TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby didn’t signal out Alabama or head coach Nick Saban by name Friday when stating the NCAA Football Oversight Committee would take a “deep dive” into the size of college coaching staffs next year. Conversely, the Crimson Tide head coach didn’t mention Bowlsby in his retaliatory rant on the topic.
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Neither needed to.
While squaring off indirectly, both Bowlsby and Saban voiced their sides of the argument surrounding the rise of crowded coaching staffs in college football.
Friday, the NCAA adopted a rule allowing programs to hire a tenth assistant beginning on Jan. 9, 2018. Bowlsby, the chair of the Football Oversight Committee, was not opposed to that decision but did open the discussion of staff sizes.
Bowlsby stated his concern over the rising size of college coaching staffs, particularly in the use of support-staff roles. He then stated the Football Oversight Committee would address the matter next year in aim of regulating how many people a program could employ. Bowlsby even went as far to say that one university employed 97 staffers in its football program.
The two schools most known for the size of their staffs are Alabama and Ohio State. While Bowlsby didn’t call out either program, the message was received.
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“All these people that complain about staff sizes, I mean, we pay interns really, really little money,” Saban said. “Very small amount of money. You would be shocked at how cheap the labor really is. It's almost criminal. And why we have administrators complaining about how many cheap labor people you have, trying to promote the profession, trying to do something to develop our game and the coaches in the game, because how else do you develop guys?”
Saban then continued his rant, touching on another rule passed that makes it more difficult to hire high school coaches to off-the-field roles by restricting the hiring of anyone associated with recruits for a two-year period before or after the hiring.
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From there he predicted a continuance in the limitations placed on high school coaches’ access to the college level, stating the new rule changes make it difficult to develop coaches and grow the game.
"I hate to go off on something," Saban said. "But I really don't get it. I don't. I guess it's the paranoia that we all have that somebody else is doing something that I am allowed to do and everyone else is allowed to do it but you choose not to do it.”
Whether or not a future rule change will have an effect on Alabama’s staff down the road remains to be seen. For now, Saban can enjoy the small win of being able to hire a 10th assistant in the near future, something he said he is “very, very much for.”
“I know that there's a lot of people out there who complain about staff sizes, but we actually have the fewest number of coaches per player of any sport in college,” Saban said. “The fewest number of coaches relative to players in any sport in college, ratio-wise I'm talking about. So, to have a tenth coach really balances the staff better.”
Saban doesn’t plan on extending Tide’s preseason
Another rule change Saban addressed in his Friday news conference was the NCAA’s decision to do away with two-a-day practices.
According to the new rule, “A single day may include a single, three-hour, on-field practice session and a walk-through. During walk-throughs, protective equipment such as helmets and pads can’t be worn, and contact is prohibited.”
Schools are allowed 29 practices during the preseason and have used two-a-days in the past in order to reach that limit before the start of the season. In order to compensate, programs will now be allowed to begin their practices one week earlier next year.
Just don’t expect Saban to take advantage of that.
While acknowledging the new rule changes were made with the players’ best interest in mind, the head coach disagrees with the ruling, stating an extended college season could be just as detrimental to players’ safety.
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“I personally think that our season is way too long and making the season longer is not a good thing for the players,” Saban said. “I cannot see bringing our guys in in July to start practice and have four or five weeks of practice before we play our first game when summer school's still going on and all that. I don't disagree with the day off. I think if we thought two-a-days was too much, we should have not made it longer. We should have just eliminated two-a-days and just kept the practices a little less, because it's a long season.”
Saban pointed out the fact that Alabama has played 15 games the past two seasons and said he has no plans of extending his players’ season any further than needed in the future.
“I'm not for making it longer and I probably won't make ours longer,” Saban said. “I think what we're going to do is just come in one day earlier to make up for the one Sunday we have to have a day off. So we may have a few less practices. But we'll do walk-throughs or something instead of having practices and try to learn that way. But I don't have a good feeling about making the season longer for the players.”
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