Crimson Red Sports

Regional #2 Bama plays #3 UCF today at 5:00 CT. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.

#1 Florida State plays #4 Stetson at 11:00.

Bama loses to UCF 8-7 in a back-and-forth close game. Bama plays Stetson Saturday at 11:00 in an elimination game.

You mean Stetson beat FSU? RTR!

No sir. FSU beat Stetson 7-2. We are in the loser's bracket. UCF plays FSU today on the winner's side.

Bama in a weather delay. The game is tentatively scheduled to start at 2:30.

Went 2 and done.  >:(

Baseball continued its year end slump losing to 3-0 to Stetson to end the season. After a promising start to the season, we ended on a bad note going 1-5 in the last six games. The exact opposite of peaking at the right time.

I feel good about the direction of the program. Coach Vaughn looks like a winner. He took over a program that was in a mess after firing Bohannon and our best players leaving in the portal. He put together a team that played hard and won a lot of big games. We won series against Tennessee, Arkansas, and South Carolina. Three top ten teams. He has a lot of work to do to rebuild the team for next year. We need pitching and will need to replace some position players that will graduate or go pro. Who knows what will happen in the portal.

Coach Vaughn is young, aggressive, and the players like him. I think he is the right man for the job. I am looking forward to many improvements in year two.

I agree with you pmull. I think he will be like CNO. He will build a good team it will just take some time with all the problems he inherited. RTR!

Since it looks like college sports is heading toward 'pay to play', who really knows what will happen? The term 'student athlete' will immediately be obsolete. Recruiting will take an unheard of direction. Will it end up being who pays the most; a bidding war, if you will? We never could offer the scholarships needed to compete with a lot of other teams in baseball. With 'pay to play', will Bama have the money necessary to buy the more talented players?

Even though the revenue sharing between schools doesn't start until fall of next year, I believe the 'pay for pay' will begin this year. If that's the case, let's hope Bama has Vaughn loaded for bear.

BTW, all this just scares the heck out of me.

2Stater it has me scared because I am afraid i will come to hate college sports more then I ever thought. Pay to play in college the players should have to pay for their on education. RTR!

Baseball is one of the programs "pay for play" will help us level the playing field. NCAA rules allow 11.5 scholarships. They can be given as a whole scholarship or divided into 25% scholarships to make them go further. A baseball team roster is over 30 players. They carry 12-15 pitchers alone. Bama and Auburn have always been at a disadvantage. States with lottery's and casino's offer scholarship assistance if a student graduates high school with good grades. SEC baseball teams use this to offer scholarships to top players and make those 11.5 scholarships go a long way. Alabama does not have this option. The state of Alabama is way behind the times in helping kids go to college without piling up a mountain of debt. 

Thanks for the read. This was very informative to me. RTR!

This is what I'm hoping for too, pmull. It is uncharted territory though, so will Bama come up with the needed funds to make this happen? The fact that they have  made a profit every year (mostly due to football) tells me that they should, but we'll see.  :unsure:

Bama is a big player in the NIL market. We are not spending money like Ohio St or a few others, but we are in better shape than most. One of the reasons CNO withdrew his name from consideration for the UK job was because Greg Byrne committed a substantial amount each year to NIL. How the other sports like baseball are treated in terms of NIL remain to be seen. I do know Greg Bryne is a money raising machine. He has people on staff dedicated to raising money strictly for the athletic program. Byrne is slowing down facility upgrades (example: New Basketball Areana) until things settle down and the cost of doing business in the NIL market is determined. Byrne's priority right now is making sure coaches can get the best players. Currently, Alabama's athletic facilities (except basketball) are some of the best so upgrades can wait. NIL means more to players today than facilities.

NIL is not substantiable. Donor's pockets are only so deep.

So deep is the truth. You got oil men in Texas that will buy whatever they want. RTR!