re: Alabama Basketball 2026-27 roster tracker

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Spend 5-8 million dollars and hope someone will be like “wow I never considered FedEx but now that it’s in a jersey I guess I will!”

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It's more of a subconscious thing. You see the ad constantly and eventually when faced with a decision about what to pick in that category of product there are increased odds you go with the one you think of the most. Like how if you get sideswiped by a semi on 65 North, Shunnarah is hoping his shite eating grin is the last thing you see before losing consciousness and going into the ambulance.

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In all seriousness…the end game for this is all the non profit sports are going to go away. Boosters will get tired of spending because rich people don’t get rich by throwing money away. But there’s no putting the cork back in this bottle fully so ultimately sports that bleed money are going to go away or be scaled WAYYYY back which might not be the worst thing in the world. I like all of our teams to be great but realistically if a program is losing multi millions of dollars then it probably should find a way to not do that.

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We all make this mistake from time to time and I have to remind myself of it constantly in this subject area: the very tip top of the wealth pyramid are wealthy in ways that are alien to the average man's mind.

A small millionaire is probably about the extent of what an average middle income person can understand. People who diligently save for retirement over a long career will often - but not always - end up being a small millionaire by retirement. Though they will likely be chewing down principle and losing that status as soon as they achieve millionaire status. We can sort of comprehend how someone with several million in assets can live. Bigger home, nicer car, probably still works for a living.

However by the time you get 100 million, the habits and lifestyles of those people really become a bit foreign. I'm acquainted with a few retired-in-their-30s silicon valley types who were on at the right companies early and cashed out after their IPOs. Their social media suggests a constant stream of chartered jet flights, parties, and vacations. They don't really have to do anything but let their money grow and it is hard to imagine them spending their way to ruin unless their banker swindles them.

Anyway, my point being that billionaires or very substantial 9-digit millionaires can essentially fund a college athletics roster every year until the end of time and their money will likely grow more than all of those college athletics payroll expenses plus what it would cost to maintain their standard of living.

Fanbases that are dependent on the small millionaires are in trouble because the 9/10-digit wealthy can just keep on doing this without noticing the effect on their bottom line.

If a billion dollars of cash was invested in a conservative strategy, it would probably net between 40-50 million a year.

Of course, most billionaires are not holding all their wealth in liquid cash. However, they're likely invested in various things that are netting returns greater than the 4%-ish of very conservative strategies.

The schools with billionaires who are committed to the support are probably golden until that billionaire croaks and the wealth needs to be split up among their entitled, soft spawn.

It is not hard to argue that we're being priced out of being a national title contender but also being priced in as a consistent top 25 team as the mid-major ranks wither and die as glorified developmental leagues for the power conferences.

The thing about buying championships is that while it is probably easier to do in basketball than football, it isn't a turnkey solution to just throw money at a roster and cut nets.

I think it is going to be harder for Nate to get over the hump than I thought it would be after 2023 where it felt like we had a championship caliber roster but just got unlucky.

However, we still just need to stay in this top 16-ish range with a roster that gels well enough on defense plus 6 good offensive games.

I do wonder if we're getting priced out a bit however we've played in a 2 S16, 1 E8, and 1 F4 in the last 4 seasons and really only had a good defensive unit in one of those four seasons (and that was the year we were the most unlucky).

[img]We were leading the Nation Champion at the half in what was basically a home game for them with what was probably our worst roster in 5 years.[/img]

Without probably our best shooter and we did not shoot well. On a good shooting night that game is single digits and their big is a non factor.

We need to do pe deal like Utah and put that money in silver.

yeah i mean everybody thinks it doesn't work on themself we all think we're special, etc., but as a matter of routine 101 level human psychology, it 100% does. of course that doesnt mean every ad works on you, but the idea you're immune to the immense amount of advertising you're subjected to is a common delusion.

which, going back to the original point, is of course exactly why the companies spend so much of their money on it, because they know beyond any shadow of a doubt that it does.

I’m excited to see our 2026 Home schedule. Purdue last year was so cool.

I bet they had 1200 fans in ttown, minimum.

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The schools with billionaires who are committed to the support are probably golden until that billionaire croaks and the wealth needs to be split up among their entitled, soft spawn

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We had ONE billionaire supporting us ,Hugh Culverhouse; he croaks, son takes over , possibly a non-alumnus and promptly finds a reason to turn off the spigot.
Don’t think we have had another billionaire funding us since then.