Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne released a statement on Saturday morning following Friday night's historic House vs. NCAA settlement that opened the door for revenue sharing to begin in collegiate athletics.
In his statement, Byrne stated that Alabama will offer new scholarships and fully fund revenue sharing.
Part of the House vs. NCAA settlement will include roster "caps" for all sports. For example, football will have a 105-man roster cap, with men's basketball moving to 15. That means that programs could theoretically offer 105 scholarships for football if they chose to fund it.
The SEC announced in November of last year that it would cap football scholarships at 85 for the 2025 season, with the expectation of the House settlement going through. How the league chooses to approach that moving forward will remain to be seen, and will likely depend on what other leagues decide to do.
The Tide's forward-thinking Athletic Director has the Crimson Tide fully prepared for these historic changes. He had previously announced Alabama's intention to add 40 additional scholarships to the athletic department. How those scholarships will be distributed will remain to be seen, but Title IX requirements mean that half of those scholarships will have to be earmarked for women's sports.
House vs. NCAA settlement is good news for Alabama football more than anything else
The historic settlement could ultimately have a major impact on non-revenue sports at Alabama and other institutions, it is undeniably good news for Tide football. Alabama has money, but they were nowhere close to being able to match payments made by the richest schools with the biggest donors.
The unregulated NIL days are over, which spells bad news for programs with nothing more to pitch than large amounts of money. Alabama has the brand and NFL pedigree that make it one of the most desirable football programs in the country for prospective high school athletes.
Plenty of blue-chip prospects came to Alabama for a discount, turning down bigger offers from other schools to do so.
Now, any NIL deal will have to go through a clearinghouse for approval if it is over $600. That means NIL, in theory, will now work as it was intended to: as a way for athletes to make money off of their own name, image, and likeness, instead of being a direct pay-for-play from boosters to athletes.
Alabama's brand will continue to help it attract top talent in football. It just got a little easier now that they aren't having to compete against the bag men.