1-0. 3-2. Whatever go girls beat that pukey orange

The Sporting News is saying what we all know, Alabama has no stars and is the weakest hitting team in the field. All Alabama knows how to do is keep runs off the board. Sporting News analysis

Before the Tennessee series I said that if the Tide could keep Tennessee to two or less runs a game, we had a chance. I told people that our pitching staff was second to none and I stand by that statement. Beavers and Briski are as fine a one, two punch as anyone has on their team. Briski's performance against Tennessee was only topped by Beaver's performance against Tennessee. Tennessee was probably the third best hitting team in the Country and Alabama had the pitching to stop Tennessee. Now I know that Oklahoma State has Lexi, who we let get away and she will probably be player of the year this season, but our first two pitchers are capable of shutting down everyone, except Texas and Oklahoma and on a great day they can shut those two down. Scoring can be a real problem. If only we could use our newly acquired transfer, Alexis Pupillo, who only hit 19 homers for Northern Iowa this season. (we can't).

We have the pitching to win this thing, if we only can get a few runs. Each team left in the tournament has excellent pitching and Oklahoma State has the one that should be starting for us. If we can hold on to Briski and get a quality number two and add some big bats for next season, we might be able to transform into a team that can compete on a regular basis against Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma. Being good enough to get to Oklahoma City may be nice, but winning championships is more important.

Alabama's pitching staff, with the third best ERA in the remaining field, does not have to apologize to anyone. Alabama is something like 220th in batting average and in this tournament 6 of the top 15 hitting teams in the country will be playing.

As the #2 Seed very good draw!
ROLL TIDE ROLL!

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I have a really good feeling about Reid this season, not that that's much of a hot take. I think he'll get some big minutes even with how deep Alabama's roster projects to be.

the top-ranked recruit in the state should be at camp overnight at the end of the week. Big as UA looks up to AU, LSU and UGA at the moment

This wraps up our transfer spotlight series. I hope you all enjoyed it!


Here's a look back at all 14 pieces.
LT Overton
Domani Jackson
Naquil Betrand
Austin Mack
Germie Bernard
Parker Brailsford
Josh Cuevas
Keon Sabb
Kadyn Proctor
Graham Nicholson
Kameron Howard
DaShawn Jones
King Mack
Geno VanDeMark

Some thoughts on their draft potential from Kevin Sweeney:

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Really interesting note on Jarin. He obviously has a lot of upside given his age and physical tools.
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Our softball team is in the College World Series!! One of the Final 8 teams Earned!
Our regular SEC record of 10-14 was good for a #9 final season record!
We should have a top 8 National Ranking one better than our SEC ranking 😂😂😂😂😂😂
ROLL TIDE ROLL!

Not only are they the two Greatest College Football coaches ever but they share more than one thing in common!
#1 they are #1 and #2 in National Championships won!
#2 They both adapted and changed the way that they coached!
Coach Bryant to the wishbone and integrating Black football players into BAMA!
Coach Saban adapting from a run first to a passing game!
#3 Both coaches raising the bar of college football!
#4 The most important of anything, their love for their players and former players!
Coach Bryant did so many great things for not only his football players but players in all sports at BAMA! He helped so many without all the social media that promotes many coaches today!
Coach Saban!!! It’s hard to put into words how much he has done for our Great university and all the players that he has coached! Even after his retirement he gave back to help his former players!
NO other school has had even one coach to come close to what these two All-Timers have done!
We at BAMA have been Blessed to have both of them!
Sometimes we can take things for granted that’s why I posted this!
Let’s all Remember Coach Bryant and Coach Saban! And Remember the Sacrifices of all the Great Men and Women who have served on this Memorial Day Weekend!
ROLL TIDE ROLL!

Alabama baseball will continue its postseason run in Tallahassee, Florida. The Crimson Tide was selected as a No. 2 seed in the Tallahassee Regional as part of the NCAA tournament. Joining Alabama will be host Florida State, No. 3 seed Central Florida and No. 4 seed Stetson. Florida State is the No. 8 overall seed in the tournament.

Alabama (33-22) will open play against Central Florida (35-19) on Friday at 5 p.m. CT. Florida State (42-15) will face Stetson (40-20) at 11 a.m. earlier in the day.

The regional stage will feature a double-elimination format, with all 16 regional winners moving on to the super-regional stage. The eight super-regional matchups will be decided by best-of-three series with the winners moving on to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

Alabama was projected as a No. 3 seed by both D1 Baseball and Baseball America. However, the Tide’s strength of schedule saw it seeded better than expected. Alabama ranked No. 24 in adjusted RPI with the nation’s sixth toughest schedule. The Crimson Tide’s 15 Quad 1 wins are tied with South Carolina as the fifth-most in the nation behind Kentucky (22), Tennessee (21), Texas A&M (17) and Mississippi State (16).

Alabama has now advanced to three of the past four NCAA tournaments. This marks the first time the Crimson Tide has made back-to-back appearances since 2013-14. Last season, Alabama hosted and won its regional before falling to Wake Forest in the super-regional stage.

Alabama is under the guidance of first-year head coach Rob Vaughn, who joined the team last year after serving as the head coach at Maryland from 2018-23. Vaughn led the Terrapins to a regional appearance in each of the last three seasons.

Bama could have the edge in Lee's recruitment:

Alabama was a rapid riser on the list of schools for three-star Class of 2025 defensive tackle Charles House. He released a top six schools list on April 13, which didn’t include Alabama. But things changed when the Crimson Tide extended an offer just eight days later on April 21.

Heading into the summer it will be an SEC battle for the No. 39 ranked DT in the 2025 class. He now has a top-three of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, with the Crimson Tide getting the first of Charles’ official visits to all three schools. He will take his first-ever trip to Tuscaloosa on May 31.

“I just want to go down there and see everything,” House said. “But most importantly, I just want to see how I’m going to fit down there with the players and the rest of the coaching staff to see [if that] would be somewhere I’d consider home or not.

“[Alabama’s] the first on the list. They’ve got to make it big.”

Alabama has the first chance to make an impression on House, and how his visit goes will be crucial if the Tide wants to pip Georgia and Tennessee for his services. The Bulldogs will have the next visit starting June 7 and House will make his way to Knoxville, Tennessee on June 14. He is set to announce his commitment on June 22.

Though House only picked up an offer just over a month ago he’s developed a strong relationship with the Alabama coaching staff. His main recruiter has been Alabama defensive line coach Freddie Roach, while he’s also spoken with both Kalen DeBoer and Kane Wommack.

“They’ve been telling me good things,” House said. “[They’re] talking about where I'm at in the program and stuff they can do for me, and it just really caught my attention and that's why I had to set up an OV [to] get down there see what they’re about.”

House said DeBoer discussed his winning record and how he’ll keep Alabama at the top of college football. While he hasn’t been on campus yet, House has received a visit from Wommack and Roach in April. House said both coaches critiqued his game and gave him a great understanding of what it would be like to play for them should he commit.

“[Roach] is going to shoot it straight with me,” House said… “[Even] now he'll let me know what I'm doing wrong, talking about my pad level and stuff like that. So he’s already letting me know the type of coach that he’s gonna be now versus when I get down there. He's gonna let me know what’s up.”

House will join nine other top Alabama targets and a trio of 2025 commits next weekend as Alabama begins its June official visit period. Alabama is set for a big month on the recruiting trail with nearly three dozen recruits and commits set to take OVs before the summer dead period.

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Congrats to Filip Planinsek on winning the men's tennis singles title

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Women’s Softball back to Oklahoma City…again! Davis Riley wins the PGA Tour event in Ft. Worth and Men’s Tennis gets its first ever Singles Natty. And to think Pwest was pulling against us the entire time. Whoever Pwest is needs to rethink his/her addiction to negative attention. Pwest you would be kicked off of every team regardless of the sport if you were an athlete at Alabama. Your negative attitude is obnoxious.

Please stop for a minute today and say a prayer for the Cousin, Uncle, Friend, Brother or loved one that gave everything so you could be today.

Amateurism in athletics is on its deathbed, but a eulogy isn’t needed for your favorite college sports.

Don’t believe the doomsdayers.

You are still going to tune into College GameDay every Saturday morning in the fall — maybe even more so now that Nick Saban will be part of ESPN’s coverage team. Alabama fans will still pack Bryant-Denny Stadium and dole out ridiculous sums of money for soft pretzels inside Coleman Coliseum. They’ll still call into local sports-talk radio stations and argue with rival fans, who will also flock to their favorite team’s stadium where they’ll pay over the odds for the processed snack of their choosing.

College sports aren’t going anywhere — at least not the ones most of y’all are worried about. They’ll just operate a bit differently. And while revenue sharing is sure to make the college sports purists a bit salty, they’ll still tune in all the same. After all, if coughing up $13.99 for a pretzel hasn’t stopped you from showing up, neither will your favorite team paying its players.

That doesn’t mean the recent settlement in the House v. NCAA case won’t open a can of worms. College sports aren’t dying, but there are bound to be a few major changes in store.

In today’s column, I’ll discuss that while providing a few predictions on what may be in store for the new pay-for-play landscape. With that said, pour yourself a drink, and let's dive in.

Drink of the week — Millionaire ​

This drink is fitting in more than just name. Like the current state of college athletics, the Millionaire involves its own bit of debate and uncertainty. Some claim the Prohibition-era cocktail is made with Jamaican rum, while others center it around bourbon or gin. Each version offers an elegant blend of sweet and sour, but we’re siding with our friends at Session, who prefer the rum route.

For this one, you’ll need 1.5 ounces of Jamaican rum, three-fourths of an ounce of sloe gin, three-fourths of an ounce of apricot liqueur and three-fourths of an ounce of lime juice. From there, shake the ingredients over ice, strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with a lime.

The sweetness of the rum and apricot liquor pair nicely with the tartness of the sloe gin and lime juice, forming a rich concoction fit for its namesake. It’s the perfect drink to help you forget that an 18-year-old quarterback is making more in one season than you’ll pull in over your lifetime.

Cheers!

(Commercial break: My drink of the week section is now sponsored by my friends at Session Cocktails in Tuscaloosa. Session has been a mainstay in Tuscaloosa’s cocktail scene since 2019 and offers some of the tastiest drinks in town. Stop by and tell them I said hi!)

​

Three predictions following the House vs NCAA settlement

Last week, the NCAA and its power conferences all voted on a settlement that will allow schools to directly pay players. While there are still a few legal details to iron out, schools are expected to be able to extend roughly $20 million per year across all of their athletic programs beginning in the fall of 2025.

Exactly how that money will be distributed as well as the effect it will have on college athletics remains to be seen. For now, here are a few predictions of what to expect moving forward.

The transfer portal will lose its luster

The transfer portal won’t cease to exist, but it likely won’t hold the same role in roster construction. Alabama football brought in 13 college transfers (plus the readdition of Kadyn Proctor) this offseason but also saw 30 scholarship players depart for the portal. Chances are, both of those totals will decrease now that schools will be able to sign players to multi-year contracts.

According to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, some of those contracts could involve buyout clauses similar to what we see from head coaches. Still, any sort of a binding deal will give colleges more leverage than they currently have. This should also prevent double transfers in the same offseason, such as the situation we saw with Proctor, where the five-star lineman left Alabama for Iowa in January only to return three months later.

Currently, it’s difficult for teams to maintain depth, as departing players grow tired of waiting for their turn on the field while incoming transfers are generally pushing for some form of guaranteed playing time. Now teams will be able to pay for patience from their rising stars, leaving fewer holes to plug from season to season.

Locking young players into multi-year deals will also allow more time for coaches to mold them into their system. That should shift more emphasis back to high school recruiting.

Walk-ons will cease to exist

As far as the future generations are concerned, the movie Rudy might as well have been set in the Stone Age. The idea of walk-ons will be as outdated as the Wishbone offense and leather helmets under the new setup.

Scholarship limits hold little meaning now that teams will be able to pay players directly. To combat that, the Power Four conferences are expected to allow unlimited scholarships while instead putting a cap on overall roster size. Early suggestions estimate that number will drop down to 85 or 90 moving forward.

Currently, teams are only allotted 85 football scholarships but are allowed unlimited walk-ons. That at least opens the door for an underdog story where an unheralded player earns his spot on the field while paying his own way.

If teams are required to limit their rosters to let’s say 90 players, it’s likely most will elect to pay a little extra to accumulate more top-end talents, leaving the underdogs out in the cold.

Smaller sports will be cut

You might have missed it, but Alabama added another national champion on Saturday, as Filip Planinsek took home the men’s tennis singles title. Planinsek is the first Crimson Tide tennis player to take home a singles crown in school history. Unfortunately, he may be the last.

Smaller sports such as tennis, swimming and track and field could fall to the wayside as schools could be forced to devote their revenue to money-making programs such as the football and basketball teams.

There already figures to be complications with Title IX, as many have questioned whether or not potential lawsuits will be filed if revenue is not split somewhat evenly between men’s and women’s sports. Perhaps that ensures the future of gymnastics, softball, volleyball, women’s soccer and women’s basketball. However, cuts wil likely have to be made in order to ensure Alabama remains competitive on both the gridiron and the hardwood.

According to a report from The Athletic, one CEO of a college collective estimated that roughly 80 percent of their school’s projected $14.5 million in NIL earnings would be devoted to football this year. It’s safe to assume most men’s basketball programs will also take on a substantial slice of the pie, considering the numbers that get thrown around for top transfer targets.

Rutgers transfer Clifford Omoruyi reportedly turned down a NIL offer worth $2 million to join Alabama basketball this offseason. That’s roughly the cost of an entire sport on one player, and those prices are only set to rise now that schools can bring their own revenue to the negotiating table.

Teams will still have NIL collectives, which will help circumvent the salary cap by raising money through outside sources. That could theoretically boost budgets to more than $30 million. Still, it’s hard to imagine that extra money not going toward what figures to be an arms race in college athletics’ biggest two sports.

If Alabama is forced to choose between funding a cross-country team or having the ability to add the missing piece to a championship roster in either football or basketball, don’t be surprised if it opts for the latter. That’ll be true for almost every major program.

*****

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I would like to give a pre-emptive shout out to all those who have served and bled for this United States thru the years….. especially would like to give special recognition to the USS Carney and her crew who have just returned home from the Middle East. The Carney now has the distinction of having the most engagements with the enemy for a US ship since WW2.

Alabama versus Tennessee in the super regional. Let’s kick some volunteer butt.

I Hate Tennessee