Jim Harbaugh calls out Nick Saban on Twitter
For the third time this year, Jim Harbaugh called out an SEC head coach on Twitter.
After previously firing shots at Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Tennessee’s Butch Jones, the Michigan head coach turned his attention to a bigger target: Alabama’s Nick Saban.
Earlier on Tuesday, Saban ranted about satellite camps, saying they are bad for college football. Saban also spoke about potential NCAA rules violations that could emerge when third parties are involved in the camps, which Harbaugh brought to the forefront of college football last summer.
It didn’t take long for Harbaugh to respond.
Don’t hold back, Jim!
When mentioning broken NCAA rules, Harbaugh is presumably referencing the resignation of Alabama defensive line coach Bo Davis. Davis stepped down in April, reportedly for impermissible contact with “multiple out-of-state recruits.”
Saban compared the satellite camps to the AAU circuit in college basketball recruiting. Harbaugh obviously did not agree with the sentiment.
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“Anybody can have a camp now and if they have a prospect, they can have a camp,” Saban said. “Then you’re expected to go to that camp and they can use you to promote their camp because Ohio State’s coming, Alabama’s coming, whoever else is coming. Somebody sponsors the camp. They pay them the money. What do they do with the money? And who makes sure the kid paid to go to the camp? I mean, this is the wild, wild West at its best because there’s no specific guidelines relative to how we’re managing or controlling this stuff.”
Because of that possible third-party involvement, in Saban’s eyes, there is unintended potential for NCAA violations.
“All you’re doing is allowing all these other people that we spend all of our time at the NCAA saying, ‘You can’t recruit through a third party. You can’t be involved with third-party people,’ and that’s exactly what you’re doing: creating all these third parties that are going to get involved with the prospects and all that,” Saban said.
“And who gets exposed on that? I go to a camp and I’m talking to some guy I don’t know from Adam’s house cat and he’s representing some kid because he put the camp on, and then I’m in trouble for talking to this guy? And who even knows if the guy paid to go to the camp? Is the NCAA going to do that?
“We do that at our camp. We have people responsible for that. They’re called compliance folks. What kind of compliance people do we have at these camps?”
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For the record, Saban was asked about Harbaugh and his satellite camp across the south from last summer. He did not assign blame to the Michigan coach.
“I’m not blaming Jim Harbaugh, I’m not saying anything about him,” Saban said. “I’m just saying it’s bad for college football. Jim Harbaugh can do whatever he wants to do. I’m not saying anything bad about him if he thinks that’s what’s best. There needs to be somebody that looks out for what’s best for the game, not what’s best for the Big Ten or what’s best for the SEC, or what’s best for Jim Harbaugh, but what’s best for the game of college football — the integrity of the game, the coaches, the players and the people that play it. That’s bigger than all of this.”
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
