Yea Alabama releases T-shirts benefiting baseball players ahead of Super Regional
Alabama baseball is playing in its first Super Regional since 2010 this weekend.
The Tide-focused NIL collective Yea Alabama is making sure the athletes benefit from the moment. The organization started selling “Grand Slammers” T-shirts earlier this week, with 100% of the proceeds going back to the baseball team.
Before the name, image and likeness era, athletes were not able to receive any profits from their jersey sales. They wouldn’t have been able to receive any dollars from an initiative like Yea Alabama is currently running, either. Fans are now able to purchase merchandise with their favorite player’s name on it. Fanatics launched its NIL jersey program storefront back in September.
Featuring Big Al, the shirts come in grey, white and crimson. Retail price is $30. Collectives have continued to release athlete-centric merchandise as a way to generate income but also awareness.
Providing a return on investment has become necessary for sustainability in the collective space. More than 22 months into the NIL era, collectives are working to create viable fundraising models. Collectives have expressed concern about booster fatigue, especially without seeing a winning product on the field.
Releasing T-shirts that put dollars in athletes’ pockets is a smart way to engage with the fan base.
With 43 wins in a season for the first time since 2006, Alabama baseball has rallied amid controversy. Head coach Brad Bohannon was fired last month for violating the standards, duties and responsibilities of university employees. The move came days after suspicious betting activity from the Tide’s game against LSU.
Alabama opens Super Regional play Saturday at No. 1 seed Wake Forest. The Tide swept last weekend in their regional, picking up wins over Nicholls, Troy and Boston College.
Yea Alabama continues to ramp up activity
The collective has released a number of initiatives since its February launch, showing off its ability to turn moments into NIL opportunities.
Less than 10 days after Yea Alabama’s launch, an Auburn fan’s sign stated in all caps, “WHERE LEGENDS ARE PAID.” The “A” in paid was written in the script Alabama logo. College GameDay picked it up, eventually taking off on social media.
By the end of the night, after Alabama’s 77-69 win over Auburn, the collective had launched a tee with the saying. The quick-witted marketing ploys have not stopped there. A shirt celebrating the Tide’s SEC regular season title was release shortly after the clinching game.
Yea Alabama has also released licensed basketball trading cards with ONIT Marketing.
Obviously, football will eventually become one of the main focuses. The Tide held a meet-and-greet with four highly-touted freshmen and fans at The Authentic shop at Bryan-Denny Stadium. Yea Alabama heavily promoted the event.
The official NIL entity of Crimson Tide athletes released its first take on officially licensed jerseys ahead of March Madness. Through a partnership with Athlete’s Thread, all 17 men’s basketball players had their officially licensed jerseys put on sale.
The organization has received backing and praise from Nick Saban and Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne. It has also preferred to call itself an entity over collective because of the connotation of the word.
“I think the primary reason was just because some of the negative connotation … with ‘collective’ being a potential four-letter word,” Yea Alabama’s executive director Jay McPhillips previously told On3’s Andy Wittry. “In fact, I believe athletic director Greg Byrne used that same analogy during an interview when speaking about NIL at some point in the past.
“There’s certain connotation that comes with the word ‘collective,’ and while we have operations that seem very similar to other collectives and how they operate, because of ours being multifaceted – it’s not just a collective of funds. It is a much more diverse, full entity that helps our student-athletes in multiple capacities.”