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Your latest Crimson Tide news and notes.
Happy Friday, everyone. Alabama softball opens Super Regional play in Knoxville today. First pitch is at 3pm CT, and can be seen on ESPN2.
With unanimous adoption of the House settlement yesterday, college football essentially died in favor of a semi-professional model.
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Power conference schools are preparing to share in the neighborhood of 20% of their media rights revenue with the athletes. The total could surpass $20 million annually per school, further establishing the big boys as the premier destinations for the nation’s most talented players. Even if Group of Five or FCS teams set aside a similar percentage of their media rights deals for player compensation, it will pale in comparison and widen the gulf between the haves and have-nots. While the big-brand schools have always been the preferred landing spots for most high-profile players, the compensation model of the pre-NIL era was equal: Players weren’t supposed to make anything. Then came NIL and the abolition of transfer restrictions, which made it more difficult for the resource-strapped programs to attract and keep talent. This settlement is another setback for the competitive aspirations of those outside the power conference structure.
The SEC and Big Ten are the only two “power conferences” left where football is concerned, and this settlement is only going to widen the gap between those two leagues and everyone else. The natural next step will be a salary cap that will undoubtedly be litigated, intended to create parity within those two. There will be a 3-loss national champion sooner than later, folks.
Kalen DeBoer is excited to have Kadyn Proctor back.
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Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer answered “there’s no question” when he was asked how big it was bringing left tackle Kadyn Proctor back into the fold.
“He was a guy who was going to play a significant role in the program,” DeBoer said. “To lose him and to now get him back, that’s a big deal for us. I think he’s just done a great job of meshing back with his friends, but most importantly his teammates. Excited to get him back into our workouts this summer.”
May he look like the surefire first rounder that he was billed to be coming out of high school.
The Wisconsin beat seems optimistic about their early season Alabama matchup.
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This would have been an epic Camp Randall Stadium night game, right up there with the best atmospheres in recent memory. Instead, it earned the Big Noon Saturday treatment from Fox. That decision aside, the game is as exciting as any on the schedule. It’s a different Alabama team with Nick Saban retiring during the offseason. Yet it’s still a formidable team likely to open the season ranked in the top 10. Fickell will have an opportunity to earn a signature win during his brief time at Wisconsin.
Alabama currently leads all programs in terms of NFL players.
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Nick Saban developed a sometimes unbelievable amount of talent during his legendary Alabama career and will continue to see some of his former players trickle into the NFL over the next couple of years. As it stands, his Crimson Tide program accounts for by far the most professional players of any school. From Derrick Henry to Tua Tagovailoa and Minkah Fitzpatrick to Josh Jacobs, a wide swath of the league’s biggest names played its college ball under Saban’s tutelage in Tuscaloosa.
“By far,” it says. I can’t stress that enough.
Jon Allen seems happy with his new coaches.
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“I love the coaching staff, I love the direction we’re moving in, I love the way we’re working,” Allen said after practice Wednesday. “It has truly been reinvigorating and just so fun to come to work every day. This is literally just a dream job right now.”
A dream following a nightmare 4-13 season that was not good for a whole lot of people around the Commanders. It certainly was not Allen’s best, following Pro Bowl nods in 2021 and 2022.
A change of scenery could certainly have been in the cards, given especially that Allen has no guaranteed money left on his contract, which has two years remaining.
Conversations in recent months with Peters and Quinn got them all on the same page.
“We just talked about what we want this thing to look like, and I’m on board with it,” Allen said. “Obviously I’m emotional, and last year was tough. But after time moves on, you learn from the past and get ready for the future and I’m super excited about what we’ve done.”
Last, this is pretty cool from Jalen Hurts.
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“My favorite college football memory was the beginning of it all, when I early-enrolled,” Hurts said. “Immediately, I was thrust into being the scout-team quarterback as like a senior in high school essentially. I was the scout-team quarterback. I was playing Deshaun Watson on the scout team. I learned a lot quick. I earned my respect that quick, but it was very challenging. But it was fun. I think that was probably the best part for me, my favorite memory, because I made a lot of good friends. I just earned their respect as a young’un.”
That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.
Roll Tide.
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