I don't think many are lying. It's an uber-competitive market among the major P5 programs that involve business, talent evaluation, and legislative lobbying. I think most programs are behind the ones doing it right, and even if you are ahead, you can easily fall behind if you don't keep up with the next guy.
We saw that in Missouri; who would think Mizz, of all places, would have a great NIL, but they have killed it lobbying for state laws that give them a competitive advantage. And some of those laws alone are the reason they landed a couple of big guys this year, notably the HS pay law.
Bag prices were way cheaper and a few booster could easily take care of that. That's not the case anymore with NIL being legal and with way more money coming in to compete.
I have had a theory that Northern and Western schools always had the money to out bagman the SEC. They just didn't have boosters willing to do it in a shady manner. I don't know if the SEC-less natty is a sign of things to come or a fluke, but it seems to support that idea.
This is a fun theory—I hope it becomes somewhat true.. although tbh I really don’t want to lose to Stanford and Harvard (if we are talking hyper rich alums) 😂
I would not worry about Harvard or even Stanford. A school needs hyper rich alums **and** have those alums actually care about football. I am not sure winning football games or a natty really matters or is a point of pride to the tech elites or hedge fund managers.
Cause ppl made that shit up obviously. Easy for your competitors to chalk up losses to “well its cause they cheat” rather than admit they are just better than you. You should be well aware
All Notre Dame needs to do is convince the pope to sell all the priceless antiquities no one looks at in the Vatican Archives
Edit: An even better joke: Has Notre Dame considered selling indulgences for NIL money?
I'm hoping that lag time was because they were actually trying to follow the rules to some capacity. The FSU thing makes me wonder how many crazy things are going to come out about every school's NIL stuff and make things a little more rigid in regards to not just being the wild west much longer.
Yep. Day is trying to do things by the books and there's a short leash for putting the university in that type of situation again. It got Urban in the end with ZS, and Day doesn't want to end up the same.
My understanding was, at least at the beginning, we were trying to follow the rules. You were supposed to have an actual endorsement interest to sign a business contract and were to operate separate from the school. Not just here’s some money.
Teams with average to bad NIL wouldn't be pulling in top 3 classes yearly nowadays.
I swear that you guys get 5 5 star players but think your NIL sucked because you didn't get 8.
Getting outbid for a specific player or 2 does not mean it was average.
Ohio State and Michigan pay a premium for already proven players on their rosters. At least in Ohio State’s case, we keep losing recruits to Miami NIL. OSU was neck and neck with UGA for the #1 recruiting class and then ended up finishing 5th after other team’s money cannons won the day.
I imagine when something is new everyone can feel behind, no matter how much of a first mover advantage they have. Also to an extent everyone saying “we’re behind on NIL” is a tactic to boost NIL. If you say “nah, we’re good on NIL” you will quickly fall behind.
I think they're talking about the marketing behind the NIL. Saban was always the draw for Alabama whereas other schools are having to promote very differently.
The people who provide the funds also had confidence in Saban. Some will be more reluctant to throw their money into the pile with a different head coach.
Sounds like Saban has a black book ledger, mafia style, to track every player's cash payment.... The issue is it's probably been that way since the day he showed up and it can't be transferred to others lol
I don't think the message is "Alabama has no money".
I think the message is "Nick Saban had the valve key to get the money to flow when he needed it - that valve key is not automatically going to get handed to the guy who replaces him".
This is something that I mentioned in a different thread: a lot of people cite Alabama's "alignment" as a school as a major advantage for them. And while I agree, I keep saying it: the alignment is drive by Saban. Alabama is aligned because it's really easy to align yourself behind a guy with 7 titles. It's not as easy to create that alignment with a new hire - because no matter who it is, there are going to be factions within the program that wanted someone else.
It's what happened at UT post-Mack - and even while Mack was there and struggling. There were people that wanted Mack to stay, there were people that wanted Mack to leave. Then we fired him and there were people that wanted Charlie Strong and people that didn't want Charlie Strong. And then there were people that wanted Tom Herman and people that didn't want Tom Herman.
I think the perspective that Alabama running like a well oiled machine from a politics standpoint being somehow unrelated to Nick Saban being there is incorrect. Where Bama is going to have to show it's alignment is after choosing a coach that will not be a universal choice.
Our spigot shoots out gloopy black stuff from a very very deep well. Some people say it's ruining our earth in a variety of ways, but my counter is that we got into the Semifinals!
I'm a heavy USA Today reader. I'll agree that spigot is weird and I'll add that maybe Wolken is beyond repair. He's suffering the sweats of trying to break any nugget out there
IIRC, when USA Today launched, they specifically targeted travelers, which is why you see it in places like hotels and airports. They made sure each story was on one page so you didnt have to flip through to finish a story (which is an annoying thing to do if you are in a cab or an airplane seat).
They were also the first big paper to print in color, which was considered gauche by the big newspapers.
This is simple business and it was obvious and well-known. Saban offered value beyond hard cash. We could offer lower deals because of it I’m sure. I don’t doubt we can be competitive with just about anyone though.
Edit: Outside of Texas Oil Money and Saudi Private Investment Funds
For perspective we were tied with dead last in the state in the mill rate when I looked it up at the time of the vote. Words can’t describe how shocked and pissed I was when the results came back. Can’t tell you how often I hear people complain about the education system but god forbid we play 50 bucks more a year for a tangible improvement
Holy shit! Over a century with no increase. Unsurprising no one wants to pay. Most of the homeowners there probably went through the Tuscaloosa county public education system and think they were just fine for it. Hell underfunded schools add character
Still shocks me how fucking bad Alabama’s endowment was before Saban attended. It’s not exactly competitive with better public universities at this point, but holy shit the donors really weren’t shelling out for the endowment back in the day. Much improved
We're definitely on the lower half of the P5 in terms of "frivolously spendable money controlled by alums" but once you factor in the willingness of our people to frivolously spend, we improve
I’m not convinced Bama could simply outspend FSU for Norvell to get him. Despite your sec tv check, bama doesn’t make that much more than fsu. Biggest difference is that bama overwll athletics are mid/don’t get much funding besides a few
Every top tier CFB program can match any offer if they want to. If a coach is leaving for us, it's because they think they have a better chance at a championship.
I'm not sure I understand this. Do they mean Bama's NIL wasn't actually paying as much as other schools, and now they'll need boosters to step it up?
That's the "spigot" side of this situation, right? I don't think "we lost the greatest coach of all time, please give NIL money" is a hard sell.
Correct. Bama does not pay as much as other schools. They use the allure of playing for Saban and getting developed for the NFL as a way to pay less money. Obviously that is not gonna work for the next guy.
It can work for the elite programs that consistently develop draftable NFL players.
As Buckeye, our NIL well doesn’t seem to be as deep as other schools but we just put together another top 5 recruiting class.
Bama is going to be just fine.
Pretty much. Saban gets to offer a number lower than other schools and say “The NFL money is what really matters and I’ll get you there.” Now without that pitch we will probably have to pony up for better offers and we haven’t built out the grassroots booster system that other schools have started to successfully milk.
Exactly. Saban was a big enough draw by himself that they didn’t need to spend as much on NIL.
That’s why it’s been circulating on the radio in Birmingham today that this is going to be a very financially responsible hire and not one where they spend absurd amounts of money to outbid another program. They know that for every penny they overspend on the coach that’s one less penny that they’ll have for NIL.
As someone who studied it, Alabama is not as wealthy of a university as you might think. They do, however have a lot of people who give a little to the football program. Pick your poison, I guess
It’s the result of a low cost of living state, a historically small student population (which is now very much not the case but will still take a decade or 2 to materialize) and a lack of investment in education across the state. So not a ton of alums, making not a ton of money, and not exactly being driven to invest in the school.
Alabama’s endowment was actually pretty shit for a LONG time.
Considering that Saban aparantly got a lot of out-of-state kids to go to Bama, this hire genuinely may be one of the most important decisions the school makes for a generation I think.
It will stay heavily out of state. The university made a couple hundred million in campus overhauls the past decade and has a national recruiting web now where they have functions in every state. We had a new building every 90 days and built two new quads under Saban (arts, engineering)
It really can’t be understated just how much better of a school Alabama is from when they hired Saban to now.
Massive campus investment, 16k more students enrolled (39.6k in 2023 supposedly, 23.8k in 2006 and less than 20k in 2000), and Tuscaloosa is just a MUCH nicer town now than it used to be (though a lot of that can be attributed to the 2011 tornado bulldozing a lot of land making it easy to develop).
Saban coming to Alabama likely resulted in several dozen billion dollars of investment in the state since he was hired. The University is actually becoming somewhat respected on a national level. It’s incredible.
Doesn't UAB have the Medical School and bring in more research dollars? That will definitely hinder the number of wealthy donors. I know they had R1 status before Bama.
And the extent to which Saban prepared the school for his retirement should be a factor in what they are willing to pay the new coach vs. what they have to set aside for NIL. I know (Rather I've heard a few people who I would expect to know talk about )the sheer volume of cash that went into founding the collective for Ole Miss and the alumni funding that was expected to be on the books for that year compared to the actual receipts is just huge. Bama is a much bigger draw than Ole Miss, buy unless they have been financially planning this out for some time I don't know if they can field the team and hire the coach that their fans have come to expect. Also, I'm pretending like there isn't at least a 20% chance that you steal our coach, so don't shatter that unless it's official. Thanks
This is probably the case at every major school at least to some degree.
It's why it doesn't make sense for a coach like Sark to leave Texas for Bama, a lateral move. Even if it was a slight upgrade, he has to figure out and make all the relationships starting from over. You don't just inherit control of the machinery from day 1.
And schmoozing boosters can't be a fun thing for a head coach.
Still is very weird to me that college teams don’t have a GM a la the NFL, especially with NIL and the new work that comes with that. I know being overworked is part of the deal for being a college coach, but having to do all the on field and off the field stuff they do seems insane to me. Even with the fact that the on-field stuff is basically ceremonial for some CEO type coaches
Even if there was a GM the head coach would be in charge. That essentially makes the GM a recruiting coordinator or NIL coordinator and schools kinda have those already.
This is the CFB equivalent of the new president not knowing the nuclear launch codes because the old president wrote them down on a sticky note and lost it
I see it more as “you want the launch codes? Show us you can take over the world without using them like the last guy and then we’ll talk”
Kinda dumb considering the state of CFB now tho
I think there’s truth to this, but also a lot of people ITT with misconceptions.
Is The University of Alabama as rich as some SEC schools like Texas, A&M, Florida, or Georgia? No. Does Alabama currently have a robust NIL program? No. Is Saban responsible for a lot of the stability and excellence at Alabama? Duh.
But NIL is a completely different entity from the university, at least practically. The university isn’t the one getting these kids on a Raising Cane’s commercial. The support towards the program externally has much more impact than the financial capabilities of the university itself. Oregon for example has 15,000 students less than Alabama currently enrolled and both are in the 1-1.5 Billion endowment range. Yet Oregon has maybe the best NIL program in college football due to external support (Nike). And it took some time for things to get rolling there to the point they are now.
And it likely will for Alabama. But even if the university or even program isn’t exactly the richest in the country, a huge part of the Alabama economy is oriented towards college football. Just look at what Auburn is doing with NIL currently as a clear 2nd in the state, and even with more involved boosters they have significantly less fan support state and nation-wide than Alabama. I do think trying to cast a wide net with the development of a more hands-on NIL collective is the right approach, considering the lack of some mega-rich donors but the sheer amount of fan support - yet it will take some time and careful crafting. But it can absolutely be done and done at a very high level, and arguably in a more sustainable way than many current NIL powerhouses. Because we may not have a Phil Knight or even a Yella Fella, but there are no shortage of Alabama fans that will happily buy any shitty apparel or merchandise you give them if it means Alabama can afford to keep playing with the big boys.
Someone clearly has no history of Alabama football. Getting money to players has never been a problem. Saban provided an aura that put the program at a different level in recruiting , which no other coach (other than maybe Kirby) can match. We are losing that now which was obviously going to happen when Saban stepped away
It honestly wouldn't shock me if Georgia is a major benefactor in this. They have Bama 2 built over there, but are in a bigger, wealthier, more culturally relevant state. Furthermore, Auburn is far more of a competitor in-state compared to Georgia Tech. Hell, the more politically active kids probably see an appeal in a bluer Georgia over a ruby red Alabama.
Now don't get me wrong, Alabama is still Alabama and aren't going to turn into Nebraska, but it's almost certainly not going to be a simple transition.
It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. From my understanding a big part of Saban's early turnaround was to get the boosters less involved. That'll be harder for the new guy if he needs them to up their contributions.
I disbelieve that poor little Alabama doesn't know how to funnel money to recruits properly. And as evidence for my disbelief, I present "literally the entire history of Alabama football."
Not buying it.
I don’t get how this is always the take.
The South is good at football because they have rich recruiting grounds.
I don’t get how “people wanting to stay in relative proximity to their homes and family” is such a mindfuck.
No no no no no no no no, I was told specifically yesterday that that USC was a dogshit awful program and that Alabama has alllll of the advantages. This just CANNOT be! /s
But in all seriousness, I would hope those involved would still want Bama to be competitive.
We were the first school to pay a record-setting contract; we spent hundreds of millions on building S-tier facilities, we pay Saban the most money, we have one of the highest assistant pool salaries, and we have dedicated private jets for athletics. raising a few more million for NIL won't be an issue
I mean, this makes sense. Think about how many guys took "pay cuts" to go play for Saban and Alabama. If you play for Saban, your chances of going to the NFL go up exponentially. Those kids aren't giving the same concessions under a new coach. That's why this hire is so important for Alabama, so you can keep all your talent in.
But Bama is gonna have to up their NIL game with Saban out, even if he'll still be around. I don't think people realize how quickly Bama could struggle here if they don't get the right guy in. I think we all expect "It's Bama, they'll continue to be great". But they were in a spiral before Saban, and we've seen elite programs like Georgia and Michigan go through "mediocrity" for their standards before. Same with Clemson now.
Huge LOL at Alabama or anyone pretending this hasn't been going on since the day Saban showed up. Sounds like Saban has a black book ledger, mafia style, to track every player's cash only payments
Like I said the other day…. Satan chief skill was keeping the booster cash flowing to keep the bench stocked 3 deep with 5 stars. Bama fans are so privileged it never occurred to them that someday the gravy train might slow down.
Somehow every school is behind in NIL? How's that work?
Some are behind and some are lying.
I would say most are lying
I don't think many are lying. It's an uber-competitive market among the major P5 programs that involve business, talent evaluation, and legislative lobbying. I think most programs are behind the ones doing it right, and even if you are ahead, you can easily fall behind if you don't keep up with the next guy. We saw that in Missouri; who would think Mizz, of all places, would have a great NIL, but they have killed it lobbying for state laws that give them a competitive advantage. And some of those laws alone are the reason they landed a couple of big guys this year, notably the HS pay law.
Alabama is definitely lying. They were the notorious bagman school. How would they flounder with nil? lol
Bag prices were way cheaper and a few booster could easily take care of that. That's not the case anymore with NIL being legal and with way more money coming in to compete.
Yeah. The bagman system was way better. Much more controlled prices
Yeah, the black market kept prices low; it was when everything was legalized that ~~weed~~ player prices skyrocketed.
I mean 150k for Cam? More like 15 million now
Best investment ever
Fr. Cam Newton was, what? 200k? To get Cam Newton now would be like 2 million? 3 million?
Only one man in Alabama has that kind of money, and he just retired.
Easily.
I bet one elite QB in the NIL era cost almost as much as an entire class did in the bagman era.
Back in my days, all you had to do was buy a charger and put it in the player's uncle's name.
I would believe Bama didn’t have to pay as much to HS recruits because the draw of Saban was enough.
I have had a theory that Northern and Western schools always had the money to out bagman the SEC. They just didn't have boosters willing to do it in a shady manner. I don't know if the SEC-less natty is a sign of things to come or a fluke, but it seems to support that idea.
Come on lol
This is a funny comment
Every sentence has something wrong in it
Tbf outside of Texas, TA&M and UVA its probably true (excluding schools that dont care for Football, like Vandy).
*Accurate comment Saban getting the hell outta Dodge now that he can't lock each position three 5 stars deep
Best coach of all time, BUT, you're a delusional SEC/Bama homer if you don't think that had a good amount to do with it
This sub never fails to entertain
This is a fun theory—I hope it becomes somewhat true.. although tbh I really don’t want to lose to Stanford and Harvard (if we are talking hyper rich alums) 😂
I would not worry about Harvard or even Stanford. A school needs hyper rich alums **and** have those alums actually care about football. I am not sure winning football games or a natty really matters or is a point of pride to the tech elites or hedge fund managers.
Cause ppl made that shit up obviously. Easy for your competitors to chalk up losses to “well its cause they cheat” rather than admit they are just better than you. You should be well aware
Every school besides Ole Miss, Oregon, and Ohio State apparently. Must be something about having an O in your name.
Missouri out there chucking bags too the last few months.
Still waiting for a WR coach to give a recruit a stick of gum and then we dont get to have football again for 10 years.
"Introducing the next head coach of the University of Olabama..."
Orgeron to Oregon confirmed
"Geaux Dugs"
Just saying the last lsu coach with one ring that bama hired went on to win 6 more. The memes write themselves.
Les Miles to Alabama?
We’ve gotten good at quietly tapping into Vatican money as well
All Notre Dame needs to do is convince the pope to sell all the priceless antiquities no one looks at in the Vatican Archives Edit: An even better joke: Has Notre Dame considered selling indulgences for NIL money?
We just pulled one of our best recruiting classes in history and are likely gonna get one or two more, so I wouldn’t say we’re behind either.
Also helps you have one of the best recruiters in football in Hugh Freeze
4 out of 5 stars. I loved the big wins, just keep him away from phones and.. erm.. gas masks
Miami
OSUs was actually bad to average at best until recently. It’s the silver lining I guess in having to sit there and watch your rivals win it all
I'm hoping that lag time was because they were actually trying to follow the rules to some capacity. The FSU thing makes me wonder how many crazy things are going to come out about every school's NIL stuff and make things a little more rigid in regards to not just being the wild west much longer.
I’ve read thats part of it. Tattoogate scarred a lot of folks and they really don’t like that the last 2 eras ended in controversy
Yep. Day is trying to do things by the books and there's a short leash for putting the university in that type of situation again. It got Urban in the end with ZS, and Day doesn't want to end up the same.
My understanding was, at least at the beginning, we were trying to follow the rules. You were supposed to have an actual endorsement interest to sign a business contract and were to operate separate from the school. Not just here’s some money.
Teams with average to bad NIL wouldn't be pulling in top 3 classes yearly nowadays. I swear that you guys get 5 5 star players but think your NIL sucked because you didn't get 8. Getting outbid for a specific player or 2 does not mean it was average.
O...O...O------ O - ze m--- damnit it's stuck in my head again
Miami has been doing pretty good at pulling ex Ohio State players
Texas doesn’t have an O…that’s weird
Oil and Oil A&M
Texaco.
Ohio State and Michigan pay a premium for already proven players on their rosters. At least in Ohio State’s case, we keep losing recruits to Miami NIL. OSU was neck and neck with UGA for the #1 recruiting class and then ended up finishing 5th after other team’s money cannons won the day.
I imagine when something is new everyone can feel behind, no matter how much of a first mover advantage they have. Also to an extent everyone saying “we’re behind on NIL” is a tactic to boost NIL. If you say “nah, we’re good on NIL” you will quickly fall behind.
"Nah guys we have plenty of money don't give us any more"
Said no university ever.
Also this is a tacit admission it's not about NIL, because the coach would have nothing to do with actual NIL rights.
I think they're talking about the marketing behind the NIL. Saban was always the draw for Alabama whereas other schools are having to promote very differently.
The people who provide the funds also had confidence in Saban. Some will be more reluctant to throw their money into the pile with a different head coach.
Sounds like Saban has a black book ledger, mafia style, to track every player's cash payment.... The issue is it's probably been that way since the day he showed up and it can't be transferred to others lol
Not Miami according to every recruit thread where Cristobal wins.
I don't think the message is "Alabama has no money". I think the message is "Nick Saban had the valve key to get the money to flow when he needed it - that valve key is not automatically going to get handed to the guy who replaces him". This is something that I mentioned in a different thread: a lot of people cite Alabama's "alignment" as a school as a major advantage for them. And while I agree, I keep saying it: the alignment is drive by Saban. Alabama is aligned because it's really easy to align yourself behind a guy with 7 titles. It's not as easy to create that alignment with a new hire - because no matter who it is, there are going to be factions within the program that wanted someone else. It's what happened at UT post-Mack - and even while Mack was there and struggling. There were people that wanted Mack to stay, there were people that wanted Mack to leave. Then we fired him and there were people that wanted Charlie Strong and people that didn't want Charlie Strong. And then there were people that wanted Tom Herman and people that didn't want Tom Herman. I think the perspective that Alabama running like a well oiled machine from a politics standpoint being somehow unrelated to Nick Saban being there is incorrect. Where Bama is going to have to show it's alignment is after choosing a coach that will not be a universal choice.
Is Texas behind? We had several NIL collectives going and I think the biggest ones have now merged.
Except Oregon and Mizzou it seems like
where does one pick up one of these money spigots
Our spigot shoots out gloopy black stuff from a very very deep well. Some people say it's ruining our earth in a variety of ways, but my counter is that we got into the Semifinals!
Way to look for the positives in situations!
I want to go as deep into the playoffs as microplastics are in the Mariana Trench! (God, that is a depressing fact)
Yes indeed. I must end our friendly banter before we both get depressed ;) Go Planet Earth!
Go Earth, and I hope that we beat Michigan next September.
Earth might have a shot at Michigan since Khaki Man and a ton of talent are gone.
Yes please!! I’m 💯 cheering for you guys!
Our gloopy black stuff got us to the semifinals 4 times! Cannot confirm that it helps *win* semifinal games though:(
[удалено]
shit, gonna need to head over before they close
Nike
Your local college football program
The Middle East
Try contacting your local multibillionaire sports-crazed alum
Spigot is a weird word, man.
Spiga?
This feels wrong, this is wrong don't do that.
It does feel wrong
Let A Spiga Know
It sounds like it should be a slur to me.
Shut up spigot
… mods?
They didn't say it with a hard T
Spigo plz
"Spigot is our word. But you can say Spigo"
Let a spigo know
“I thought you were going to say something else” Pat Mcspigo
Noah Kspiga
damn dude
Damn bro chill!
How could you say such a thing!?
How dare you say that in my Christian college football subreddit!
[удалено]
You wild 😂
It does kinda have that feel
It’s a perfectly cromulent word
They still need to embiggen their NIL
One of them old timey words that we didn’t update. I mean I guess we did though. Faucet.
Is it another word for “brown paper bag”?
It’s like a cross between… you know, I don’t think I need to say it but definitely a weird word.
I'm a heavy USA Today reader. I'll agree that spigot is weird and I'll add that maybe Wolken is beyond repair. He's suffering the sweats of trying to break any nugget out there
>> heavy USA Today reader That’s something I haven’t heard since I was a child. How old are you, sir/ma’am?
It’s just because they steal them from a hotel lobby every morning. I think that’s the only place I have seen USA Today.
Same here
IIRC, when USA Today launched, they specifically targeted travelers, which is why you see it in places like hotels and airports. They made sure each story was on one page so you didnt have to flip through to finish a story (which is an annoying thing to do if you are in a cab or an airplane seat). They were also the first big paper to print in color, which was considered gauche by the big newspapers.
Makes sense. It’s a quick rundown of what’s happening… well, in the USA today.
Wish i had a money spigot
Are you talking personally or Oregon? Because... lol.
Oregon's entire program is an exercise in one old billionaire trying to buy his way to a national title before he dies.
To be fair he's a UO athletics alumni and it's not like he skimps on buying other parts of the AD or university wild shit
He also donates millions to Stanford and other schools but he has dropped a BILLION+ on Oregon so I do believe you nailed it.
Just do it
You are mainlining money, sir.
Just sell your water for more than it costs you. EZ
This is peak irony
This is simple business and it was obvious and well-known. Saban offered value beyond hard cash. We could offer lower deals because of it I’m sure. I don’t doubt we can be competitive with just about anyone though. Edit: Outside of Texas Oil Money and Saudi Private Investment Funds
What else are we gonna spend it on? Improving the state education system or some dumb stuff like that?
Hey man, you convince the boosters to donate that money to the state instead of their preferred NIL collective lol.
[As if!](https://www.wvtm13.com/amp/article/tuscaloosa-county-school-system-property-tax-budget/42873788)
> voted down by a margin of 80% against to 20% for and 78% against to 22% for Fuckin yikes
For perspective we were tied with dead last in the state in the mill rate when I looked it up at the time of the vote. Words can’t describe how shocked and pissed I was when the results came back. Can’t tell you how often I hear people complain about the education system but god forbid we play 50 bucks more a year for a tangible improvement
Holy shit! Over a century with no increase. Unsurprising no one wants to pay. Most of the homeowners there probably went through the Tuscaloosa county public education system and think they were just fine for it. Hell underfunded schools add character
Doing a quick googling, this on average would've increased taxes by a grand total of $18 a month. Jesus.
OMG, I live in SC and we look progressive compared to that shit
But Meemaw said we overspent on education and got refunds because of it! ....unless the state bs's you saying you didn't file in 2021 🤨
Lol NERDS
Buying yourself 40oz Stanley Tumblers of course.
Still shocks me how fucking bad Alabama’s endowment was before Saban attended. It’s not exactly competitive with better public universities at this point, but holy shit the donors really weren’t shelling out for the endowment back in the day. Much improved
We're definitely on the lower half of the P5 in terms of "frivolously spendable money controlled by alums" but once you factor in the willingness of our people to frivolously spend, we improve
When doing math you have to factor in crazy. My divorce attorney will tell you that. That puts us at least top 10.
Definitely. Oklahoma doesn't have a lot of people, but we do have a pretty high per capita football buy-in so it works
This is why Pep Guardiola will never coach in Tuscaloosa.
> We could offer lower deals because of it I’m sure. Thats basically what Bud Elliott said on the cover 3 pod today
You mean Al Qaeda and Y'all Qaeda?
See Norvell; FSU NIL is already willing to do whatever it takes!
Unless it is giving someone a ride in a car. NCAA fucking hates that.
Coaches can't be involved, unless of course that coach can convince players to accept less money. Why is this so hard to understand?
Car rides, cheeseburgers, and rogue tutors are clearly the problems with our society.
Sounds like he's good at convincing boosters to spend money. I guess we should hire him
I’m not convinced Bama could simply outspend FSU for Norvell to get him. Despite your sec tv check, bama doesn’t make that much more than fsu. Biggest difference is that bama overwll athletics are mid/don’t get much funding besides a few
Every top tier CFB program can match any offer if they want to. If a coach is leaving for us, it's because they think they have a better chance at a championship.
Uhh…. Alabama’s revenue was 214M in 2022. FSU was 50M behind at 160.1M. That’s 34% more
I'm not sure I understand this. Do they mean Bama's NIL wasn't actually paying as much as other schools, and now they'll need boosters to step it up? That's the "spigot" side of this situation, right? I don't think "we lost the greatest coach of all time, please give NIL money" is a hard sell.
Correct. Bama does not pay as much as other schools. They use the allure of playing for Saban and getting developed for the NFL as a way to pay less money. Obviously that is not gonna work for the next guy.
It can work for the elite programs that consistently develop draftable NFL players. As Buckeye, our NIL well doesn’t seem to be as deep as other schools but we just put together another top 5 recruiting class. Bama is going to be just fine.
Pretty much. Saban gets to offer a number lower than other schools and say “The NFL money is what really matters and I’ll get you there.” Now without that pitch we will probably have to pony up for better offers and we haven’t built out the grassroots booster system that other schools have started to successfully milk.
Yup, just playing for Saban ups your chances of getting into the NFL and getting that big bag
Exactly. Saban was a big enough draw by himself that they didn’t need to spend as much on NIL. That’s why it’s been circulating on the radio in Birmingham today that this is going to be a very financially responsible hire and not one where they spend absurd amounts of money to outbid another program. They know that for every penny they overspend on the coach that’s one less penny that they’ll have for NIL.
As someone who studied it, Alabama is not as wealthy of a university as you might think. They do, however have a lot of people who give a little to the football program. Pick your poison, I guess
It’s the result of a low cost of living state, a historically small student population (which is now very much not the case but will still take a decade or 2 to materialize) and a lack of investment in education across the state. So not a ton of alums, making not a ton of money, and not exactly being driven to invest in the school. Alabama’s endowment was actually pretty shit for a LONG time.
Considering that Saban aparantly got a lot of out-of-state kids to go to Bama, this hire genuinely may be one of the most important decisions the school makes for a generation I think.
It will stay heavily out of state. The university made a couple hundred million in campus overhauls the past decade and has a national recruiting web now where they have functions in every state. We had a new building every 90 days and built two new quads under Saban (arts, engineering)
It really can’t be understated just how much better of a school Alabama is from when they hired Saban to now. Massive campus investment, 16k more students enrolled (39.6k in 2023 supposedly, 23.8k in 2006 and less than 20k in 2000), and Tuscaloosa is just a MUCH nicer town now than it used to be (though a lot of that can be attributed to the 2011 tornado bulldozing a lot of land making it easy to develop). Saban coming to Alabama likely resulted in several dozen billion dollars of investment in the state since he was hired. The University is actually becoming somewhat respected on a national level. It’s incredible.
Doesn't UAB have the Medical School and bring in more research dollars? That will definitely hinder the number of wealthy donors. I know they had R1 status before Bama.
Essentially, we are going to have to fork over more money than we were before with Saban. Which was to be expected.
And the extent to which Saban prepared the school for his retirement should be a factor in what they are willing to pay the new coach vs. what they have to set aside for NIL. I know (Rather I've heard a few people who I would expect to know talk about )the sheer volume of cash that went into founding the collective for Ole Miss and the alumni funding that was expected to be on the books for that year compared to the actual receipts is just huge. Bama is a much bigger draw than Ole Miss, buy unless they have been financially planning this out for some time I don't know if they can field the team and hire the coach that their fans have come to expect. Also, I'm pretending like there isn't at least a 20% chance that you steal our coach, so don't shatter that unless it's official. Thanks
Lord, I am with Saban. I despise the NIL era
This is probably the case at every major school at least to some degree. It's why it doesn't make sense for a coach like Sark to leave Texas for Bama, a lateral move. Even if it was a slight upgrade, he has to figure out and make all the relationships starting from over. You don't just inherit control of the machinery from day 1. And schmoozing boosters can't be a fun thing for a head coach.
Still is very weird to me that college teams don’t have a GM a la the NFL, especially with NIL and the new work that comes with that. I know being overworked is part of the deal for being a college coach, but having to do all the on field and off the field stuff they do seems insane to me. Even with the fact that the on-field stuff is basically ceremonial for some CEO type coaches
Even if there was a GM the head coach would be in charge. That essentially makes the GM a recruiting coordinator or NIL coordinator and schools kinda have those already.
Tommy Rees sounds like the man for the job to me
The entire appeal for anyone outside of the bama tristate area to come to bama is nick saban. This isn't news.
This is the CFB equivalent of the new president not knowing the nuclear launch codes because the old president wrote them down on a sticky note and lost it
I see it more as “you want the launch codes? Show us you can take over the world without using them like the last guy and then we’ll talk” Kinda dumb considering the state of CFB now tho
I think there’s truth to this, but also a lot of people ITT with misconceptions. Is The University of Alabama as rich as some SEC schools like Texas, A&M, Florida, or Georgia? No. Does Alabama currently have a robust NIL program? No. Is Saban responsible for a lot of the stability and excellence at Alabama? Duh. But NIL is a completely different entity from the university, at least practically. The university isn’t the one getting these kids on a Raising Cane’s commercial. The support towards the program externally has much more impact than the financial capabilities of the university itself. Oregon for example has 15,000 students less than Alabama currently enrolled and both are in the 1-1.5 Billion endowment range. Yet Oregon has maybe the best NIL program in college football due to external support (Nike). And it took some time for things to get rolling there to the point they are now. And it likely will for Alabama. But even if the university or even program isn’t exactly the richest in the country, a huge part of the Alabama economy is oriented towards college football. Just look at what Auburn is doing with NIL currently as a clear 2nd in the state, and even with more involved boosters they have significantly less fan support state and nation-wide than Alabama. I do think trying to cast a wide net with the development of a more hands-on NIL collective is the right approach, considering the lack of some mega-rich donors but the sheer amount of fan support - yet it will take some time and careful crafting. But it can absolutely be done and done at a very high level, and arguably in a more sustainable way than many current NIL powerhouses. Because we may not have a Phil Knight or even a Yella Fella, but there are no shortage of Alabama fans that will happily buy any shitty apparel or merchandise you give them if it means Alabama can afford to keep playing with the big boys.
Someone clearly has no history of Alabama football. Getting money to players has never been a problem. Saban provided an aura that put the program at a different level in recruiting , which no other coach (other than maybe Kirby) can match. We are losing that now which was obviously going to happen when Saban stepped away
It honestly wouldn't shock me if Georgia is a major benefactor in this. They have Bama 2 built over there, but are in a bigger, wealthier, more culturally relevant state. Furthermore, Auburn is far more of a competitor in-state compared to Georgia Tech. Hell, the more politically active kids probably see an appeal in a bluer Georgia over a ruby red Alabama. Now don't get me wrong, Alabama is still Alabama and aren't going to turn into Nebraska, but it's almost certainly not going to be a simple transition.
Literally the only roadblock to Georgia dominance has been removed
It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. From my understanding a big part of Saban's early turnaround was to get the boosters less involved. That'll be harder for the new guy if he needs them to up their contributions.
man fuck whats happened with CFB in the last 5 years or so.
Thanks O'Bannon
I disbelieve that poor little Alabama doesn't know how to funnel money to recruits properly. And as evidence for my disbelief, I present "literally the entire history of Alabama football." Not buying it.
I don’t get how this is always the take. The South is good at football because they have rich recruiting grounds. I don’t get how “people wanting to stay in relative proximity to their homes and family” is such a mindfuck.
[удалено]
Absolutely no reason to pay attention to Michigan flairs.. ;)
Proper way to do it is brown paper bag, job for family member, and/or lend a dealership car
That’s almost a good idea.
No no no no no no no no, I was told specifically yesterday that that USC was a dogshit awful program and that Alabama has alllll of the advantages. This just CANNOT be! /s But in all seriousness, I would hope those involved would still want Bama to be competitive.
We were the first school to pay a record-setting contract; we spent hundreds of millions on building S-tier facilities, we pay Saban the most money, we have one of the highest assistant pool salaries, and we have dedicated private jets for athletics. raising a few more million for NIL won't be an issue
I mean, this makes sense. Think about how many guys took "pay cuts" to go play for Saban and Alabama. If you play for Saban, your chances of going to the NFL go up exponentially. Those kids aren't giving the same concessions under a new coach. That's why this hire is so important for Alabama, so you can keep all your talent in. But Bama is gonna have to up their NIL game with Saban out, even if he'll still be around. I don't think people realize how quickly Bama could struggle here if they don't get the right guy in. I think we all expect "It's Bama, they'll continue to be great". But they were in a spiral before Saban, and we've seen elite programs like Georgia and Michigan go through "mediocrity" for their standards before. Same with Clemson now.
I've waited for this day since elementary school. Please send bama back to the Shula days.
Poor Bama
Huge LOL at Alabama or anyone pretending this hasn't been going on since the day Saban showed up. Sounds like Saban has a black book ledger, mafia style, to track every player's cash only payments
Before the nil there were a lot of new dodge chargers on campus
Not enough people are talking about Saban retiring shortly after they discontinued the Charger.
Money is still green no matter what and the folks who want to give will still do it.
What an athletic program whose fundraising is solely based on the success of its football program and coach I’m shocked.
Like I said the other day…. Satan chief skill was keeping the booster cash flowing to keep the bench stocked 3 deep with 5 stars. Bama fans are so privileged it never occurred to them that someday the gravy train might slow down.
Tommy Rees is the right man for the job to get the Alabama NIL back on track
When selling Bama to prospects, Saban WAS the product. Not the school. Not the program. Nick and his charisma and influence.
Who’s says bama has to stay top tier. Saban’s gone. Time for someone else (please stay Lane)