Nice try, Aggies. But there was no way the SEC was suspending Nick Saban
I get why Texas A&M took its shot. To put it simply, it’s because Nick Saban took his shot first.
The Alabama coach’s viral comments about how A&M “bought” every player in its historic 2022 recruiting class was not received well by the folks in College Station. We knew that from the moment Jimbo Fisher stepped to the podium the following morning looking like he had already spent 90 minutes on the Peloton. Fisher called Saban a “narcissist” and said that his claims were “despicable” while also adding that “maybe someone should’ve slapped (Saban).”
But wait, there’s more!
As we found out via an open records request from On3.com, apparently A&M took it a step further in its response to Saban’s comments. According to an email sent to Greg Sankey from A&M athletic director Ross Bjork, the Aggies requested that the league office fine and suspend Saban.
Here was the full description of the email from Bjork, which was co-signed by A&M president Katherine Banks:
“We write to express Texas A&M University’s disappointment and outrage at the recent statements made by Alabama University [sic] Head Football Coach Nick Saban that ‘A&M bought every player on their team-made a deal for Name, Image, Likeness,’” Bjork and Banks’ email to Sankey stated.
“Coach Saban’s statement was a blatant violation of SEC bylaws regarding sportsmanship. More significantly, without citing any facts to support his statement, Coach Saban is accusing every, single player in Texas A&M’s recruiting class and current football team of violating NCAA NIL guidelines and Texas state law.
But wait, there’s more!
“Coach Saban’s statement is false, beneath the dignity of the SEC, and corrosive to the fabric of sportsmanship in college football as a whole and especially within the SEC. We expect the league to take strong, public action against Coach Saban and the University of Alabama to demonstrate that such unprofessionalism and disrespect for Texas A&M’s student-athletes, coaches, and the university as a whole, will not be tolerated. A public apology from Coach Saban to Coach Fisher, Aggie Football, and Texas A&M University is a good starting point, but the league should also consider monetary and participation penalties against Coach Saban.
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“Thank you for your concern and prompt attention to this serious matter.”
Remember that was all before Fisher took to the podium.
As we found out, Sankey responded to Bjork’s request that afternoon by saying that Fisher’s response was actually in violation of SEC bylaws — which Bjork had warned Fisher about — and that in relation to Saban, Sankey did not “view suspension or financial penalty as appropriate at this time.”
Does that mean that if Fisher had just kept quiet that Sankey would’ve dropped the hammer on Saban? No way. But without knowing it, Fisher gave Sankey an out to issue a public reprimand of both coaches. It was the equivalent of a double technical in basketball.
A public apology was one thing. If A&M thought Saban was actually going to be suspended for those comments, well, keep dreaming. Even first-year Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin didn’t get a suspension when he inaccurately accused Urban Meyer’s staff of a recruiting violation at a National Signing Event in 2009. Sure, times are different now. That’s also why Saban’s comments, while they were an admitted slip-up, wouldn’t have warranted extreme action.
Saban claiming A&M “bought” every player in its recruiting class had a different meaning in the NIL era. Technically, Saban didn’t accuse A&M of cheating. Did he still unnecessarily single A&M out by claiming they were the epitome of what was wrong with the lack of NIL regulation? Absolutely. It was a misstep. Saban admitted that within hours of Fisher’s response.
But let’s think about the precedent for a college football coach missing a regular season game. Like, in a system wherein 1 loss can keep you out of the Playoff.
Here are some of the recent examples at the Power 5 level, all of which I think we can agree are inexcusable defenses for state employees (Tressel’s violation isn’t as severe in nature but it still probably isn’t great to blatantly lie to the NCAA):
- Urban Meyer, Ohio State — Suspended 3 games for his handling of domestic violence allegations against Zach Smith
- DJ Durkin, Maryland — Put on administrative leave, fired because of investigation into mistreatment of players following Jordan McNair’s death
- Kyle Flood, Rutgers — Suspended 3 games for rules violations related to off-field transgressions involving players
- Gary Pinkel, Mizzou — Suspended 1 game after DWI arrest
- Jim Tressel, Ohio State — Suspended 5 games after lying to NCAA about “TattooGate”
That doesn’t include someone like Bobby Petrino, who was put on administrative leave and ultimately fired for his “inappropriate relationship” with an Arkansas athletic department employee.
It also doesn’t include recent SEC cases like Kiffin or Dan Mullen, both of whom were fined $25,000 by the SEC in 2020. Kiffin’s fine came on the heels of criticizing SEC officiating after a non-fumble call against Auburn in 2020 while Mullen’s fine was the result of a brawl he instigated at halftime of a 2020 game against Mizzou. Neither coach was suspended.
Sure, Saban’s comments about A&M took on a much more accusatory nature than Kiffin claiming that officials botched a ruling on a kick return. But by nature of A&M’s request for a suspension, shouldn’t that mean Fisher is also worthy of a suspension? After all, Fisher accused Saban, too.
“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,” Fisher said about Saban in May. “We build him up to be this czar of football, go dig into his past.”
Sankey didn’t view this as “the one who started this is the only one who should be punished.” Fair or not, that’s the risk with coming back as hot as Fisher did. He might’ve come out looking better than Saban, but he still gave Sankey the ammo to diffuse the situation with an equal reprimand of both coaches.
Had Fisher abided by Sankey’s wishes in his response, it would’ve been interesting to see how the commissioner would’ve treated Saban with his reprimand. My guess is that he still wouldn’t have suspended the greatest coach in the history of the sport. How much Saban’s status would’ve mattered, we’ll never really know.
(This is the part where I’m supposed to say that the SEC league offices are in Birmingham, and that’s the only factor that matters when it comes to all things Alabama.)
For now, all we know is that A&M was in no place to let Saban’s comments go unaddressed. Clearly, a line in the sand was drawn. Both coaches can continue to say they’re moving on, but whether they like it or not, this story isn’t going away anytime soon.
Much to A&M’s chagrin, neither is Saban.
So why isn’t this story going away anytime soon? Is it because fools like me keep clicking on the clickbait?
lol pretty much.. we’re just suckers. I get click bait by wannabe writers in places like Bleacher Report, but this really seems beneath O’Gara. This isn’t even new news on a stale subject, Bjork said all these statements publicly at the time as well so why pretend this email is some exciting new find?
Bayou Tiger, welcome to the club. It’s one way you can tell it’s still off-season!
You have lots of company… we might as well order some wings.
No, the more the Aggies talk about it the deeper the hole they are digging gets. When Saban talked about buying players everyone understood what he was talking about for a lot of reasons. And, all this phony indignation by Fisher and the Aggie admin just reminded everyone about the adage about protesting too much. I can just imagine how much fun non-Aggies would be having if they really pushed the SEC on this and the digging into Aggie recruiting began in earnest.
Try writing about the CWS, Connor. The baseball content has been really good, but there isn’t enough of it.
‘ … beneath the dignity of the SEC?’
Jimbo’s response was above the dignity?
Meet me in the ladies room.
What a disappointment… I read the whole thing. Then I get to the comments and saw that we all were thinking the same thing. Way to bring SEC fans together by making us all regret clickbait clicks.
Stop with the pretending that NIL is not paying players to play football. It was not derogatory when Fisher and Saban pointed out that they were buying all their players. Just a trick to get free newspaper and internet stories about themselves NOT cheating.
Wolfman, kind of hard to be cheating when there are no rules set forth by the NCAA with regards to NIL. I cannot get into the minds of Saban and Fisher to know exactly what each were thinking but we know a lot by examining what each of them said.
Obviously the NCAA has no clue in terms of NIL. They merely stood by (or) sat by and set zero rules for NIL and now all colleges must deal with the monster called Name-Image-Likeness. I recall when the football player at Northwestern University filed his lawsuit…none of us or anyone actually knew what he was doing and where NIL would go. It sounded simple enough, right ?
EXADTLY! The guy telling the truth is Lane Kiffin. Big time CFB is the NFL with a players union to negotiate reaspnble playing terms and conditions with ‘management.’
And that’s the other problem. Who or what is ‘management ‘ in CFB?
EZACKLY, dixieduck…..and amateur athletics is no more.
Looks like the boosters will be the new management.
*hums We Won’t Get Fooled Again*
It’s new info on an old story. It does show that the Aggie admin can’t control Fisher. I found that interesting. Long term guaranteed contracts will do that.
The thing is this isn’t even new news. Bjork twitted out there way back when this first stsrted that he’s asked Sankey for sanctions. The president just co-signed.
You think the AD was controlling the last two LSU coaches? Doubtful. No SEC coach is really “controlled” by an AD in my opinion.
The last two LSU coaches were fired. Probably not the best example for Jimbo.
Them being fired had nothing to do with whether or not admin could control them, and everything to do with their performance on the field.
Miles performance on the field was better than Jimbo’s.
One hundred percent. But LSU and A&M are two different administrations. LSU’s definition of success on the field is different, hence his firing for performance.
And I’d argue the admin fired them both because of a lack of control. Whether it was Ed O hitting on pregnant Board of Regents’ wives or Les Miles harassing female students.
With NIL accusing a team of buying their players doesn’t imply cheating anymore, so A&M never should have gotten all butthurt. Saban said facts–unpleasant ones, but facts. No slander, no attack on sportsmanship.
Jimbo should have owned it and invited other players seeking $$$ to follow him on Twitter.
You obviously don’t understand the Texas NIL law.
Bammer won’t take their foot of the gas and will hang 50+ on Dumbo in Tuscaloosa this October.
GatorPhil…We Tide fans eagerly await that game.
As do I, I have zero use for Fisher, Bobby Bowden hypocrite poster 2.0 in my book.
Poser.
We Aggies eagerly await that game.
See you Aggies in Tuscaloosa. Roll Tide !
I think all of College football awaits that game. Im just sure there wont be any personal fouls the whole game.
You mean in Golf?
Everybody in the SEC will be watching. They will make nice-nice before the game. But then…
As at TN fan, I am very glad these two play each other the week before we get Bama at home. Not saying that Bama won’t thump us, but that A&M game will probably be rough on those guys. Saban most definitely meant for that comment to be derogatory, but what he said wasn’t untrue. He was stating that A&M couldn’t recruit at his level without all that money. And he’s mostly right. Without Saban at Bama, the city of Tuscaloosa has absolutely nothing to offer. I still stand behind saying that Bama would be where TN is today if Saban had gotten Brees instead of Culpepper when he was with the Dolphins.
Ten R C sucks at football. Does not matter what week you play Alabama. Nick Saban is the Vol football daddies.
Ah. You’re one of those fans. Gotcha. You know you can look anywhere on this site and see how to spell Tennessee right? It’s all over the place. I know it’s probably hard to see because your eye is probably caked shut from your dad plastering your face daily with your little brothers and sisters and that’s ok. You’re a strong person. And we all know that sort of thing is ok in Alabama. Maybe tomorrow you can ask him if he can dump it on your sister so that you can learn how to spell. Luvdaride. Makes sense. You should just figure out a ride that doesn’t show up in the family tree.
I see you’re one of those fans… Even though he trolled Tennessee he still kept it about football while you made personal shots at him…
I guess the best part of you ran down the crack of your mom’s &@@ in a BK bathroom…
@BamaTime you are a joke.
Soft as baby $h!+ like the hole Bammer fan base
Whole*
Poor TAMU b!t(h boy… I must have hurt your feelings so now you’re going to follow me around..
It’s ok… The hurt will pass..
Didn’t hurt my feelings? you’re the one crying over “personal shots” taken at an anonymous user on a CFB $h!+ talking message board. I just love pointing out how much of a dumba!$ you are.
Well he is actually taking a shot at everyone in Alabama with is comment..
I know.. You can’t see that though because Jimbo’s Sack is covering your eyes… LMAO
Not everyone in Tuscaloosa. Just Alabama fans. And not the ones that are willing to have a discussion about this glorious sport in peace and harmony. Just those that think wearing a red A with a mullet on a hat gives them some sort of hope for the future that everything is going to be ok. And I agree with you on Jimbo’s sack. That thing must be blanketing college station. Only thing I can figure to why he’d go after the SEC darling that is Nick Saban publicly.
BamaTime taking shots at someone for making personal shots is like Amou Haji crying about someone having bad breath.
“I know it’s probably hard to see because your eye is probably caked shut from your dad plastering your face daily with your little brothers and sisters and that’s ok. You’re a strong person. And we all know that sort of thing is ok in Alabama.”
Sure looks like you’re talking all of Alabama to me…
Wow… ummm…
Hey VFL_88….it ain’t fair to say Tuscaloosa ain’t got nuthin’ without Saban! They have two Krystal Hamburger restaurants! To a hungry Gator living in Texas, where there are zero, that’s everything while driving east on I-20. (:
If having two Krystal Hamburgers is the highlight of Tuscaloosa outside of the school, then may god have mercy on their souls. That whole community will be in my prayers. Not hating on Krystals. Those little burgers are the business.
BamaTime-I said it’s ok in Alabama. Not that everybody in Alabama does it. Big difference. No need to out yourself on this site if that’s the direction this conversation is heading.
Looks like you’re the one that showed your true colors…
I guess it’s the same colors you have
“I guess the best part of you ran down the crack of your mom’s &@@ in a BK bathroom…”
Jokes on you, my mom doesn’t even like Burger King.
Oh, I have no problem giving it back to you when you open the door…
I also didn’t say your mom ate at BK… I doubt she would have time anyway working as hard as she does on that bathroom floor.
I was at somebody else’s house and you barged in. Nobody invited you. Stick to your own stall and your assigned glory hole my dude. You won’t be able to put the food on the table for your sister wife if that mouth don’t stay busy. Your insults are trailing fella. Let’s get it together now. When you finish your human centipede, clean up and let’s have a real conversation about some football.
You’re an idiot O’Gara.
UTA and TAMU have so much in common lol. Why did we let these drama queens into the SEC. regretz.
Money and power. Bringing Ok, TAMU, and UTA over gives the SEC plenty of power to push back against the NCAA when discussing scheduling and any changes they are looking at making. NCAA is on life support and now the SEC has it’s hand on the cord.
I was just being facetious.
I’m aware but they are most definitely drama queens. There is a reason the OK head coach bolted as soon as the move to the SEC was approved. They aren’t ready for what’s coming. If catching a horns down hurts UTA’s feelings that bad, wait until they catch a golfball and some French’s in Neyland.
Great points. Time to cut to the chase?
The B1G can add 6 AAU member schools and the SEC can add 4 member schools and let’s watch college football played by the 2 conferences with the money.
Have the players form a union and negotiate reasonable terms and conditions regarding NIL, transfer portal, etc.
Except those two conferences will eventually merge into one and own all meaningful TV rights.
You can’t seriously be calling someone else a drama queen? Your mirror fogged up or something?
Stankey does not have the courage to ever cross Nick Saban. He is a wimp in schlamazel clothing.
mrtruth is spitting facts. Name checks out
I’m betting Saban was right.