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The Stat Where Alabama Athletics Stands Alone in All of Division I for 2025-26

The Crimson Tide's baseball program's trip to the College World Series gave Alabama the final Infinity Stone needed to achieve a historic mark.
Alabama Baseball Wins Tuscaloosa Super Regional
Alabama Baseball Wins Tuscaloosa Super Regional | Obtained from Yea Alabama's X/Twitter

Alabama baseball collected the final infinity stone on Monday to create something that separates the Crimson Tide's athletic program from the rest of college sports.

Alabama is the only Division I program during the 2025-26 academic calendar to make the College Football Playoff, Women's NCAA Tournament, Men's NCAA Tournament, Women's College World Series and now the Men's College World Series, per SEC Network.

Ahead of the Men's College World Series, each of the aforementioned programs won at least one national postseason tournament game as well. Head coach Kalen DeBoer and the football team beat Oklahoma on the road in the first round of the CFP. The women's basketball team reached the Round of 32, Nate Oats and the men's basketball team appeared in the Tide's fourth straight Sweet 16 and the softball team advanced to the semifinal.

But the success of Alabama athletics didn't stop there. The gymnastics team was one of the final 16 programs remaining in the NCAA Tournament, women's track and field's Doris Lemngole won not one, but two national titles, men's track and field's Samuel Ogazi took home the 400-meter sprint. The men's wheelchair basketball team was the runner-up at the National Championship while the women's team won it. Just last week, men's golfer William Jennings finished second in the NCAA Championships.

Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne is behind a lot of the success, as he hired many of the coaches of the teams listed above. He explained on April 2 that there were "inaccurate narratives" surrounding UA's usage of NIL — the hottest topic in college sports.

"I had somebody call me and say, 'I'm told that you guys are slashing your budget, that you're not doing any NIL rev share,'" Byrne said. "That's what some agents and opposing coaches are out there saying. It's a lie, completely inaccurate.

"One of the things we have tried very diligently as a department is to make sure we don't promise something we can't deliver. And so I know of schools who are reducing what they had promised from a rev share NIL standpoint in some sports.

"We haven't done that, and it's important that we continue to do everything we can to stay competitive and also not have it be where something doesn't get delivered. In today's very unregulated, challenging world, that's hard.

"The reports out there from what schools have in rev share, I've seen stuff out about us like it's not even close to being accurate. It's hard to say, 'Well, you're wrong,' because that opens up a whole other can of worms."

In the end, Byrne has the last laugh and Alabama athletics in 2025-26 backs it up.

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Hunter De Siver
HUNTER DE SIVER

Hunter De Siver is the lead basketball writer for BamaCentral and has covered Crimson Tide football since 2024. He previously distributed stories about the NFL and NBA for On SI and was a staff writer for Missouri Tigers On SI and Cowbell Corner. Before that, Hunter generated articles highlighting Crimson Tide products in the NFL and NBA for BamaCentral as an intern in 2022 and 2023. Hunter is a graduate from the University of Alabama, earning a degree in sports media in 2023.

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