GRIDIRON BASH CANCELED

TUSCALOOSA | Country music singer Alan Jackson won’t be performing at Bryant-Denny Stadium after all.

On Saturday, MSL Sports and Entertainment announced the Gridiron Bash, an event that sought to turn spring football games at 16 schools across the country into a weekend entertainment event, has been postponed until later this fall due to an NCAA interpretation that would limit student athletes involvement in the event.

“The issue over player participation has caused confusion among the schools during this critical window of time in which they had left to properly promote the event,” said Shawn Garrity, president of MSL Sports. “With valuable time being lost awaiting NCAA clarification, we felt it was in the best interest of all parties involved to allow our participating universities and their marketing partners more time to adequately prepare for this event.”

Garrity said the issue of student athletes promoting the Gridiron Bash was raised by a member Southeastern Conference institution to the SEC. The SEC then forwarded the issue to the NCAA.

Garrity said in no way was a student athlete promoting the event, but was, instead, taking part in a pep rally.

“Whoever raised this issue misrepresented what the student athlete would be doing at the event to the NCAA,” Garrity said. “In accord with our commitment to each university that had agreed to participate with us, we would not risk the eligibility of a player and so we unselfishly decided to cancel the event.”

Garrity said the company had planned to straighten out the misinformation to the NCAA, but the timing was too close to the spring games to chance an athlete’s eligibility.

According to a statement released by the University of Alabama, the event, which was to occur on April 11, the night before the A-Day game, was to feature a pep rally led by coach Nick Saban, with the Crimson Tide football team, the Million Dollar Band and cheerleaders that would be followed by the Jackson concert.

The event also involved fan participation, with the school with the most total points receiving $1 million toward its general scholarship fund. Points were earned by ticket sales and fan voting. As of Saturday, Alabama led the event in fan voting.

Alabama had sold about 10,000 tickets, and UA officials said they are working on a refund procedure.

“While we are very disappointed that the Gridiron Bash has been canceled, we very much appreciate the tremendous support of our fan,” said UA Director of Athletics Mal Moore. “Our ticket office will issue ticket refunds very soon.”

Earlier this month, Garrity said last year’s record turnout of more than 92,000 people at the A-Day game was an inspiration for the event.

“It’s why we think Alabama is what they are in history,” Garrity said on UA’s eagerness to get involved with the Gridiron Bash. “They saw it and grabbed it with passion and fervor like they do with everything.”

There was no word from UA on whether they will still hold a pep rally at the stadium the night before the A-Day game.

T.D. Wood, a 2006 UA graduate, said he was planning on going to the concert with a friend.

“We were going because it’s Alan Jackson, he’s a legend,” Wood said. “It’s really because we don’t get any big [artists] here in Tuscaloosa. We usually have to drive to Atlanta to see someone worth a damn.”

Wood said UA should still consider holding the pep rally the night before.

“Why not? You figure there’s going to be enough people in town to do that anyway. It would be cool.”

Reach Aaron Suttles at aaron.suttles@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0229