Alabama Football coach, Nick Saban has already mastered the NCAA’s new, immediate eligibility transfer rule. As Saban predicted, along with the added flexibility afforded players, something else is occurring. The rich are getting richer. As in, the elite programs will get their pick of the crop.
After a short bump in its pattern of college football dominance, the Alabama Crimson Tide is again, the elite-est of the elite. The new norm is quickly becoming Nick Saban going beyond No. 1 recruiting classes. Now Saban can take any Alabama Football roster weakness, and choose an immediate solution. Rather than hoping a new recruit can fill a need, Saban can bypass that unknown when he chooses, and add a player already having college experience.
Saban has been adept at using graduate transfer resources. Suddenly, it is evident to the fanbases of other programs Nick will be as skillful with immediate eligibility transfers. There is already a gap between Alabama Football and other FBS programs. The January dismantling of Notre Dame and Ohio State was proof. Even fans of other SEC schools are facing the fact, as Charles Barkley answered,
"when asked about the perception that there’s a big gap between Alabama football and the rest of the SEC.“That’s because it’s true.”"
Nick Saban will not raid many teams for transfers in any one season. Alabama Football will never have enough roster flexibility to make room for every transfer that could help the Crimson Tide. But as Saban has done in recent days, bringing in an Ohio State Buckeye and a Tennessee Volunteer, other teams will lose players they don’t want to lose.
Alabama football insiders think the next plum picked by Nick Saban could be an Aggie. Or it could be a Bulldog or a Gator or a Bengal Tiger. Akin to Herman Hesse’s Magister Ludi in The Glass Bead Game, Nick Saban will be moves ahead of everyone else.
It will not take many more, Nick Saban gaining the upper hand results, before cries of foul will commence. The NCAA will be implored to create another Saban rule, as it did in the past. One that, while trying to restrain Saban, harmed recruiting efforts of all programs. The NCAA is expected to correct the error soon.
Tennesee AD, Danny White would be a good spokesperson for the soon-to-be complainers. White already has a track record of misrepresenting fiction. LSU will jump on the whiner train. Kirby Smart will pant at the opportunity to take Saban down a bit. It is easy to see Jim Harbaugh and James Franklin, maybe Dabo joining the chorus claiming unfairness.
When all that happens, every one of them should be confronted with the fact that Nick Saban warned them. When the clamor about easing transfer rules began a couple of years ago, Saban asked would college football be better with free agency. He thought not.
Now college football has a form of free agency and quickly the unintended consequences are mounting. Everyone should have listened when Nick Saban advised being careful about what you wish.