After a disappointing opening to the 2025 season, national championship-winning quarterback AJ McCarron believes that the Alabama Crimson Tide's lack of name, image and likeness (NIL) funds is holding his former team back.
According to McCarron, the Tide, which have lost five of their past nine games against FBS opponents under second-year head coach Kalen DeBoer, are way behind other teams in the NIL department. He said on "McCready & Siskey" that Alabama had less than $20 million in its NIL while others were operating with $40-50 million.
"[A]nother thing that hurts Alabama right now is you look at these other teams that have $40-50 million in NIL," McCarron explained. "Alabama — and I know this for a fact, talking to multiple people inside the program — Alabama has got less than $20 million in their NIL. OK?"
While some have been calling for DeBoer's firing, the former quarterback said that much of a difference in funds would hurt any coach, including Nick Saban, who built a program before the NIL era and jumped out of coaching when it got out of control. McCarron also suggested players now care about their paycheck rather than taking pride in their play.
"You know what helps Alabama from a recruiting standpoint? It's not the money," he outlined. "It's the fact that Alabama has been Alabama, and people go there because they know you're going to win national championships, you're going to be able to compete for national championships, year in and year out. And you're going to go into the NFL, most likely, if you do what you're supposed to do. If you start losing, all of that goes away. And now you can't pay guys what other schools are dishing out? Now it hurts you even more. I don't care who you have as a coach — whether Coach Saban, Coach DeBoer, it doesn't matter."
"If guys on the team can't do what they're supposed to do and play with a reckless abandonment to where they have a nastiness about them and people have a fear of playing them, they're going to struggle," McCarron continued. "I hate to say it. They got to find a way to get back, dude. It's not that they don't have good players. It's not that they don't have good coaches. But the effort that these kids are putting out — and I shouldn't even say kids, they're grown-ass men, you're getting paid, it's a professional sport now — these dudes should be giving out way more effort. It feels like all they care about is their check coming in, and there's no pride in it."
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