Greg Byrne has put Alabama in a position few athletic departments can match, and a new CBS Sports ranking only reinforces that point.
In Cody Nagel’s look at the best athletic departments in the Power Four, Alabama finished second behind Texas. The exercise averaged results across sports, and while the Longhorns claimed the top spot, the Crimson Tide still came in with a strong case of their own. Under Byrne, Alabama became the first school to make the College Football Playoff, the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament, and the Men’s and Women’s College World Series in the same academic year.
That kind of across-the-board success is no accident. Byrne has built an environment where Alabama is expected to compete for championships in every corner of the athletic department, and his track record backs that up. Whether it’s Kalen DeBoer, Nate Oats, Rob Vaughn, Patrick Murphy, or another head coach on campus, they know the standard they’re walking into.
Texas may have the No. 1 spot in this ranking, and the Longhorns also won a national championship in softball. But Alabama has had to do plenty of heavy lifting of its own, including becoming the last SEC team to reach the College Football Playoff before the Longhorns did. The numbers may favor Texas in this particular exercise, but Alabama’s success under Byrne is right there in the conversation.
Part of what makes Byrne’s work stand out is the job he’s had to do. Alabama hasn’t been operating on the same NIL level as Texas, and three years ago Byrne had to replace Nick Saban.
That alone would make the transition difficult. Instead, Byrne kept the department moving forward and continued making the kind of hires that matter.
The football move drew the most attention, with Byrne bringing DeBoer over from Washington to take over for Saban. But that’s only part of the story.
Byrne also hired Oats from Buffalo to lead the basketball program, landed Vaughn from Maryland, and trusted Murphy in softball. Those decisions have helped Alabama stay dangerous in the sports that matter most.
This isn’t about padding a résumé with non-revenue success. Schools like Stanford can celebrate that side of the ledger all they want, but Alabama is winning in places where it’s harder to win big. That’s the real value Byrne has created.
For Alabama, the expectation is simple: compete for titles everywhere. Byrne has spent years making sure that standard holds in the SEC, and that’s what makes this recognition mean something.
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