If Nick Saban had gotten what he wanted, Hugh Freeze would be in Tuscaloosa this week helping Alabama prepare for its annual A-Day spring game.
It's what the former Ole Miss coach wanted, too.
The Southeastern Conference, though, wasn't in favor of that happening.
Alabama was one of at least five SEC schools that had contact with Freeze about on-field jobs this offseason. Saban wanted to hire Freeze as a co-offensive coordinator and position coach, sources told AL.com.
However, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey encouraged Alabama not to hire a man as well known for the personal shortcomings that led to his Ole Miss resignation as he is for his success as a coach.
It's the primary reason why Saban, the highest-paid and most powerful coach in college football, couldn't add Freeze to his staff this offseason, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation who provided previously unreported details about Alabama's pursuit of the former Ole Miss head coach.
It was only a few days after Saban's mid-January meeting with Freeze that he learned he couldn't make the hire. Sankey informed both Freeze and Alabama that it would look bad for the SEC for Freeze to be back coaching in the league while Ole Miss suffered from NCAA penalties incurred under his watch. The SEC preferred that Freeze, who resigned in July following a "pattern of personal misconduct," go off the radar for at least a little while before trying to return to work at one of its schools.
The SEC declined to comment for this story.
Sankey's stance left Saban disappointed. Saban has a strong respect for Freeze, who bested him twice as Ole Miss' head coach -- one of only three SEC coaches to beat Saban multiple times during his time in Tuscaloosa.
Alabama ultimately hired Josh Gattis away from Penn State to be its co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach and promoted Mike Locksley to offensive coordinator as part of a staff shakeup. When asked in late January about the possibility of hiring Freeze, Saban said, "I think Hugh Freeze is a really good coach, so we'll keep evaluating and trying to make our staff as strong as we can make it."
It wasn't just Alabama that considered adding Freeze this offseason.
Multiple SEC schools looked into hiring Freeze as their offensive coordinator, including LSU and Missouri, but no deal was ever reached primarily because of the league's opposition, according to sources. Freeze was publicly linked to the Missouri offensive coordinator position before Barry Odom hired former Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley.
While it seems implausible a coach as influential and successful as Saban couldn't get what he wanted, a nearly year-old SEC bylaw gives the league's commissioner additional oversight into schools' hiring practices. According to bylaw 19.8.1.2, a school must consult directly with Sankey before offering a job to a coach "who has engaged in unethical conduct as defined under NCAA Bylaws or who has participated in activity that resulted, or may result, in a Level I, Level II or major infraction."
That's relevant because Ole Miss received a two-year bowl ban, scholarship reductions through 2018-19 and had to vacate wins after the program was deemed to have "fostered an unconstrained culture of booster involvement in football recruiting," according to the NCAA Committee on Infractions. The committee, though, seemingly viewed it as more an institutional than Freeze issue at Ole Miss. While multiple Ole Miss assistants and staffers received multi-year show-cause penalties, Freeze was hit with only a two-game conference suspension should any school hire him as a head coach before Nov. 30.
Roger I. Abrams, the Richardson Professor of Law at Northeastern University, says the SEC bylaw doesn't legally prevent a school from hiring someone like Freeze -- a school could have its president make a case to Sankey on why it wants to hire him -- but "it's exactly what the SEC wanted to happen."
"We have seen especially in basketball that coaches who get their programs into NCAA hot water, if they are a good coach, they'll get another job fairly quick," Abrams said. "What the SEC is saying is 'Not in our conference.' I think it makes a lot of sense. Like everything else, the effect of the consultation with the commissioner depends on the personalities involved. Not all universities are equal within any conference."
To this point, the former Ole Miss head coach hasn't fought back against the SEC's stance. Even if he did, he likely wouldn't have any legal recourse against the conference.
"I would conclude he does not have a case," Abrams said. "If someone doesn't like the bylaws, go change your conference."
As spring practice wraps up across the Southeast this week, it looks increasingly unlikely that Freeze will have an on-field coaching job for the 2018 season. It's possible he could land an analyst or consultant job, but sources have indicated he's reluctant to uproot his family from Oxford for that type of position.
Freeze, who compiled a 39-25 record in five seasons in Oxford, has kept a relatively low profile since his July resignation but has expressed remorse in his few public appearances.
“I really believe I have a lot to offer a program whether as an assistant or a head coach, and I’m hopeful it’s very soon,” Freeze told Gridiron Now in December. “That program will get a very determined, motivated, better coach Freeze if given a second chance.”