Goodman: Among other things, Greg Byrne needs help at Alabama
If I were a betting man, then I’d say Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne hasn’t slept well for months.
It’s tough being an athletics director at a major university, but Byrne’s gig at Alabama seems impossibly hard. Now it’s a betting scandal. Byrne’s primary responsibility is raising money for athletics, but where does he find the time? It’s been one thing after another at Alabama recently, and so Byrne’s job is not one anyone should envy.
Firing baseball coach Brad Bohannon was an easy decision, though. Nothing difficult about understanding that. The SEC’s Pete Rose apparently thought he could win even when his team lost. Now he’ll go down as one of the SEC’s all-time red-handed rascals.
“Among other things,” Byrne said in a statement about Bohannon’s dismissal, the coach violated “standards, duties, and responsibilities expected of University employees.”
Among other things…those are loaded words.
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Among other things, this spring semester has been a disaster for Alabama’s reputation. Among other things, the negative spotlight on Byrne’s department is growing hotter and hotter with every new scandal. Among other things, there is this growing perception that Alabama’s athletics department is always dealing with people getting into trouble.
Is perception reality? Meh, maybe not in this case, but that’s what Alabama’s rivals would love to think. The messes are easy enough to see, though, and this latest deal with the baseball team questions the integrity of an entire sport. As my colleague Michael Casagrande pointed out, it’s stinky stuff.
Seems like an internal investigation might be in order at Alabama, or at least some kind of new approach to oversight. I’m not saying Byrne is part of the problem at Alabama, I’m just saying Byrne could probably use some help. Only here’s the thing. Even the department’s deputy director for compliance and support is in trouble.
On Sunday, that person was arrested when cops came to his house on a call about alleged domestic violence. What’s next, I thought. Well, on Monday, the bad news was a betting scandal surrounding Alabama baseball.
It’s May, y’all. Alabama football coach Nick Saban is even getting ready to go on vacation. Can we please go one week without some kind of five-alarm fire involving the Crimson Tide? Can someone call a department-wide Teams meeting? Subject line, Urgent: No more probes until at least after SEC Spring Meetings. Repeat: Keep the probing away. Look: No one likes probes. Let’s talk about it.
Did you read my column on Charles Cleveland and his brother on Thursday morning? It wasn’t around as long as I would have liked because the baseball news buried it. There was a Charles Cleveland Day in Bibb County a couple weeks ago, and I was trying to find a window for this really sweet column on the late Charles Cleveland and his brother. I thought Thursday was the day. Nope. Byrne spoiled the good news once again.
On Thursday, Alabama’s athletics director announced the firing of his baseball coach with a press release email. Alabama baseball is currently third in the SEC West with an overall record of 31-15. The Tide’s league mark is now 10-12 after a victory against Vanderbilt on Thursday night. Among other things, it’s amazing what can happen when everyone in the dugout wants to win games. Bohannon apparently didn’t. A few days after a game between Alabama and LSU, news broke that a couple bets involving the contest were flagged in Ohio for suspicious wagering activity.
After an investigation by gaming officials, Byrne had little choice but to fire the first coach he hired at Alabama. Bottom line? A betting probe linked to Alabama baseball reflects badly on the athletic department at Alabama, but it actually rates pretty low on the list of problems for Byrne compared to everything else that’s gone on lately.
Among other things, I mean the guns.
A few weeks back, one of Alabama’s celebrated basketball recruits was hanging out with a group of people in a Tuscaloosa parking lot when the cops rolled up and found a bunch of guns in the player’s car. Alabama immediately cut ties with the player, naturally. A couple months ago, a celebrated football recruit ruined his immediate future over drugs and guns. A few months back, this one being the biggest thing of all, Byrne was wrapped up in the basketball controversy involving the shooting death of Jamea Harris.
Individually, every single one of those things is disturbing. All together? The Crimson Tide’s recent run of trouble makes the University of Alabama sound like the cover for a crime syndicate. Does the new EA Sports college football video game need a “Grand Theft Auto” version for Tuscaloosa?
It’s hard to process the totality of Alabama-related PR hits here lately, and, oh, by the way, did everyone except me know before this week that betting houses took action on college baseball? Gotta be honest, I had no idea that gambling on college baseball even existed before news broke that an inspector for the gaming industry flagged the Alabama baseball team.
Just another fire inside Byrne’s Alabama, among other things.
Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, a book about togetherness, hope and rum. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.