Saban ... ESPN Documentary thread

[Gerry Hamilton]

This is going to be great!

[watty7796]

Its gotta be better than the NE to NC debacle.  Went from arguably first to maybe the worst hc fall from grace i can ever remember in the coaching ranks.  This is Jamarcus Russel #1 draft pick bad.

[Oldest Horn]

I tend to be skeptical of documentaries where the subject has final editing rights, but the first episode was good. 

[AustinsTruth]

Documentary was done very poorly. Bad storytelling by the producers. It will be successful of course (anything about Nick Saban would be), but left a ton to be desired. 

[Gerry Hamilton]

2 hours ago, Oldest Horn said:

I tend to be skeptical of documentaries where the subject has final editing rights, but the first episode was good. 

Agree 100%.

Thought is was very good 

[LonghornFan4Ever]

 

[Jester101]

Two thirds the way through it. Saban’s wife certainly kept him grounded.

[closetojumping]

Did they dedicate an episode to explaining how Saban fully weaponized the player auction landscape and led Alabama to being one of the major buyers in what was basically an annual illegal auction? Or is that just never going to be critically looked into by anyone? 

Alabama was a lead dog in a closed market of about 10 schools every year who worked with street agents and the proverbial uncles to buy players in recruiting when it was fundamentally illegal. 

Give Saban credit though, once he realized that legally being able to pay players removed his competitive advantage, he was smart enough to deuce out and take the massive ESPN bag and retire. 

7 titles, yadda yadda. This dude was the Sammy Sosa of CFB coaching. Could he have been great without cheating? We’ll never know. He wasn’t at Michigan State and he damned sure wasn’t with the Dolphins. 

[mmdaytontexas]

9 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Did they dedicate an episode to explaining how Saban fully weaponized the player auction landscape and led Alabama to being one of the major buyers in what was basically an annual illegal auction? Or is that just never going to be critically looked into by anyone? 

Alabama was a lead dog in a closed market of about 10 schools every year who worked with street agents and the proverbial uncles to buy players in recruiting when it was fundamentally illegal. 

Give Saban credit though, once he realized that legally being able to pay players removed his competitive advantage, he was smart enough to deuce out and take the massive ESPN bag and retire. 

7 titles, yadda yadda. This dude was the Sammy Sosa of CFB coaching. Could he have been great without cheating? We’ll never know. He wasn’t at Michigan State and he damned sure wasn’t with the Dolphins. 

Every top coach pulling in multiple five stars is accused of cheating at some point in their career. Maybe Bama's rich alumni negotiated behind the scenes with these recruits and he looked the other way, but a lot of his former coaches were out there in the college ranks recruiting against him, and they never accused him of cheating. They could have easily blown the whistle on the cheating, but they never said a word. 

[closetojumping]

8 minutes ago, mmdaytontexas said:

Every top coach pulling in multiple five stars is accused of cheating at some point in their career. Maybe Bama's rich alumni negotiated behind the scenes with these recruits and he looked the other way, but a lot of his former coaches were out there in the college ranks recruiting against him, and they never accused him of cheating. They could have easily blown the whistle on the cheating, but they never said a word. 

Oh man. I wasn’t projecting. I’m not here to convince you of anything, so believe what you want.

That said any premise around “everyone does it” or “everyone was clean or other people would have said something “ are each so completely wrongheaded that they’re almost impossible to help someone who believes either idea to become disavowed of their illusions. 

[mmdaytontexas]

5 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Oh man. I wasn’t projecting. I’m not here to convince you of anything, so believe what you want.

That said any premise around “everyone does it” or “everyone was clean or other people would have said something “ are each so completely wrongheaded that they’re almost impossible to help someone who believes either idea to become disavowed of their illusions. 

Ok, back you accusations up with evidence. We can play conspiracy games all day long, but if you don't connect the dots with provable evidence, it's just rumor.

The fact still remains, that there are a ton of coaches out there in the coaching ranks who were behind the Bama curtain, and not one peep from them about his cheating. And, some of them left T-Town on less than good terms with Saban. Not even they are exposing Saban for cheating, and if anyone out there has a motive to do so, it's them.

If you are making the accusations, then give us the facts that support that accusation. 

[HookEmLonghorns]

I’m not trying to argue or prove anyone right or wrong here, but I’m also curious to hear more details. Of course real “evidence” is likely impossible, but how did it all work? How involved were the head coaches? Or were they intentionally kept away from the obviously illegal acts? I appreciate any insight.

[Oldest Horn]

I think NIL and free transfers leveled the playing field with Saban, and at 72 he didn’t feel he could keep his advantage. 

[TexasLonghorns]

7 minutes ago, Oldest Horn said:

I think NIL and free transfers leveled the playing field with Saban, and at 72 he didn’t feel he could keep his advantage. 

“Saban got scared of a even playing field”

36-6, a Heisman winner, 2 SEC Championships, 2 playoff appearances and a Natty appearance in his 3 years with the NIL…

[pghorn]

If you look beyond counting numbers on NCs, i.e, % conf and %NC championships and win and bowl win %, Pete Carroll was just as good if not better as a college coach, and NFL is no contest. I’ll duck.

[utx2]

How about when Texas was looking for a new coach.   Wonder if that makes it in lol.   Mrs Terry spotted buying houses in Austin.   Wonder how it would of turned out for al if true 

[Gerry Hamilton]

2 minutes ago, utx2 said:

How about when Texas was looking for a new coach.   Wonder if that makes it in lol.   Mrs Terry spotted buying houses in Austin.   Wonder how it would of turned out for al if true 

It was all overblown ... a lot of if was complete BS. 

 

[Oldest Horn]

44 minutes ago, TexasLonghorns said:

“Saban got scared of a even playing field”

36-6, a Heisman winner, 2 SEC Championships, 2 playoff appearances and a Natty appearance in his 3 years with the NIL…

Free transfers, too. Saban was great at warehousing 5 stars for two or three years. 

Edited Saturday at 04:08 PM by Oldest Horn

[Oldest Horn]

29 minutes ago, utx2 said:

How about when Texas was looking for a new coach.   Wonder if that makes it in lol.   Mrs Terry spotted buying houses in Austin.   Wonder how it would of turned out for al if true 

Jimmy Sexton on line 2…

[closetojumping]

On 10/10/2026 at 10:03 AM, mmdaytontexas said:

Ok, back you accusations up with evidence. We can play conspiracy games all day long, but if you don't connect the dots with provable evidence, it's just rumor.

The fact still remains, that there are a ton of coaches out there in the coaching ranks who were behind the Bama curtain, and not one peep from them about his cheating. And, some of them left T-Town on less than good terms with Saban. Not even they are exposing Saban for cheating, and if anyone out there has a motive to do so, it's them.

If you are making the accusations, then give us the facts that support that accusation. 

Evidence? Like I'm a prosecuting attorney or something? Good luck getting people to go on record regarding such matters, particularly since the era is now past. People in sports media, including people who cover recruiting, all know what the bag game was and who played it. There is zero incentive for any of them to go out and publicly start naming names and explaining the machine. I don't have a problem with that, either. I have a problem with ESPN, who has many people working there that damned well know how it all worked, publishing a hagiography on the worst perpetuator of the cheating machine, however. 

Beyond that, I had friends who worked for years on Saban's staff. I've also listened to assistants of his tell stories about all of it. A famous WR from the Houston area was bought by Bama for what would look like nothing now from a street agent running an auction. Bama missed on a Houston DT at the same school because Jimbo and FSU had more money to throw at the spot. Same is true for when a Mississippi DT went to play for Fisher at ATM. Stories about the ones who got away are bizarrely easier and more common to hear those involved recount.

Like I said, you don't have to believe me, but I'm not just wistfully projecting fantasy. I've been doing what I can to shine a light on the cheating game since Chip Kelly bought Lache Seastrunk for $25k and Yahoo!, with help, later ran a story on it with literal receipts as part of their evidence. 

Also, Saban accidentally admits that the bag game no longer worked in the freaking documentary. He says he retired because of all of the money that entered the space in NIL and he wasn't ready to compete with that. "Now everyone is paying players!" What he's saying without saying it is that things were a lot easier when only a few teams, his included, were paying players. 

[mmdaytontexas]

Like I thought, just conspiratorial rumor mongering. And Saban did not admit to cheating in that documentary. Quite the contrary. He said the NIL money and the portal tampering made coaching and recruiting more difficult and he didn't want to deal with that. That was a pretty plain and simple statement he made. No super-secrets hiding behind his words or between his sentences. If you have real evidence, then present it. We might all believe you if we saw it.