Nick Saban

Speaking at a countdown event for the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama on Wednesday night, Nick Saban looked left, looked right, took a deep breath, ...

Saban and Fisher's general dislike of each other has been on public display since Fisher joined the SEC in 2017, but Saban didn’t stop there, taking aim at FCS Jackson State next. That of course lit the wick under Deion Sanders’ ass, who took to Twitter in the wee hours of Thursday morning to call Saban a liar and promise receipts with his typical primetime flair. Speaking at a countdown event for the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama on Wednesday night, Nick Saban looked left, looked right, took a deep breath, and chose violence.

That's life for college football's elite recruiting programs. On Wednesday night, however, Alabama coach Nick Saban said the quiet part out loud -- and it was ...

[Saban refers to scholarships, cost of attendance, etc.] … I told our players, 'We're going to have a collective, but everyone is going to get the same amount of opportunity from that collective.'" "We probably have 450 people on scholarship [in total] at Alabama. ... Non-revenue sports [athletes] that have for years and years and years been able to create a better life for themselves because they've been able to get scholarships and participate in college athletics. "The issue and the problem with name, image and likeness is coaches trying to create an advantage for themselves. "People blame the NCAA, but in defense of the NCAA, we are where we are because of the litigation that the NCAA gets like [for] the transfer portal. But I don't know if we're going to be able to sustain that in the future because more and more people are doing it." "And I have no problem with that, and nobody had a problem on our team with that because the guys that got the money earned it," he added. "It's going to be difficult for the people who are spending tons of money to get players," Saban said as part of a 7-minute answer to a question about NIL that was recorded and published by AL.com. "You've read about them. I know that we're going to lose recruits because somebody else is going to be willing to pay them more. I don't know how you manage a locker room -- and I don't know if this is a sustainable model. He's hardly alone in voicing that concern, but with NIL deals already rampant throughout college athletics, adjusting to this world looks like the only option -- no matter how difficult it may be. "It's despicable that we have to sit here at this level of ball and say these things to defend the people of this organization, the kids, 17-year-old kids and their families," Fisher said. On Wednesday night, however, Alabama coach Nick Saban said the quiet part out loud -- and it was far from the only thing he had to get off his chest.

Alabama's coach called out schools for paying players, but that's not the whole truth.

And I’m not here to say it should have remained on the books. The idea that Saban was somehow being noble by not helping to pay recruits smells of gaslighting fiction. To be honest, Saban sounded a little scared. Alabama and Auburn had the NIL Act regulating the industry repealed from state law. Saban’s incendiary words on a random Wednesday night in the middle of May are going to set off a firestorm throughout the SEC and college football. You know in a Guy Ritchie flick when the soundtrack catches and the camera cuts to a hard angle? Saban now apparently wants to use the media as a check to balance a system so broken that it uses boosters to pay players through third-party slush funds because the schools will not just do the right thing and cut in the guys on the field. When it comes to Saban, just always know this one thing above all others. Someone has to call out Saban for being dishonest, though. Someone had to wake up Coach Prime and tell him you were throwing fists in the dark. Here’s the part that Saban left out of his rant, though. I mean, Jackson State paid a guy a million dollars last year that was a really good Division I player to come to school.

Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher lashed out Thursday in response to comments from Alabama's Nick Saban Wednesday about the Aggies buying recruits.

He's the greatest ever, huh?" "My dad always told me this: When people show you who they are, believe them," Fisher said. "It's really despicable. Fisher became the first former Saban assistant to defeat the coach in October. It's ridiculous, when he's not on top." "We were second in recruiting last year," Saban said.

Texas A&M Aggies head coach Jimbo Fisher went scorched earth on Alabama head coach Nick Saban on Thursday, exposing the legendary head coach as a narcissist ...

Saban has profited off the name, image, and likeness of his players for over 20 years while they earn nothing but a scholarship. So have players at Tennessee. And players at Alabama. Nearly every major program in the nation right now has players who are receiving NIL deals. He’s been doing it for years while we act like it’s normal behavior for a human. Good on Fisher for exposing Saban as an ego-maniac who whines when he doesn’t get his way. Jimbo Fisher in response to Nick Saban’s comments on his recruiting: “Some people think they’re God. Go dig into how ‘God’ did his deal. “Some people think they’re God,” said a visibly angered Fisher while alluding to Saban. “Go dig into how ‘God’ did his deal.

Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin spent Thursday on Twitter voicing his opinions about the ongoing war of words from Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher.

Here is a collection of everything Lane Kiffin tweeted or retweeted about Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher. Ole Miss plays Texas A&M on Oct. 29 and Alabama on Nov. 12 this fall. Kiffin is no stranger to this debate.

Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher fired some haymakers at Nick Saban while responding to the Alabama football coach's accusations.

"Not going to," Fisher said. "You can call me anything you want to call me," Fisher said. "It's a shame that we have to do this," he said in his first sentence. "Listen, you coach with people like Bobby Bowden (at Florida State) and learn how to do things," Fisher said. "The narcissist in him doesn't allow those things to happen," Fisher said. You can find out anything you want to find out, what he does and how he does it.

Former Cowboys cornerback Deion Sanders and Alabama football coach Nick Saban appear together in TV commercials where they play up Prime Time's penchant for ...

“You best believe I will address that LIE Coach SABAN told tomorrow,” Sanders tweeted in the wee hours Thursday morning. Taking over a team that went 4-8 just a year prior, Sanders coached the Tigers to a program-best 11 wins by the fall of 2021 and was honored with the Eddie Robinson Award as the season’s top FCS coach. Saban stirred up a hornet’s nest recently when he railed against what he sees as widespread misuse of the Name, Image, and Likeness deals that are becoming an increasingly larger part of college football.

Jimbo Fisher didn't soften his words when responding to Nick Saban's comments, calling them “despicable” and the Alabama coach a “narcissist.”.

When you’ve got all the advantages, it’s easy.” Saban said Wednesday that Texas A&M “bought every player on their team,” in reference to the program’s Name, Image and Likeness deals. “It’s a shame that we have to do this. Go dig into his past.” That they broke state laws, that we bought every player on this group. “I don’t cheat.

Alabama coach Nick Saban set fire to college football's offseason on Wednesday night by flat-out claiming Texas A&M "bought" every player on its team ...

I'm happy for him that he got a great player." He got a great player, and I think that's good for his program. He's a good guy, was a great player. Has got a great personality, and I enjoy doing commercials with him. You best believe I will address that LIE Coach SABAN told tomorrow. Alabama coach Nick Saban set fire to college football's offseason on Wednesday night by flat-out claiming Texas A&M "bought" every player on its team through name, image and likeness (NIL) deals.

Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher lashed out Thursday in response to comments from Alabama football's Nick Saban Wednesday about the Aggies buying recruits.

"He showed you who he is. "We're done," Fisher said. "Listen, you coach with people like Bobby Bowden and learn how to do things," Fisher said. "My dad always told me this: When people show you who they are, believe them," Fisher said. "You coach with other people and learn how not to do things. "It's really despicable.

The presser was scheduled after an accusation made by Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban Wednesday night at the World Games event in Birmingham.

Fisher indicated Saban had reached out, but he had declined his calls. BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - “We’re always going to do things right, and we’re always going to be here,” Jimbo Fisher said at the beginning of an emotional presser Thursday morning. “Despicable.” Jimbo Fisher addresses accusations by Alabama coach Nick Saban

Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said Thursday he ignored a phone call from Nick Saban after the Alabama coach made national headlines Wednesday night by saying ...

“You coach with other people and learn how not to do things. “You coach with people like Bobby Bowden and learn how to do things,” he said. He’s showing you who he is.”

Public criticism of any kind does not resolve issues and creates a distraction from seeking solutions for the issues facing college athletics today. There is ...

At a point on the calendar when college football is typically still months away from national relevance, Saban and Fisher are putting the SEC in the headlines. The part that is frustrating is to say NIL is the only reason kids are choosing our program." "The membership of the Southeastern Conference has established expectations for conduct and sportsmanship that were not met last night nor today," Sankey said.

Alabama coach Nick Saban says he was wrong to "single out" Texas A&M and Jackson State but stands by his criticism of the application of name, image and ...

There are going to be a lot of kids that end up with no degrees and make decisions based on the wrong things." And then there are the people who are trying to hold the line like we are and saying, 'OK, we're going to create equal opportunity for players, but we don't want to get into any kind of bidding wars to get guys to come here for money.' " It's an absolute mess and a train wreck, and the kids are going to be the ones who suffer in the end. "That way, nobody feels that one player is getting a bunch of money to come here and another player feels like he's not getting anything," Saban explained. "I should have been more specific when I said 'bought' in saying you can buy players now through name, image and likeness and never mentioned any specific school and just said 'across the sport,'" Saban said. "The hard thing is there are no guardrails on this road.

Nick Saban, de Alabama, asegura que con la implementación de los pactos NIL en NCAA, Texas A&M ha aprovechado para convencer a prospectos de preparatoria.

Por su parte, la Crimson Tide consiguió tres jugadores de cinco estrellas y 19 con cuatro. A&M compró todos los jugadores de su equipo. Ahora, Nick Saban ha denunciado malas prácticas tras la implementación de los NIL.

Thanks to NIL rules that are still making their first mark on college football, Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher threw verbal haymakers at one another.

The idea that players received enticements to attend college beyond facilities, playing time and academics is not exactly new or even controversial. The complaints and accusations leveled by Fisher and Saban have been the most direct, but they are not the first NIL-prompted broadsides from coaches. The parity in college football he’s been talking about, go to talk to coaches who coach for him. “Just go ask the people that work for him, you’ll know exactly what he’s about. Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey offered a reality check for the entire industry. Maybe the most delectable side effect of NIL legislation is that the coaches don't quite understand how it works, or they at least hold different interpretations of how it works, which means they don't quite grasp how to be petty in public subtly. NIL rules have moved it somewhat above board now, though, and so coaches feel emboldened to criticize their brethren in public. Thursday morning, Texas A&M Coach Jimbo Fisher sprinted to the nearest news conference and pulled out a grenade launcher. Having outperformed even its typically high recruiting rankings, Texas A&M immediately took fire for how it used NIL. Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin, ever the rascal, said the Aggies would “incur a luxury tax in how much they paid for their signing class.” In basketball, some shuddered at the way one Miami booster has lured transfers. Go dig into to wherever he’s been. It has helped us all better understand which college football coaches hate each other.

"I wasn't saying that anyone was doing anything illegal in using name, image and likeness. I didn't say that. That was something that was assumed."

"I think a lot of us are concerned about that," he said. "I really wasn’t saying that anyone was doing anything illegal in using name, image and likeness. We need to work together to find solutions and that will be our focus at the upcoming SEC Spring Meetings.” I really apologize for that part of it." “You're taking shots at 17-year-old kids and their families, that they broke state laws." “We were second in recruiting last year," he said Wednesday. "A&M was first.

The Alabama coach and the Texas A&M coach launching personal attacks on each other's programs is entertaining, but probably not best for college football.

We need to work together to find solutions and that will be our focus at the upcoming SEC Spring Meetings." "I really wasn't saying anybody was doing anybody illegal," Saban said. The collective becomes a representative of the school and you can't do that. You can find out anything you want to find out what he does and how he does it. The Aggies are ranked No. 14 in the 2023 team recruiting rankings according to 247Sports.com. Texas Tech is No. 2. Texas A&M had the No. 1 recruiting class in 2022 and two of the Aggies' five-star recruits had Alabama in their top three. That has to be a source of frustration for a program that has produced the most NFL talent since Saban's arrival in Tuscaloosa. His machine is the root cause of that lack of parity. Saban isn't wrong when he laments the lack of parity or equality in the sport, but he's not the best voice to deliver that message. "First of all, I should've never really singled anybody out," Saban said. "We were second in recruiting last year, A&M was first," Saban said. Saban made that mistake when he said Wednesday night that Texas A&M "bought every player" in its 2022 class.

What is their war of words really about? What does it say about college football? And what comes next? Opposing coaches and athletic directors weighed in ...

Nick's going to say, we're going to show 'em. And Jimbo is going to say, this is what these guys said about you. It's like no wonder we have the issues we have, when we have adults and people in leadership positions handling stuff this way." Jimbo did something, and the professor did not like what the pupil did." I think it's going to be one of these highest-rated games of the year. I think he sees this as man, this gap could potentially close, and he's trying to ring the alarm." There was a whole lot of loss of production around college football today." The way that they've been doing it isn't really holding up in this new age, and that's kind of what we saw it as. Over and over again, they've described the lack of rules as creating an environment akin to the "Wild, wild West." There was no reason to cross the line like he did. "He should have been smarter," the assistant said. Another assistant who once worked for Saban said that Fisher must have sensed an opening after the win and had the confidence from it to go on the attack. "He's the greatest ever, huh?"

The big-time college coaches have engaged in a public war of words this week over Texas A&M's NIL deals.

Saban later issued an apology to Fisher and Jackson State coach Deion Sanders, whom he also made pay-for-play allegations against, for his recent accusations. “The membership of the Southeastern Conference has established expectations for conduct and sportsmanship that were not met last night nor today,” Sankey said. The statement, obtained by The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach, includes remarks from SEC commissioner Greg Sankey addressing the board’s disapproval of Fisher and Saban’s actions.

Jackson State football coach Deion Sanders responded to Nick Saban's comments on Thursday after the Crimson Tide's football coach criticized Sanders for ...

“You can’t do that publicly and call privately,” Sanders said. “He’s the magna cum laude of college football and that’s what it’s going to be because he’s earned that. Travis ain’t chasing a dollar. With that, Sanders reiterated Hunter is not making more than him as the program’s coach. Let’s talk publicly and let everybody hear the conversation.” Saban did not specifically target one player at Jackson State who was making a million dollars.

Recruiting is the heartbeat of the sport. Everything about college football eventually comes down to recruiting. Through the accusations from the Alabama coach ...

What used to happen under the table is above it, public and -- until further notice -- largely legal. At some level, it's legal until someone somewhere can prove offering a Kansas State guard ( Miami transfer Nijel Pack) an $800,000 contract to tweet and do videos for a billionaire's business is against the rules. Now it's, "Why don't we have a collective?" The invective is real, and it is spectacular. At least under the old rules, we knew the rules. Absolutes in the recruiting space seem hard to come by when questioning someone's ethics. There's a bit of glass houses aspect to all this. Tennessee, Missouri and Mississippi either have laws or pending laws that would allow coaches to line up NIL deals. The NCAA isn't about to tell us. The NCAA concluded in 2019 that there was "an unconstrained culture of booster involvement in football recruiting." Louisiana has a bill pending that would allow NIL booster involvement. What has been a rumor in the industry Saban exposed as fact.

The verbal battle between the Alabama and Texas A&M coaches is a product of a system with no rules or enforcement. It provided some offseason entertainment ...

It will echo on through the fall and well beyond, until there's definitive rules and folks in charge competent enough to enforce them. While there's alleged regulations and supposed efforts to enforce them, the reality on the landscape is there's so little faith in NCAA enforcement that the richest schools will pay for the best players. While the Alabama dynasty isn't in imminent peril, one of the windows this opens is to what the sport could look like if NIL truly does lead the way in recruiting in the future. They were generous enough to take a week of storylines and turn them into a full season's worth. If A&M had been savvier and less emotional, they'd have dunked on Saban's comments and taken them as a compliment that they've managed to build a better system. Could Saban, 70, have been tipping his hand that he'll be following Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and UNC's Roy Williams out to the pasture of NIL ambivalent legends? Fisher is going to resonate as the juiciest on-field story in the sport. It's a look at the future of a sport with little leadership, rules bathed in gray and no governing body that's capable or respected enough to enforce them. Simply put, today is a reminder that there's no one to police the NIL world, and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey's verbal hand slap certainly isn't going to stop anyone. The landscape is lawless, the sheriff in Indianapolis has abandoned his post and everyone is fraying at the edges. They involved programs expected to be two of the season's headliners, as both Alabama and Texas A&M are locks to be preseason top 5 teams. "These entire shenanigans emphasize how impotent the NCAA is and has been," one veteran assistant coach told ESPN on Thursday afternoon.

Alabama coach Nick Saban has come out firing against programs he believes are not operating within the intended spirit of NIL Legislation. Georgia coach Kirby ...

“We don’t have the same funding and resources as some of these schools do to do these NIL deals,” Kiffin said in a Yahoo.com story. “You’re going to have the haves and have-nots and the separations that’s already there is going to grow larger,” Smart said. I know the history, I know the tradition and I know things. And Texas? The Longhorns led everyone with $60 million in giving.” We now have a sport that has completely different salary caps and some of these schools are five or 10 times more than everybody else of what they can pay these players.” I don’t think that would be the NCAA’s intention,” Saban said the day before the CFP Championship Game. “And the schools that have the capacity and the ability and are more competitive in the NIL market are going to be schools that step ahead on top of other schools.” Nobody did anything about it.” They bragged about it! A&M bought every player on their team. A&M was first. “This is garbage, OK? It pisses me off ... I know how some of those guys recruit, too.

Saban said his complaint was targeted more toward the system and collectives' influence on recruiting, rather than Texas A&M.

Some of it was incorrect. Some of it was prescient. Some of it was sour grapes. Some of it was incorrect. Some of it was prescient. Some of it was sour grapes.

A hypocrite. “Despicable.” College football is suddenly revealing its seedy underbelly.. Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban has opted to address the new ...

“The issue and the problem with name, image and likeness is coaches try to create an advantage for themselves by going out and saying, ‘OK, how can we use this to our advantage?’” Saban said. Saban should be careful here as he angrily tosses his feces to see what sticks. Saban doesn't disagree with the NIL at its core. The Aggies finished the 2021 recruiting cycle with the unanimous top class in the country across all services. Hell, read about it in the paper!” Saban said. It was in the paper and they bragged about it.

The Alabama coach tried to deescalate a war of words with Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher on Thursday.

I think that's the big picture we want to focus on in Destin, that I want to focus on in Destin." And they should not be able to give money to the player, just like an alumnus can't give money to a player." It's the system that allows you to do it, and that's the issue that I have." I think one of the solutions would be if you have people that are representatives of your school that give money to a collective, and then the collective turns around and gives it to players on the team ... then that collective should become a representative of the institution. That was something that was assumed by what I said, which is not really what I meant, nor was it what I said. "That was a mistake and I apologize for that part of it," Saban said, clarifying that he wasn't accusing Texas A&M or Jackson State of breaking any rules or laws through NIL deals.

As conversations in college football continues to revolve around name, image and likeness, two of the most notable coaches in the country are sniping back ...

That will be determined more by the coaching staffs, on-field results and the efforts of each school's respective collectives In the big picture, it will be interesting to see what, if anything, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has to say about it. Well it's clear that Saban and Fisher, who were both on the LSU staff together in the early 2000s, probably won't be sending each other holiday cards this winter. Both parties have spoken respectfully of each other and their programs, but last year Fisher — when asked by a fan at an alumni event what it would take to beat the Crimson Tide other than Saban retiring — quipped “We’re going to beat his ass even when he’s there.” The comment was in jest and Saban responded in kind when relayed Fisher's words, asking "in golf?" You’re here because Texas A&M coach Fisher fired back Thursday in a scorched-Earth press conference the likes of which we’ve never seen in college football. It has captivated people inside and outside of the sport. In just 10 minutes, Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher threw gasoline on a feud that has been smoldering for months. I apologize for that.— Aaron Suttles (@AaronSuttles) May 19, 2022 Nick Saban: I should have never singled anyone out. The Albert Means recruiting violation drama in the early 2000s was the last time SEC schools really went after each other. Nick Saban played Thursday's radio interview exactly like I thought he would. "It’s a shame that we have to do this.

“I don't think (Greg Sankey) fits into any of this. I think there is part of Texas A&M that has that second-school mentality. That's honestly like using this as ...

“There is one character from that show I kept thinking about last night, because when Nick Saban started to go into different portions of this presentation/speech/discussion topics that he wanted to share opinions on, he got away from being nice and he went a little bit more down the lines of this guy.” “If you are going to sit and bitch, moan and complain about how it works, accuse others of how they are gaming the system, that’s not going to get you anywhere. “You coach with people like Bobby Bowden and learn how to do things,” Fisher said Thursday. “You coach with other people and learn how not to do things. “They both opened the door and put a massive bulls eye on their back by proclaiming they are innocent. That was the unintended consequence of the NIL. … I understand Jimbo getting upset when it was implied he cheated. Anybody that didn’t understand that NIL came into being the unintended consequences were going to include unrestricted free agency in college football and you combine NIL with transfer portal. You can get the collective to pledge an x amount of dollars to a recruit, if and when he does sign. You have all the success in the world. It was sort of an admission that – willfully or not – was behind Texas A&M. Texas A&M was doing a better job of procuring players through – as far as we know – the rules as they are written.” We can’t just outrecruit Alabama. We have to buy our players, and I don’t know if I would take it that way. I think Saban is so used to saying things and not having any consequences because his feet are never really held to the fire. “You essentially have the coaches of the No. 1 and 2 teams in the country openly warring with each other.

The proliferation of name, image, and likeness money is causing chaos for college football. Which has caused chaos between Alabama coach Nick Saban and a ...

“I don’t want to go down that road of bidding for players out of high school,” Saban said. That’s what you have, Nick, because that’s what you deserve. “I should have been more specific when I said ‘bought’ in saying you can buy players now through name, image and likeness and never mentioned any specific school and just said ‘across the sport,'” Saban said.

Kirby Smart recently suggested this new era of college football might bore fans. Ha. Anyone bored by this NIL-fueled Nick Saban-Jimbo Fisher feud?

“We built him up to be the czar of football? In January, Georgia defeated Alabama in the national championship, a show of strength that an SEC East force has awakened and may persistently rival Saban’s Crimson Tide for top-dog status. Many consider it their mission to mold young men, and, to be sure, plenty of athletes have learned and benefited from a relationship with a coach. The only thing missing Thursday was a physical slap, although Fisher suggested Saban needed one. I wasn't raised that way.” We didn’t buy one player." … I ain't into that. “We were second in recruiting last year," Saban said. "A&M was first. But at its core, FBS football is an entertainment business. If you're a college football fan bored by the events of this offseason, get someone to check your pulse. The feud between Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher that boiled over into a war of words this week – Saban dubbed Fisher a cheater, while Texas A&M's coach fired back that someone ought to look under Alabama's hood – is the tastiest spat in American entertainment since Will Smith smacked Chris Rock during the Oscars.

Forget right vs. wrong. This week's drama down South just shows that successful coaches will always have unconditional support, no matter what they say.

Now he is saying the only school to finish ahead of Alabama in recruiting rankings did so because of NIL deals. Auburn left Bryan Harsin twisting in the wind for weeks while it looked for reasons to fire him, which it will inevitably do in a year or two. Then and now, Fisher looks out for Fisher … just as Saban looks out for Saban. You don’t need to look at the record to see if a coach is successful. I will be honest and say I ain’t personally seen the education at A&M. But I did read a Bleacher Report story in which a former assistant said coaches were given one academic mandate: "Keep the players eligible." (Meanwhile, let’s check in on the SEC West. Alabama’s Saban and Texas A&M’s Fisher are feuding publicly. The regents, chancellor and president all have Jimbo’s back. Eight years ago, as Jimbo Fisher and Florida State won the national championship, Alabama coach Nick Saban was pacing along the Seminoles’ sideline, pulling for them. Fisher spouted all sorts of ridiculous comments Thursday, like this: "You can call me anything you want to call me. It put Texas A&M on probation, slapped a six-month show cause on Fisher, and declared he failed to “promote an atmosphere of compliance because of his personal involvement in the recruiting violation.” College football is in a strange new era, but in some ways, it feels familiar. He cares if Texas A&M is buying better recruits than Alabama is getting.

Deion Sanders won't pick up the phone if Nick Saban calls, after he said the Alabama coach spewed public "lies" Wednesday about Jackson State and top ...

He was talking to his givers. He was just using us to get to where he was trying to get to. He was talking to his alumni. “He was talking to his boosters. He was trying to get money. He wants to be that dude.” He wants me to mold him. That was what he was doing. He wants me to be his navigational system through life. The deals are worth less than $250,000, according to Andscape. This kid wants to be great. We need to talk publicly — not privately.

Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher took off the gloves in a 10-minute blitz that was thinly disguised as a press conference. He wants a piece of Alabama's ...

College football has been his personal playground for the better part of a decade, as he has won six of his seven national championships since 2009, including eight SEC titles. They pay in cold, hard, untraceable cash, and in most cases, a nice NIL deal is probably the visible part of the package. The NIL/recruiting window is a different size for different players. And if you listen to Jimbo, the Saban way wasn’t always squeaky clean. That’s the question high school players and their parents should be asking the coaches/CEOs of these multimillion-dollar corporations that have masqueraded for decades as bastions of amateur athletics. While this was happening, the transfer portal was bursting at the seams and college athletes came to the realization that they can now negotiate with these football factories and not only profit from their name, image and likeness, but also boost their earning potential because of their talent. Meanwhile, Bama quarterback Bryce Young struck an NIL deal with a BMW dealer in Tuscaloosa, the latest addition to a portfolio that’s approaching $1 million. Fisher is on the warpath because he believes Saban — they won a national championship together in 2003 at LSU — is a hypocrite. The boosters and bagmen who had previously worked the graveyard shift to buy players under the cover of darkness are suddenly allowed to make legitimate financial deals in the light of day through legitimate channels, and needy families should be able to benefit. “The narcissist in him doesn't allow those things to happen.” “Look, I should have never singled anybody out, and I wasn’t saying that either one of those schools did anything wrong,” he told ESPN. “I didn’t intend it to mean they were buying players, but more that you’re able to buy players now and it’s totally legal. He wants a piece of Alabama's Nick Saban after the Crimson Tide coaching legend leveled some heavy accusations during an event in Birmingham on Wednesday night.

The Southeastern Conference spring meetings will be held in person for the first time since 2019 in a little less than two weeks.

We invite you to join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter. The 56-year-old Fisher won a national championship in 2013 as head coach at Florida State before receiving a 10-year contract for $75 million to leave Tallahassee for Texas A&M in 2017. This was the second time this year Fisher issued a fiery public defense of his program. Last week, the NCAA issued guidance to Division I members to clarify rules against boosters being involved in recruiting. You’d have to ask all the other people why they’re talking about A&M so much.” “I look at the betterment of college football. “I don’t cheat. At an event in Birmingham, Alabama, earlier this week he said some schools were spending “tons of money to get players.” And that’s the issue that I have.” And the parity in college football he’s been talking about? Both have upset the landscape veteran coaches are used to, leading to complaints and now scathing accusations. Saban apologized a few hours later but generally stuck to his stance and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey followed soon after with a public reprimand for both.

Everyone on social media made the same Kirby Smart jokes after comments made by Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher.

Georgia isn’t scheduled to play Texas A&M or Alabama this season, but odds are the Bulldogs will likely see either team in Atlanta for the SEC championship. I would just like it where a decision isn’t based on where ‘I’m going to the highest bidder.’ If we could control that some kind of way, it would be much better.” So once the dust settled on the comments made by the two SEC West coaches, everyone was eager to see what Smart would say on the matter. Smart has been asked about the impact Name, Image and likeness had on recruiting for this cycle. Fisher and Smart are the only two former Saban assistants to beat the Alabama head coach. Things got so out of hand between the two coaches on Thursday that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey had to step up in and publicly admonish both coaches.