I despise Nick Saban. Ever since the Alabama head coach led my Michigan State Spartans to a 9-2 record in 1999, then left the Spartans abruptly for LSU the week before the Citrus Bowl against Florida, I haven’t been able to tolerate the guy. Saban was extremely successful in Baton Rouge (which infuriated me as a Spartan fan), but I couldn’t help but smile when Saban again showed his true nature in 2004, leaving LSU abruptly to coach the Miami Dolphins.

'What a jerk' I thought, how could anyone leave a team that was a perennial National Championship contender in such an abrupt manner? Did he even care about his recruits? What about the school? Of course he didn’t. This was the same Saban that did the same thing to Michigan State four years before; proving Saban only cared about himself. Things in Miami didn't go as well as they did at LSU (or even MSU for that matter), resulting in Saban leaving the Dolphins, under contract, to take the head coaching job at the University of Alabama. Another classless move by Saban, who has shown absolutely no loyalty to the universities and teams that hired him. This is why I simply can not stand the guy.

I’ve always been pretty hard on guys like Saban, Bobby Petrino and Rich Rodriguez. It’s my personal opinion that coaches should be bound to some sort of integrity standard -- the same standard they expect their recruits to abide by. Imagine a coach spending hours recruiting a player, only to have that player decide after a year with the program that he would rather go to a bigger name college. Now I know there are NCAA rules requiring players to sit out a year to prevent this kind of thing, but there is no such rule with coaches. Coaches are essentially allowed to be mercenaries, equipped with buyout clauses that potential suitors are more than happy to pay to get the right man for their program (Rich Rod leaving WVU for Michigan). I’ve despised this type of behavior in college football, and despised coaches who adhere to this credo. But then it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks during the offseason of my latest NCAA Football Dynasty ... I am a video game Nick Saban.

I’m one of those NCAA gamers who shows little to no loyalty to my dynasty teams due to boredom. I’ll start off my yearly ritual with a top 25 team, just to have some initial fun with the game and immediate success. I make promises to recruits, assure their virtual families we will be title contenders until their son graduates, and even tell kids intent on leaving for the draft or transferring, to stick around for another couple years. What’s downright Saban about what I’m doing is that I have no intention of staying with my teams when I say all of these things. After year two with my first school I am off to another school where the criminal process begins all over again. To make things even worse, after a few years at school two, I head on over to the NFL for my Madden franchise, before pulling a Bobby Petrino and heading back to NCAA.

I’m not going to lie, I feel good about the decisions I am making. I crave a new team, with new uniforms, and a new conference. When I head to Madden, I crave the new feel of the NFL, until I miss the college game again. I just can not seem to be with a team for more than two or three seasons before I want to jump ship. I always check back on my old team to see how my recruits are doing, but I never seem to get that sense of loyalty you think you should have when you devote as much free time as possible to your virtual school. What’s wrong with me? How can I chastise Nick Saban for doing the exact same thing I do in my virtual universe?

I still can’t stand Nick Saban, but I now understand how he thinks. To him, life is equivalent to NCAA Football the video game. He wins some games, gets bored, and then takes the next most interesting offer available. Think about that the next time your alma mater’s coach spurns your school for more money or a better opportunity, because would your NCAA Football persona be that much different? As hardcore sports gamers are we really that different from coaches like Saban, Patrino and Rodriguez in terms of team loyalty? How many of you are loyal to your dynasty schools, and how many of you are mercenaries?

I am a virtual Nick Saban … and strangely enough I’m OK with it.