A top college football team wants Alabama Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban to be punished for his recent actions. According to On3 Sports, Texas A&M sent an email to SEC commissioner Greg Sankey the morning after Saban accused the school of “buying” its 2022 recruiting class, asking the conference to fine and suspend the six-time national champion coach.
“Coach Saban’s statement is false, beneath the dignity of the SEC, and corrosive to the fabric of sportsmanship in college football as a whole and especially within the SEC,” the email read. “We expect the league to take strong, public action against Coach Saban and the University of Alabama to demonstrate that such unprofessionalism and disrespect for Texas A&M’s student-athletes, coaches, and the university as a whole, will not be tolerated. A public apology from Coach Saban to Coach Fisher, Aggie Football, and Texas A&M University is a good starting point, but the league should also consider monetary and participation penalties against Coach Saban.”
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Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork and school president M. Katherine Banks wrote the email and pointed out that Saban’s comments violated SEC rules. “Coach Saban’s statement was a blatant violation of SEC bylaws regarding sportsmanship,” the email read. “More significantly, without citing any facts to support his statement, Coach Saban is accusing every, single player in Texas A&M’s recruiting class and current football team of violating NCAA name, image and likeness (NIL) guidelines and Texas state law.”
Texas A&M finished with the top recruiting class in 2022 while Alabama was second, according to 247Sports. Saban made the comments while speaking at an event in Birmingham, Alabama in May. “It’s going to be difficult for the people who are spending tons of money to get players,” Saban said. “You’ve read about them. You know who they are. We were second in recruiting last year. [Texas] A&M was first. A&M bought every player on their team — made a deal for name, image and likeness. We didn’t buy one player.”
This led to Texas A&M head Jimbo Fisher firing back. “It’s despicable that we have to sit here at this level of ball and say these things to defend the people of this organization, the kids, 17-year-old kids and their families,” Fisher said. “It’s amazing. Some people think they’re God. Go dig into how ‘God’ did his deal. You may find out about a lot of things you don’t want to know.”
