Alabama's Unhappy Castoffs
Wall Street Journal:
By HANNAH KARP And DARREN EVERSON
Ex-Players Say Coach Nick Saban Pressured Them to Take Medical Scholarships; a 'Bitter' Outcome
Former Alabama football players say the school's No. 1-ranked football program has tried to gain a competitive edge by encouraging some underperforming players to quit the team for medical reasons, even in cases where the players are still healthy enough to play.
At least 12 times since coach Nick Saban took over the program in 2007, Alabama has offered players a "medical" scholarship, according to public statements made by the team. These scholarships, which are allowed under NCAA rules, are intended to make sure scholarship athletes who are too injured to play don't lose their financial aid. A player who receives one of these scholarships is finished playing with that team.
Three Alabama players who've taken these exemptions say they believe the team uses the practice as a way to clear spots for better players by cutting players it no longer wants. These players said they believe Mr. Saban and his staff pressure some players to take these scholarships even though their injuries aren't serious enough to warrant keeping them off the field.
"I'm still kind of bitter," said former Alabama linebacker Chuck Kirschman, who took a medical scholarship last year.
MOD EDIT: Trimmed so it's not blatantly copy and pasting the whole article. We're against that here, as if someone is to quote us somewhere else, we'd prefer people to follow through the link as well.
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:42 PM ^
OSU oversigning? no, but TomVH has heavily implied that they do break recruiting rules like a lot of SEC schools do, like talking to recruits during non-contact periods.
September 24th, 2010 at 9:41 AM ^
They got Todd Boeckman to do it.
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:39 PM ^
I know Brian has been harping on this for a LONG time, but it's nice to see somebody else calling them out on it as well. Saban is so despicable for doing this.
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:42 PM ^
Despicable? Ehhh. Despicable would be pulling these guys scholarships. They get free schooling without the requirement of hours and hours of work every week. Shady? Yes. Appalling? No.
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:57 PM ^
Whenever I hear about Saban doing this, I can't help but think of those bank ads where they promise kids a pony and then take it away.
September 24th, 2010 at 1:56 AM ^
Not everybody gets a medical scholarship. Many players are dismissed for violating unspecified team rules. The rule is "thou shalt not be an unproductive roster spot." It's despicable.
September 24th, 2010 at 8:30 AM ^
Don't get me wrong, Saban is the devil and I still think its a super shitty thing to do, because those kids came to Alabama to play football and he's going back on his word. But medical hardship scholarships are a loophole and the kids that get put on it are still getting a sweet deal. It's the kids that just get cut from the team that are getting the raw deal.
September 24th, 2010 at 9:41 AM ^
I understand your point but I think you may be missing one thing - these are all kids that could have played at many other D-1 schools. Basically, what Saban is doing is taking the kids off the market and putting them in a position where they kind of have no choice but to accept the scholarship and never play football again. Even though we've seen numerous players transfer, that process has to be arduous. The Alabama kids probably think about it like you do, that they are getting a free eduction. But one (if not the only) reason they went to Alabama is to play football. Without football, they may have chosen another school. So maybe its not such a sweet deal for these kids . . . (and, yes, Saban is clearly the devil).
September 24th, 2010 at 6:33 AM ^
who lose their scholarship. How else could he take 113 LOIs in a four year period. 28 more then the 85 limit. A few may get medical redshirts, but the rest are left to find for themselves.
September 24th, 2010 at 8:28 AM ^
September 24th, 2010 at 1:20 PM ^
Jokes on them, you can't get an education at Alabama!
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:41 PM ^
I always wondered why the players who had been pushed into medical schollarships at Alabama weren't speaking up. And this is a loophole, not a rules violation so Saban/Alabama won't get punished at all. The saddest part may be that Saban seems to be able to convince many of these kids he is forcing to take scholarships, that they have a choice in the matter.
September 24th, 2010 at 12:18 AM ^
is not medically fit to play when they are,as these players allege, that is not simply a loop hole and its pretty giant rules violation.
If the NCAA ever had the sack to investigate and were able to prove a case, this would result in major major penalties. Alas they are too concerned with over stretching and this likely will go away quietly.
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:43 PM ^
I agree that its good someone is calling them out on this but personally I think this article is pretty poor journalism. The headline implies the majority of players interviewed are bitter, but they only talk about one being bitter while the other two said they were not forced to take the medical scholarship and are now ok with it.
While I do wish someone calls Alabama and other oversigning schools out on this, I do not want it to happen via irresponsible journalism which I think this kind of is. The headline is just misleading when 2/3 of the players interviewed in the article are not at all "bitter."
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:55 PM ^
I can't tell if Saban is just so slimy that he has convinced these players that they are making the choice, and then they feel guilty for not being able to give it their all. And has Alabama had a good player end his career with an injury and a medical scholarship? or has it only been the lesser players?
September 24th, 2010 at 3:03 PM ^
In the case of Saban, feel free to assume the worst. All you need to know about the difference between Saban and RR:
When Rodriguez came to Michigan, most of his assistants (including a few WVU grads) came with him. They felt more loyalty to him than to WVU.
When Saban left MSU for LSU, he sent a plane back to East Lansing to take any assistants who wanted to join him. None of them did so. They knew what kind of person he was and didn't want to be associated with him any longer.
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:50 PM ^
What a slime ball. These kids are under the impression that they get to come to Alabama to play football, but once they sprain an ankle, Saban pushes them to take a medical scholarship so he can keep oversigning players. This is just in the purest sense of the word, vile.
September 24th, 2010 at 12:19 AM ^
Nick Saban has never shown any type of allegiance to a team he has coached so these statistics shouldm't come as any surprise. I feel bad for these kids who have been mislead into making the biggest decision of their lives. My question who is worse, Nick Saban or Reggie Bush? I am sure the NCAA will sort it out 5 years from now when Saban is coaching another team.
September 24th, 2010 at 12:26 AM ^
They'll always find a way to hurdle NCAA laws and regulations. It is a way of life down there. I just hope one day the NCAA will focus on stopping shady business like this and not go after "practice violations"
September 24th, 2010 at 1:29 PM ^
September 24th, 2010 at 12:35 AM ^
I'm sure many coaches have done this, but coming from Saban this just feels sleezy
September 24th, 2010 at 1:11 AM ^
did it just this year.
September 24th, 2010 at 1:14 AM ^
Just think it's important to note that, when a paper publishes damning info about another team's coach, most everyone here (except one) promptly assumes the newspaper is correct and the coach is guilty. I'm not trying to be antagonistic here, really. I just think that that many of the fans who complain about media biases -- and I agree that there are biases, and that the Freep overstepped -- tend to project their own biases onto the media. Maybe it would be wise to first let the story play out a little, see where it goes? All I'm saying.
September 24th, 2010 at 1:28 AM ^
Many of us have known of Saban/SEC oversigning for a long time. It's technically not illegal, so there really is very little that the NCAA can do about it. Just a very scummy practice, that's all.
September 24th, 2010 at 2:34 AM ^
"Just think it's important to note that" there is a huge difference between a school that inadvertently assigns players twenty extra minutes of stretching and a school that wantonly circunvents scholarship limits, especially when the school that chronically oversigns just won a National Chapionship.
September 24th, 2010 at 1:23 AM ^
Is this the way Antonio Bass was covered after his injury? I'm also wondering if Vlad Emilien was offered (or should have been offered) this option.
I agree that Saban is skating on the shady side. But I can also believe that even if a player does everything he is asked to, an injury can slow down or remove mobility to the degree an athlete will never do more than be buried on the charts, perhaps playing on scout teams.
September 24th, 2010 at 1:44 AM ^
Well since Vlad played in the first game of the season and is still going to play football at another school, no he shouldn't have been offered this option.
September 24th, 2010 at 2:23 AM ^
He might have been offered it in case his knee didn't fully heal but like stated above, he did play this year.
September 24th, 2010 at 6:00 AM ^
elliot mealers mom that if he couldn't ever play a down of football at michigan that they would honor his scholarship... so there is one recently, but we all know that elliot has been able to play... i do agree with your theory on vald.. as soon as the report came out that he was transfering the first thing that popped into my head was that the coaches feel that he can't play anymore because of his knee... just because he played in a game (it was garbage time at the end) and thinks that he can still play at another school doesn't mean michigan didn't offer him the choice... a perfect example is ben cronin who played in 5 games this past season and then it was determined that his injury would never heal correctly and he was offered/given a medical scholarship...
September 24th, 2010 at 9:57 AM ^
I believe Cory Zirbel was given a medical scholarship when he injured his knee in 2008.
September 24th, 2010 at 8:56 PM ^
Antonio Bass - yes, pretty sure that is the case. Unfortunately his knee was so badly damaged he simply wasn't going to play again. I remember Carr saying losing him set the program back, which is saying alot.
Emilien - no, he was still able to play. Maybe not at the level he once could, but he can still play somewhere and played a little this year on special teams, I think.
"Saban is ... on the shady side" that's putting it mildly! 12 kids in what - 3 years? He's abusing the rule, simple as that.
September 24th, 2010 at 2:25 AM ^
You might feel a slight sting. That's pride fuckin' witchu. Fuck pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps. Your ass takes a medical scholarship.
September 24th, 2010 at 10:18 AM ^
Then why you tryin' to treat him like one?
September 24th, 2010 at 5:48 AM ^
To me the number that stands out is "12". That's how many medical scholarships 'bama has handed out since Saban took over 3 years ago. The rest of the SEC combined awarded 13 during that same time period. So Alabama is awarding, on average, 4 medical scholarships a year, while the other SEC schools average one every three years.
September 24th, 2010 at 8:07 AM ^
Is the big point... there is nothing wrong with the concept of medical schoalrship exemptions, and hell even if a lesser player was "encouraged" to take the medical schollie once every 3 or 4 years where the player had a major injury & just couldn't recover enough to become a productive or even marginal NCAA player (see Antonio Bass, Jon Vaughn, Eric Mayes, etc) I probably wouldn't be too upset. But here, Saban is wontonly flouting the intent of the rule to massively oversign and at such out of the norm frequency that I'm sure someone in the dog eat dog world of SEC football will bring this to the attention of the NCAA, a la Phil Fulmer's rumored dead drop of documents about Alabama during the Stallings / DuBose era.
September 24th, 2010 at 9:49 AM ^
That is 100% correct. And to take your reasoning one step further, Saban is skirting the intent of the rule by not only oversigning, but signing kids that could play elsewhere without needing a medical scholarship. They could play elsewhere with a scholarship and earn their degree (in many instances at a better school than Alabama academic-wise).
September 24th, 2010 at 7:32 AM ^
Imagine how the local papers would cover *this* if it took place at UM (under the watch of RichRod).
September 24th, 2010 at 8:17 AM ^
I would rather have the player on my bench than in your lineup.
Sounds to me like that is what Saban is saying.
September 24th, 2010 at 8:30 AM ^
I have decided that we shall take all of Alabama's "injured" and "cut" LBs into the fold. Even if we have to assemble a LB vivisection-style out of the useful leftover parts, the resulting LB - Igor Sabanstein - will break into the two deep.
September 24th, 2010 at 9:12 AM ^
"This article is a bit incomplete. In the same 5 year period leading up to the Ohio State & LSU championship game, LSU signed and went through approximately 25 more players. This means that LSU basically got an extra recruiting class to find the diamonds in the rough, deepen their roster and reduce the hardship of the team for players that flunk out, break team rules or underperform. This is EXACTLY what Alabama is doing and is why the SEC has been so dominant and deep in recent years compared to other conferences. Yet people ignorantly believe it's something inherent in the south or southern culture. (What is the SEC's record versus other top conferences in the past 10 years anyway? .500?)
Where this article is incomplete is it fails to give comparisons. How many of football student-athletes were affected by this at Alabama or the SEC compared to other conferences? How many scholarships were left over at Alabama to award to senior walk-on players in the past 5 years? Compare this to other conferences.
While it probably isn't technically illegal or against NCAA rules, it IS taking advantage of the system and what the NCAA lists as their main goals. This loophole will be changed in the near future. I advise anyone interested in the topic to write to the NCAA and visit a site previously mentioned by another poster. oversigning.com
And if anyone thinks I'm a BigTen or Big-12 homer, I live in California."
BTW, Does anyone know how medical sholies are funded?
September 24th, 2010 at 11:13 AM ^
about these comments is that Saban was at LSU for I believe 3 of the 5 years before LSU played OSU in the title game. Miles was in his second year when he won it all at LSU, right?
September 24th, 2010 at 12:52 PM ^
located beneath the tomb of Bear Bryant.
September 24th, 2010 at 9:36 AM ^
You can really see how quickly one can rebuild a defense with over signing. Can you imagine if we had recruited 15-20 extra defensive players over the last 3 years? Terrible way to conduct a program. Hopefully it comes back to bite Saban
September 24th, 2010 at 9:59 AM ^
It won't and if there is any chance it might, Saban is smart (evil) enough to leave the program and accept another NFL job before the s**t hits the fan.
September 24th, 2010 at 1:39 PM ^
September 24th, 2010 at 10:48 AM ^
I don't really have a problem with this practice. You could argue that RR did this with Criswell and Wright. Alabama is just at using loopholes in the NCAA rules. Every team is trying to get an advantage, even Michigan, so stop crying.
September 24th, 2010 at 12:57 PM ^
those were 5th year seniors, and since most college programs are designed to get your degree in 4 years, even a red shirt junior not given a 5th year should theoretically be able to get his degree from the school he chose without an issue. In Saban's case (and Les Miles), they are using a loophole designed so that kids who get horribly injured playing sports at the college still get the college degree they were (inherently) promised. Saban and miles either cut a kid before they stepped on campus after they signed a LOI or encouraged players to fake injuries b/c they weren't good enough to break the two-deep. if you can't see the distinction there you have a severe ethical deficiency, my friend.