Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne sent out an impassioned email this week to Crimson Tide fans imploring them to "fight back" against the shady practices of other programs that have tampered with the Alabama roster the last two years. This was in the wake of the rumored seven-figure offers being thrown at Tide freshman Jaylen Mbakwe to enter the Transfer Portal. Mbakwe filed the paperwork to do so but ultimately decided to stay in Tuscaloosa.
The University of Alabama, like most universities, has its own NIL collective called Yea Alabama. There are four different tiers of donors for non-students. $18 per month puts you in the "Starter" tier. $75 per month makes you "All Conference." $150 per month makes you an "All American." For $250+ per month, you are considered "Hall of Fame."
Each tier comes with some perks. You can also buy overpriced merchandise that goes into the collective as well.
It's the new day in college football. If you want to cheer for a good college football team, you're expected to pay for it. The everyday working man contributed the little extra from their paychecks to ensure Alabama can grab a wide receiver from the portal or fend off the wolves trying to poach players from the roster.
How Byrne, or anyone associated with the University or the collective can ask any fan for money with a straight face is beyond me with the below numbers:
College sports programs aren't just about wins and losses—they're billion-dollar brands driving revenue through media rights, sponsorships, and community impact. But how do we measure their true value? @AD_University and @CNBC present the first ever athletic department… pic.twitter.com/5BuYlSpwev
— Jason Belzer (@JasonBelzer) December 19, 2024
Alabama's athletic department is worth $978 million, according to a study by CNBC, the fifth most valuable in collegiate athletics, third in the SEC behind the Texas schools.
I don't blame Byrne for asking fans. He's doing his job. He can't change everything overnight and have the profit-sharing begin, though that does seem to be the future. Because it's not sustainable to have the average fan forking over money for collectives, and then expecting those same fans to buy tickets for conference championship games, home playoff games, and bowls.
For a program like Texas this year, as an example, Longhorns fans would be asked to buy tickets for the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, a home playoff game against Clemson, and as many as three additional playoff games at neutral sites.
The same would be true of fans of Clemson, SMU, and Penn State.
There's plenty of money to go around in college football. The universities just don't want to come off any of the profit they've been making and instead think your blind loyalty to your favorite team will make you forget that as you happily fork over money to them every month.
At Alabama, they'd rather spend that money elsewhere, despite the fact that college football has always been the university's meal ticket. Enrollment went up by 15,000 students from the time Nick Saban arrived and the Tide became the preeminent program in the country.
You are free to do with your money whatever you want. I don't blame anyone for contributing to Yea Alabama or any other collective. But this current system is taking advantage of the average fan to a degree that isn't sustainable, and the product it is producing is not more fun to watch than it was 10-20 years ago.
If Byrne and the University of Alabama want to be competitive in the new NIL marketplace, they should dig into their own pockets for the money and stay out of fans'.