SEC Media Day 2010: Coaches Looking To Protect Investment, Not Players

At the recent SEC Media Day, the talk of the town was not the conference’s continued dominance in the world of college football, but rather it’s prevalence in NCAA violations.

In the past few days teams like Florida, South Carolina, and Alabama all have players implicated in allegedly receiving improper benefits from agents.

New to the list is Georgia, who has yet to have any allegations brought its way, but have NCAA investigators playing the role of a summer recruit and coming down for an official visit.

When Alabama player Marcell Dareus was first accused of possibly receiving improper benefits from an agent, and thus violating NCAA regulations, his head coach Nick Saban immediately sounded off at the horn.

Saban, in a very poignant and angry demeanor, did shoulder some of the blame on himself, but also looked to the NFL to step in and take some control of the situation as well.

At the time of the statement, Saban voiced his opinion that agents who participate in aiding athletes with improper benefits should have their agency suspended by the NFL for one or two years.

At the recent SEC media day, when asked about the issue once more, Saban didn’t shy away from his previous comments.

“I think the NFL Players Association has a responsibility to monitor and control what agents do…I think if an agent does anything to affect the eligibility of a college football player, his license ought to be suspended for a year.”

The Alabama coach even went on to explain why he believes in the NFL method: "That's the only way we're going to stop what's happening out there because it's ridiculous and it's entrapment of young people at a very difficult time in their life."

But when it comes to Nick Saban, you can’t take the coach’s words at face value.

In the dialect of Saban, “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach. That’s it" in fact means “Roll Tide!”

Although he may be trying to play the “think about the children card” with his comments about entrapping young, troubled minds, fans and columnists shouldn’t buy it.

Call it cynicism or whatever you want to call it, but for Saban this is more about protecting his investment and job than it is any student athlete.

And it’s working.

When was the last time a program’s players were accused of receiving gifts from agents and the big talk in the media surrounding the issue was how the players were the victims?

Nobody is feeling sorry for the “Fab Five” or Reggie Bush.

So why all of a sudden is everybody jumping on the Saban bandwagon to take up arms against the NFL?

The truth of the matter is that Saban is deflecting the issue towards the NFL because he would like to start a conversation that inevitably ends up with the NCAA talking about lessening its penalties towards programs who become violators of the agent issue.

Programs like Alabama.

And who could blame him?

It was clear that he didn’t like his time in the NFL, and chances are he doesn’t want to pull a Pete Carroll anytime soon.

But by having scornful comments towards agents, Saban is not only deflecting the blame away from himself, but he’s also deflecting the responsibility.

When USC was finally hit with their harsh sanctions from the NCAA just a few weeks ago, people scoffed and laughed at the idea that Pete Carroll had no idea what was going on.

Yet, when Saban has players taking trips to South Beach in the offseason, or when a player at Florida allegedly receives $100,000 before a bowl game, fans and the media look to the NFLPA commissioner for comments holding the agents accountable rather than comments from the coaches holding themselves accountable.

At the SEC Media Day, the conference's head commissioner Michael Silve commented on the matter as well.

However, his comments weren’t directed towards the NFL, but rather regarded the NCAA: “It's absolutely necessary that we think outside the box and come up with another model…Start from scratch, with the goal to provide athletes with relevant information they need."

And thus the jump is made.

The conversation regarding agents and college athletes started when we all persecuted Reggie Bush for what he did.

Then it continued when Saban blamed the NFL for not becoming involved.

And now it inevitably ends with Silve talking about the NCAA “starting from scratch."

Why does the NCAA need to change their rules?

The rules are pretty clear—don’t take benefits (or at least get caught doing so) and you won’t get punished.

But those rules are being broken, and when those rules are broken they don’t just hurt Saban and the Alabama program, they hurt the entire SEC.

When they hurt the entire SEC, that’s when money starts to climb into the equation.

When commissioner Silve talks about starting from scratch, in some respects he’s talking about better education of players regarding agents, but in large part he’s alluding to the idea that the NCAA needs to protect the money making scheme of its conferences.

The NCAA is continually becoming a more and more profitable business, none of which goes to any of those who play within it.

At the same time, athletes are continuing to take more and more money, and many get caught and punished for it by the same organization who takes money from them.

In the case of Silve, if multiple schools in his conference continue to get punished and investigated by the NCAA, less and less players will be willing to come to those schools because (a) they will no longer be able to hand out as many scholarships and (b) they will be barred from post-season play.

Let’s not forget that the rise of the SEC as a power conference is a relatively new phenomena in the world of college football.

With the sanctions that are going on in the programs within the conference, that dominance could fade away just as easily as it rose.

If that’s the case, money is lost and coaches like Saban aren’t getting the largest contract in college football history.

When it comes to Silve, when he says “let’s start from scratch," what he really means is “let’s start thinking about paying these players ourselves before we end up losing our money makers."

As Pat Forde writes in his article about the media day: “Slive's call for new ideas includes at least a discussion of simply deregulating the agent situation and allowing players to have agents while in college. He did not endorse the idea, but endorsed discussing it.”

Which is, of course, on Silve's part a completely common and business-like way of bringing an idea to the table but taking no responsiblity in the consequences that may arise from the cultivation of that idea.

And what a great idea for a discussion that would be—let’s punish those who ruin our sport by rewarding them with the full access they’ve always wanted.

But then again, if the matter is more about protecting your investment than it is retaining the integrity of the game, then it is a great idea indeed.