Why Nick Saban’s NIL Rant Wasn’t Actually About Jimbo Fisher

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

The college football universe was set on fire last May when Alabama head coach Nick Saban accused Texas A&M of “buying all their players.” Aggies head coach Jimbo Fisher, once a Saban assistant, took offense to his former boss’ comments and responded with a fiery rant during a press conference. This war of words dominated college football headlines for the majority of the offseason, and even now, with tempers cooled, the question remains: Why did Nick Saban make those comments? So today, Alex Scarborough breaks down the bad blood, and describes a motivation unfamiliar to the many of the Crimson Tide’s coaches, players, fans, and boosters––fear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Alex Scarborough, we're here to discuss what you've called the college football's most
0:05.8	explosive story of the year.
0:07.8	Yeah, I definitely need to expect a good old fashioned war of words between college footballs.
0:12.9	Two most prominent coaches during a random week Ross Mac.
0:18.7	Alex Scarborough is a college sports reporter for ESPN.com.
0:24.2	So Alex, describe for us the moment that kicked this whole thing off.
0:28.2	Yeah, it's Nick Sabin with a live microphone in his hand, but it's not what you'd expect
0:33.5	in terms of a post-game news conference where we get those epic rants that we see on YouTube
0:39.4	and on TV all the time.
0:42.4	It was supposed to be very low key, this fireside chat where Nick Sabin and Albeba's
0:48.3	local tornadoes are swapping stories, answering a few innocent questions.
0:53.8	But it was a softball question about name image and likeness deals in college sports
1:00.6	that got this whole thing started.
1:02.5	The issue and the problem with name image and likeness is coaches trying to create an
1:07.6	advantage for themselves.
1:09.0	That's not what name image and likeness were supposed to be.
1:12.1	That's what it's become and that's the problem in college athletics right now.
1:17.0	And now every player is saying, well, what am I going to get?
1:21.6	It turned into must see TV or viewing for all of college football, particularly college coaches.
1:28.0	I heard from people across the country about them tuning in to watch Nick Sabin's comments
1:33.9	and disbelief.
1:34.8	I mean, we were second in recruiting last year and then was first.
	...

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