Alabama AD Says He's Not in Favor of Professional Model for College Sports

Not every athletic director is interested in professionalizing college sports.

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

A popular idea over the last year in order to get a handle on the level of chaos currently seen in college sports surrounding the transfer portal as well as Name, Image, and Likeness has been professionalizing college sports.

Under that proposal, players would be employees rather than students - something many already consider them to be - and would sign contracts that prevent the unlimited transfer Wild West and put some guardrails in place in order to get everything under control as they continue to spiral further which each passing day in the current system.

Those who are for a model like that generally point to the fact that things are already headed in that direction and it would be better to just rip the bandaid off, but not everyone with a voice feels that way. Alabama Crimson Tide Athletics Director Greg Byrne, widely known as one of the most powerful figures both in the SEC and in college sports, says he is against that idea and hopes another solution can be found.

“I would hope we can find something that doesn’t require them to be employees. We’re also a right to work state, right? Unionization in right to work states is a really challenging thing,” Byrne said via WVUA 23. “I’m not an advocate for it. I’m hoping we can find a model that will allow us to have college athletics with a lot of kids participating and have an opportunity from a male and female side that will allow kids to go out and wearing the script A and compete for the University of Alabama.”

Byrne's response is particularly interesting given how his former head coach and one of the greatest to ever do it in Nick Saban has said essentially the opposite. By the sounds of it, Byrne's hesitance comes largely from the idea of not being for unionization, but that may be an undeniable consequence of the current situation.

Most fairly universally feel that something has to change with the way college sports are currently headed not being a sustainable model for the future. Professionalization seems like the easiest way to make that change happen, but by the sounds of it, those who want to head down that road will have a fight on their hands.