Marshall is playing for an unbeaten season. UAB is playing for its life.

If that's the worst misstep I've made in five pages of trying to explain a complicated and nuanced story to people who have not lived it and tend to have a big money university lean on things, I've done fairly well.

It's not looking good. No one wants to take ownership of what's happening here. My guess is that they'll put out a press release, that way no one has to look these kids in the eyes and try to explain to them why a twenty year old grudge is killing their athletic program.

 

If there's so much angst over this with athletes and alumni, why don't they do a "We are Marshall" like protest at their next meeting and at the anti-program trustees' homes?

 

Because it is extremely likely that they will kill the program today or tomorrow. There are already coaches circling to recruit our kids the way they did SMU's after they were shut down if you saw that 30/30.

Actually there was a rally on campus last night. It was called at 5pm and about 1000-1300 people were there at 7. Students marched on the administration building today, but President Watts was not there and no one came out to speak to them. The trustees live all over the state, and I'd be willing to bet that they are in gated communities to boot.


http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/news/2014/12/01/other-urban-universities-are-starting-football.html

"UAB's football program brought in $8,980,301 in revenue and reported $8,956,079 in expenses in 2013, according to federal Equity in Athletics Data."

 

If they shut it down, I'll lay you good odds what will happen. When UAB President Carol Garrison was sacked, she wound up with a million dollar a year payoff and what must be an iron-clad nondisclosure. Brian Mackin, who just got sacked, is going to take a big buy-out and ten years of inside knowledge of the dirty dealings and go away instead of talking to the NCAA or SACS, also with a non-disclosure.

My bet is that they will pay out all three years of Coach Clark's contract rather than have the details of the breach of contract and breach of promise involved get out. They lied to this man up one side and down the other when hiring him. It's come out that our last coach, Garrick McGee, who went back to OC with Petrino, knew when he left, before Clark was hired, that they planned to close the program. He was texting back and forth with some of his ex players and UAB students and said some things he now regrets. I suspect that very shortly he'll be claiming that his phone has been hacked. He was congratulating some of the players after the win at Southern Miss on Twitter, and UAB reached out to his agent and told him to shut up. I don't know what leverage they have there unless the agent also represents someone still at UAB as McGee left free and clear.

Kid has screen shots of the text windows but you know how easy that is to fake. I guess he could take his phone in for examination but at this point that does not seem to be a big priority.


Then there's this column: http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/12/if_uab_football_is_really_sunk.html?hootPostID=0475d3ada84548ac4dd91921ca21047a

I don't know, there are a *lot* of very angry and bitter UAB people who may finally be willing to risk their jobs and pensions and tell what they know. It's going to be a very interesting time.

 

What the writer ignores is that the two schools he cites, Charlotte and San Antonio, have double the undergraduate enrollment that UAB has.

And if only 1,000-1,300 people are showing up for a rally to save the football team, it doesn't sound like there's that much support.

 

A rally that was student organized on Facebook in two hours? On a Sunday night after the holiday?

Like I said, a lot of you guys have worked schools who fill 100,000 seat stadiums so long that you simply don't connect with the little guys any more.

 

Which is the point. They're a little guy and they should be trying to be a little guy, instead of a big guy.

North Dakota State, which has won the past couple of FCS titles, has a total enrollment of 14,700. Delaware, which routinely draws 20,000 or more for its games and are usually a very competitive program, has an undergrad enrollment of 17,000.

No reason why UAB couldn't have a very good FCS program and play a big boy for money every other year.

 

No, the point is that we could pay our own way and be competitive, but the people entrusted with doing what is right for the program have systematically sabotaged it for years over a twenty year old grudge. We could have moved to the AAC with the rest of C-USA and been playing all the same schools we had been for years, but we were undercut instead of nurtured.

Your mind is made up, and so is mine, so I'm going to drop this for now. I'm angry and hurting and don't want to say something that I'd regret later.

 

Keep those posts coming, NC.
It's good to get that local perspective.

 

Neutral, I get that what the board is doing smells rotten, and that you are emotional because it's your school, but I'll tell you, as someone, who, like the others here, don't have a dog in the fight, outside Alabama, nobody gives a shit. Sorry to be so harsh.

It's not like the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn, which, like with your team, had a deteriorating stadium and some crappy political shenanigans involved. But was a team that had a long tradition, had heavy, though slowly shrinking due to technology and suburban flight, fan support, and a relatively recent winning tradition.

Your school's team didn't even exist 25 years ago, has played in one bowl game that only people in two states cared about and is basically a Triple-A team that should be in Double-A. But there are those who think that, with the right support, someone will think of them as major league, because Boise State managed to kick some ass. But I'll tell you, as a casual fan of college football (don't get me started on the NCAA), for every Boise State, there's a whole conference of teams (frankly, other than UConn, I had no clue who was even in the AAC) that are, to me at least, little more than scores at the bottom of the ESPN ticker. And it's hard to get worked up over it.

That's my 1.94 cents. I hope, for your sake, that the whole thing works out for you and your team. But it's hard to generate much outrage over a team that shouldn't be existing in its current form in the first place.

 

I empathize with your frustration and disappointment. The program obviously means a lot to you, and I hate, for your sake, that it appears to be on the way out.

And while it may indeed be the case that higher-ups at Tuscaloosa sabotaged the program, it may also be the case that UAB will be better off without football. UAB is a very good school -- indeed, in my discipline, UAB would be a step up from Tuscaloosa -- and this won't affect that reputation in the least.

 

UAB was going to establish an Executive MBA program and was told that they could not as that was offered at UAT. I regret the error.