COLLEGE FOOTBALL NEWS

Harbaugh responds to Saban’s rant on satellite’s

Lindyssports.com Staff

May 31, 2016 at 9:05 pm.

Nick Saban passed on talking about the elephant in the room at the Southeastern Conference meetings on Tuesday. Then someone asked the Alabama coach again for his take on satellite camps, and Saban couldn’t hold back.

For Saban, a proponent of streamlined recruiting regulations and stronger rules regarding agent runners who might strain the truth and distort reality for potential draft prospects for their own financial gain, the inclusion of a third party without guideline and oversight is begging for disaster.

“It’s bad for college football,” he said during a long-winded rant that lasted more than five minutes Tuesday at the SEC spring meetings in Miramar, Fla.

Saban said compliance and competitive advantage should be the major questions for coaches and the NCAA. While he said he’s “not into politics,” Saban made it clear he wasn’t blaming any particular coach, including Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh, for taking advantage of the loopholes in the system.

But Harbaugh didn’t take kindly to what Saban had to say and early Tuesday evening tweeted:

“Amazing” to me- Alabama broke NCAA rules & now their HC is lecturing us on the possibility of rules being broken at camps. Truly “amazing.”

SEC coaches have been banned from participating in satellite camps. But after the NCAA backtracked on a ban of the camps, they might be cleared to take part.

Harbaugh has been picked apart by several of Saban’s SEC peers, including former Big Ten coach Bret Bielema, who threatened to drop by Harbaugh’s camp in Florida during college spring break.

“This is the Wild, Wild West at its best,” said Saban, who has notably landed a top-10 recruiting class almost every year he’s been in Tuscaloosa. “There have been no specific guidelines relative to how we’re managing control of this stuff. It’s happening outside the normal evaluation window, which means we’re taking time away from our players.

“We have to worry about our players doing the right things with the limited time we have with them but we’re not going to do that because we have to be somewhere else to see someone else.”

Florida coach Jim McElwain said he’s not surprised, nor does he blame other coaches for coming to his state.

One suggested solution? Saban endorsed a college football commissioner.

“I’m not blaming Jim Harbaugh,” Saban said. “I’m saying it’s bad for college football. Harbaugh can do whatever he wants to do if he thinks that’s what’s best. There needs to be somebody who looks out for what’s best for the game, not the SEC or the Big Ten or Jim Harbaugh. But what’s best for the game of college football. The integrity of the game. The coaches, players and people who play it.

“That’s bigger than all this. Now who does that? Now because we have the Power 5, everyone is doing what they want. There needs to be a (college football) commissioner.”