Greg Byrne explains request for NIL donations from Alabama fans

Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne saw the jokes about his recent letter directly asking Crimson Tide fans “to fight back” and donate to the program’s NIL (name, image and likeness) collective, Yea Alabama.

He’s also seen the financial support that’s come from similar requests in the past.

Ultimately, though, Byrne’s request was made out of necessity for a Crimson Tide athletics department in dire need of greater financial resources to compete with other schools’ top-tier NIL collectives.

“We are encouraging people to be involved (in) whatever level they can. And obviously, some folks can’t. We understand that. … Listen, it’s reality. We have to deal with reality,” Byrne said on Thursday’s Next Round Live podcast. “I think there’s an assumption that, hey, we’re Alabama, we’ve got more money in the Vatican. And that’s not accurate. We have a budget. We have to adhere to that budget.”

Alabama’s athletic department operated at a $12.1 million defict during the 2023 fiscal year, per the program’s latest NCAA Financial Report and reported on by the Tuscaloosa News. That didn’t include roughly $14.3 million in gifts collected.

Alabama reported a $199.9 milion in total operating revenue and $212 million in total operating expenses between July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023. The team’s 2024 fiscal year report has yet to be released.

How House v. NCAA revenue-sharing cap will impact Alabama

Power Conference athletic programs were informed they will have a projected $20.5 million cap figure, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, as part of the new revenue-sharing model stemming from the House v. NCAA settlement. That figure is 22% of the average Power Conference school revenue in the previous year, and the cap will rise 4- each year as part of the settlement agreement.

Revenue-sharing is just one part of the House v. NCAA settlement, though. Scholarship increases are coming across sports, as are new roster limits, if the agreement is certified. The proposed rosters include football (105), men’s and women’s basketball (15), baseball (34), men’s and women’s soccer (28) softball (25) and volleyball (18).

“We have about a $25 million line item coming at us from a rev(enue) share standpoint (from the House settlement), and I’m very hopeful that with this settlement will give us an opportunity to actually share a percentage of the revenue with young men and some young women,” Byrne continued. “And then on top of that, you’re going to have the ability to add some scholarships and some sports like baseball … and some other sports too. We’ve got to balance Title IX with that, but we have economic realities that we face.”

Given the Crimson Tide’s status as one of the most successful college football programs of the last two decades, many fans — mostly from rival programs — took to social media to troll Byrne for even making the request. But, as the Alabama AD acknowledged, you don’t get much without asking for it first.

“You have to ask. You have to be direct. We tried to send it as a very strong message, purposely not beat around the bush, but just be direct about what we’re facing,” Byrne concluded. “And so I haven’t gotten any of the numbers since yesterday, but I think it’ll make an impact on people being involved. It starts at just $18 a month, … it’s something we think a lot of folks can afford to be a part of. And if you don’t ask, people won’t do it. So we asked.”

Nick Schultz contributed to this report.