The 2010 Southeastern Conference Media Days kicked off Wednesday in Hoover, Alabama. The defending national champion Alabama Crimson Tide was the first team to speak, and head coach Nick Saban was business as usual.
Saban answered a wide range of questions, but seemed more passionate about one issue more than others: unapproved agent interaction with players.
Earlier this week, Alabama defensive end Marcell Dareus was suspected of attending an NFL agency party in Miami and is currently under investigation for the unapproved contact. Saban did not speak much about Dareus’ situation due to the investigations not being finalized.
According to a Tuscaloosa News article published Wednesday, Dareus has been declared ineligible for play and the NCAA will have to make a ruling on whether he will be reinstated.
This is not the first time Tide players have been under sanction. Last year, stars such as Julio Jones and Jerrell Harris were accused of receiving improper benefits from boosters. Jones’ charges were dropped, but Harris had to miss games for his actions.
Saban feels that the players are responsible if they accept “illegal benefits,” but he believes that the agents are the main source of the problem.
“It starts with the agent in my opinion,” Saban said. “They are entrapping and taking advantage of young people at a very difficult time in their lives. Although the players are responsible and the players should have consequences if they do it, the agents should have consequences as well and right now they have none.”
Saban also thinks that not only should the NCAA take a more proactive approach to policing the contact between players and agents, but the National Football League and also the National Football League Players Association should step in as well.
“I believe that the NFL should step in and help get the agents license taken away for a year,” he said. “It is not fair to the good agents. There are a lot of good agents that do not do this stuff and it is not fair to them.
“I do not want to have to restrict our players from NFL personnel and scouts for the benefit of our players,” Saban said. “I would also hope that the NFL and the NFLPA would do something about this with out us having to do that.”
Under the current system, players lose eligibility for receiving benefits and the agents or boosters who give them away usually face no penalty.
“It is something that is affecting college football in a negative way,” Saban said. “It is not in the best interest of the young people that are doing it. The consequences are negative for them and their futures. I have no respect for people who do that to young people. I mean how would you feel if they did it to your child?”
The NCAA has cracked down on unapproved contact between universities and players by developing strict guidelines that coaches have to follow. Some feel that the NCAA has taken control away from coaches and given more room to agents to manipulate young players.
“I feel like more now than ever before, we are actually doing more than we ever have to prepare them for the future in dealing with agents,” Saban said. “We are not trying to keep our guys away from agents. We just want to get rid of what happens behind closed doors.”
