Better To Be Fido Or Ask Bad Question?

Last week, Alabama Coach Nick Saban didn’t want his players to watch the LSU-Arkansas football game, which could have had repercussions for the Crimson Tide insofar as the Southeastern Conference and national championship games. This week he’s still skittish about discussion of LSU.

Some commentators around the nation, in an attempt to discredit Alabama participation in this year’s BCS National Championship Game, have concluded that it is a disadvantage for LSU to have to play the SEC Championship Game and then play Alabama in the National Championship Game when Bama did not have to play in that game in Atlanta this Saturday. (The BCS Championship Game comes approximately five weeks following the SEC Championship Game, on Jan. 9.

(We didn’t hear a hue and cry about Auburn having to play in the SEC game and then the BCS game last year when Oregon hadn’t played in a conference championship game, but that’s a discussion for another day.)

Saban was asked that since Bama appears to be “safely in the clubhouse” for the BCS title game, if he would prefer to have his team in Atlanta this week representing the SEC Western Division against Georgia.

(You don’t tug on Superman’s cape; you don’t spit in the wind; you don’t ask Nick Saban hypothetical questions.)

“Why would I answer that question?” Saban said. “I’ve got enough problems to deal with today.

“I’ve got guys getting ready to go out for the draft. I’ve got guys that want to pick an agent. I’ve got a banquet coming up. We’ve got workouts coming up.

“I’m going to answer a question about a hypothetical? I don’t answer hypothetical questions. I don’t even have an answer to that. I don’t even think about it, to be honest with you.

“Why would you waste your time thinking about things that can’t happen, that aren’t real, that can’t happen?”

The coach had already explained that he was dressed in natty crimson blazer and tie “not for you (reporters),” but because he was going recruiting. And then he revealed that he has even more on his plate.

“I’ve got enough problems,” he said.

“I’ve got a dog at home that since football season started has not been trained one bit, that has been spoiled rotten by you know who, that shouldn’t be on the couch that’s on the couch, that shouldn’t run out of the yard that runs out of the yard.

“I’ve got work at home, too. I’ve got to get a dog trained.”

He was also asked if he would watch the SEC Championship Game and whether he had a favorite. He said when he watches football games on television that he ordinarily does not have a favorite, but that when he watches LSU, where he once coached; or Michigan State, where he once coached; or other places where he has coached, such as Ohio State and Navy, that he probably is for those teams.

And with that he bemoaned that he may have invited Georgia fans to egg his Georgia lake house.

He also added that he doesn't agree with the assessment that Alabama is "in the clubhouse" for the BCS National Championship Game.