It is believed that at least several college football teams will have $40M-plus player payrolls in the 2026 season. The Alabama Crimson Tide is not one of the teams purported to exceed $40M.
If the Crimson Tide is behind in player payroll funds for 2026, the situation could be worse in the 2027 season. One coaching source, longtime Utah and now Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham, predicts that in the 2027 cycle, 12-15 schools will have $50M rosters.
Alabama is not expected to be one of them. In a college football era when money for roster talent is more important than coaching talent, can the Crimson Tide catch up or keep up?
Whittingham stated, "You’ve either got to keep up and embrace that or embrace irrelevance because it’s not changing, at least, right away." He added, "It’s got to be completely overhauled in the not-too-distant future." Whittingham is neither an alarmist nor a selfish seeker of headlines. What he describes is an unsustainable financial environment for many FBS programs.
Many voices have demanded extreme action. The Big 12 recently took extreme action, going to the Private Equity market for funds. The Big 12 deal with Weatherford Capital and Redbird Capital is for an initial, paltry $12.5M. Each school will also have a $30M letter of credit. The financial firms will gain no ownership. Basically, the conference and the schools that draw on their letters of credit will pay 10% interest on their loans.
Alabama Crimson Tide must be more than relavant
College football has been in a 'you have to spend money to make money' cycle for a long time. Now it is approaching a cycle that might be called 'borrow money or die'. Several weeks ago, one Power Conference AD explained that the greatest risk is underspending rather than overspending. As in, if you don't spend enough, you can't win enough to be relevant.
The race to the top of the college football mountain is likely to leave many programs sliding off cliffs or disappearing into a e. Whittingham is saying what Nick Saban has said for years. Such financial chaos cannot be sustained.
Add us as a preferred source on Google