Nick Saban just finished his news conference in which he tried to head off the story that he’s banned NFL scouts from practice.
He has, but not for the reasons speculated.
“I know there’s been a lot made of this whole sort of NFL scout thing and really I don’t think it’s fair to our players for people to come in here and evaluate our players when it’s 110 degrees outside and we’re going through two-a-days,” Saban said. “So, I don’t really want the guys here when we’re going through two-a-days. It’s especially hot this year and what I told people is we’ll put out a schedule some time after Aug. 25th. So we didn’t close this to the NFL for any particular reason.”
Read more later about a teleconference Saban said he organized that involved everyone from college coaches to the NFLPA and the NFL commissioner. Interesting stuff in this, the 900th post in Bama Blog history.
UPDATE: On the topic of agents, Saban said everyone needs to be held accountable when rules are broken. That includes players and not just while they’re still in school.
“Is it not conduct detrimental if a player does the wrong thing in college and gets suspended for his senior season just so he can play in the NFL? It hurts the NFL,” Saban said. “It hurts the college. It hurts the player. It hurts everybody. So why shouldn’t he get suspended for conduct detrimental just like Roethlisberger or some of the other guys that doesn’t do the right thing?
“Now I like Ben Roethlisberger. I have respect for him and I don’t mean that in a negative way, but he’s being suspended right now for not doing the right thing in a particular circumstance.”
3:29 p.m. update: An Ohio State spokesperson confirmed to The Bama Blog that Jim Tressel participated in the call but doesn’t expect the Buckeye coach to comment on it.
4:45 update: A spokesman from Oklahoma confirmed the The Blog that Bob Stoops also participated in the call.
The Daily Bama Blog 