Jumbo Package: It’s Good to be Rich

Happy Friday, everyone. Ugly night for the basketball team last night (23 launches from three-point range and make four???) but we have some links for you this morning:

Revenue was up 10.1 percent total with a considerable jump in football cash. Nick Saban's program had a profit of $47.7 million on revenue of $103.9 million (up from $95.1 million last year).

In all, football accounts for 63.3 percent of Alabama's athletics revenue. Men's basketball is next at 8.8 percent of the total income.

The biggest jump from 2015 came in the media rights category. Alabama made $42.4 million in 2016, up 21.3 percent from the previous year.

Much has been made about the sports media rights bubble, but college football seems to be doing just fine from a ratings standpoint. Even still, Alabama is near the top of the heap in terms of profitability. It’s great to be among the “haves.”

The Crimson Tide football team accounted for 61.2 percent of the money spent on meals.

The total: $512,656.

Alabama's men's basketball team wasn't far behind in the per-athlete spending. The 12 scholarship players on Avery Johnson's team got an average of $5,725 per player.

For football, that number was $6,031 per athlete.

These totals don't account for meals on the road traveling to games.

Growing boys have to eat.

Minkah Fitzpatrick and Ronnie Harrison are back as the safeties. Alabama could move Fitzpatrick back to corner and have Hootie Jones line up at the other safety spot.

Tony Brown, who stepped in as star (fifth defensive back) down the stretch, is an option at cornerback.

Young players like Nigel Knott and Aaron Robinson are options as well. Shyheim Carter lined up at star during much of his freshman year.

With Fitzpatrick and Harrison back, the safety positions seem set for 2017. And even when the team lines up in its dime formation, Jones will be returning to step in for Harrison, should he move down to Money. Safety is the only defensive spot that can tout three returning starters this offseason.

While that’s true, a number of players could still make things interesting by increasing the level of competition leading up to Sept. 2’s opener against Florida State in Atlanta. Some of the younger guys might not go down without a fight, including Thompson, Mayden or one of the freshmen.

The secondary will be interesting to watch. I fully expect Minkah to stay at free safety, allowing him to better use his instincts to make plays. Brown has flexibility as well. The most likely scenarios are Carter at star with Brown outside, or Brown at star with Knott or Mayden outside. Like last season, there is plenty of returning experience back there.

The annual Easton Bama Bash tournament is this weekend, as Alabama hosts UCF, Texas Tech and Gardner-Webb.

The Crimson Tide will play five games over the course of three days, starting on Friday with a doubleheader against UCF then Texas Tech. It’ll have another doubleheader Saturday before wrapping up with just one game Sunday.

The ladies play 17 of their next 18 at home. Great work if you can get it.

“I don’t like to look past my opponents, but I do like to look through, as if I’m window shopping for something that I want but I can’t get it right now because I got a job to do first,” Wilder said. “So once I beat Washington, we will be going to Parker to get the WBO title. And that will leave me with the WBC and WBO. And (Wladimir) Klitschko and (Anthony) Joshua will be fighting for the IBF and WBA (on April 29).”

The Bronze Bomber has apparently recovered from the injuries sustained in his last fight and, after two scheduled bouts were cancelled because his opponents were busted for doping, he will finally get back in the ring tomorrow night in Birmingham. Roll Deontay.

That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.

Roll Tide.