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

Not at UAB. Why you'd sink more money into building what is in all probability going to be a pointless exercise for a non-Power 5 school is the question with no answer.

This said it best:

 

I have no dog in this fight. But just consider this: the state of Alabama is, numerically speaking, pretty fortunate to have two programs with 100,000 seat stadiums. In light of the allegiances of those two and the state's overall population, is there really room for any other programs at the FBS level? I doubt there's enough of a fan base to sustain UAB's program in light of its facilities issue with Legion Field.

 

Well, it's going to play itself out no matter what any of us think anyhow.

As to UAB not needing football, I don't think that UA or AU need football to educate their students either. If UAB keeps its program, it will because they have energized local fans, donors, and the city to the point that they overcome a board that is determined to gut them.

The Board of Trustees will never give UAB autonomy, but the possibility of getting representation exists, and if that happens it will go a long way toward fixing things.

 

Huh? Even if true, I don't think I'd want to read that!

 

What does UAB average in attendance for home games? I'd imagine it's a pretty tough sell, sort of like South Florida, Rice, Memphis, Temple and some other mid-major programs in large cities.

 

Between Neil Callaway and Garrick McGee, by the time the nightmare was over it was down to 8, 10, 12k. This season it's up to 22k or so, 6th in 14 team C-USA. Put it on campus and get it out of the projects and it will push 30k... if Coach Clark is retained and the team keeps winning. It's up 130% over last season, but that was an absolute horror pit and by the end of the year it was down to just the player and band parents and the very die hards.

Attendance also depends on who the Tide and Tigers are playing and how the game times match up.

We've also seen evidence that they're gaming the counts, letting people go around the turnstiles, etc. The number of concession and security employees the City Parks and Rec have to pay for rises as attendance does so they have incentive to undercount.

In a general sense, there are very few UAB fans who grew up that way. The first of the second generation UAB students are just starting to graduate. Anyone who is a UAB fan started out following another team and then voluntarily switched over, so they generally know what they're getting into.

 

So the city is in the anti-UAB conspiracy, too? Even though such a huge majority of the city's employees are UAB employees.

It sounds like everyone in the entire world is against UAB football.

 

There was an incident where there was a young AP student living on campus who got involved in partying with some of the football players, in several senses of the word party. It was found out, they got run, she moved on. There were no criminal charges, and I don't think it ever went to domestic court. I don't know what the details were beyond that something of the sort happened and that it made ESPN the mag.

UAB has a good rep, does not have a problem with athletes on the police plotter, and has a clean history with the NCAA. The current football team has the highest APR they've had in years. The best returning player on the basketball team had a domestic violence beef and he is no longer on the team.

 

Obama could fix this with an executive order.

 

No. The city in a general sense, like the rest of the state, is probably 85% Alabama fans and really does not care much one way or the other. What is happening is that there is more support of late both by the mayor and city council and by ordinary fans on the street, even if they are not UAB fans. The team has been so bad and been through so much that everyone is kind of happy to see a new coach come in and turn things around.

There are three very influential people on the Board of Trustees, Paul Bryant, Jr., Finis St. John IV, and Joseph Espy III, who in a general sense want to see UAB Athletics, and in particular football, fail. Note that the Board in a general sense does pretty well by UAB in terms of the university end of things, setting aside some territorial clashes. Athletics is another thing altogether

 

Not in Alabama.

 

Doesn't that kind of answer the question right there, though?