Byrne Urges 'Bama Nation To Fight Back' Amid NIL Whirlwind

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Amid one of the most tumultuous college football postseasons in the history of the sport, University of Alabama Director of Athletics Greg Byrne on Wednesday hurled allegations regarding recent changes while rallying support for the university's NIL collective in the hopes of better competing with collegiate athletics' biggest players.

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This comes after Alabama was the first team left out of the revamped 12-team College Football Playoff format and during a turbulent transfer portal season that has brought plenty of drama to the Crimson Tide football program.

"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," Byrne said in a statement on Wednesday. "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."

Byrne went on to reiterate that under the new model of college athletics, a university can succeed if fans purchase authentic NIL from student-athletes, which is marketed at UA through its Yea Alabama collective.

"The good news is when Yea Alabama was created last year, the focus was on providing our fans with a legitimate product rather than booster inducements," he said.

Byrne went on to say that the athletic department also plans to grow Yea Alabama's offerings with more videos, features and news in 2025, before pointing fans to the Yea Alabama website to purchase a subscription or make a donation.

A starter membership for a non-student is priced at $18.

"It’s about attracting and developing the best recruits in the country to represent the script A," Byrne said. "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."

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