuredly die/lose a ton of support if it becomes the minor leagues for professional teams. Graduation statistics on kids that transfer, especially multiple times, are terrible.

Transfer portal needs to be limited to 4-6 weeks throughout the year. That's it. None of this BS of transferring any day of the year because someone had a bad day and got yelled at by their position coach. And you get 1 free transfer and after that it is mandatory to sit out 1 year, ZERO exceptions, don't care if your damn leg fell off. No exceptions. They should also consider only allowing juniors/seniors to transfer. If a kid signs with a school make him stay there a minimum of 2 years before he can transfer out without sitting out a year. If he wants to transfer as a freshman/sophomore, he must sit out a year.

It's too willy nilly wild wild west crap right now. NCAA/College governing bodies need to grow some stones and take back some power and put some rules and restrictions in place.

 

[FranklinRaider315]

I played a couple of games of poker with Dana Kirk at Colonial and heard much more than I should have.

Did you hear any whispering about this game??? 😂

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/01/sports/college-basketball-memphis-state-toppled-by-detroit.html

 

[RaiderDoug]

I don't like Saban either. And all the bad things said about him here are true and then some.

But, he's right about NIL and the transfer portal being a poison to college athletics. Straight poison. They have got to set it up in a way that allows kids to make NIL money, but at the same time not basically go to the highest bidder when being recruited. Recruiting and NIL have to be two completely separate entities, and there has to be SERIOUS consequences put in place to assure that, up to the point of a school losing it's ability to have NIL deals for X amount of years, reduced scholarships, no bowl participation, etc.

People need to remember these are student athletes. Less than 1% of college athletes go on to play major professional sports for a living. The other 99% have to fall back on their college education to get through life. This is not professional sports and it never should be. College athletics will assuredly die/lose a ton of support if it becomes the minor leagues for professional teams. Graduation statistics on kids that transfer, especially multiple times, are terrible.

Transfer portal needs to be limited to 4-6 weeks throughout the year. That's it. None of this BS of transferring any day of the year because someone had a bad day and got yelled at by their position coach. And you get 1 free transfer and after that it is mandatory to sit out 1 year, ZERO exceptions, don't care if your damn leg fell off. No exceptions. They should also consider only allowing juniors/seniors to transfer. If a kid signs with a school make him stay there a minimum of 2 years before he can transfer out without sitting out a year. If he wants to transfer as a freshman/sophomore, he must sit out a year.

It's too willy nilly wild wild west crap right now. NCAA/College governing bodies need to grow some stones and take back some power and put some rules and restrictions in place.

He's not wrong. He's just hypocritical.

If someone like Wake Forest's or Iowa State's coach says this, it might carry some weight.

Saban's program's have benefitted from inducements for a decade or more. Now, all of a sudden that programs are now allowed to do what he's been doing, it's a problem?

The NIL toothpaste is out of the tube. It's not going back in. Just get on board and hope for the best.

And to be honest, if it is true that most guys won't go on to pro-sports, or that graduation statistics of guys that transfer are poor (and i'm sure you're correct), then to me, I think that's a pro-NIL argument. Let these guys make $$$$$ when they can. They may never get another chance at a windfall like that.

I do think we'll eventually see a transfer period (one in winter, one in spring). I'm not sure other restrictions will be enforceable.

 

[AustinLewis]

He's not wrong. He's just hypocritical.

If someone like Wake Forest's or Iowa State's coach says this, it might carry some weight.

Saban's program's have benefitted from inducements for a decade or more. Now, all of a sudden that programs are now allowed to do what he's been doing, it's a problem?

The NIL toothpaste is out of the tube. It's not going back in. Just get on board and hope for the best.

And to be honest, if it is true that most guys won't go on to pro-sports, or that graduation statistics of guys that transfer are poor (and i'm sure you're correct), then to me, I think that's a pro-NIL argument. Let these guys make $$$$$ when they can. They may never get another chance at a windfall like that.

I do think we'll eventually see a transfer period (one in winter, one in spring). I'm not sure other restrictions will be enforceable.

Some good points.

The struggle is real. The transfer porter (and NIL) have opened a can of worms.

The year round recruiting calendar - plus the time & energy you have to put to keep your existing players - is going to burnout a LOT of coaches.

And Saban’s point is legit, even if its a bit hypocritical. There needs to be an increased level of regulation re: transfer portal and NIL.

 

[Brew_Raider]

Some good points.

The struggle is real. The transfer porter (and NIL) have opened a can of worms.

The year round recruiting calendar - plus the time & energy you have to put to keep your existing players - is going to burnout a LOT of coaches.

And Saban’s point is legit, even if its a bit hypocritical. There needs to be an increased level of regulation re: transfer portal and NIL.

It makes me wonder, if the NCAA had not coined the phrase student-athlete in the 1950s to get out of paying insurance / workers comp type claims, how different would things be?

Schools typically pay for a lot of the things now that the original term was created to prevent. However, the NCAA built up so many additional restrictions using “student-athlete”, it was like a dam burst now.

The NCAA could have adjust slowly to changes over 70 years, but the refusal to adapt over time helped create this chaos.

I am not sure where this will level out.

 

[MTTim]

Did you hear any whispering about this game??? 😂

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/01/sports/college-basketball-memphis-state-toppled-by-detroit.html

From what I understand this particular loss really got under Dana's skin. It was not discussed while I was there. I really liked Dana and thought he was one helluva coach. The best game coach Memphis ever had.

 

[FranklinRaider315]

From what I understand this particular loss really got under Dana's skin. It was not discussed while I was there. I really liked Dana and thought he was one helluva coach. The best game coach Memphis ever had.

I agree. And Gene Bartow was a close 2nd.