Jumbo Package: Gym Tide hosts Power of Pink, Harsin saga continues with no resolution

Happy Friday, everyone. The Gym Tide will host Georgia tonight in the 18th annual “Power of Pink” meet. For the uninitiated:

Alabama legend Sarah Patterson started the Power of Pink initiative during her tenure as head coach to raise awareness in the fight against breast cancer. The simple idea of “Think Pink, Wear Pink and Roll Tide” was an instant success and spread nationwide with nearly every collegiate gymnastics team either hosting or taking part in a “pink” meet in the years since Alabama held its first in 2005.

There was a time when Alabama and Georgia dominated the sport. That’s no longer the case, but the rivalry marches on.

SEC coaches had their annual meeting yesterday, which we usually don’t hear about.

“During our first in-person meeting since 2020, we benefitted from great dialogue today with the SEC Football Coaches,” Sankey wrote. “The commitment to provide young people with opportunities will continue as we adapt to the changing landscape of college sports!”

The statement came shortly after the SEC announced it generated total revenue of $777.8 million for Fiscal Year 2020-21 (ending Aug. 31, 2021). The amount will be divided among its 14 member institutions, with the distribution average sitting just north of $54.6 million per member institution, per the conference.

Nick Saban arrived in style as you’d expect.

Conversely, Bryan Harsin, who is the only reason that anyone knew the coaches’ meeting was happening. He got back from vacation in Mexico just in time to represent Auburn, but not in time to meet with Auburn brass about his future. Harsin pulled up in a state trooper’s SUV, went in and out the back door, and to avoid answering questions paraded reporters and cameras all the way around the vehicle parked behind his.

Gotta admit, that was a pretty good move. As of this writing, Auburn hasn’t managed any resolution, though there seems to be some momentum toward keeping him. It’s pretty clear that Harsin isn’t going to quit and walk away from his buyout, which was the intention of the meddlers.

Harsin’s dad apparently called Finebaum to defend his honor.

“First time caller on the show,” Dale from Boise started. “Anyway, on the recruiting portion of it, it said he didn’t recruit very well. Well, I think he did a pretty good job recruiting some of these players. They don’t have to be star-struck with five-star ratings. They can be good players. (He) went after good players that want to play the game and not star-struck with their stars and stuff.

“I thought he did a pretty dang good job: Kellen Moore, Leighton Vander Esch, Jay Ajai.”

Finebaum’s interest was piqued by the authoritative way in which “Dale from Boise” made his points.

“I got to Dale from Boise and he’s talking,” Finebaum said Thursday. “He’s saying a lot of very inside Boise State type of things. He mentions Kellen Moore and these other things I was aware of when Harsin was the offensive coordinator. The tone was that Bryan Harsin was responsible for all the success out there, and I didn’t object.”

Last, Alabama added a new analyst to the staff.

In addition to Mettenberger, the Tide’s other currently-listed analysts are all holdovers from 2021 or prior: Dean Altobelli, Johnathan Galante, Alex Mortensen, Bert Biffani, George Banko, Will Lawing, Mark Orphey, Dave Huxtable and Nick Cochran.

Two of Alabama’s analysts from last season have left for new jobs in Ronald Cooper, now the head coach at Long Island University, and Jake Long, now the inside linebackers coach at Oregon.

Basketball hosts Arkansas for brunch tomorrow, and we’ll be along with coverage of that later. Needless to say, every game is huge at this point, and particularly the ones at home.

That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.

Roll Tide.