The Once Mighty Tahd - Now One of the Poors

[The Six]

https://x.com/Greg_Byrne/status/1869464841246716351

For those who don't cruise the X/Twitters:

From the (apparently rotting) desk of Alabama's AD, Greg "Sick" Byrne:

Alabama Fans,

Over the past few years, there have been drastic changes in college athletics. We have been careful during this transitional period to protect our position at the top of college athletics while being mindful to listen, engage and learn from our generous supporters, proud alumni and unrivaled fans to make sure that we protect our great traditions here at Alabama. But there’s a time for talk and a time for action. Now is a time for action.
 
Although we have been competitive from an NIL standpoint, our competition has us in their sights and are actively trying to surge ahead with NIL. You have heard examples of other teams using promises of million-dollar paydays to lure away our players or convince them not to come to Alabama. It is time for the Bama Nation to fight back.
 
Under the new model of college athletics, which is the result of an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA, a university can succeed if their fans purchase authentic NIL from student-athletes. The good news is when @yea_ala
 was created last year, the focus was on providing our fans with a legitimate product rather than booster inducements. @yea_ala
 delivers exclusive content and access you cannot get anywhere else. We also have a plan to grow @yea_ala
’s offerings with more videos, features and news in 2025.
 
So, please visit https://yea-alabama.com/join/ to join!
 
A subscription to @yea_ala
 isn’t about the now; it’s about the future. It’s about roster retention for future seasons – keeping our legends in Crimson. It’s about attracting and developing the best recruits in the country to represent the script A. You being a part of the team has never been more important.
 
At Alabama, we’ve not measured ourselves against our competition. We are the standard, and that measurement is against the mirror and against a rich and proud history, but it’s impossible to ignore what is taking place in college athletics. Hungry fan bases are acting decisively to give their respective programs competitive advantages. We must respond. We are Alabama.

Translation: We po. Please helps lest we be left behinds.

 

[Snaggletiger]

Absolutely laughable.

They never had to beg before the playing field got leveled.  It was such a joke when the media tried to spin Little Nicky's rant against Jimbo for buying that whole recruiting class, into, "Oh Saban is the master psychologist.  He's just sending a message to his own boosters to step up."

No, he was genuinely pissed that somebody now had the ability and resources to do exactly what he had been doing for 15 plus years without fear of repercussions.  And speaking of genuine, Jimbo's response was exactly that.

I'll give Saban credit for one thing.  He was smart to get out when he did, and not tarnish his legacy, unlike Bellychick, who stayed on after Brady left.  People now question whether BB was really all that when he couldn't do squat without Tom, just like people would have started questioning if Saban was really the GOAT when he couldn't do jack squat with a level playing field.   

[GH2001]

This is mostly because their roster is getting gutted by programs that aren’t funded by trailer parks and rolltide Willie. Bama is an nil poor. They can’t keep up. Their “fanbase” doesn’t have the coin because they are mostly mouth breathing sidewalk casuals.

Its glorious. It’s also why AJ mctattoo is melting down with neal McCready over yella throwing Benjamins in the portal.

Glorious I tell ya.

[Snaggletiger]

Heard a clip this morning from Mike Johnson, former Tahd and Falcons O-lineman.  He played for Lord Saybinz in 09’, and he was talking about the state of the game.  He said it’s not even recognizable anymore, not from a player or fans standpoint.  The biggest problem is that everybody seems to be standing in a circle, looking at each other, and not having a clue what to do, wondering what the end game is.  He said he’s talked to coaches who have no idea how to handle any of this, and that he knows for a fact there is one team in the playoffs right now, that is having to pay its players to stay so they can have enough to field a team.

Sorry to be such a pessimist all the time about this issue, but this game is ferked. Check out this bit from Yahoo Sports.

Over the first six years of the portal era, the total number of FBS players who have transferred has more than doubled from 1,561 in 2018-19 to over 3,700 in last year's cycle, according to NCAA transfer data.
The total number of players among FBS scholarship transfers rose from 1,946 in 2021-22 to 2,303 in 2022-23, and then up to 2,707 in 2023-24.
In 2023-24, the total number of NCAA football players across all divisions who entered the portal exceeded 11,000.

When NIL started, I remember Bo Nix reportedly getting a deal with Milo’s Tea.  Bryce Young was doing Dr. Pepper commercials.  Okay, that’s what Name, Image & Likeness is all about, right?  A player can profit off his “celebrity” as an athlete and his ability on the field.  While players are still getting deals with companies, the reality is there’s really no such thing as NIL. It’s quickly evolved into, “There are no rules about ANYONE outside the athletic program paying players whatever they want”, so let’s just collect a shit ton of money and rent as many free agents as we can.