Greg Byrne introduced as Alabama's new athletics director

Gary Cosby Jr. | The Tuscaloosa News

Call him Greg, he said.

New University of Alabama director of athletics Greg Byrne won’t take the same informal title as his predecessor, Coach Bill Battle. He didn’t ask that he be called ‘Mr. Byrne.’ That may remind him of his father, Bill Byrne, who had been athletics director at Oregon, Nebraska and Texas A&M.

Greg Byrne is neither of those men, though he’s following them both. He grew up watching his father’s career path. He’ll soon assume Battle’s duties.

“Having grown up in collegiate athletics my entire life, you just looked at Alabama as the pinnacle,” Byrne said. “I just can’t believe how fortunate we are to be here and be a part of it.”

Byrne arrives after seven years of leading the University of Arizona’s athletics department, and spent three years as Mississippi State’s AD. He doesn’t have direct ties to UA, but is no stranger to many of his colleagues around the country.

He worked with Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin at Mississippi State. He learned under Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart at two different stops. He hired Mississippi State’s current athletics director, John Cohen, as the Bulldogs’ baseball coach in 2008. He’s still close with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, from his earlier stops in the conference. When he took over at Mississippi State in 2008, he was the youngest athletics director in the conference.

“He is considered by many to be one of the best in his profession,” Alabama president Dr. Stuart R. Bell said. “The more people that we talked to, the more we talked to Greg Byrne, we knew that he had clear vision for the university, he had exceptional integrity, and he had the experience we were looking for at the University of Alabama.”

Byrne and his wife, Regina, were introduced to the public on Thursday during a press conference at the Mal Moore Athletic Facility. His sons, Nick and Davis, sat in the front row of the press conference, along with Byrne’s father and mother.

It was too early for Byrne to lay out a plan for the athletics department, but he does know how he wants to approach the job. He began his career in college athletics as a fundraiser. He learned early on from his parents that it was important to connect with people.

“Every one of us wants to feel valued in what we do,” he said. “We want to bring value to the media outlet you’re involved in, the organization or business or church, whatever it is that you’re engaged with. You want to bring value as a father, a mother, hopefully as a son or a daughter. The fact that people here at the University of Alabama support this university, support this athletics program, support the football program in the manner in that they do, you don’t take that for granted and you thank people for that.”

He met with Nick Saban at his home in Tuscaloosa on Saturday evening and spoke with him for a few hours before being offered the job. He said he felt his meeting with the football coach “couldn’t have gone any better.”

Byrne and Saban didn’t have a relationship before this week, but Byrne has long admired the coach for his leadership and his prominent place within the sport.

“I can sit with you today and say that I have an incredible appreciation for what Coach Saban and Miss Terry mean to the University of Alabama, the state of Alabama, college football and football in general. To this community,” Byrne said. “I think a year from now, I think I’ll be able to say I have an even better appreciation of that.”

Byrne will take control of the athletic department as it flourishes thanks in large part to its recent football success. Alabama’s total athletic revenue is among the highest in the country and the football program has won three straight conference championships.

Unlike Battle and Mal Moore, Byrne is an outside hire. But he’s not arriving with the intent of turning the department upside down.

“It certainly is not broken, that’s for sure,” he said. “It’s so strong, so I believe a couple of things. One is to stay very focused. Don’t be complacent. Provide leadership that allows those things to happen. I think that’s going to be very important for the coming years.”

There is still work to be done. Byrne plans to take an extensive tour of Alabama’s athletic facilities when he arrives in Tuscaloosa full-time in the coming weeks. He’ll meet with coaches and administrators to learn about plans for the university and the athletics department.

But he already knows plenty after spending a lifetime in college athletics, and most of the last decade leading two other athletics departments. That’s what he’s wanted to do since he saw his father do it when he was a young boy. More than 40 years later, it’s still what he loves to do.

“There’s very few things in our society, if anything, that has the passion that college athletics has,” Byrne said. “(Something) that brings people together, it doesn’t matter your political views, doesn’t matter your religion, doesn’t matter your socioeconomic status, that everybody comes together for that. Not many things in our society where that’s the case.”

Reach Ben Jones at ben@tidesports.com or 205-722-0196.