Nick Saban to Penn State? Well, of Course. at BetLM

The Penn State coach­ing search has offi­cially jumped the shark.

In this brave new era rules by social media and mes­sage board “insid­ers,” at a time when Twit­ter not only relays the news but often cre­ates the news, in an epoch where “spec­u­la­tion” has replaced “report­ing” even in the world of jour­nal­ism, it has become far too easy for mere ‘rumor’ to be reported as ‘fact.’

And so it came to be this week that, some­how and some way, peo­ple actu­ally started to believe that Nick Saban was a legit­i­mate can­di­date to take over in Happy Val­ley. Yes, Nick Saban. As in, the guy who cur­rently runs that pow­er­house pro­gram known as “Alabama.” The guy who has more money and more resources at his dis­posal than pretty much any other coach in Amer­ica. And yes, the guy who is cur­rently prepar­ing his Crim­son Tide to play in the BCS National Cham­pi­onship Game against Les Miles, Tyrann Math­ieu and the LSU Tigers (hey, maybe Miles is a can­di­date, too).

This, my friends, is the guy we are sup­posed to believe is think­ing not about what he cur­rently has-probably the best sit­u­a­tion in col­lege football-but what he could have, if only he packs up his bags and takes over a pro­gram that is mired in one of the great­est scan­dals that col­lege foot­ball has ever seen.

Yes, Nick Saban def­i­nitely wants to take the Penn State job.

Def­i­nitely.

And do you know why?

Because some­body posted an (anony­mous) com­ment on a news­pa­per web­site. And then some­body posted that com­ment on a mes­sage board. And then some­body passed along this “news” on Twit­ter. And then peo­ple started talk­ing about it. And so then, remark­ably and stun­ningly, it ended up being reported, if that’s the right word, by legit­i­mate news outlets.

Yes, folks. Nick Saban is going to be the next coach at Penn State.

Unless Bob Stoops is the guy.

Or Pete Carroll.

Or Bill Belichick.

It’s a brave new world, indeed.

New sto­ries recently posted on the site:

♦ Bret Bielema in per­spec­tive: The unlikely suc­cess of Barry Alvarez’s unlikely successor.

♦ Jim Delany proves he’s smarter than us, again. How the Big Ten (and Pac 12) have expanded their foot­print. With­out actu­ally expand­ing at all.

♦ Robert Grif­fin III. The guy who did the impos­si­ble. Twice.