This is an opinion column.

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The University of Alabama is accepting handwritten checks, piggy banks, Venmo, PayPal, CashApp, title loans and pawned jewelry to pay for athletics. Athletics director Greg Byrne needs money, so he went on a Fox News podcast to shake the trees.

Not those trees.

I’m talking about the family trees.

Auburn basketball is still dancing, but the mailbag this week shifts to football and financial aid.

Winston in Maylene, Ala., writes …

Bama is in REAL trouble and might be the unspoken reason Nick Saban retired. I guess I thought along with everyone else that Bama has alumni who have made it BIG financially. But what is actually big? If you are worth $10 million, that is a pile of money but not enough to write a check for $500,000 or so. Besides Paul Jr., is there anyone else with deep pockets to “buy players?”

Tim in Oxford, Ala., writes …

Why has it gotten to this point in college football where we are concerned about the cost of a player? I don’t like this version of our current system of buying players through the portal. Frankly, it sucks! I remember standing in a line at the bank at Leland Shopping Center with a tall young man trying to cash a two-party check. The teller told him that she could not cash the check. He said with disgust, “Don’t you know who I am? I am Derrick Thomas … I play for the University of Alabama!”

He turned around and looked at me and sighed and shook his head … I get it, athletes need funds to live. Paying huge salaries for college players is not the answer.

Ron writes …

There is a real possibility Bama will not have a returning starting quarterback until the start of the 2027 season. With the current changes taking place in college football — NIL and the portal — keeping quality quarterbacks on a team is going to get more and more difficult. In fact, keeping quality depth is going to be an issue for many teams. As you noted in one of your articles, Vandy has money and now they can go out and buy players for a season or maybe two seasons.

The quarterback problem may not be an easy thing to fix, but if the quarterbacks are given the opportunity to play in each and every game then that helps for the future of the position. For me, I’d love to see all three quarterbacks get playing time in each game this season. Let’s not put all our eggs in one basket. Last season Bama depended on Jalen way too much and when things were not going well they probably were not comfortable playing Ty.

Lewis in Birmingham writes …

The Tide will roll with Ty just fine. We don’t need an elite quarterback to win a national title (see Jake Coker, AJ McCarron, Greg McElroy). Blake Sims did a great job, so did John Parker Wilson. The Ohio State quarterback last year, is he on anyone’s draft board? I think Ty was a five-star recruit. He’s a smart kid. A coach’s kid. Look at Riley Leonard from our state, the Notre Dame quarterback — hardly elite but took them to a championship game. What we need is a running game that is semi-reliable. It is Ty’s time and I can’t wait to see how he does.

ANSWER: Hopefully Tim in Oxford gave Derrick Thomas $5 to get some lunch.

Times have changed for college athletes. Would Miami-born Derrick Thomas even be playing football for Alabama in today’s game?

I’d like to think so. But to hear Byrne tell it, Alabama isn’t the king of college football anymore.

Byrne’s comments to Fox News on Monday are worrisome. Why go public with that stuff now? Is Byrne trying to give himself cover before the football season? Is it already time to start blaming Alabama fans for being poor?

Byrne hired Kalen DeBoer. If Alabama’s AD wanted a football coach who could raise money in Alabama, then maybe he should have gone with Dabo.

Alabama has won national titles with game managers at quarterback, but everything we’ve seen suggests DeBoer needs an elite passer to run his system.

Is Ty Simpson an elite quarterback? Is Austin Mack an elite quarterback? What about freshman sensation Keelon Russell? Someone needs to make the jump from good to great this spring or DeBoer is going to have trouble making the playoffs once again.

And if DeBoer misses the playoffs for a second year in a row, then maybe he’s not the right fit for Alabama.

DeBoer had a plan at Washington, but things haven’t gone quite as smoothly in the SEC. Why? It’s not the money.

DeBoer went into the portal when he was at Washington and grabbed Michael Penix, Jr. In fact, it’s one of the first things he did as the new coach of the Huskies. It’s almost like it was a package deal.

DeBoer was hired at Washington on Nov.29, 2021. Penix transferred to Washington two weeks later.

Alabama will always have money to pay football players. The problem is that Alabama suddenly doesn’t have the most money to pay all the best football players.

Is Alabama in “real trouble,” though? If Alabama AD Byrne thinks Texas is rich now just wait until Elon Musk starts going to Longhorns games with Matthew McConaughey.

McConaughey is the University of Texas’ official “minister of culture.” I’m not making that up. That’s a title that the university has given the famous actor.

Who’s Alabama’s minister of culture?

It’s Saban, of course, but he’s on TV working for ESPN instead of helping Alabama in the perpetual football arms race.

Maybe it’s time to bring Saban back to the field. He can even wear his signature Alabama Jones hat on the sidelines during games.

Saban got out at the right time, but maybe Alabama should have let Saban name his replacement instead of putting it all on Byrne. Saban did a great job of raising money. Hugh Freeze and Bruce Pearl at Auburn do great jobs, too. Byrne couldn’t raise enough money for a new basketball arena and now he’s talking about limiting scholarships for non-revenue sports.

Byrne’s interview with Fox News paints a dire picture, but let’s take a second to put everything in context.

Byrne is sounding the alarm at a very specific time. Auburn is in the Final Four and spring football practice is almost over in Tuscaloosa. Alabama needs to shore up the football roster through the portal and remake its basketball roster all at the same time.

What Alabama football really needs is more billionaires. How can the state of Alabama help make that happen? Maybe Saban can invite Musk to some games this fall. They’re both dictator-types who sell cars on the side, so it’s not like they don’t already have something in common.

BE HEARD

Got a question for Joe? Want to get something off your chest? Send Joe an email about what’s on your mind. Let your voice be heard. Ask him anything.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”