Nick Saban eyes a new weight room at Alabama

VESTAVIA HILLS, Alabama - On a day when a $75,000 check from the Nick's Kids Fund was presented to go toward building a 14th house in honor of Alabama's 14th national championship, talk turned Thursday toward building on the grounds of the Crimson Tide's football complex.

Ground is being moved on three practice fields. The entrance to the indoor football practice building has been torn down.

What's up?

"We had a field that we never really ever used," Alabama coach Nick Saban said before a golf fundraiser at Old Overton Club. "We're going to build a new weight room. It's going to be between the Mal Moore facility and up against the indoor facility, so we're just moving the fields down, so they'll be full fields, and taking the field out. And then we're going to remodel the downstairs in phases ... over the next couple years."

The field that is being eliminated was the one outdoor field with artificial turf.

Plans for the new weight room and remodeling of the existing downstairs weight room have yet to be approved by the University of Alabama Systems board of trustees, a school official said.

Saban said it's important to keep facilities from falling behind those of rival schools.

"When people come to Alabama, they expect to see the best," he said. "We should always strive to have the best. As long as we have the resources and we can provide the best for our student-athletes, that's what we should do in all sports."

An eight-week summer conditioning program has begun.

"Everybody's in summer school," Saban said. "We're not allowed as coaches to work with the players right now. The strength and conditioning coaches work on them on conditioning, trying to get them prepared for the season, and so far that's been going very well."

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Nick Saban eyes a new weight room at Alabama