Nick Saban Rants....

Alabama football coach and noted hard-ass Nick Saban went on a very interesting rant yesterday at SEC Media Days. With rumors swirling regarding the numerous NCAA violations surrounding some big time college programs (Alabama, Florida, Georgia) in the SEC, it seems SEC Commissioner Mike Slive may have tabbed Slick Nick to step up and be the mouthpiece for a conference that has dominated the college football world the past 4 years.

Saban tried mightily to shift the focus of blame to NFL players' agents, and away from the student atheletes, when it comes to college football players accepting cash and gifts from agents and representatives. Saban went so far as to call the agents nothing more than glorified "pimps".

Pot...meet kettle. Oh good, you're both black.

You're talking about a man (Saban) who works in a profession designed to abuse the bodies of young people who get compensated little while making buckets of money for the men in charge. Seems to me the ultimate pimp is the head football coach of a major college football program that pays bluechip athelets peanuts to play an increasingly dangerous game while making his university cash hand over fist. Pimp indeed, Saban.

Personally, I don't see anything wrong with agents attaching themselves to the star players of college football. Say you're in the university band, happily playing your tuba every home game at halftime. It's fun, you provide some sound while the fans grab another hot dog or Coke at halftime. You get good seats. Good for you. But on Friday night, you have a gig in downtown CollegeTown, USA, and some record label exec happens to show up that night and sign your band to a record contract on the spot, with a $5000 cash advance. Do you think the tuba player shouldn't take that money? Does that mean he doesn't get to march onto the field the next day?

Big time college football is an artform. Just like playing music, or being in theatre. The players take the risks, they should be allowed to reap the rewards on a scale far greater than a simple scholarship. Certainly the tuba-nerd in our example takes far less risk and makes far less benjamins for the school than the stud running back on the field.

Big time sports fund the rest of the athletic department. At Ohio State, the Buckeyes can afford to have 36 varsity sports precisely because of the financial success of the football program. Athletes get an education from OSU for free while competiting in gymnastics, fencing, cross country, swimming, baseball, basketball, or even synchronized swimming because Terrell Pryor beats the living crap out of Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Over 80% of all sports are non-revenue generating. Football isn't one of them.

So if the playing field for revenue isn't level, why should the rewards for the athletes be level?

I don't think players should be paid outrageous amounts of money, certainly not along the lines of NFL atheletes. But to have the NCAA limit the scholarships for the revenue generating sports seems ludicrous, considering how much money these programs bring to the schools, and how important this income is to the success of the entire Athletic program.

And for college football, let's not forget one thing. Coaches want to win. Boosters want to win. NFL agents want their potential clients to win (it means more money). So herein lies the clusterF that the NCAA has put themselves in - they can't manage who wins. They don't OWN the national championship for Division I college football, the BCS does. So what kind of punishment can you really cast down on players who receive the kind of benefits being tossed around at this point? I mean, if a Texas grad wants to give Vince Young a free Cadillac while he's running past USC for a national championship, what is the NCAA really going to do? The gift has been given, the game won, the money made.

Look at the USC scenario - who committed the crimes with Reggie Bush? He did. He's gone to the NFL. Pete Carroll did. He's gone to the NFL. USC, while taking the brunt of the punishment now, still has 2 years worth of media hype, 2 AP titles, and tv, apparel, and ticket revenue on the books that they will NEVER return. They lose scholarships for two years. So what? In a few more years, the opportunity to cheat will arise again, and the NCAA can do nothing but retroactively punish the teams that get caught. There aren't any REASONS to follow the rules. So why should boosters, coaches, or agents fall in line? Because Nick Saban called them pimps?


While it isn't likely that the NCAA comes up with a resonable solution to the issue (I mean, do they EVER??!?!), I still find it embarrassing for Alabama to have a coach stand in front of the media and call an entire profession a group of pimps, especially when you consider the "pimpish" atmosphere a guy pulling over $4 million per year off the backs of those making $0 supports.