Alabama Crimson Tide head football coach Nick Saban is the Don of college football. That’s the title you get when you’ve won four of the past six national titles and have turned a program into something similar to a minor league team prepping kids for the NFL.
While Saban should always be on cloud nine because his Tide are always rolling—poor dad joke attempt—the guy always seems to have something stuck up his ass, ranting and raving about something new seemingly every single day. And Saban did just that today while discussing the current state of recruiting.
To transcribe, here’s part of what the coach said, via FOX Sports:
“I think by doing what we’re doing now, we’re doing what we do in every other sport and complain about in every other sport; AAU basketball and all this, because that’s what’s happening now. Anybody can have a camp now, if they have a prospect they can have a camp, then you’re expected to go to that camp, and they can use you to promote that camp because Ohio State is coming, Alabama is coming, you know, whoever is coming.
Somebody sponsors the camp, they pay them the money, but what do they do with the money? And who makes sure the kid paid to the camp? This is the Wild, Wild West at its best because there’s no specific guidelines relative to how we’re managing and controlling this stuff.”
Saban does have a point about all of this, of course. But, just like outside of athletics, when there’s a billion dollar business, people will do whatever it takes in order to maintain success—which includes Saban.
Gone are the days of just flashing some diamonds on a ring at a kid and getting him to sign.
The more alarming issue is that this comes from the best college football coach on the planet right now, meaning the NCAA might have some serious questions to ask itself if Nick Saban is so damn passionate about doing things the right way.