A new NCAA rule was passed this off-season that limits the number of headsets a team can have on the sidelines to 20. Saban expressed his feelings about the new rule at the SEC Spring meetings in Destin, Florida.
“I don’t know who is driving this stuff, but to me, it’s kind of like mouse manure when you’re up to your ear in elephant doo-doo,” Saban said according to Vols reporter, Mike Griffith.
Nick Saban on new NCAA rule on limiting staff to 20 headsets: “I don’t know who is driving all this stuff, but to me it’s kind of like mouse manure when you’re up to your ears in elephant doo doo." pic.twitter.com/QBltiA4cVe
— MikeGriffith32 (@MikeGriffith32) May 29, 2018
This new rule has been implemented for several different reasons, but could the ultimate reason be to slow Nick Saban and Alabama down?
According to an article from Sports Illustrated, the NCAA is trying to limit the number of headsets and sideline passes for coaches, a move that could impact Alabama football. The Crimson Tide’s staff is one of the largest and most successful in the history of college football. A portion of that success has to be attributed to all of the great coaches they have spent time in Tuscaloosa. This new rule will really limit the amount of headsets coaches can have to 19, because the phone that coaches use to communicate with quarterbacks on the field counts as a headset.
This is not the first time that the NCAA has put rules into place that seem to be aimed at Saban. Sports Illustrated, Andy Staples, highlighted some of these rules. The first was in 2008 when the NCAA passed a rule that coaches couldn’t evaluate players in the Spring anymore in result to Saban’s first recruiting cycle that resulted in a No.1 class. In 2011, a rule was passed that stopped coaches from signing players that they didn’t have scholarships for. Then there was the decision to no longer let former players participate in practice, which Saban was known to do and now it is the headset rule.
It is going to be interesting to see how Saban and his staff adjust to this new rule.
