Alabama
Goodman: Major Alabama booster sounds off
This is an opinion column.
The college football transfer portal is closed and the national championship is on Monday. It seems like a good time to take stock of the sport.
The stock is up, which is great, but it feels like the spirit of the game is nosediving into a mountain of gold. When major lifelong Alabama boosters and former players are writing to me about the glory day, we got problems. To the mailbag …
Big Lou in Birmingham writes …
You may be surprised to know that there are a lot of people — mostly an older generation — who used to be on fire about their college team, but whose passion has diminished with the current state of affairs. I’m a Bama grad, scholarship donor, football banquet sponsor, original Tide Pride member, Nick’s Kids, Red Elephant Club … you get the point. I have given a TON of money to UA.
I get this is where we are in college athletics, but I still don’t like it. So does your article make me want to burn my autographed photos with Saban. No. We can’t stop schools from spending outlandish sums of money for players, and if you think Saban really got in the weeds on Lane Kiffin and LSU, then you don’t know Nick.
Regardless, he always has and always will give general advice to former players and coaches. There were players who yearned to play for Coach Bryant, for Saban, or simply loved the school. It can still happen now, but rarely. I suppose I bemoan the days of loyalty because I know and lived that time period vs. a commitment to a school washed away from an offer of more money by another school.
So, as for me, I wait to see who we put on the field and pull for whoever is on the team.
Jimmy writes …
As a lifelong Bama fan, things have now changed forever. It’s all about the money. I don’t blame the players. They are just living within the rules and regulations they have been given, but the current system is broken.
As a former D-I football player myself, the new world of college football really has NO appeal to me as a fan. Can’t believe it has come to this. I actually prefer watching the NFL now over college, which used to be one of my favorite things in the world.
Z-Pick writes …
I wonder if Sankey’s primary motivation for keeping the playoffs at 16 teams is the potential revenue loss from giving up the SEC championship game. As you point out, it is anachronistic … a remnant of a bygone era. It seems that having more teams from the SEC participating in a 24-team playoff should come close to covering the lost revenue … if not exceeding it.
Plus, with the conference becoming so big now, and the absence of the East-West subdivisions, selection rules for which team plays in the SEC championship leaves out teams with identical records, making the SEC championship game seem artificial.
To me, getting rid of the SEC championship game and embracing a 24-team college football playoff system is a no-brainer.
ANSWER: College football is a flat circle. Alabama is 100 years removed from its first national championship, and in a lot of ways it feels like we’re looping back to the old days.
And I mean the really old days.
Let me explain.
College football was an unregulated mess at the turn of the 20th century. At Alabama, the president of the school was sick of it. Believe it or not, in 1898, the university killed the football team.
Big mistake. The students did like that one bit. The stodgy president didn’t last much longer, and football returned in 1899.
At the time, Alabama’s administrators didn’t feel like supporting football aligned with the ideals of higher education. The irony of that, when compared to college football today, almost makes me cry from laughing so hard.
The problem with football back in those days is that schools were fielding teams with players who had no interest in earning a degree. Some players even moved from school to school just to play football, and the ones who did that were called “scabs.”
Sound familiar?
Think football is changing too fast these days? When Alabama quit football in 1897, a touchdown was worth four points and a field goal was worth five. When Alabama resumed playing football in 1899, a touchdown was worth five points.
Imagine what the old-timers thought?
“Touchdowns are worth the same as field goals? I don’t even recognize this sport anymore. It’s called foot-ball for a reason.”
When offenses started throwing the ball, that’s when people really lost their minds. Ultimately, I guess you could blame John Heisman for ruining the game.
Some of Alabama’s big donors are uninterested in pumping money into a sport they no longer recognize, and I get it. The scabs are back. The loyalty is gone. It’s like winning is suddenly all that matters …
In an effort to regulate the sport back in the old days, schools got together and formed conferences. Charters were established and committees were formed. Governance was the grand idea. Rules like “no paying players” came along next.
And now here we are again. Back where it all started. The flat-circle theory.
There are some people in the SEC who want the conference to break away from the NCAA. Once again, like 126 or so years ago, college football is an unregulated mess. It doesn’t work anymore, or so they say. It’s time for a change.
I’m sure those people are really smart, but they might want to brush up on their history.
The SEC is annoyed by its players leaving for the Big Ten and Notre Dame. Is the answer to break away and only play games between schools in the same conference? That’s what a few presidents are now suggesting.
Fools.
Something tells me if that happens, then those presidents won’t be around much longer.
Here’s a radical thought. If the SEC does break away, then the league should go back to banning freshmen from playing on the varsity. No money. No football. Let the kids focus on school for an entire year. Pay checks and playing time have to be earned in the classroom.
With crazy thoughts like that, I suspect no one will be naming me commissioner of the SEC anytime soon.
There’s gotta be some way to preserve school spirit, though. Otherwise, what’s really the point?
That’s a rhetorical question. We all know the answer. The point is money.
So, consider this. Imagine how much money the SEC would stand to lose in tuition from out-of-state students if the league suddenly decided to separate itself from the NCAA. Who wants to go to a school that doesn’t even compete for national championships in football against the rest of the country?
The SEC doesn’t want to give up its conference championship game because it makes so much money for the league. The answer isn’t breaking away, though. I got news for the league’s presidents who think the SEC can somehow stand on its own. It can’t. There’s plenty of regional pride in the South, but people like college football because it’s a national sport.
The SEC just needs to figure out a way to once again beat those teams up north. That’s the real game.
Would more playoff games on campus preserve school spirit? I’m guessing it would. Would annual rivalry games between SEC and Big Ten schools rekindle the flame for donors? Just a hunch, but yes.
I’m not sure Alabama could muster a good enough team to play Indiana every year, but maybe Minnesota would like to get away from the cold every now and then.
MAILBAG SOUND OFF
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 for the reader mailbag.
Alabama
In Alabama Primary Elections, Incumbent Utility Regulators Feel the Squeeze of High Energy Prices – Inside Climate News
MONTGOMERY, Ala.—For some incumbents, politics have turned sour in sweet home Alabama. In the May 26 primary election for two seats on the Public Service Commission, the state’s utility regulator, voters rejected one incumbent and sent another to a runoff.
The electoral shakeup comes as Alabamians are increasingly concerned about economic issues, including utility prices. Polling released earlier this year showed that 80 percent of Alabamians cite economic concerns as the top issue state leaders should address.
Now, Alabama politicians have gotten their first sense of voters’ attitudes this election cycle, and the message for incumbents charged with regulating utilities is one of frustration.
Commissioner Jeremy Oden, a Republican who has served on the body since 2012, lost his bid for re-election to Matt Gentry, who currently serves as sheriff of Cullman County, 75 percent to 25 percent.
Gentry will go on to face Democrat James O. Gordon in the November general election.
Another Republican incumbent on the PSC, Chris Beeker, also failed to garner the most votes from primary voters. Jim Zeigler, a perennial candidate who served on the body from 1975 to 1979, earned the most votes with 45 percent to Beeker’s 25. Because no candidate earned the majority of votes, Beeker will face Zeigler in a primary runoff election on June 16. The winner will face Democrat Sheila McNeil in November.
Electricity prices, in particular, have become a hot button issue across the country ahead of this year’s elections, including in Alabama, where power-hungry data center projects have begun to spring up across the state. In neighboring Georgia, utility cost increases and data center development became a major discussion in its own Public Service Commission elections, races that led to major Republican-to-Democrat flips and garnered headlines nationwide.
Read More
In the Wake of Georgia’s Blue Wave, Alabama Changed Its Utility Regulation Elections. This Black Democrat Is Suing.
By Lee Hedgepeth
Fear of a similar outcome in deep red Alabama has left some politicians nervous. During this year’s legislative session, lawmakers were forced to pull a bill that would have ended Public Service Commission elections altogether after significant public outcry.
In its place, the majority GOP legislature passed a major restructuring of the regulatory body that inflates its membership from three to seven members and consolidates significant regulatory power in a newly created secretary of energy to be appointed by the governor. The new law makes it more difficult to initiate a formal rate case, effectively barring such a hearing before 2029 and subsequently requiring the approval of the secretary of energy or five of seven commission members to do so.
Alabamians have good reason for concern over energy prices. An Inside Climate News analysis showed that Alabama Power customers paid the highest average residential bills among the 100 largest investor-owned utilities in the United States. Experts have pointed to the “regulatory capture” of bodies like the Public Service Commission as one reason for those high rates.
All of the successful candidates in this year’s PSC primaries have cited high utility bills as a reason for reform.
In the race for the Place 1 seat, Gentry’s 50-point primary victory over Oden came in the wake of Gentry’s pledge to call for the first formal public rate hearing overseeing Alabama Power’s electricity price increases since 1982. James Gordon, his Democratic opponent, has gone further, calling for regular formal rate hearings, an immediate 25 percent reduction in bills and consideration of a cap on the company’s annual profits.
In the bid for Place 2, Zeigler and Beeker will battle it out in the lead-up to their June runoff. Beeker is relatively new to the commission, having been appointed to the body in 2024 to serve the remaining term of his father, also Chris, a three-term incumbent, who resigned citing health concerns.
This story is funded by readers like you.
Our nonprofit newsroom provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Please donate now to support our work.
Donate Now
Zeigler’s campaign has focused on pairing opposition to both large data center projects needed to power AI and solar farms for renewable electricity to harness local political passions, though his campaign’s website landing page features an AI-generated image as its background.
“They can ruin your community, consume water and drive your electric bills up. No one in Montgomery is overseeing this,” Zeigler said of data centers in a campaign video.
Beeker has taken a more traditional Alabama politics approach, nationalizing the issues and attacking what he labels “woke” left policies he claims without evidence are driving energy prices up.
Appearing in an ad holding his rifle on a farm, Beeker said he’ll fight for Alabama.
“As your public service commissioner, I’m again standing with President Trump against woke liberal environmentalists who are trying to kill Alabama jobs,” Beeker said.
As commissioner, Beeker has not yet called for a formal rate hearing on Alabama Power’s electricity prices.
McNeil, the Democrat in the race, did not face a primary challenger and has now begun her general election campaign in earnest. Her message? Power bills must come down.
“This is one of the most important positions on the ballot because it affects 1.5 million Alabamians,” McNeil said of the PSC races at a candidate forum earlier this month. “Utility rates are too high. They are some of the highest in the country. Something has got to be done because what has been going on for the last 20 years got us to where we are today.”
About This Story
Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.
That’s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can’t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We’ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.
Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.
Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don’t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places?
Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.
Thank you,
Lee Hedgepeth
Reporter, Alabama
Lee Hedgepeth is Inside Climate News’ Alabama reporter. Raised in Grand Bay, Alabama, a small town on the Gulf Coast, Lee holds master’s degrees in community journalism and political development from the University of Alabama and Tulane University. Lee is the founder of Tread, a newsletter of Southern journalism, and has also worked for news outlets across Alabama, including CBS 42, Alabama Political Reporter and the Anniston Star. His reporting has focused on issues impacting members of marginalized groups, including homelessness, poverty, and the death penalty. His award-winning journalism has appeared in publications across the country and has been cited by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, among others.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Alabama has expanded income eligibility for the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, known as WIC, meaning more families may qualify.
WIC serves people who are pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding, as well as parents or guardians of children younger than 5. Applications are handled through local county health departments and WIC clinics.
WIC provides food benefits for each eligible family member, including a monthly cash-value benefit that can be used for fruits and vegetables. Each child receives $26 a month, pregnant and postpartum participants receive $48 a month, and breastfeeding participants receive $52 a month. Other approved foods include whole-grain bread and cereal, milk, cheese, yogurt, eggs, peanut butter, beans, canned fish and infant foods.
Participants can also receive nutrition education, breastfeeding support and health care referrals. Alabama’s WIC program issues benefits electronically.
| Family Size | Annual Income | Weekly Income |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | $40,034 | $770 |
| 3 | $50,542 | $972 |
| 4 | $61,050 | $1,175 |
| 5 | $71,558 | $1,377 |
| 6 | $82,066 | $1,579 |
Under the 2026 federal poverty guidelines, WIC is open to households with incomes up to 185% of the federal poverty level. Participants also must meet nutrition-risk requirements. Families already receiving Medicaid, SNAP or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families generally meet the income guidelines for WIC, though others may qualify as well.
Each unborn infant counts as one in the family size. For additional household sizes, see the Alabama Department of Public Health’s WIC information page.
Not reading this story on the WSFA News App? Get news alerts FASTER and FREE in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store!
Copyright 2026 WSFA. All rights reserved.
Melissa Fortenberry saw a problem and sought a solution, a solution Alabama football is buying into.
Fortenberry invented HeatSense, a fitness tracker that measures athletes’ individual core body temperature with the “goal of proactively managing heat strain.” In August, Alabama will be Heat Sense’s first customer.
“They are all in,” Fortenberry told The Tuscaloosa News. “They very much want their player health to be at the top of the list.”
With a background in technology, Fortenberry came up with the idea of HeatSense as a fan, watching her three kids play youth sports in from the stands. She became sick, feeling dizzy and nauseous and coming to the conclusion that the pads and turf were hotter for athletes on the field.
Fortenberry conducted her own research and saw more reactive solutions than proactive.
“You can see heat strain forming in people and proactively cool them or keep pushing, where today, you’re flying blind,” Fortenberry said.
Jeff Allen, senior associate athletic director for health and performance and Alabama football’s head athletic trainer, has already been on the forefront of innovation for player safety, introducing the injury tent in 2015 to allow training staff and medical personnel to examine athletes privately on the sideline during games.
When Carson Tinker, a former Alabama and NFL long snapper and Fortenberry’s neighbor, heard about her idea, Allen was the first person Tinker thought of.
“Jeff was like, ‘Man, this sounds super interesting. Keep me in the loop with this,’” Tinker said. “It’s something he felt he knew that he could use. That was over a year ago now. … Now it’s all kind of come together. It’s crazy how it all kind of works out.”
“Once we got Jeff’s attention, he was really intrigued,” Fortenberry said, adding Allen “wants to be on the forefront of making the game better.”
Members of the HeatSense team attended an Alabama practice during its fourth-quarter program in March and put sensors on 10 players.
“I think the feedback they heard from players was validated in what we saw,” Fortenberry said.
Tinker views this not only as a safety tool, but an advantage overall to find a player’s peak body temperature.
“You want to be able to use the heat to your advantage. You want to be able to play your best in all conditions, but nobody knows until it’s too late and you got to get through in the cold tub because you overheated.”
Alabama is just the start for HeatSense, which has the goal of reaching three to five Division I programs this summer.
According to Weather Spark, the average temperature in Tuscaloosa eclipses 90 degrees during Alabama’s fall camp. Fortenberry now has a way for the Crimson Tide to respond.
“People, I think, are afraid of the heat, but you don’t know you can do something about it,” she said. “Now you can.”
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter or Instagram @colingaytnews.
-
News4 minutes agoCalifornia’s primary for governor is undecided as candidates vie to be in the top two
-
Los Angeles, Ca1 hour agoCalifornia primary election results: governor and L.A. mayor races
-
Detroit, MI2 hours agoAnother bribery scandal hits Detroit. It involves the People Mover
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoWhat’s Worth More Than Cash in San Francisco Real Estate? Anthropic Stock
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoDallas weighs $500 million‑plus repair plans as City Hall’s future comes up for debate
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoMiami biotech executive was followed into his condo by man who allegedly threw him from 25th floor
-
Boston, MA2 hours agoWhat a World Cup ‘fan zone’ is and what Boston fans can expect in 2026
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoDefensive lineman Jordan Miller has a tough battle to make the Broncos’ final 53-man roster
