Did Nick Saban admit to tampering during the NFL Draft?
Some football fans are accusing Nick Saban of admitting to tampering on live TV after he said during the NFL Draft that Alabama was interested in acquiring then-Toledo defensive back Quinyon Mitchell out of the transfer portal.
The only problem is, Mitchell never entered the transfer portal. Which made the way Saban worded it sound like Alabama engaged in some tampering where the player was concerned.
"He was our No. 1 guy in the portal last year to try to get to him to come out of the portal," Saban said. "And he would never get in the portal."
As far as the Toledo Blade is concerned, that's an admission of tampering.
"What the heck, coach?!?!" Blade columnist David Briggs said. "Did Saban's words come out wrong, or did he really say that Alabama tried to entice Mitchell to hop into the transfer portal?"
He wasn't alone in that belief. Scores of users on X/Twitter also used Saban's comments to accuse the ex-Alabama coach of tampering, and while the practice certainly isn't unknown in college football, especially in the portal and NIL era, it could also be that Saban either misspoke, that his wording was clumsy, or that we're reading too much into his comments.
The statement is just open-ended enough to interpret it to mean that Alabama actually approached Mitchell to transfer, or that Alabama was just waiting and hoping he would, but that he never did. How you choose to interpret it probably depends on what you already think of Alabama or Saban.
If you're a Tide fan, you're inclined to think the more charitable version. If you hate the Tide, you're more inclined to think Saban is guilty as sin.
We'll never know, and even if Alabama did it, it's not like the NCAA would do anything, even if Saban hadn't retired this offseason. Transfer tampering is one of college football's many open dirty little secrets and just about every big-time program is thought to be doing it in some capacity.
To our ears, it sounded like Saban definitely wanted Mitchell to get in the portal and that Alabama would strongly pursue him in that eventuality, but that it never came to that, because the player stayed where he was.
Which turned out to be a good decision, as the Eagles selected Mitchell in the first round as the No. 22 overall selection. But as an alum of Toledo, not Alabama.
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JAMES PARKS