UAB football coach Trent Dilfer was on the radio Tuesday in Birmingham, Alabama, explaining the Blazers’ plight in trying to keep up financially with other schools in the American Athletic Conference.
Dilfer mentioned during the appearance on WJOX-FM there were two teams in particular “that will go to our roster and sign double or triple what these guys can make on our roster and make them backups on their roster, so we can’t have them.”
But the former Super Bowl-winning quarterback and ESPN analyst emphasized in the interview he was not going to name those two teams. But, Tulane coach Jon Sumrall took a different approach with Dilfer’s comments.
Through his X (formerly Twitter) account, Sumrall reshared a clip of Dilfer’s appearance Tuesday and tagged the social media accounts of Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield and South Florida coach Alex Golesh. Sumrall also included eyeball and wink emojis for his thinly-veiled response.
Add tweet-baiting opposing coaches about money problems to the many ways in which college football has changed now that the players are being paid and recruiting is increasingly just free agency on steroids.
But this social media kerfuffle does highlight another layer of separation occurring between the haves and have nots within college football. While the growing divide among the power conferences and the Group of Five leagues is a frequent topic of discussion as college sports become more professionalized, there also appears to be a chasm developing within certain non-power conferences based on how much schools are willing and able to spend.
Memphis is receiving significant NIL support from FedEx, which last year announced an NIL initiative with the university’s athletic department worth $5 million annually. The Fowler Ave Collective aligned with USF announced a goal to raise $3.5 million for 2024. Tulane’s athletic department announced last week it raised a record $3.6 million in fiscal year 2024, with a goal to eclipse $4 million for the first time this year.
“When you have people in our conference that have four to six players making more individually than our entire payroll,” Dilfer said Tuesday, ‘you better be able to provide them something else to show them value.”
Dilfer, 52, is coming off a disappointing second season at UAB and faced increasing scrutiny for the team’s performance, 3-9 record and dwindling attendance.. He’s 7-17 overall since being hired after a two-year stint coaching high school football at Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, Tennessee.
Memphis football has grabbed at least two former UAB players from the transfer portal this winter – defensive back Chris Bracy and linebacker Everett Roussaw. Tulane, meanwhile, received a commitment from former UAB defensive lineman Derrick Shepard Jr. last month. USF has not yet gotten a player from UAB out of the transfer portal this offseason. The Blazers have had 29 players enter the transfer portal this offseason, according to 247 Sports.
Memphis finished with 11 wins for the second time in program history in 2024, but have not qualified for the AAC championship game under Silverfield. Tulane lost to Army in the AAC championship game in Sumrall’s first season. USF went 7-6 and won a bowl game for the second season in a row with Golesh.
This is all happening as every school prepares for the potential implementation of revenue sharing as a result of the House vs. NCAA settlement that received preliminary approval from a federal judge last October. It would permit schools the ability to directly pay their athletes as much as $22 annually. A final approval hearing has been scheduled for April 7.