Alabama coach Nick Saban has made a habit of ruffling feathers with his public comments in recent weeks. First, it was Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher who took issue with Saban’s public remarks about the Aggies’ recruiting tactics. Now, Tuskegee’s Reginald Ruffin has fired back at the seven-time national champion.
Ruffin wrote on his Facebook page that Saban shouldn’t have made any public comments about other programs, then deplored the coach to join other SEC schools in adding HBCU programs to their schedules.
“Just say you’re sorry in public and walk down to your AD’s office and say, ‘We need to play all the FCS HBCUs in the state of Alabama, because we are the only university in the state not playing the Alabama States or Alabama A&Ms in our great state.’”
Alabama has never hosted an HBCU team, and hasn’t played another team from the state besides Auburn since 1944, according to Justin Lee of the Opelika-Auburn News. Auburn has played an HBCU school four times in the past decade.
Ruffin’s vision is for Alabama to play an HBCU school every year, with each program receiving $1.5 million in return. He also hopes for other athletic directors throughout the state to adopt similar approaches in men’s and women’s basketball to help raise the profile of HBCU athletic programs.
“So Coach Saban, my dear friend, I can help you get this train back on track because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory,” Ruffin wrote. “We are not perfect, but your voice can right a wrong because you are (a) powerful figure in this state and people listen to you. Let’s get to work Coach Saban on this.”
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