🏈 In hindsight, Saban's exit helped MSU (scary how similar this is to Stallings exit from Tuscaloosa.)

[TerryP]

There remains a misperception regarding Nick Saban’s motives for leaving Michigan State following a rare 10-win regular season in 1999. He was branded as selfish and greedy. Newspaper headlines replaced the S in his name with a dollar sign $.

Saban’s departure for the SEC riches was originally interpreted as a concession that the Spartans couldn’t consistently compete with their nosy neighbors in Ann Arbor, South Bend and Columbus. There were simply too many inherent disadvantages.

But in actuality, Saban’s exit crystalized the toxic disharmony within the greater university community as it pertained to the role of sports as a revenue-producing, image-projecting asset. It was never that Saban thought the Spartans couldn’t rule the Big Ten, but rather they couldn’t build a championship foundation without all of the critical factions — the Board of Trustees, university president, athletic director and the big money boosters — working in concert with a common objective.

There were factions within the family. Saban and then-athletic director Merritt Norvell never spoke. Influential boosters became the de facto heads of the athletic department, occasionally articulating strategy.

Remember Michigan State’s aggressive pursuit of Marvin Lewis for the football head coaching opening in 2002? It ultimately failed because there were those within the university administration who didn’t think athletic coaches should make salaries worthy of a Fortune 500 corporate CEO.

Sharp: In hindsight, Saban's exit helped MSU

 

[UAgrad93]

I didn't realize the exactly what transpired until a couple of nights ago. You want your coaches to be loyal to you but you don't provide the needed support. I initially thought, much like everyone else, Saban was chasing greener pastures and deeper wallets. The similarities between what transpired with Stallings and what happened to Saban are crazy!!