Nick Saban entered his Aug. 10 press briefing in a joking mood. With a grin, he asked the assembled reporters if they were enjoying the air conditioning before asking his media relations director if “they look soft?”

It set off a playful back and forth that spoke to the current state of this relationship. Saban said he’d just spent the last two-and-a-half hours in the baking summer hear when a reporter said he’d be happy to attend practice.

Of course, that’s not possible, not even in the abbreviated version of access that had been customary in Tuscaloosa through 2019 and for almost a week in 2021. Other than the Fan Day practice to anyone, Alabama nixed the media viewing periods after two workouts two preseasons ago.

It’s all part of the push and pull that’s the tug-o-war for the intel programs want to keep confidential but the public drinks from a firehose.

The topic inevitably leads to an overarching question: Does paranoia bring peace and serenity to a program or create an information vacuum where nuggets of varying validity hit the black market?

Or does it serve the public to shroud a month-long race to opening day in secrecy?

Nothing at the time was really said publicly about Alabama’s sudden reversal of its media policy that hadn’t changed much since Saban’s arrival in 2007. An advisory email sent to reporters stated “until further notice, in-person media viewing periods at Alabama football practices have been canceled.”

And it doesn’t sound like that guidance will change any time soon.

It’s notable since the trend is actually bending in the opposite direction around college football. While there are still a few other fortresses, the only other SEC school that restricts press access in the preseason to the same degree is Kentucky.

LSU had 10 workouts with press access — seven of which allowed for an hour of observation, according to longtime beat writer Ron Higgins.

“Kelly, in his 33rd year as a college head coach, is comfortable in his own skin,” Higgins wrote in the Shreveport-Bossier Journal. “He’s not giving away secrets when he allows the media to watch practice. But he realizes not only can we get a clear and honest assessment of his team, but it educates us to ask (for the most part) more intelligent questions.”

Louisville took it a few steps beyond that when new head coach Jeff Brohm opened the entirety of the first eight preseason practices to the general public.

Auburn had six media viewing windows planned for the preseason under first-year coach Hugh Freeze.

But in Tuscaloosa, those days have passed. Saban went into his reasons after the reporter offered to attend practice on Aug. 10.

“If you wouldn’t take roll, I’d let you,” Saban said. “The only thing you’d do is take roll. I mean and see who’s missing in flex and then I’d get 62 questions about ‘Why wasn’t this guy lined up where he usually lines up. I mean, if we would ask intelligent questions, it would be different about practice and it would be worthwhile.”

Practice viewing periods had always been a tightrope walk with previous threats of access ending. Before pulling the rip cord, Alabama allowed access for one to two practice periods during individual drills. This was early in the workout, before the secrets of game plan installation came out. It offered a chance to get photos, B-roll video and writers often produced practice reports with basic observations.

Those online reports would occasionally get back to Saban and the carrot of access was threatened but never pulled until August 2021. The last practice viewing period not mandated by a postseason game occurred Aug. 9, 2021 with the AL.com headline “Alabama practice notes: Starting TE back at practice” documenting the scene.

Since ending media viewing windows, Alabama’s distributed its own photos and edited video of the same periods it previously opened to the press.

Down at Auburn, first-year head coach Hugh Freeze is taking a different approach. The last of the six preseason media viewing windows occurred last Thursday and after the standard period for video and still photos, Freeze allowed all media members to stay for the duration of practice so long as no images — moving or otherwise — aren’t recorded. One veteran beat reporter said it was the most they’ve seen of a Tiger practice in at least a decade.

That said, Freeze had a bone to pick that afternoon about the previous media viewing period. Videos of team drills that included snap-count cadences appeared on the social media feeds of a few beat reporters who say weren’t told that was off-limits ahead of time.

“Well, I’m gonna cut all of you off if you post videos of our team again, whoever that was,” Freeze said. “I don’t care and I’m not mad at you. But man, just no videos. Maybe that’s just crazy. Y’all can do pictures and stuff but man just don’t, don’t shoot videos.”

And then a moment of self-awareness summed up just about everything on this topic.

“Maybe,” Freeze said, “we’re just paranoid as coaches too much.”

Perhaps.

In the NFL, every training camp practice is open, not only to the press, but the public.

“Beginning the first day of preseason training camp through Thursday, August 24,” the 2023 NFL Media Access policy reads, “all daily practices must be open in their entirety to local media. It is permissible to limit the videotaping or photographing of certain portions of training camp practices.”

No detail goes undocumented in a league even more lucrative than the SEC.

Restrictions aren’t unique to the south or Tuscaloosa.

Michigan closes practically every activity outside of the spring game to reporters and the public. There’s no fan day in Ann Arbor so the season opener is the first glimpse for outside eyes with Jim Harbaugh in charge.

The secretive approach cuts both ways, however.

Yes, the first-hand commentary will be minimized for the masses but it also creates an information vacuum. With a quarterback battle reaching a crescendo, Saban offered the following assessment after Saturday’s second scrimmage — two weeks before the season opener.

“They all got to play,” he said. “They all took snaps. They all completed some passes. They all made some throws that weren’t as good as they should have been. And they all got sacked. That’s what I saw.”

The scrimmage, closed to the press, was open to members of the Red Elephant (booster) Club.

The routine will shift the state’s other SEC outpost as its Sept. 2 opener with UMass approaches. Freeze, who named a starting quarterback last week, said the welcome mat might be going on hiatus.

“When the season starts it will be quite different,” Freeze said. “I just think there’s too much going on, and you guys are so aggressive with having your stories out there. Man, I can appreciate that, I can. You’re into what you do and you want to be good at it. I get that. There’s a fine line for me of, ‘How do I balance the respect I have for the job you guys do and protecting our kids and our team the most we can?’

Fair question.

“I don’t know where that line is,” Freeze concluded.

Thus the cycle continues.

And in Tuscaloosa, air conditioning and jokes are the best offer on the table for now.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.