SportsByBrooks.com isn’t letting go of the T-Town Menswear story just yet.  The site has dug up a television spot for the store in which owner Tom Al-Betar states that Alabama players “wear their uniform at the game and they wear my uniform after the game.”

Whether Al-Betar paid Bama players — in cash or merchandise — is still a matter of great debate.  There’s been no evidence yet that Tide players received payment for signing merchandise for his store.  The school has said its players were not paid.

So let’s give Alabama the benefit of the doubt on that front.  That still doesn’t mean UA is in the clear.

If the NCAA decides that Alabama players or their likenesses were used in advertisements for Al-Betar’s store, it could rule those players to have been in violation of Bylaw 12.5.2.1.  That rule states:


“After becoming a student-athlete, an individual shall not be eligible for participation in intercollegiate athletics if the individual accepts any remuneration for or permits the use of his or here name or picture to advertise, recommend or promote directly the sale or use of a commercial product or service of any kind.”


Attorneys can parse that language in a lot of ways, but the bottom line is this: If the NCAA feels that multiple Bama players were being used to advertise T-Town Menswear then it’s possible those players could be retroactively deemed ineligible and Alabama could have victories — and possible the 2009 BCS title — vacated.

It’s possible. 

Just depends on how the NCAA views the case.  If the NCAA decides to even investigate the situation.

This morning we linked you to the latest T-Town Menswear photo dump from SportsByBrooks.com.  That site’s photos of Julio Jones — then an Alabama player — signing a jersey (with a stack of other jerseys nearby) has led OutkickTheCoverage.com to release a few more photos, too.

It seems someone took photos of Jones in Tom Al Betar’s office at T-Town Menswear.  One shows Jones with a college-age girl on his lap and Al Betar smiling happily to his left.  (Al Betar’s name has been spelled Albetar, Al-Betar and Al Betar on various sites… we’re going with the latter.)

Is it against NCAA rules for a player to be in the office of a business owner?  No.  But we all know how this looks.  After all, Al Betar was later disassociated from the Crimson Tide program for some reason.  So here was a Tide star sitting in the office of a man who would eventually be barred from UA’s program.

Go ahead and add this to the pile of circumstantial evidence that’s already leading to a Bama conviction in the court of public opinion. 

Meanwhile, we await the next photos to appear in three… two… one…