Nick Saban (With Help From Jimbo Fisher And Deion Sanders) Just Shoved College Football To The Edge Of Destruction

Clip and save: Thursday, May 19, 2022 was the day that led to college football blowing itself up, with Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher pushing the plunger.

Or was it Alabama’s Nick Saban?

Whatever the case, neither college football nor the NCAA will survive the bombshells flung by those heavyweight coaches and Deion Sanders (yes, Prime Time, also fired lethal shots with his tongue) after they unofficially invited their peers to join them in saying the ugly part out loud.

Which is . . .

Amateurism? Puhleeze.

College football players have been getting paid for years to pass, punt and kick. Not only that, but more than a few programs aren’t purer than one of The Bear’s houndstooth hats at the Paul W. Bryant Museum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where Saban started this whole thing Wednesday.

That’s when Saban blasted Fisher and Texas A&M during a session with local business leaders faithful to the hometown Crimson Tide and the memory of Bryant as Alabama’s other legendary football messiah.

“I mean, we were second in recruiting last year,” Saban said to what essentially were Alabama boosters disguised as those local business leaders. “A&M was first. A&M bought every player on their team — made a deal for name, image, likeness. We didn’t buy one player, all right? 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. It’s tough.”

Then Fisher blasted Saban and Alabama the next day.

“We (at Texas A&M) never bought anybody,” Fisher said Thursday during a press conference on campus in College Station, Texas. “No rules are broken. Nothing was done wrong. It’s a shame that you’ve got to sit here and defend 17-year-old kids and families and Texas A&M. Because we do things right. We’re always going to do things right. We’re always going to be here. We’re doing a heck of a job.”

With Fisher getting angrier by the millisecond, the former assistant coach under Saban said, “It’s despicable that a reputable head coach can come out and say this when he doesn’t get his way. The narcissist in him doesn’t allow those things to happen. It’s ridiculous when he’s not on top.

“Some people think they’re God. Go dig into how God did his deal. You may find out a lot of things you don’t want to know. We build him up to be the czar of football. Go dig into his past, or anybody’s that’s ever coached with him.

“You can find out anything you want to find out, what he does and how he does it.”

Uh-oh.

The trigger for much of this is the ever-expanding bogeyman for the NCAA called NILs — as in name, image and likeness deals that are legal under many state laws and NCAA legislation, but they’ve become a secret way for boosters to pay athletes to attend particular schools.

There also is the nearly four-year-old transfer portal, which Saban said is free agency in college football without the salary cap.

When you combine those two things, you get the haves and the have nots growing farther apart in college football. In addition, if you’re Saban, it causes you to suggest that some of “the haves” (or wannabe “haves”) are using NILs and that transfer portal in dastardly ways.

Which brings us to Saban dragging Sanders into this cat-turned-lion fight. His Aflac
AFL
commercial partner is the head football coach at Jackson State, a HBCU (historically black college/university) program. During Saban’s discussion with those Alabama business folks, he said Jackson State paid five-star prospect Travis Hunter $1 million through NIL deals to flip his commitment from Florida State during the early signing period in December to attend Jackson State.

Sanders responded by saying, “I don’t make a million. Travis ain’t built like that. Travis ain’t chasing a dollar. Travis is chasing greatness. Travis and his family don’t get down like that. They never came to us in search of the bag. They’re not built like that. This kid wants to be great.”

Later, Sanders added, “I don’t even wear a watch and I know what time it is. They forget I know who’s been bringing the bag and dropping it off. I know this stuff. I’m not the one you want to play with when it comes to all of this stuff.”

Is that Michael Buffer’s voice echoing throughout college football these days?

“Let’s get ready to rumble,” indeed.

Several of Saban’s other former guys could go “Jimbo” on their old boss since Fisher has kicked open the door. Why? Well, before Texas A&M’s home upset of Alabama last October, Saban didn’t lose during any of the previous 24 times he faced one of his former guys.

Think Saban’s former guys like that?

Then again, several of Saban’s former guys could remain loyal to their old boss by going “Nick” on Jimbo.

Here’s the bigger thing: You can’t have a bunch of folks saying this and that about Saban, Fisher and Sanders regarding the underbelly of college football recruiting without having everybody start telling on everybody.

It doesn’t matter how much SEC commissioner Greg Sankey orders Fisher and Saban to stifle under the conference’s rules of “ethical conduct” and “personal criticism.”

It doesn’t matter Saban sought to soften his comments by trying to huddle with Fisher and Sanders in the aftermath (”Not going to. We’re done,” Fisher said of Saban, and according to Sanders, “What you said was public. That doesn’t require a conversation. Let’s talk publicly and let everybody hear the conversation.”).

Listen closely.

It’s not Michael Buffer anymore.

It’s . . . BOOM!

End of college football as we know it.