So who's ready to tithe to Yea Alabama Collective?

I saw that post yesterday and it made me chuckle but essentially that is what all these general fan facing collectives are asking in a fashion. Maybe not 10% pretax like your church, but still they expect you to make a long term recurring payment.

I grew up an hour from UA and was an Alabama fan my whole life. I graduated from there and worked there for a bit too. My earliest memory of football was sitting on my grandpa's lap and watching Alabama win the 1993 Sugar Bowl.

But I've got to be completely honest: if Alabama's play in the NIL era is to build a roster salary pool on the backs of the middle to upper-middle class making small to medium sized recurring donations, I'm out. If I'm putting my hard-earned money towards sending kids to college, it's going to be for my own kid's 529 not some other young man's NIL direct deposit.

I don't think I'm alone with this feeling. No other popular commercial sport asks the fans to directly pay for the product on the field. That's the organization's problem, not the fans. I understand that the core problem is that the schools cannot directly compensate the players but I just don't think that is the broad middle of the fanbase's job to make up for solvable legislative and bureaucratic failings.

I'm a big Alabama fan. I want all the best for the athletes competing at my alma mater but if seeing championships in football means parting with my own money so a 17yo can drive a nicer car than me then I reckon we can just be 8-4.