Alabama Athletics Director Greg Byrne took some flak on social media on Wednesday after releasing a long statement about the current state of college athletics and ultimately pleading with Tide fans to help out the university’s NIL efforts in order to combat other schools in the same space trying to take talent away from Tuscaloosa.

Byrne was criticized as being essentially tone deaf in soliciting donations to go towards NIL both because of the pretty much universal unpopularity of the current state of collegiate athletics along with the fact that it’s right before Christmas, potentially the worst time to ask fans who have been struggling to make ends meet over the last few years to donate to the cause.

During an appearance on Thursday on The Next Round, Byrne clarified his statement and explained the need:

“I think there’s an assumption that we’re Alabama, we’ve got more money than the Vatican, and that’s not accurate…” Alabama AD @Greg_Byrne pic.twitter.com/HfWCQlHtvT

— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) December 19, 2024

“We are encouraging folks to be involved at whatever level they can, and we know some folks can’t and we understand that,” Byrne said. “It’s reality, we have to deal with reality…I think there’s an assumption that we’re Alabama, we’ve got more money than the Vatican, and that’s not accurate. We have a budget, we have to adhere to that budget and I know some folks have said just use your money from a ticket revenue standpoint, different buckets that we’re fortunate to have. Those obviously go to support our 21 teams and 650 young men and women in our program.”

“To be able to compete at the levels that we expect and desire, it takes a lot of resources to do that…It’s something we think a lot of folks can afford to be a part of and if you don’t ask people won’t do it, so we ask.”

Byrne went on to discuss his hopes for athletes to be able to capitalize on the seemingly inevitable revenue sharing system in which players will get a certain percentage of the revenue the teams generate directly to them in order to create a unified system rather than the highest bidder getting the player.

Times certainly are changing in college football and nobody really knows what’s next, but Byrne is trying to put his program in the best space possible given what the rules currently are.