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Legacy & Succession Planning With Alabama’s Greg Byrne

Guest Greg Byrne, University of Alabama
22:11 min watch

Summary

Alabama Director of Athletics Greg Byrne sits down with ADU’s Steph Garcia Cichosz at the 2024 NACDA Convention to reflect on the 49 hour search for Head Football Coach Nick Saban’s replacement and the impact that experience had on his perspective of legacy, branding and succession planning. Byrne: “The day I got hired at Alabama seven and a half years ago, I got asked 9,000 times that day, ‘What’s it feel like to be the guy that’s gonna hire Nick Saban’s replacement?’ The answer was easy: ‘We’re gonna kick that can down the road as far as we can.’ That’s what we tried to do.” Byrne details the process, from the first moments when he began to keep mental notes on potential successors to the 13-page document his team developed detailing the hour-by-hour process between Saban’s retirement to the moment a new coach was named.

Byrne and Garcia Cichosz also discuss the evolving needs of student-athletes in the NIL era – including how to increase the stickiness of the Alabama brand during the recruiting process and how to provide equal opportunities for female student-athletes – before defining the Greg Byrne brand and what comes next for Alabama Athletics.

The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing (click the time stamp to jump to a specific question/topic).

  • - Nick Saban just retired, so I’m sure everyone within the Alabama Athletics ecosystem is wondering what happens after they leave their own role within the department. How have you and your team been thinking about the one day when you go off to become the President?
  • - How early were you allowing yourself to say, “Let’s look at the coaching landscape and see what’s out there” in order to be best prepared when Coach Saban did decide to retire?
  • - Did Coach Saban come with his own list of coaches or programs he had had his eye on?
  • - What were you looking for when you thought about fit for Alabama Football?
  • - Did you feel any pressure to satisfy the fan base when Coach Saban’s successor was officially announced?
  • - Did you feel personal pressure to get this right?
  • - How did this 49 hour search impact your family? Were you able to get a meditation in or have any balance in your life?
  • - How do you ensure the stickiness of the Alabama brand?
  • - How are you evolving and adapting when it comes to connecting with this generation of student-athletes, especially those who don’t see the value of a degree versus the value of an NIL deal?
  • - How are you ensuring balanced opportunities - in both what the department directly offers and the exposure you can give related to potential NIL deals - for female student-athletes?
  • - How would you define the Greg Byrne brand today?
  • - Let’s take it back to succession planning. How do you evaluate talent if and when you allow yourself to ask “Who is coming next for Alabama Athletics?” Does the next AD need to be Greg Byrne 2.0 or will the department need something different for a new generation?

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