There's an old quote about academia that says, "education is not preparation for life; education is life itself," but at the University of Alabama, that saying more accurately applies to politics.

If you've gone to school in Tuscaloosa at any point in the last hundred years, you've likely had some interaction with infamous "Machine" - which is basically a poor man's Skull and Bones.

In many ways, the Machine is as silly as it sounds. A historically-white "secret society" that controls campus politics doesn't even sound like it'd be a riveting TV show on the CW. Throw in a few subplots involving sitting US Senators, infamous former governors and an FBI investigation and it'd be canceled at two seasons, tops.

And, yet, we know it's real. As my colleague, John Archibald, has written before, whether you're Greek or Independent, involved on campus or not, if you're an Alabama-student the Machine shapes your views on how politics work.

I should disclose that my younger brother, Mark Hammontree, ran Elliot Spiller's campaign this spring. I should also disclose that I was heavily involved with an independent campaign against the Machine - and as my wife constantly reminds me, Mark was able to succeed where I failed.

Elliot won. For the first time in my entire life, an independent candidate had successfully been elected SGA President at the University of Alabama. I got celebratory calls from all across the country; when I visited Montgomery shortly after the SGA election, politicians and policymakers knowingly identified me as "Mark Hammontree's brother;" old friends from college gathered together for an impromptu celebration in downtown Birmingham.

Somehow, an SGA campaign had become what Vice President Biden might charitably call "a big deal."

So when reports started to come out that the Machine-controlled SGA Senate was blocking Elliot's nominee for Chief of Staff, for the third time, my reaction was, uh, not great, Bob.

At this point, it's looking like President Obama's nominee for Attorney General Loretta Lynch could officially be voted on before University of Alabama SGA President Elliot Spillers is able to get his Chief of Staff confirmed.

Again, the idea of a student government blocking a Chief of Staff nomination would seem ludicrous even if it showed up in ShondaLand.

I know, I know, it's just a student government. But there's a reason why, every few years, a national publication ambles down to Tuscaloosa to "go downstairs."

This isn't simply a swipe at the Machine.

On "both sides of the aisle," Alabama students learn the worst forms of politics. Even students with the noblest goals of reform have to resort to extreme measures just to win.

During my time on campus, we learned to flaunt the official $800 campaign budget cap by moving more than $8,000 through various student organizations; we learned the importance of mobilizing your base and voter turnouts (the Machine long ago learned that votes could easily be bought with drinks at best or threats at worst); we learned the importance of documenting opponents' slip ups and blowing them out of proportion; of messaging to and through the press; of stamping out unflattering rumors early; of dealing with death threats and public attacks; that, at the end of the day, issues don't matter nearly as much as turn out; and that every interest group wants something.

And every step of the way, we believed in what we were doing. Hell, I still do believe in it.

In a hilarious sequence yesterday afternoon, the SGA Senate challenges Elliot Spillers' nominee because of his previous comments that student government is "corrupt." Imagine that, blocking a candidate because he wants to stamp out corruption.

Basically, we learned how politics really work. Sub out the terms Independent and Machine and drop in the "Democrats" and "Republicans," and the Alabama SGA is basically a weird mad-lib version of Montgomery and Washington, DC.

But the thing about student politics is that they could be the training ground for doing things the right way. There aren't professors and faculty members that can step in and slap our national or state politicians on the wrist but we should certainly hold our students to a higher standard.

By denying the existence of the Machine and refusing to intercede on student issues, the University administration continues to encourage doing a by-any-means-necessary approach to politics.

As former SGA President Cleo Thomas said, "It is the training ground for what we suffer now. What we learn here, at the University of Alabama, affects how we govern Alabama. It is predictive, it is a forecast. It is more than just child's play."