If you have been following along today, you are already well aware of the comments Alabama head football coach Nick Saban made about Jimbo Fisher and the Texas A&M football program and Deion Sanders and Jackson State.
“I mean, we were second in recruiting last year,” Saban told the audience. “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 gonna be able to sustain that in the future because more and more people are doing it. It's tough.”
“That's not what it was supposed to be,” he said. “That's what it's become. And that's the problem in college athletics right now. Now every player is saying, ‘Well, what am I going to get?'”
“Hell, read about it in the paper. I mean, Jackson State paid a guy $1 million last year that was a really good Division I player to come to the school. It was in the paper, and they bragged about it. Nobody did anything about it. I mean, these guys at Miami that are going to play basketball there for $400,000, it's in the newspaper. The guy tells you how he's doing it.”
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Following those comments, Fisher held a press conference where he annihilated Saban and said that he was done with him.
Just moments ago, Saban joined College Sports on Sirius XM radio and he ‘apologized' for singling out Fisher and Sanders.
“I should have never singled anybody out, and I apologize for that part of it,” Saban said.
Saban added that he has reached out to both Fisher and Sanders but neither has taken his call.
“Never got a response. I feel bad about it.”
Saban also claims that he never meant to insinuate that anyone did anything illegal.
“That was something assumed by what I said.”
[irp]
Saban: "It's the whole system, and is this a sustainable system, and is it good for college football?"
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) May 19, 2022
Saban says he wasn't insinuating anyone did anything illegal. "That was something assumed by what I said." Adds that the system allows teams to operate this way.
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) May 19, 2022
Saban: "Collectives are the issue."
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) May 19, 2022
