A-Day in Tuscaloosa is a tradition fans across the state look forward to all year round.
It’s a time for fans to get into Bryant-Denny Stadium in the spring at no cost to them and their families and get a look at who may be the Crimson Tide stars of the future in a fun game setting in which the crimson team takes on the white team and battle it out in a scrimmage like environment.
Last year in the first season of the Kalen DeBoer era, that began to change slightly when in front of a very full lower bowl the Tide played in an “offense versus defense” setting, though while it made the scoring system confusing and wacky, it was still at least a game-like product.
Now however, moving forward according to an announcement from the program, this year’s A-Day – which is not going to be televised for the first time in 20 years – is going to be a 90 minute practice instead of a game.
Fans who are members of the Yea Alabama NIL collective will have the chance after the game to participate in an exclusive autograph session similar to how Fan Day is run, but regular fans who have not donated to the collective do not seem like they will be getting any sort of extra activities added.
Admission will still be free as it always has been, but fans who cannot afford to buy a regular game ticket and look forward to the only opportunity they may have to see something close to a game in Bryant-Denny have now lost that chance.
The cancelling of spring games has become popular around the sport over the last several months after some coaches alleged people went after their players in the transfer portal with huge offers to entice them to leave after they had big showings on the televised event.
It’s just another consequence of the current era we’re in within collegiate athletics. An event that used to be something for fans to look forward to every year has been ruined by the pitfalls of NIL and the transfer portal.
Perhaps in the future things can return to normal – or as close to normal as possible – but for now fans are yet again the victim of radical changes in a sport that is still continuing to figure out what its future is going to look like.
