Greg Byrne: Alabama has ‘challenging decisions’ to make; uncertain about future of NIL collective
Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne discussed the “big deal” of the House settlement and its impact on college sports, including at Alabama.
As Alabama closes the book on its 2023-24 athletic year and turns the page forward, athletics director Greg Byrne foreshadowed a transformative year ahead for his department as it digests the House litigation settlement that will soon lead to revenue sharing with players.
“As we go through the new world of the House litigation and the settlement that goes along with that, we’re gonna have to make some decisions and we’re going to have to make some challenging decisions,” Byrne told the Crimson Tide Sports Network during an interview published Thursday. “At the same time too, we’re gonna be very thoughtful and take our time to make the decisions so we can make the best decisions we possibly can so it positively impacts all of our student-athletes, our coaches, our staff, our university and our fan base in as good of a manner as we can knowing that there is some choppy waters ahead.”
The settlement, which is expected to end a class-action suit that sought billions in damages for college athletes who competed before NIL earning was legal, will lead to more than $20 million annually in per-school revenue sharing with players as soon as next year. How that money gets divided among athletes and sports remains undetermined, but one thing is clear: athletic departments must reallocate financial resources to afford directly playing its players millions each year.
That could come through staff reductions and cutting coaches’ salaries, but could also involve cutting sports. During a Congressional hearing in March, Byrne noted Alabama has 19 sports that lose $40 million annually — only football and men’s basketball turn a profit — and specifically noted Olympic sports could be in jeopardy. Byrne indicated to Senator Ted Cruz that swimming, tennis, track and women’s soccer were sports in danger, then in a podcast weeks later also named golf as one of the sports he worries about.
In his Thursday interview, Byrne said he began communicating the significance of the House litigation to his coaches beginning last year. Byrne also relayed a story from men’s golf coach Jay Seawell, who was recruiting in Chicago recently and discussed the House settlement with another school’s golf coach.
Said Byrne: “One of the [other golf] coaches said, ‘Man, I didn’t understand this House litigation.’ I’m not doing this as [patting my back], but you’ve got to be up front. You’ve got to tell people what’s going on. Jay said, ‘Well, Greg’s been talking to us for about a year that this is a big deal.'”
The message from Byrne to his coaches: “We’re going to have a different lens on how we do our day-to-day operations. So there’s going to be some good with that. There’s going to be some challenge with that.”
