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Kevin Scarbinsky |
The attempt to limit overall staff sizes may pass, but it's unlikely to achieve its objective if the objective is to derail the Saban dynasty in Tuscaloosa.
You can take him off the recruiting road in the spring.
You can speed up the game to a pace that makes him uncomfortable.
You can limit the number of people he can hire to his support staff.
You as opposing coaches, athletics directors and commissioners can do everything in your power to change the rules to try to compete with him, but after a decade of dominance, there's one thing you should realize about Alabama football coach Nick Saban.
You can't beat him with legislation. You have to do it the way Dabo Swinney and Clemson did - with good players, good coaches and a lot of hard work.
The latest attempt to put a stop to Saban may be an effort to limit the number of people Football Bowl Subdivision programs can employ on their support staffs. Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, in his role as chairman of the NCAA Football Oversight Committee, said as much last week.
"I think that door has been open for a while," Bowlsby said. "We're seeing very large staff. We see non-coaching personnel doing coaching duties. It is one of our two priorities for the Football Oversight Committee for the coming year ... looking at personnel and how personnel should be deployed in the football coaching staff environment."
In a teleconference with reporters, Bowlsby noted one unnamed school he said employed 97 people on its football staff. Hmmm. Who might that be?
Bowlsby noted that one school employed a football staff of 97 people.
As is the case with a number of relatively new developments in the sport, Alabama isn't the only program that employs a small army of people to give itself every possible advantage within the rules. The Crimson Tide's contingent of experts, analysts, etc., just seems larger and more effective.
Not every program has the juice to hire a former SEC offensive coordinator as an analyst, as Alabama did recently with Dan Werner of Ole Miss. Or a former Heisman winner and NFL quarterback such as Chris Weinke.
Those hires continued a Saban practice of stockpiling quality football minds, which includes hiring former head coaches such as Steve Sarkisian, who left to become the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, and Mike Locksley, who was promoted to an on-field assistant.
Alabama's ability to hire quality coaches for relatively minor staff roles irks some people in the profession. Take Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, perhaps still bothered by his team's 2011 BCS snub, who took a shot.
"The mistake they're making is they don't have control of these analysts," Gundy told CBSsports.com. "It's ridiculous. I don't care what the number is, the analyst position is a good thing for coaches who got left out of the coaching search. We bring them in here and pay the $50,000. But there needs to be a limit. Why should one school have 15 and I have two?"
A question for Gundy: If they're cheap and there's no current limit, why do you have only two? Perhaps you should take that up with mega-booster T. Boone Pickens.
Alabama coach Nick Saban expressed anger about complaints he's heard about the size of the Crimson Tide's football staff.
The real issue here is the professionalization of college football, where more and bigger is better, and it's disingenuous at best for the likes of Bowlsby and Gundy to complain about it. In 2014, for example, Bowlsby made $2.3 million, according to the Washington Post. Gundy's annual salary is $3.775 million, according to USA Today.
Gundy makes about half of what Saban does, which sounds generous considering their accomplishments, but it's a bad look to ask for parity to help you compete when you're one of the highest-paid public employees in your state.
Saban has done more than his share to turn major college football into a lucrative and professional operation - for everyone but the players - but there are a lot of fingers in the ever-expanding pie.
The NCAA got wise a few years ago and changed its focus from trying to level a playing field that can never truly be level to focusing on what it could do for its players, short of paying them a fair wage relative to the revenue they generate.
If Bowlsby and others want to try again to legislate parity, good luck. All the evidence of the last decade suggests that whatever they do, it won't work. They won't beat Saban, at least not with legislation.
Continue reading...
You can take him off the recruiting road in the spring.
You can speed up the game to a pace that makes him uncomfortable.
You can limit the number of people he can hire to his support staff.
You as opposing coaches, athletics directors and commissioners can do everything in your power to change the rules to try to compete with him, but after a decade of dominance, there's one thing you should realize about Alabama football coach Nick Saban.
You can't beat him with legislation. You have to do it the way Dabo Swinney and Clemson did - with good players, good coaches and a lot of hard work.
The latest attempt to put a stop to Saban may be an effort to limit the number of people Football Bowl Subdivision programs can employ on their support staffs. Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, in his role as chairman of the NCAA Football Oversight Committee, said as much last week.
"I think that door has been open for a while," Bowlsby said. "We're seeing very large staff. We see non-coaching personnel doing coaching duties. It is one of our two priorities for the Football Oversight Committee for the coming year ... looking at personnel and how personnel should be deployed in the football coaching staff environment."
In a teleconference with reporters, Bowlsby noted one unnamed school he said employed 97 people on its football staff. Hmmm. Who might that be?
Bowlsby noted that one school employed a football staff of 97 people.
As is the case with a number of relatively new developments in the sport, Alabama isn't the only program that employs a small army of people to give itself every possible advantage within the rules. The Crimson Tide's contingent of experts, analysts, etc., just seems larger and more effective.
Not every program has the juice to hire a former SEC offensive coordinator as an analyst, as Alabama did recently with Dan Werner of Ole Miss. Or a former Heisman winner and NFL quarterback such as Chris Weinke.
Those hires continued a Saban practice of stockpiling quality football minds, which includes hiring former head coaches such as Steve Sarkisian, who left to become the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, and Mike Locksley, who was promoted to an on-field assistant.
Alabama's ability to hire quality coaches for relatively minor staff roles irks some people in the profession. Take Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, perhaps still bothered by his team's 2011 BCS snub, who took a shot.
"The mistake they're making is they don't have control of these analysts," Gundy told CBSsports.com. "It's ridiculous. I don't care what the number is, the analyst position is a good thing for coaches who got left out of the coaching search. We bring them in here and pay the $50,000. But there needs to be a limit. Why should one school have 15 and I have two?"
A question for Gundy: If they're cheap and there's no current limit, why do you have only two? Perhaps you should take that up with mega-booster T. Boone Pickens.
Alabama coach Nick Saban expressed anger about complaints he's heard about the size of the Crimson Tide's football staff.
The real issue here is the professionalization of college football, where more and bigger is better, and it's disingenuous at best for the likes of Bowlsby and Gundy to complain about it. In 2014, for example, Bowlsby made $2.3 million, according to the Washington Post. Gundy's annual salary is $3.775 million, according to USA Today.
Gundy makes about half of what Saban does, which sounds generous considering their accomplishments, but it's a bad look to ask for parity to help you compete when you're one of the highest-paid public employees in your state.
Saban has done more than his share to turn major college football into a lucrative and professional operation - for everyone but the players - but there are a lot of fingers in the ever-expanding pie.
The NCAA got wise a few years ago and changed its focus from trying to level a playing field that can never truly be level to focusing on what it could do for its players, short of paying them a fair wage relative to the revenue they generate.
If Bowlsby and others want to try again to legislate parity, good luck. All the evidence of the last decade suggests that whatever they do, it won't work. They won't beat Saban, at least not with legislation.
Continue reading...
