Regarding Alabama, there's a lot to unpack here.
How do we know that Trent Richardson didn't really say that, but now those close to Alabama are trying to cover it up? Case in point: Remember when Steeler's Alejandro Villanueva stood alone for the National Anthem, then told media that it was "a misunderstanding, an accident."
At the end of the day, I think it's widely accepted that the SEC, including Alabama, were known to bend the rules a little bit to attract the top talent in the country. Yet Notre Dame has several wins disqualified for a few players cheating on an exam......self reported by the university. It's the just the double standard society we live in today unfortunately.
Alabama attracting that top talent is the reason Nick Saban is widely considered the best coach of all time. I've been saying for years that he's a "Top 25 coach." Until we give every college and high school coach the same set of resources to work with, it's impossible to know who the best coach in the country is.
All we can do is speculate on who the best college football coach is based on performance on the field. And that goes to Curt Cignetti. No coach has ever accomplished what that man has with a limited amount of resources. It's not even debatable. Now are there some lower level college coaches or even high school coaches who are as good as Cignetti? My guess is that there might be. We'll never know until one of those coaches get their opportunity to coach at a Power 4 school. But for now, it's Cignetti, not Saban.