Update: It’s official. New Alabama AD Bill Battle will likely be given a $620,000 salary for a four-year term.
Bill Battle officially replaces Mal Moore as Alabama AD
Battle served as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers (1970-1976) before becoming a millionaire in the collegiate licensing business.
USA TODAY Sports
The Alabama Crimson Tide have found the successor for Mal Moore, as former-Tennessee Volunteers head coach and University of Alabama graduate Bill Battle has been recommended as new athletic director.
On Thursday, Alabama President Judy Bonner released a statement regarding the selection of Battle:
“Over the past several weeks, we have had multiple conversations about who should follow Coach Moore as AD,” said Bonner in a news release. “Based on Mal’s strong endorsement as well as Coach Battle’s affiliation with UA as a player, partner and donor, his experience as a coach and his significant business background, I am confident that he is the right person to serve UA in this position. I am looking forward to working with him as we continue to build on the foundation of excellence that is the hallmark of Coach Moore’s tenure.”
Battle played three seasons of football for the Crimson Tide from 1960-1962 and entered the coaching ranks as an assistant at Army shortly thereafter. In 1966 he joined Tennessee as an assistant coach and was named the head coach of the team in 1970 at age 28. The team won the Sugar Bowl in his first season and earned bowl victories in three of the next four years before he left the coaching ranks after the 1976 season.
He then served as the founder and chairman of The Collegiate Licensing Company before selling the company to IMG in 2007 for $100 million. Battle has also acted as a member of the group that votes in the Harris Poll.
Bonner will next recommend Battle to the Board of Trustees for approval as a formality, according to Cecil Hurt. Moore previously served as the AD after he was appointed to the position in 1999.
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