UAB Football Being Shut Down

[Marshal Dillon]

This was inevitable but still surprising.

Head coach Bill Clark will meet with university president Dr. Ray Watts on Monday, and the athletics department plans to march on Watts’ office on Tuesday, but it appears the minds of UAB’s president and the University of Alabama system have been made up: UAB football is about to be shut down.

In a time when programs are marching into FBS in record numbers, the Blazers will become the first major college program in nearly 20 years to drop football.

According to Wolken, the entire program could be forced to leave Conference USA without football.

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[ssmith general]

I was just about to post this.  Sad for Birmingham.

[Merk]

Sure hate to hear this.
For those of you keeping up with this, is it a financial issue or more of a political one?

[ricky023]

Well do you really expect a bunch of certified intelligent doctors to come into football and win a bunch of games every year? It doesn't matter what conference they are in. RTR!

[ALTideUp]

I was just about to post this.  Sad for Birmingham.

This will have an upside for Birmingham and Alabama generally. We are viewed as a backward state in which high schools would prefer to spend money on shoulder pads over text books. That a state university here is the first in the nation to give up FB in 20 years will reflect well outside of the sports world. Honestly, in our little state, with Bama, the Farmily, UNA, USA, Troy, JackState etc. it's not like we are short of football.

[ssmith general]

I was just about to post this.  Sad for Birmingham.

This will have an upside for Birmingham and Alabama generally. We are viewed as a backward state in which high schools would prefer to spend money on shoulder pads over text books. That a state university here is the first in the nation to give up FB in 20 years will reflect well outside of the sports world. Honestly, in our little state, with Bama, the Farmily, UNA, USA, Troy, JackState etc. it's not like we are short of football.

I disagree, UAB had a higher average attendance than any other instate school except the UA and the boogs, a small on campus stadium (why cant they play at regions?) would have increased attendance more. 

[McBaman]

I don't know the dynamics in play here but I thought maybe they'd consider going down one division (to FCS is it??) and maybe joining the Southern Conf.

[ALTideUp]

I was just about to post this.  Sad for Birmingham.

This will have an upside for Birmingham and Alabama generally. We are viewed as a backward state in which high schools would prefer to spend money on shoulder pads over text books. That a state university here is the first in the nation to give up FB in 20 years will reflect well outside of the sports world. Honestly, in our little state, with Bama, the Farmily, UNA, USA, Troy, JackState etc. it's not like we are short of football.

I disagree, UAB had a higher average attendance than any other instate school except the UA and the boogs, a small on campus stadium (why cant they play at regions?) would have increased attendance more. 

We don't disagree about the point you made. I don't know if they had better attendance than the other programs or not, but I'm happy to concede the point. The issue is not whether their attendance was better than the others, but whether it was enough. But the bigger point is what does the program do for the university. It is doubtful that it increases applications, significantly impacts fundraising, attracts better faculty or graduate students. It was certainly a loser from a direct revenue standpoint (ticket sales), attracting  sponsorship dollars / media dollars. With two large state universities, one of which being a stones throw away, UAB would be much better off limiting it's offerings to things related to it's top notch health science work, maybe the arts. Maybe even marketing itself as the "anti-" sports school to attract the considerable number of in-state counter culture types who do not want the whole football frat thing. They certainly are doomed if they try to out UA UA.

[N.AL-Tider]

I was just about to post this.  Sad for Birmingham.

This will have an upside for Birmingham and Alabama generally. We are viewed as a backward state in which high schools would prefer to spend money on shoulder pads over text books. That a state university here is the first in the nation to give up FB in 20 years will reflect well outside of the sports world. Honestly, in our little state, with Bama, the Farmily, UNA, USA, Troy, JackState etc. it's not like we are short of football.

I disagree, UAB had a higher average attendance than any other instate school except the UA and the boogs, a small on campus stadium (why cant they play at regions?) would have increased attendance more. 

We don't disagree about the point you made. I don't know if they had better attendance than the other programs or not, but I'm happy to concede the point. The issue is not whether their attendance was better than the others, but whether it was enough. But the bigger point is what does the program do for the university. It is doubtful that it increases applications, significantly impacts fundraising, attracts better faculty or graduate students. It was certainly a loser from a direct revenue standpoint (ticket sales), attracting  sponsorship dollars / media dollars. With two large state universities, one of which being a stones throw away, UAB would be much better off limiting it's offerings to things related to it's top notch health science work, maybe the arts. Maybe even marketing itself as the "anti-" sports school to attract the considerable number of in-state counter culture types who do not want the whole football frat thing. They certainly are doomed if they try to out UA UA.

The University of South Florida is making it work if I'm not mistaken and they are less than 15 miles from the U I think.  Athletics and academics can go hand-in-hand if the administrators want to put the effort into making it happen... Sad time for Birmingham IMO...

[Marshal Dillon]

Sure hate to hear this.
For those of you keeping up with this, is it a financial issue or more of a political one?

I think it's both. The program has been bleeding money for years but the UA Trustees have treated UAB like a stepchild. UAB wanted an on-campus stadium, but I thought that was a waste of money. Several alumni were supposed to be willing to finance it. I think they would do better to upgrade other facilities (baseball, softball, etc.) and spend the money on the other sports.


 

[hscoach]

When I was coming back to Tx, this was a huge topic on talk radio.  They seem to be placing the blame on Paul Bryant Jr. 

[Jamos]

UAB can never survive the fan base of Auburn and Alabama in football. It takes tons of money to finance a college football team. How many folks in Alabama would skip and Bama or Barn game to go see UAB play. I agree with MD that they can do well in the other sports, especially basketball because neither Bama or the Barn is a big draw in that sport anymore.

It's not the end of the world for them, they just won't have football. Their fan base is very small anyway so it won't affect too many people other than the ones who are getting paid to do their football games.

[Old Tider]

I still wonder if the USA team in Mobile can survive.  Baseball did fine under Stanky and they put off pressure to have football for years.

[N.AL-Tider]

I wonder if this means us folks that don't get season tickets will have to start competing again with the likes of the Houndstooth twins?

[Jamos]

I wonder if this means us folks that don't get season tickets will have to start competing again with the likes of the Houndstooth twins?

Wow , do I ever remember them. When we were tailgating on 10th ave just southe of the stadium, they would always came by our place on their way to the stadium. It sure did brighten and liven up the party.

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