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

We're talking about this Wimp, Sanderson, right?

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/14/sports/sports-people-college-basketball-settlement-in-sanderson-case-stops-trial.html

 

Watts was the fig leaf. The board wasn't going to do it themselves, not obviously. They tried that once before and were beaten back, as well as the Jimbo Fisher and Stadium controversies. UAB President Watts was the front man, he made the decision without consulting with basically anyone else at the school. Some alumni and former players figured out what was happening and broke it publicly a month before he was ready to move. Instead of announcing that the program was being closed just after the season to a confused and disjointed opposition, supporters had a month to rally support, financing, to investigate, to take it to reporters.

What the board did was position themselves so that they could say "We closed the UAB Football program at the request of the UAB President in the name of fiscal responsibility." How could anyone possibly blame them for that?

The thing is that everyone involved knows that no decision that big gets made without the board's approval in advance. That's just how things get done here. Basically, if something gets on the board's agenda, the decision has been made that it will be approved. That's why UAB's last president, Carol Garrison, was fired. She got the on campus stadium on the agenda to vote on before they had approved it in a back room, and she got fired for her presumption. The last thing they were going to do was to actually debate it and vote on it publicly. Sunshine laws be damned, it ain't the good ole boy way.

If you don't believe me, ask Steak. He knows how it works.

As to the nocon vote, actually, yes. Faculty senate was moved to a bigger venue and was packed. Senators, faculty, alumni, students, and the general public all spoke out in condemnation of Watts' actions, and not one speaker took his part. It was widely covered in the local media.

He can try to shrug it off, but in academics a nocon is a big deal. A bigger deal is our large financial donors turning off the money tap.

We're also due a SACS review in 2015. I'm not sure how early in the year they get here, but if the students are still demonstrating in the street in front of the administration building and the president is up for a no-confidence vote, they will look at it, sure as hell. Those guys are basically on the level of papal inquisitors, they go where and ask what they please.

At this point the question is how long will Watts survive, not will he remain president.

 

Yup. Although obviously that didn't have anything to do with UAB.

The only time that UA and UAB played in a major sport was in the NIT, who paired them in a game at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa. UAB won 58-56, which is another sore point and the reason the two never play in a money sport. Softball and baseball, yes. Other than that, the standing answer, boilerplate, is "The University of Alabama has nothing to gain and everything to lose by playing UAB."

 

No, it really isn't. It generates a few headlines, but that's at far as it goes.

 

The no-confidence vote means the Faculty Senate is doing what almost every such body does -- engaging in theatrics of no consequence.

The SACS visitors won't give two shits about protestors. One, because there won't be any protesters by then. And two, because there's nothing obvious that suggests that this decision, or the process that led to it, was outside the bounds of normal university governance.

 

You mean colleges and universities are still accredited after a no-confidence motion is passed? Maybe NC can find one case where such a vote was effective. I knew a now-deceased university president who had two passed against him, and retired in good standing several years later. Probably because he didn't touch football, though.

 

If half the people who are suddenly giving a flip about UAB football actually WENT to the games, well, they might not have a dead program.

And ANYONE who possibly thinks that UAB can/will resurrect the program after this is delusional. Kids are walking left and right. Coaches are getting jobs. The lights are out, and all that's left are ghosts.

rb

 

Why can't UAB get into the MVC conference to replace Creighton and Butler? It is tough to get an at-large bid from Conference USA but the MVC frequently has multiple invitees to the NCAA tournament. It would seem to me that this makes a great deal of sense for UAB, which has had historical success in basketball. Dropping football and concentrating on basketball has worked out really well for Wichita State, which I think of as a school similar to UAB.

 

Butler was never in the MVC.

 

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/01/private_recordings_reveal_uab.html#incart_most-comments


https://sports.vice.com/article/uabs-tangled-web-of-numbers-doesnt-add-up


With regard to donations: UAB donors were not *allowed* to donate with an earmark for football. They were told that any donations had to be made to the Athletic department in general. Gospel truth.

NoCon vote re the UAB President is in a week and a half, not that the BoT will give a shit unless there is strong outside pressure. There is a lot of anger among the faculty, not because of football but because President Watts continues to cut and close things without any consultation. The first major move he made after becoming president was to attempt to close UAB's well regarded Honors College. When that was beaten back, he referred to the Honors College and its faculty and students as "elitist". Since when is academic elitism a bad thing in higher education? In any case, the NoCon vote is much more about the President making decisions on his own, and the first thing that the schools and faculty involved know about it is when it is announced. The concept of shared governance and consensus, which is a big deal in academe, has been repeatedly trampled underfoot. It is also becoming apparent that there is a deliberate plan to begin to dismantle student life and undergrad programs, and the undergrad side of the campus is not happy.

This guy has been caught in repeated lies, and the faculty is pissed. There is a lot of risk in voting for a NoCon if it fails, it can cost the faculty senators who vote for it their jobs, especially if they don't have tenure to protect them. There is a very good chance that it passes. Where things go from there will be very interesting to watch.

As to restarting football - yes, the players are mostly gone, as are most of the coaches. Best case scenario would be to get the current president out. Get someone supportive of athletics in, which is by no means anything like a done deal, as the BoT's most powerful members have finally gotten what they wanted and are not likely to be cooperative unless they are under a lot of scrutiny. The 2015 season would be a write off. Bill Clark has not taken another job, however. His buyout leaves him in position to be able to wait and see what happens. If he gets an offer he can't refuse, of course he'll go - an SEC DC offer or a solid HC job I think he'd have to take. For the moment if the student/faculty/alumni/public pressure works and the program is resurrected he still wants the job.