Ha, we only thought Alabama head coach Nick Saban had mellowed. I mean we actually saw him smile after winning the national championship. Some of us were fooled into thinking that Saban may have actually learned to enjoy the fruits of his labor. But then again, he did look us straight in the eye and tell us he was not going to be the next head coach at Alabama, so …
No, there’s no mellow in Saban’s life. He’s the hunted. The hunted never rest. They can’t afford to. Saban has made the Alabama program the envy of college football again. It’s where all others want theirs to be. His recruiting success is where all others want theirs to be.
You don’t have to be familiar with Adam’s housecat to see why Saban is pounding-the-podium upset over satellite camps. If you’ve successfully cornered the market on a commodity, the last thing you want to have to deal with is a vehicle that could potentially even the playing field.
Does he have a point about satellite camps further blurring the lines for potential recruiting violations? Sure he does. The whole business of recruiting has more pitfalls than a tightrope walk atop Legion Field. Satellite camps just take us further down the rabbit hole.
Does he have a point about putting in place a commissioner to oversee the business of college recruiting? Sure he does. But how would that come about? College football can’t even put together a playoff committee without controversy. Baylor and TCU say hey.
And it doesn’t appear as though Saban will be volunteering for the job anytime soon.
Or maybe after a couple more national titles he could retire and, in addition to becoming college football’s recruiting czar, he could – in his spare time – also chair college football’s drug testing committee.
But he does make a valid point where the NCAA’s drug testing policies are concerned. They do seem rather arbitrary. It’s like speeding tickets; randomly pulling over speeders doesn’t do very much to curb the overall problem. Neither one solves the problem. In fact, it only exacerbates it.
He’s right. If you’re going to test, test everyone. However, that’s not how it works, and how is it that the NCAA is not hopelessly tied up in court with civil rights violation lawsuits? I guess when athletes sign scholarship letters, it would behoove them to read the fine print.
Yeah, Nick, you make some good points. Unfortunately, that horse left the barn a long time ago.
Glenn Sattell is an award-winning freelance writer for Saturday Down South.
