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You might want to clear your schedule on Saturday, October 8th. That’s when Texas A&M travels to play Alabama this fall. It’s going to be a thing man. Hell you might want to consider seeing if you can crash SEC Media days in July because it’s going down between The Aggies Jimbo Fisher and The Tide’s Nick Saban. In case you hadn’t heard Saban created quite the fire storm that he’s now trying to put out, but Fisher apparently has NO INTEREST in dousing these flames, he’d rather fan them. And what is the cause of all this consternation? What else, money and power.
While speaking to….and this is the delicious part that you just can’t make up.. a bunch of local business leaders to raise funds for Alabama football Saban said that A&M “bought every player on their team-made a deal for name image and likeness.” Saban went on to say that Alabama players got $ 3 million in NIL by “ doing it the right way”. What does that even mean 😂? Last time I checked using NIL is the way you pay players for their services now.
Fisher’s response was a hastily called 9 minute press conference where he never directly mentioned Saban but said things like “Some people think they’re God. Go dig into how God got his deal ..you may find out a lot of things you don’t want to know.” Oh my yes.. more of this please. Fisher also went on to say “ wasn’t he soliciting funds from the crowd? It’s amazing isn’t it, I guess when you walk on water it don’t matter”. Fisher, for those who don’t know, was an assistant under Saban at LSU so when he says these things they TEND to have a little more weight. By the way, give Saban credit, he also went after Jackson State and Deion Sanders for offering up a million dollars for a player, so at least he’s spreading the shade around.
The unintentional comedy continued when a day later Saban tried to apologize by saying he shouldn’t have singled out any school and added: "I didn’t intend it to mean they were buying players”….when he literally used the words THEY BOUGHT EVERY PLAYER ON THEIR TEAM. That's a backstroke the finest of Olympic swimmers would be proud of. In these trying times we need this kind of comic relief. Look, here’s the deal: Saban doesn’t like the NIL world he and everybody else in college football find themselves in. But that doesn’t matter. The reality is that it’s here, adapt or die. Saban also says he hates that there are no guard rails. Blame the NCAA then for completely punting on trying to have any sort of structured plan for what they knew was coming. NIck’s found ways to evolve before: he realized you need uptempo offenses to win in college and suddenly a surge of Bama QBs, WRs and RBs are getting drafted. Saban wasn’t a fan of the transfer portal yet he sure found a way to get former Ohio State WR Jameson Williams to Tuscaloosa. Nick also knows how the games been played for years. Not too long ago Bama boosters decided to pay off the mortgage on his house.. just because they could. The money has always been around the game, it's just finally trickling down to the players who play it. The fastest way to lose your death grip on college football is to not understand what the game is anymore. The old way is the old way and the new way is the NIL way whether you like it or not. And if you can’t get a ticket to the game on October 8th, head to Atlanta in July for SEC Media days, and get your popcorn ready.
