I don't envy Byrne's situation in all this one bit. There's really nothing he can do, in terms of freeing up money, or raising more money, that won't ruffle feathers. UA's situation of being planted firmly behind the 8 ball in this NIL/Collective money race hasn't changed from the beginning. Bama lacks the deep pocket mega donors like some other schools have. That isn't to say Bama doesn't have some extremely wealthy people who have given generously to UA over the years... they have, and they still will. But even those people don't hold much of a candle to someone like Jimmy Rane, or the oil men in Texas. The other issue is, UA also lacks the big corporate backers that many other schools are connected with. Just in the SEC alone, schools like UGA, TN, Arkansas all get a really nice influx of funds from corporate backers. Again, yes, Bama has some... but Tyson Foods isn't based out of Tuscaloosa for example. It's a revenue stream that isn't flowing to Bama the way it flows to some others. That pretty much leaves Byrne having to milk an army of cows for every drop. And while we have a lot of fans to get milked for money, that takes a lot of work, and really relies on an all give some model as opposed to a some give all, and it's hard to get even a little from some once. Much less twice, three times, four times, etc. And lastly, the fan model (or cow milking)... even with its limitations, it is also still the same type of money well used by other schools, Bama just can supplement the funds with a massive check from Pilot. Or JB Hunt.
