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

I understand your frustration, NC. I really do. The way this has been mishandled is beyond terrible. But.

Is the program profitable? Does the program add to the school's mission of education?

 

I'd say no and no but, and this is a huge but, schools that don't play football or I-AA or lower are viewed as lesser than schools.

If you ain't got football, you ain't shit, so to speak.

Also the exposure and marketing ripples caused by having Division I sports can't be replicated by having a kickass MBA program or whatever.

You also have to think about alumni relations and how they keep up with the school through athletics. How much money comes in because of football? And how much of it goes away with football gone?

The fact that this has completely blown up in the school's face also has to be taken into consideration. It has caused huge harm to the school's national reputation.

Can't afford football? You ain't shit.

 

Affording the sport is part of it, but it's more about how does football fit into the overall mission of the school.

UAB wouldn't be having this issue and the accompanying embarrassment if they'd gradually built up their program instead of doing a rush job.

 

Shitty schools with no football and almost no other scholarship athletics

University of Chicago
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Johns Hopkins University

 

Try this one. He writes purtier than I do.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/vincentfrank/2014/12/04/uab-cancels-football-the-larger-issue-of-amateur-athletics-clashing-with-corporate-ideology/

Thank you, Jay. If nothing else, I can't think of anything this school has ever done or tried to do that was as ineptly done as this has been. President Watts has at every turn made the worst possible choices in terms of how this has been handled. He has lied and stonewalled and been exposed in his lies publicly.

His situation on campus is so bad that he goes nowhere without several UAB police bodyguards. The Admin building has security on every door. President Watts is taking a helicopter to campus daily now. And no, I'm not kidding.

When it came out that closing the program might be imminent, the students put together a rally in support and in two hours had maybe a thousand people out raising cain on the Sunday night after Thanksgiving, on short notice, during finals week. The students have marched on the Admin building daily since. They stand in the street out in front, partially blocking the second busiest street in Birmingham (after marchind down the middle of the busiest one to get there) with a pep band, cheerleaders, the greek council, athletes, any alumni who can get off work and get there, chanting and raising hell. All day. It is notable that the UAB police block traffic for them daily.

This was taken tonight, on the fifth day of demonstrations. Do these guys look like they're tired and going home now?

 

MIT never recovered from their Rose Bowl loss.

 

I can give you anecdotal evidence about what a black eye this idiocy has been for the school and how it is perceived. I can tell you of students who have decided to go elsewhere, either due to an obvious lack of support for student life or because they are disgusted by what they see going on.

I know of two children of alumni, good kids who would be desirable at almost any college, who are so disgusted that they are no longer willing to even discuss going to UAB. We're talking about academic scholly kids who grew up as UAB fans.

Both the Med School and the Nursing School have had long lists of students publicly sign a letter that calls for a vote of no confidence in Watts at risk to their futures at UAB. It's no big deal to you guys, it's a laughable waste of resources, yadda yadda. To the UAB people it is absolute tyranny. It's gone on for years and there has been no way to fight it, and generally people cave in after a little while and go on with their business. This one isn't going away. People are righteously pissed and in no mood to give up.

There have been more and more national articles calling attention to it. There will be a segment on Gameday tomorrow. Last night there were more students than were at last year's North Carolina basketball home game at the Morehead State game. The students wore black and marched from the campus green to Bartow Arena, chanting "Fire Ray Watts" and "Free UAB". They went right through the minders and occupied the court after the game and held another rally in place. No, they didn't storm the court, they walked down and took it over and no one lifted a finger to stop it, because everyone knows that they are in the right.

Watts will very likely be forced out. His position is becoming untenable. Last night people were passing out bumper stickers that read :#Free UAB. Fire Ray Watts". For free, which means that boosters are paying for them.

If football goes, the odds are good that we don't have athletics in five years. Watts actually thinks that UAB will be allowed to stay in C-USA when their bylaws require football and other schools are lining up clamoring for UAB's place. Our programs will end up in the Sun Belt if we're lucky, and the television exposure and conference money will be a fraction of what they are now.

It's a huge mess and it has been nothing but a black eye for UAB, it's President, and the UA BoT... and it is by no means over.

This is from today's B'ham News/Al.com.

http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/12/we_dont_trust_the_process_that.html

"The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a public institution. It belongs to the people of greater Birmingham and all of Alabama. It is not a private company plotting strategy against competitors, nor even a private school answerable to itself.

The university is run by a board of trustees, called that because they act in trust for the people.

This week that trust was betrayed.

The decision to end football at UAB may or may not be right. But few are in a position to be know because of how the decision was made: not in trust, but in secret, cloaked in lies and deceptions, founded on a bad process. The decision stinks because the process stunk.

Public transparency? Zero.

Consultation with stakeholders? Zero.

Compassion for the affected? Zero.

UAB President Ray Watts used the pronoun "we" a lot but there is no indication who else was involved.

He overtly disavowed any involvement by trustees, which is ridiculous on its face. Yet these kinds of decisions simply aren't made in the University of Alabama System without trustee approval -- at least tacitly."

There's more, that's just a clip of the opening for those who wouldn't click the link..

 

You know, I was thinking of University of Chicago while I was typing and thought about including it.

Here's the thing if you ask an average person if it or Northwestern was the better school, I'd bet a delicious cookie most people would say Northwestern. The name recognition is because of sports. If people were familiar it might be because of the President Obama connection or they might know it as a law school or some such.

What's funny and this has been talked about on other threads, smaller, liberal arts schools are adding football.

Not to get all personal but the GF is now a trustee at her undergrad and they added football. They had the largest, and most academically credentialed freshman class in school history this year. Because of football. When the schedule was announced, alumni called the school wanting to know about tailgating and are organizing, on their own, events for home and away games.

Football.

Amongst the general population the perception is, if you ain't got football, you ain't shit.

 

That's about ten times more true if you're in Alabama.

It's not reasonable, it's not right... but its how things are.

The UAB Football team under Bill Clark had the highest team APR on record.

 

I don't think this is in any way true among people who matter -- namely executives and hiring managers. In fact I'd almost say the reverse is true and the better you are in football, the worse you are in book learnin' and stuff.

That's why Michigan went to No. 1 in U.S. News and World Report this year!

 

NERDS!!

Seriously, though, can you name me any public schools without football with a similar rep? Comparing those schools situation to UAB is pure apples to oranges. As previously pointed out in this thread, public and private unis are two entirely different critters when it comes to discussions like this, and the only real relevant comparative for UAB would be similarly situated public schools.

 

I looked up US News and World report's rankings for best public colleges. Found two at No. 10 and 11 with Cal Santa Barbara and Cal Irvine, neither with a football team.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/top-public

UAB was ranked tied with 78th with a few others.