Alabama AD Greg Byrne 'Not Going To Stop Investing in Football'

The landscape of college sports is about to change significantly, but the University of Alabama is committed to keeping the standard of the football program high.

Jan 13, 2024; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; University of Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne speaks during a press conference to introduce their new head football coach Kalen DeBoer (not pictured) in the North end zone at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports / John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

College athletics have experienced a myriad of changes over the last several years with the prominence of the transfer portal, the advent of NIL and the realignment of several conferences. The landscape continues to shift as the House vs. NCAA lawsuit has come to a settlement and opened the door for colleges to directly compensate athletes for their time and skills.

As colleges add a new expense to its budget, estimated at roughly $15-20 million per season, there is growing concern about the future of college athletics, particularly of non-revenue sports. The University of Alabama fields 21 athletic programs, but only routinely turn a profit with football and men's basketball.

The Crimson Tide, along with the rest of the Southeastern Conference invest heavily in football, begging the question if any reduction is on the horizon for the football programs to compensate for the new expenses in the budget.

"Whatever we do at Alabama and I know John for Auburn, we want to be great at it and we've signed up to be a part of big time college sports and we're proud of it. Is it perfect? No, but there's a lot of good that takes place in the walls of our athletics department," said Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne on Monday. "All of us are funding football at a very high level. We're not going to stop investing in football, that will not happen, because of the impact it makes on everything else. Dr. Witt was the first one to ever say it, but one of the best investments the University of Alabama ever made was Nick Saban. So there's criticism of that at times, but that was a really, really good investment."

The University of Alabama enjoyed a modest enrollment of 25,580 in 2007 when Saban was initially hired. Six national championship victories and 16 years later the enrollment skyrocketed to 38,645 in 2022 with a shift in landscape to a student population consisting of more out of state students than Alabama students.

Byrne replaced Saban with former Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer, signing him to an eight-year $87 million contract this spring. The 2024 college football season will be the first year of the 12-team playoff and a divisionless Southeastern Conference, making the footall landscape even more challenging and success all the more valuable.