The athletics directors from Alabama and Auburn sat down with reporters this week and the conversation was interesting.
Auburn athletics director John Cohen and Alabama AD Greg Byrne speak at a conference with journalists Monday on the campus of Samford University.
The two actually go way back, and each brings a unique background to this conversation. Auburn’s Cohen, for example, spoke about growing up in Tuscaloosa with a father who taught at the UA School of Law. Going back to his childhood, Cohen remembers his father telling him that one day collegiate athletes would be paid more than their scholarships, room and board. Incredible foresight in a time before cable television rewrote the business model.
It’s another example of how we find ourselves in this moment where nothing is sacred and the suits screwed things up for the athletes, fans and everyone else who loves collegiate sports.A lack of foresight is also how the NCAA and its member institutions are wrangling with plaintiff attorneys over athlete compensation and the minimally regulated NIL/transfer space.“The easy way to say it is yes,” Cohen said. “But I think you have to go deeper than that. Nobody has a crystal ball.
They made interesting points about SEC schools having fewer scholarship spots available for high school recruits given the vacancies filled by transfers. That starts a cycle where someone with SEC-caliber talent might begin a career at a smaller school and then attract the attention of the bigger programs down the line.
Cohen took it a step further. Before moving up to the AD role at Mississippi State in 2016, Cohen was a college baseball coach at Northwestern State, Kentucky and in Starkville. With all that said, managing an athletics department in the summer of 2024 is an unenviable position. Competing interests are everywhere and keeping everyone happy is impossible.
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