Southeastern Conference Reprimands Saban and Fisher
We are going to go way out on a limb and suggest that the Nick Saban household and the Jimbo Fisher household will not be exchanging Christmas cards this year. Of course, at this time yesterday, we were more concerned that the two iconic coaches would be trading punches based on some of the comments that were flying around in the media on Thursday.
The whole discourse began Wednesday night in Birmingham Alabama when Crimson Tide Head Coach Nick Saban suggested that Texas A&M had "bought" the nation's top recruiting class. As you might imagine Aggies Head Coach Jimbo Fisher took exception to Saban's words and he fired back with a few choice sentences of his own.
While Fisher seemed to treat the attack as a personal affront, Saban's remarks were more directed at college football in general although he did mention another program during his talk on Wednesday night in Alabama. That program was Jackson State University. Coach Deion Sanders was just as disappointed in Saban's comments as Jimbo Fisher was.
After a full day of he said/ he said / he said, does this sound like Junior High to you? The Southeastern Conference weighed in and publically reprimanded both Coach Saban and Coach Fisher. They would have probably reprimanded Coach Prime too but he doesn't play in the SEC, yet.
Many praised the SEC for responding yet some called out the alleged "Alabama bias of the SEC" by suggesting that Commissioner Greg Sankey could have and should have issued a statement long before Jimbo Fisher took to the podium in College Station.
Needless to say, Southeastern Conference Media Days will be a giant soap opera in Atlanta from July 18- 21. I am sure both coaches will do everything in their power to not be seen together at that time. However, the league may have lucked out as Saban is scheduled to be in attendance on July 19th while Fisher isn't scheduled to appear until the 21st of July.
And I can already guess that the SEC Featured Game of the Week on October 8th will be when the Aggies come to Tuscaloosa. Wouldn't it be great if both teams come into the game undefeated? If that happens this could lead to one of the highest-priced non-playoff tickets in the history of college football.
And as far as any punishments or penalties go against either program for their "unsportsmanlike" behavior we will have to wait and see which coach can keep his mouth shut the longest.
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