Greg Byrne calls for Alabama fans to 'fight back'

[KrAzY3]

True, but I am saying that Greg is overstating our needs (sandbagging)...

That's probably accurate. Alabama is in no way as well off as the top few programs. They are better off, far better off in some cases than places like Auburn, Clemson, etc... So I think there's a kind of dual aspect to saying well this isn't too bad, but it's not that great either.

When a coach makes $8mm a year and the star players who are the product fans are consuming are getting $100k in tuition etc., the feeling of being undervalued is understandable.

The NCAA could largely have avoided this if they’d been willing to loosen the purse strings voluntarily, but instead, they doubled down on a broken model of amateurism that most people saw as a farce, and now it’s total madness.

For the record I was for things like stipends and such and even a limited NIL framework that was controlled at the school or conference level.

I just think the economics were poorly explained. Basically what athletic departments had was socialism in the sense that the funds were distributed throughout the athletic department and to the other athletes. Having said that, from my understanding and figures I've seen the football players were still getting in the range of 200K on benefits (roughly double what a semi-pro football player would get), but the cash stipends were only like $12,000 cash so I understand the frustration.

But, the notion that the money was mainly going to coaches also wasn't accurate. Coaches were making in the neighborhood of 15% of the budget (in some cases paid for my boosters anyway), while nearly every cent that was being spent was in some way of benefit to players. Be it coaches, facilities, travel, housing, food, etc...

As Byrne just revealed, the athletic department lost money in 2023. So, while we can quibble about coaches salaries, even if you subtract that the rest of the money was being spent on things for the athletes, it's all public record and that was poorly explained.

It was presented like athletes were earning billions that they're not getting, but if you zoom out at college athletics as a whole the irony was these athletes had more spend on them than actual revenue they generated. It was actually the opposite of what was being presented, not only were they not getting a cut taken from them, they were via boosters, taxes and student fees having more spent on them than their total revenue generated.

New roster size will be 85 scholarship and 20 walk-ons.

Guess I have to look into it because this was the last thing I saw about it: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/st...-walk-on-cuts-senior-day-citadel/76339751007/
" Football scholarship roster limits will increase from 85 to 105 as early as July 2025, but teams will shrink from 130 to 105, which will cut many walk-ons. "

 

[22Musso22]

Like the Joker burning the mountain of cash in the movie.....the entirety of college football is burning.

 

[Redwood Forrest]

I stopped going to games long ago because of price gouging. $8.00 (or whatever the cost is now) for a hot dog? No thank you. I will watch it from home. The only cost I have is Sling TV.

 

[davefrat]

I stopped going to games long ago because of price gouging. $8.00 (or whatever the cost is now) for a hot dog? No thank you. I will watch it from home. The only cost I have is Sling TV.

I pay $8 to watch my son’s JV basketball team lose by 30 twice a week.

Way more value than a hot dog.

 

[BamaNation]

I have some pretty strong thoughts about this. But, at this juncture, I'm going to just say what Gen McAulliffe told the Germans in Bastogne 80 years ago this week...

NUTS!

 

[Tidetwin]

One of the most profitable athletic departments in intercollegiate sports conducting a fall fundraiser just like your local NPR station.

 

[RTR2u]

What about Mercedes? Don't they have a plant in AL?

Living in GA I don't know.

 

[Ttown13]

Alabama AD Greg Byrne makes passionate plea to fans for NIL donations

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www.on3.com

Alabama AD Greg Byrne makes passionate plea to fans for NIL donations

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www.on3.com

Not. One. Penny.

 

[rolltide_21]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1869887136494690806

 

[crimsonaudio]

I always considered Byrne to be one of the best ADs in the country, if not THE best. No longer…

I gotta admit, it's embarrassing how this has come across on social media. I don't care what the facts are, he's made Bama look like a 'poor' athletic department.

 

[B1GTide]

Here's the thing, for me. If the players were staying for their entire playing career at Alabama or Ohio State, I would do this. But I am not paying for this swinging gate plan. Fix it or I will keep my money out.

 

[CB72]

No.

 

[tusks_n_raider]

Here's the thing, for me. If the players were staying for their entire playing career at Alabama or Ohio State, I would do this. But I am not paying for this swinging gate plan. Fix it or I will keep my money out.

Yeah that’s pretty audacious that ADs want average fans to commit to partially fund what’s going on out of some type of loyalty but these players and the coaches aren’t even remotely loyal.

Players have at this point left Bama when they were either starters or about to be starters or were backups who played significant snaps.

Didn’t matter to them to continue to play for Bama because money was flashed to get them to leave.

People are struggling in general right now plus it’s the holidays and Byrne wants more for these greedy kids.

He’s crazy.

I’d be fine cleaning out the entire athletic dept.

I’d rather watch intramural students play two hand touch/ flag football than these cats.

 

[Jack Bourbon]

It's a lot easier to look like a genius when you can stand on the shoulders of someone like Nick Saban.

 

[CrimSonami]

Nope. Will not. Won’t even consider it. Fact is I’ll not renew my automobile tags next cycle nor will I buy any new merchandise. At this point I’m not interested in our annual 4 generation A-Day trek either. I love(d) CFB but this is not fun anymore. Yeah, it’s connected to the university but it’s a diminished product at a higher cost both financially and emotionally. I’m so close to done that I’m gripping the fork prongs down ready to jab it straight into my right thigh. I absolutely HATE what this has become.

 

[rtr90]

coaches have to shell out money .. coaches salaries are no longer justified ... just do what Kelly did

 

[editder]

The only thing worse than seeing money ruin the sport I love is having to use my own money to do it.

 

[rjtide]

Nope. Will not. Won’t even consider it. Fact is I’ll not renew my automobile tags next cycle nor will I buy any new merchandise. At this point I’m not interested in our annual 4 generation A-Day trek either. I love(d) CFB but this is not fun anymore. Yeah, it’s connected to the university but it’s a diminished product at a higher cost both financially and emotionally. I’m so close to done that I’m gripping the fork prongs down ready to jab it straight into my right thigh. I absolutely HATE what this has become.

done with my monthly collective donations. Whatever happens with Bama sports happens…..but I will not support this athletic dept in its current state of ops nor will the macro environment of college football have my support. Enough is enough. .

 

[4Q Basket Case]

I understand the position against donating to the collective.

I also understand that the reality of today's college sports is that you pay players or you don't get them. If you don't get them, you don't win.

So if you (however grudgingly) accept the reality that schools have to pay players to field competitive teams, and you don't think fans should provide the funds, who do you think should, and how should it happen?

 

[81usaf92]

I gotta admit, it's embarrassing how this has come across on social media. I don't care what the facts are, he's made Bama look like a 'poor' athletic department.

Well he has a long history of doing the wrong thing that is overshadowed by his hiring of Nate Oats.

I mean he has consistently believed that the Alabama booster clubs are comparable to Ohio State booster clubs and constantly made each club some of the biggest Greg Byrne haters because of it. I mean he started his tenure with this massive plan to give BDS a face lift and downsize it known as the Crimson Standard, but the REC and the non club boosters told him “we don’t want to pay for this” and it got put in limbo. Then when he tried to push it anyways and started telling charter TP members they would have to move in order to make room for fat cat boxes it created even more pain. Then he thought putting a $25 dollar fee to remain on the season ticket waiting list was going to be a thing…. Well he is starting to find less and less people that survive 2 years of commitment to TP once they realize what Charter members and their children were willing to pay.

He has also had a consistent war with the REC since coming on. One REC perk is two scrimmages per year that aren’t open to the public. Well in the past 2-3 years at these REC events he has set up YEA Alabama stations but absolutely no one goes to them. Well GB has been preaching to REC to contribute with every event but he hasn’t got much bites. Well this year he decided the week before the fall scrimmage to cancel the scrimmage and send a threat to every REC chapter under X amount of members that they won’t get any university speakers at their meetings.

Ofcourse this is all his right as a business man and an AD to do, but it is a massive misunderstanding of what Alabama boosters actually are. TP and REC boosters are generally working class members who are barely financially able to pay for what they actually do pay for each year for Alabama. We aren’t some rich alumni base that constantly can give back to athletics like OSU or Michigan either. We don’t have whales who can write a check and we don’t have mega corporations willing to pay without their name being on the stadium either. Honestly we live off TV and conference revenue mixed with fan excitement. I think GB is constantly trying to fit a round peg through a square hole and is constantly getting mad when boosters don’t back him.