Nick Saban – Texas A&M Bought Top Recruiting Class
Over the past few months, my respect for the Texas A&M athletic program has really taken a downward turn. During the college bowl season, you might recall the "vaunted Aggie program" turned tail and ran away from a game against Wake Forest in the Gator Bowl.
Last week we learned that Texas A&M Baseball decided against taking on a powerhouse team from Incarnate Word because the Aggies feared the game would affect their RPI heading into the NCAA Baseball Tournament. Granted even if the Aggies won the game it would affect their RPI but jeez, you signed up to play the game A&M don't be such wusses.
Last night the A&M program took yet another hit in the image when Alabama head football coach Nick Saban suggested that Texas A&M had "purchased" its top-ranked recruiting class for the upcoming season. To be clear, Coach Saban wasn't saying the Aggies did anything wrong, he was mainly calling out the NCAA and their lack of control over the controversial Name, Image, and Likeness Rules that have recently been implemented.
In his comments before business and civic leaders in Birmingham last night (Wednesday, May 18, 2022) Saban told those gathered that the University of Alabama "didn't buy one player". He did say that Alabama athletes earned $3 million doing it "the right way". Saban's comments are chronicled in a report published by ESPN.com.
Saban wasn't the first SEC coach to call out the Aggie "business model". Lane Kiffin, head coach at Ole Miss quipped in February that Texas A&M would incur a luxury tax on how much they paid for their signing class.
As you might imagine those words didn't sit well with Aggie head coach Jimbo Fisher who claimed that other coaches were spreading rumors about deals being made at Texas A&M. Fisher called Kiffin's comments "irresponsible as hell".
All of this banter back and forth between top programs in college football has certainly brought to light the fact that the current NIL Rules as "set up or not set up" by the NCAA are not sustainable. The NIL rules as they stand will destroy college football as we know it.
The bottom line is Nick Saban is right. The rules are going to have to change or college football is going to become nothing more than a free agent portal filled with free-agent athletes. Many of them will be screwed out of a chance to play college football because of their own personal greed.
You see, not everyone who enters the transfer portal gets picked up much less paid. And once that happens they might not be able to return to their former school. The NCAA needs to wake up and they need to wake up quick because they are about to become as obsolete as Blockbuster video.
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