UPDATE: The Great Saban responds:
"I have to be very honest about this. I was not aware of this," Saban said. "I have become aware of it since it was brought to our attention. We certainly don't want our players to do anything that's illegal. It is a 5-yard penalty if you do anything to enhance the spot. We've done some research on it, and over half the teams in the league do something with it. They put a piece there or whatever it is so the kicker knows where the ball's going to be spotted. We even saw verification where last year South Carolina's kicker did it. This is not something that is really unusual for people to do. It is something that shouldn't be done because it's against the rules. We're actually happy that it was brought to our attention because I wasn't aware of it. It's something that will not do because it's certainly not worth a 5-yard penalty."
The SEC league office acknowledged today that in an effort to follow the spirit of all NCAA rules the U of A has self reported the facts surrounding their most recent cheating scandal. The SEC has contacted the NCAA asking for a quick response. An emergency meeting was held due to the severity of the allegations and the NCAA has formally contacted the University and told them that "if within 48 hours of a U of A football victory, should the losing head coach of the most recently defeated team make any allegation that the U of A might have done something that may should have caused a five yard penalty to be called and, in fact, said alledged penalty was NOT CALLED by any member of the officiating crew, then in that event the committee on infractions, as a part of their investigation would review all filmed games since 1892 involving the U of A to determine whether or not their might could have been additional uncalled five yard penalties against
ReplyDeletethe U of A and if any were thought to maybe have occurred then the NCAA would then review for any uncalled ten or fifteen yard penalties and if any of those were thought to maybe have occurred then the NCAA would, as punishment, require that the U of A refrain from building any statue honoring Nick Saban until 3 years have passesd."