If you’ve missed it, Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher have engaged over the last day or so in a highly entertaining, utterly meaningless war of words. To briefly recap:
Yesterday, at an event in Birmingham, Saban said that Texas A&M won their top-ranked recruiting class by having “bought every player,” adding that Alabama “didn’t buy one player.” Today, Fisher responded by not only denying that A&M had bought players but by calling Saban a narcissist, saying Saban thinks he’s God, and accusing Saban of a habit of illicit recruiting behavior himself.
There are, of course, ground-up bits of truth and ground-up bits of probably-truth in all of this. There are things upon which to speculate and things that could probably be verified and things people know that we, the humble public, will never know. There are details and distinctions and all sorts of fun little implications we could hash out if we had a substantial team of investigative journalists, participants willing to talk, and an upstanding moral arbiter to hand out report cards at the end.
Here, though, is probably the best summary of what’s happened, and what’s happening:
- Entities like Alabama and Texas A&M have used money to lure recruits for years. Alabama was better at it pre-NIL.
- Texas A&M was extremely effective in its early adaptation to the current NIL climate.
- Nick Saban warned Alabama boosters that they need to catch up to Texas A&M.
- Jimbo Fisher took the line personally (which was fair) and then unloaded on Saban in response.
The case for Alabama’s success under the table is rather straightforward: A historically streakily good football program became the most dominant power of the last fifteen years immediately after hiring Nick Saban, in large part by bringing in the best talent in the nation, on average over the years, and doing it consistently. After a few years, yes, it may have become a self-perpetuating cycle, with players seeing what playing at Alabama could be, seeing what playing at Alabama could do for them, and following in the footsteps of Saban’s early stars. But the initial upswing? Something was probably happening. Tuscaloosa, Alabama does not hold advantages beyond those held most everywhere else in the SEC.
The case for Texas A&M’s success pushing NIL boundaries is also rather straightforward: In the first season after the rules changed, A&M’s recruiting numbers surged in a big way. A famously large and moneyed fanbase suddenly enjoyed a historic intake of talent. Not that complicated.
Might all of this have been done above-board? Yeah, that’s possible. Is there a board right now above which things can be done? No, not really, so A&M’s probably in the clear right now. Was Saban misleading when he said Alabama’s never paid for a player? I’d sure think so. There might be some legal and other technicalities here and there surrounding this all, it’s possible words were used strategically, but the simplest explanation is that Saban said what everyone thinks in an effort to remind his boosters that Alabama does not simply get to be Alabama in perpetuity, and Fisher did what any good leader would do with fodder like that: He called Nick Saban the worst man to ever walk a sideline for daring besmirch the name of Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University.
This is all speculation, but I’d venture that A&M has been trying to outdo Alabama at the old game and hasn’t done it, while Alabama is a little worried that A&M got such a jump on them after the rules changed. I’d venture that Florida State, where Fisher used to coach, also wasn’t able to outdo Alabama at the old game. I’d venture that Fisher doesn’t like Saban. I’d venture that Saban could care less about Fisher.
What does it mean, then? Again, nothing. Nothing, really. The rules have changed and new battle lines are being drawn and people aren’t sure what is and isn’t allowed and it varies legally state to state and the thing will settle out, but things take time to settle out, and in the meantime there’s a power struggle going on. The air is tense right now, and blowups are more common than they were five years ago, and that doesn’t mean anything is wrong. It’s a natural occurrence, the result of a long-stretched system trying to find a new normal with the object stretching it removed, and we get the added benefit of a scintillating spat between the best to ever do it and a guy who once road Jameis Winston to a national title.
It’s fun.
It’s all fun.
And if Texas A&M’s talent comes true, if Jimbo Fisher does what he hasn’t been able to do for a while now, if A&M can stay a step ahead as other programs react to what they just did…this could be a fun few years of SEC football. Either way, October 8th is going to be a good time. Probably a better time for Alabama than A&M.
Transfers Landing
In the basketball world, Xavier Pinson is headed to New Mexico State, Umoja Gibson is headed to DePaul, and Joey Baker is transferring out of Duke, which some are saying means Northern Iowa transfer guard (and possible Iowa State pickup) AJ Green is going to take that scholarship in Durham. I don’t think anything’s a done deal, but I will say that anyone choosing between Duke and Iowa State is probably going to choose Duke, and I will also say that Iowa State’s in fine shape even if Green doesn’t land in Ames, though it’d obviously be very nice to get a guard of that caliber. Jeremiah Williams isn’t bad. He’s just uncertain.
The Cubs Didn’t Sweep the Pirates
For shame. Was a good game to be at (a little sad—more on that in one of these soon), Cubs ran into a sneaky-good portion of the Pirates’ pitching staff, still probably should’ve done more offensively. No real complaints, but would’ve been a nice one to win. In happy news, I love the seats. Section 129 forever (unless my coinvestors want to change sections next year in which case I’m open—anything for the vibes, team).
Lots of moves, some big and some small, so let’s go through those quick before looking ahead to tonight:
- David Robertson was activated before last night’s game from what’s assumed to be the Covid IL. To make room on the 26-man roster, Mark Leiter Jr. was optioned back to Iowa. To make room on the 40-man roster, Michael Hermosillo was transferred to the…Covid IL (not what it’s called but that’s what it is). Hermosillo joins Jason Heyward in that sphere of limbo, which leaves the Cubs’ 40-man roster at basically 42 men, since those guys can come back at any moment.
- Marcus Stroman starts tonight, and while it’s possible he’ll be on a shorter pitch count than normal, expectations should be fairly conventional for him. In corresponding roster moves, Michael Rucker is onto the 15-day IL with turf toe while Alec Mills has been transferred to the 60-day IL, which was fairly inevitable at this point, given how long he’s been out and how little we’ve heard about his possible return.
- Ed Howard (2020 first-round pick) is out for the year with that recent hip injury. Sucks. Poor guy.
As said, Stroman gets the start tonight as the Cubs begin a four-game set against the Diamondbacks, who we’ve seen are competitive but are not better than the Cubs on paper. It’s the seventh of fourteen straight games against teams not better than the Cubs on paper, with the Cubs 4-2 so far in the stretch. If these Cubs are going to be a medium team and not a bad team, playing well over these next eight is kind of necessary. Would enjoy another series win this weekend.
The Mets: Oh No
Max Scherzer is going to be out a couple months after suffering an oblique injury, and for all the times we’ve pondered recently whether something would crash down on the Mets, well…something is crashing down on the Mets. There are questions about how they’ll respond, and there are questions about whether this is bad luck or a flaw in the Mets’ training approach or conventional luck fitting a narrative, but a thing about this with which Angels fans might be familiar is that if you put a lot of eggs into individual baskets, you need those baskets to hold up. It is good to have Max Scherzer on your team, but you cannot count solely on Max Scherzer, and that’s not what the Mets are doing or have done, but it’s also just kind of what happens when you go after great players. I’m curious how much injuries have affected the Rays in recent years, with their depth-and-flexibility approach. Not easy to pull off, but if it works…
Anyway, tough situation for Scherzer and for the Mets. Not the break you want if you’re an upstanding person of Atlanta or Philadelphia or Miami, but a break in the NL East nonetheless.
That Flames/Oilers Game Was Wild
Rangers/Hurricanes was great, Flames/Oilers was kind of hard to fathom. Fun night of hockey, exciting stuff tonight as well. The Avalanche have to lose a playoff game eventually, right? As someone with a medium stake in them losing a playoff series eventually, I hope the answer to that question is “yes.”
On the basketball side, the Warriors held serve with some emphasis against the Mavericks in Game 1. Tempting to make too much of it, though.
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Visiting the Crystal Lake people tonight and need to scurry, so no viewing schedule, but you all know the drill. Cubs, hockey, basketball, and we’ll see you in the morning. The viewing schedule is more for my benefit than to provide helpful content. We are selfish beasts, we humans.
