. After a few brief items of the sort of chatter you would expect at poolside, Nick Saban went straight for the big fish at the Southeastern Conference meetings on Tuesday.
That isn't the 180-pound tarpon he boated on Monday, or his daughter's upcoming wedding . Instead, it is the current hot button topic in recruiting that clearly rankles him the most: cost off attendance.
"You can't create a system that almost creates fraud," Saban said.
The background on that issue is obvious. The NCAA now allows schools to pay a cost of attendance stipend, money that goes over and above the old "tuition, room, board and books" that players used to get. That isn't what bothers Saban, who notes that "we've always been for players getting all they can get."
The problem is that not all schools calculate "cost of attendance" the same way, and there is thus a dollar disparity in the extra cash that players can get at different schools. It would be disingenuous not to point out that Auburn has a much higher "cost of attendance" calculation than Alabama's. Saban did not refer to that specifically, but it likely does nothing to improve his mood.
"Even the NFL has a salary cap," Saban said. "We don't want to have any system that enhances fraudulent behavior for a competitive advantage. And there has to some sort of cap to create fairness.
"If you look at it from an academic standpoint, which is supposed to be the reason that we have universities and colleges,you would want to keep the cost of attendance low."
Saban said that he had not yet encountered much conversation about COA stipends from recruits, adding that Alabama doesn't use the COA as a selling point "although some people are doing it."
Saban went on to fume about some other issues. Satellite camps, another recent hot topic, didn't fare much better than the COA did.
"We've got a lot of crazy rules," he said. "We have a rule against a head coach going on the road to evaluate, but we are going to let someone have a satellite camp away from their campus and take their entire staff," he said. "How does that make sense?"
Saban also made a reference to the SEC rule about graduate transfers who have had "trouble" at their previous school. That rule came into play with Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson, who wound up at Florida State rather than an SEC school.
"We (in the Power 5 conferences) need to get our rules in alignment," he said. "Otherwise, we're going to be a farm system for the other leagues."
Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil@tidesports.com or 205-722-0225.
That isn't the 180-pound tarpon he boated on Monday, or his daughter's upcoming wedding . Instead, it is the current hot button topic in recruiting that clearly rankles him the most: cost off attendance.
"You can't create a system that almost creates fraud," Saban said.
The background on that issue is obvious. The NCAA now allows schools to pay a cost of attendance stipend, money that goes over and above the old "tuition, room, board and books" that players used to get. That isn't what bothers Saban, who notes that "we've always been for players getting all they can get."
The problem is that not all schools calculate "cost of attendance" the same way, and there is thus a dollar disparity in the extra cash that players can get at different schools. It would be disingenuous not to point out that Auburn has a much higher "cost of attendance" calculation than Alabama's. Saban did not refer to that specifically, but it likely does nothing to improve his mood.
"Even the NFL has a salary cap," Saban said. "We don't want to have any system that enhances fraudulent behavior for a competitive advantage. And there has to some sort of cap to create fairness.
"If you look at it from an academic standpoint, which is supposed to be the reason that we have universities and colleges,you would want to keep the cost of attendance low."
Saban said that he had not yet encountered much conversation about COA stipends from recruits, adding that Alabama doesn't use the COA as a selling point "although some people are doing it."
Saban went on to fume about some other issues. Satellite camps, another recent hot topic, didn't fare much better than the COA did.
"We've got a lot of crazy rules," he said. "We have a rule against a head coach going on the road to evaluate, but we are going to let someone have a satellite camp away from their campus and take their entire staff," he said. "How does that make sense?"
Saban also made a reference to the SEC rule about graduate transfers who have had "trouble" at their previous school. That rule came into play with Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson, who wound up at Florida State rather than an SEC school.
"We (in the Power 5 conferences) need to get our rules in alignment," he said. "Otherwise, we're going to be a farm system for the other leagues."
Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil@tidesports.com or 205-722-0225.
