OT - Nick Saban nabs 5 star by offering his gf a job

Submitted by JeepinBen on

Title says it all.

http://outkickthecoverage.com/five-star-recruit-landon-collins-mom-alleges-nick-saban-promised-job-to-recruits-girlfriend.php

Remember the 5 star at the UA AA Bowl who chose Alabama despite his mom sitting next to him, who wanted him to go to LSU? According to the mom, Saban closed the deal by offering the recruits girlfriend a job. Bama of course can't comment on any prospective student athlete until after a LOI comes in. But this, while dirty as all hell, isn't actually against NCAA rules. It only is for basketball recruiting. The NCAA makes zero sense. If we were worried about Saban finding new loopholes after the SEC "cracked" down on oversigning, here's one he found.

JeepinBen

January 30th, 2012 at 2:25 PM ^

If there's one thing dirtier than Football recruiting it's basketball recruiting. The NCAA obviously reacted to a specific problem with this bylaw (likely the AAU circuit as you mention Shoe.) What I just don't understand is who at the NCAA decided to word it for "only basketball" players. I mean, is the thought process:

"Hey, we have this problem in basketball recruiting, let's make it a violation."

"OK, if it's bad in basketball, it's bad in all sports, right?"

"Nah, let's make sure to make the rules basketball specific"

"why?"

"because this hasn't come up in any other sports yet"

"shouldn't we stop it before some coach reads this rule and says 'I'm not a basktball coach, the NCAAA just made a loophole that I can drive all of Pryor's cars through!!!'"

"Nah. Just basketball for now"

MGoShoe

January 30th, 2012 at 3:25 PM ^

...decision to limit it to basketball because the impact of HS football coaches going to the college ranks was deemed inconsequential or at least, not something that should be made impermissable. Again, I'm not making a value judgment on whether or not that makes sense, I just think that the NCAA saw abuses in basketball and had to restrict in a way that they haven't seen in other sports and rather than drawing up an overly broad bylaw, they limited it.

The real problem seems to be the absence of language that prevents the sort of ploy that Saban has made in this case. The more this gets the light of day, the more likely it is that the NCAA takes it up as a possible reform.

JeepinBen

January 30th, 2012 at 3:49 PM ^

But they already took care of coaches in the current bylaw wording:

"... an institution shall not employ an individual associated with the prospective student-athlete in any athletics department non-coaching staff position."

I think they didn't worry about coaches moving up with recruits, because the number of coaches on a staff is already regulated. If you want to hire a HS coach to get a recruit, you're losing another coach. Hiring anyone's family/girlfriend to work in your office? totally legit. I think they covered the loophole you were (right to) worrying about, but as you mention, they left this loophole totally wide open.

cajunhawk

January 30th, 2012 at 2:03 PM ^

Is what did Les Miles offer that was bested by girlfriend employment?  I'm thinking maybe Les Miles had offered to take Landon Collins to an MMA fight, capped off by an evening out with Billy Cannon and a bottle of moonshine while causing general mayhem(writing bad checks, opening shady dental practice) in South Eastern Louisiana.    

Rabbit21

January 30th, 2012 at 2:07 PM ^

The ethics of this situation(clearly dirty) aside.  It's a little hard to take any of the mom's allegations seriously as it seems she's been trying to raise hell ever since her son picked Alabama(the academics story from earlier), we might want to look at this with a little more skepticism.

Away Goal

January 30th, 2012 at 2:19 PM ^

Wouldn't a staff position at the Univ of Alabama need to go through a competetive recruitment process?  I mean, I'm sure they would still rig the recruitment, it happens all the time but they still need to post the job, screen applicants, interviews, and all that.

 

I am interested to see what job she is given, how much she gets paid, and what happens when they break up or if he leaves the school.

SF Wolverine

January 30th, 2012 at 2:24 PM ^

Who would have thunk it?  Hard to see how this is meaningfully different than paying someone money directly?  Do they even apply the "Papa Newton" rule and say that the recruit can't know about it?  I assume not, in which case, hell, just let them give him cash.

bluebyyou

January 30th, 2012 at 5:05 PM ^

It is exactly what Ohio did with Liar being able to recruit.  While it pisses you off, it is within the rules.  End of discussion.

This "we take the high road" stuff sounds good, but while we are taking that high road, they are outthinking us.

brandanomano

January 30th, 2012 at 5:09 PM ^

The job is wiping Saban's ass with Clorox Wipes everytime he takes a shit, per Twitter.

Wait, do you guys think Saban is starting his own army and is going to eventually take over the world? If he offers enough people close to players jobs, he could not only have the best football team in the world, but his own Legion of Doom.