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

Frankly, I agree with that. The P-5 are determined to have as much of the apple as possible. The playoff system is going to penalize playing body bag games. The old two tiered system had gotten overbuilt, and there are some who will bust out of the game.

 

Earlier in the thread you said that the UAB program could be self sufficient if managed correctly. Is there a school playing Division One football outside of the big five conferences who do not lose at least seven figures a year on the program with the possible exception of BYU and the service academies?

I don't see anywhere where the economic model is succeeding for a school similar to UAB.

 

I saw a message board post that addresses that better than I am able to. This was written by bftb (Blazer from the beginning) on Blazertalk.com.

Framing the argument for UAB football
There have been many efforts made recently to "save the program," from providing talking points, to petitions to sign, to tweets and emails, to impassioned pleas on tv and radio, and before the city council. All those are good, and should be continued. But as long as we allow those who oppose the program to frame the argument about whether UAB football should continue to exist, we don't have a chance.

Inevitably, the discussion from the other side always comes down to whether football makes a profit, including the Governor's uninformed attempt to weigh in this past week. Certainly, there is a need for good financial stewardship and accountability for the program to remain viable, but the primary goal of college athletics is NOT making money. If that be the case more than 75% of D-I football programs should be shut down, not to mention EVERY D-IAA, D-II, and D-III school. And we won't even begin to mention all the "non-revenue" sports.

In our state, UAB happens to be positioned between two of the most profitable football programs in all of college sports. But also numbered among the public universities with D-I and D-II football programs are Troy, South Alabama, Jacksonville State, Alabama A&M, Alabama State, West Alabama and North Alabama, none of which turns a profit. If losing money disqualifies a program from continuing to field a team, then all of those should be shut down as well. But we haven't heard the governor suggest that, now, have we?

On Thursday, I drove through campus on my way to St. Vincent's, and saw an awful lot of activity going on that will not be producing a profit. The new Student Center, being built where the old Hill Center stood until it was recently torn down, will be a great addition to the campus and to student life, but will not be "profitable." The Rec Center is world-class--and I am sure is attractive to prospective students--but I doubt they are making money. For that matter, the multiple libraries on campus, unless they are charging exorbitant fines for late books, are all "in the red." And so too the Greek organizations, and bands, and intramurals, and student government, and on an on.

Using the profit logic, maybe we should shut those down too. Likewise, we can venture to Tuscaloosa and Huntsville and Auburn and Troy, et al., and shut down every building, program, sport, and extra-curricular activity that is not paying for itself. That is, IF the point of higher education is to make money.

UAB is a university, charged with providing an environment for learning and well-rounded growth educationally and socially, in the classroom and out. And, intercollegiate athletics, and college football in particular, is a valuable asset and worthy investment for student life at a college campus, and a proven positive recruiting tool for enrollment. Which is why so many schools around the country are starting football these days, not stopping it.

My point is nothing new to UAB fans, I know, because we basically "get it." It's just those who encircle us, so used to filled 100,000 seat stadiums (for spring games!) and $25 million/year conference tv deals, don't get it. They are the exception, not the norm, not just in our state but around the country. So we must not let them frame an uninformed discussion about the future of UAB football.

My $.02.

 

Sports teams serve as branding and marketing for colleges. What put UAB on the map for me was when they beat UVa and Ralph Sampson back in 1982.

Sports teams don't have to be in the black financially to be very useful to a school's image, brand, marketing, student recruitment, alumni donations, etc.

 

UAB is looking to build up the undergrad side. There have been a lot of additions with an eye to adding traditional college amenities. The undergrad experience is where lifetime bonds are forged. Athletics and the surrounding social events tend to produce the alumni who come back at homecoming, and donate as they can. They buy season tickets and eventually leave a bequest.

There are a number of advantages that are not going to show up on a profit/loss statement.

 

I think the library analogy in unfortunate. I have heard of a lot of good universities without football teams but none without libraries.

I also think that 75% of non big five schools playing Division One football should abandon football and reduce non-revenue sports to the bare minimum required to stay in the NCAA. If you want to argue they should just drop down to Division III I could support that.

My problem with collegiate sports outside the big five is that they are expensive. I just read the article where UAB subsidizes the athletic department in the amount of approximately $18M a year. And the benefits accrue to I would guess about 600 athletes. That is 30K an athlete. And Wikipedia says enrollment at UAB is 18,000. So that is almost a thousand dollars in subsidies per student.

I know that athletics can raise the visibility of a school but for 18M UAB could buy adds touting the Med school during halftime of the Super Bowl.

I attended three universities. Two were big five schools. The third was a school that is very similar to UAB, the University of Colorado Denver. But at that time, and I believe this is still true, UCD has zero intercollegiate athletics. Speaking as someone who is a more passionate sports fan than at least 95% of the population if I had the choice between paying less for my education or subsidizing the athletic department I was glad to pay less and follow the University of Colorado Boulder and the Broncos. I also don't think the absence of intercollegiate sports deterred from my college experience at that institution.

 

Yes, and a lot more schools can do that with basketball --- or even baseball or hockey --- than can with football.

 

UAB broke in as a basketball school under Gene Bartow, and had huge success in the 1980's, very quickly. The program started in 1978 and by 1983 had four NCAA appearances including an Elite Eight and a Sweet Sixteen. That said, Bear Bryant would have never allowed UAB to *have* an athletic department if he had ever dreamed that UAB would play D1 football. That's part of what we fight with the UA Board of Trustees, Paul Bryant, Jr. is still holding a grudge that relates to Bartow in the early eighties. The attitude was "UAB has a football team, seventy miles to the west".

We would have a good football program, and a stable one, if the board wanted us to. The BoT of the UA system has certainly proven that they know how to build one. They have never tried to build one at UAB, and have actively hindered and hamstrung it. If we'd have been allowed to build our on campus stadium we would have better cash flow, more seats filled, and better recruiting. If they closed the program tomorrow, the only remnants would be a cinder block building by the practice field where the football offices and locker room are and three goalposts. Literally. Any other facilities, athletic training room, weight room, athletic academic support, are all shared with the other programs.

After twenty five years, one cinder block building. Now that's support! Bama built a $5m building just to run team video. I don't begrudge them those facilities, lord knows that program earned them. What I resent is that UAB brings in 70% of the university system income and has to go hat in hand and beg to spend any of it on UAB. There are system financial figures on page one, go look at them. Look which campus brings in what cash flow, and where the money is spent.

Add in that this is Alabama. As they say around here, "If you ain't SEC, you ain't shit." If you don't play football at all, you must be some kinda damn communist or something. Yeah, that's not a legit argument... but if you think perception isn't a part of marketing, you're not thinking straight.

That said, the people who throw rocks at UAB sure as hell beat feet down here fast enough if they get cancer or need a kidney transplant.


I *think* we're over the hump and that we have successfully fought off the attempt to close the program. We should hear on Monday or Tuesday. One thing that this attack has done is to mobilize broad based community support for UAB Athletics in a way that I have never seen. The average Joe who does not much care about UAB football one way or the other still sees the attack as unjust and dirty dealings. The local sportswriters who have been here long enough to know the history and where the bodies are buried have been near universally supportive and ripped the BoT and the university president and AD for their involvement. You guys are sportswriters, you have to know that actively taking sides against Alabama's power brokers in a market that's All 'Bama, All the Time, carries risks to your access. What does that tell you? The mayor and city council are promising backing on bonds that the university was unwilling to back. We have a newly formed football foundation that is raising money for the improvements we can't get the board to make. There's a standing offer to build a $7m indoor practice facility that UAB refused to approve, citing the ongoing study.

Our team practices on a field that is so bad when it rains that they have to bus to another school or Legion Field to practice. It has holes that have caused ankle injuries. One of the things Bill Clark was promised when he was hired was turf on that field... hasn't happened. If he does leave, look for him to sue over the many lies he was told before he agreed to his contract, and win.

Success requires some front end investment, and we have not gotten any. You want to know the kind of support we get? Alabama put in big new video screens a couple of years back. When they did, UAB inherited their old jumbotron. Legion Field is an antique. There's a big scoreboard and the audio system on the south end of the stadium, but there was no place to put a video screen... so it's mounted on the north end. Something comes on the video screen and you hear the sound from the right, look that way and see a scoreboard, then look back left to see what is on the screen. It's sad. Then they say "Well, if you would show some progress on the field and sell more tickets, we'd invest in the program." We do that, finally get a Coach who does not let anything keep him from succeeding, and they want to shut down the program?

It's unjust, and we're going to beat off the attack... and if we keep Bill Clark, we'll be contending for the conference championship within a couple of more years. Even with the damage this is doing to recruiting. Screw 'em.

 

You say that 70% of the revenues in the University of Alabama come from UAB. Which means that they come from the University hospital system.

I would also guess that Alabama, like much of the country, suffers from a shortage of primary care physicians. I would argue that if UAB took the money it loses on football it could set up a program to train primary care physicians and then had a loan forgiveness program if they practiced in under served areas of the state. And people who like football could watch Alabama and Auburn. What is the flaw in my logic?

It is also possible to have a good college experience at a school without a football team. As I stated I am originally from Denver and I never met anyone from Denver University who really missed the program.

 

Actually the majority of it is research related, and one of the things moving this forward is that the new UAB president is a medical researcher. Those guys tend to see virtually any money spent on undergrad or athletics as a waste of funds that should quite properly be funding their research program. When Congress could not get their act together on a budget deal and allowed sequestration to kick in it cut research funds by 10%. They're on a dollar hunt. He's also cutting at undergrad and our very well respected honors program, and he's about to catch a vote of no confidence from the faculty senate. Word is that the undergrad side vote will be unanimous, we'll see. The med side guys will vote with him, of course.

I get that nobody really cares if the program gets killed off. I get that UAB does not *need* football to educate, although I respectfully submit that neither Alabama nor Auburn *need* football to educate their students either. I understand that anybody not in the P5 is going to feel a budget pinch. What I thought would appeal to people here was the gross conflict of interest and corruption by the board entrusted with the growth and well being of UAB. Everyone wants to turn it into a budget discussion. The point I'm attempting to make is that if you don't force the team to play in a pit of a field that dates back to Calvin Cooledge, if you don't block the firing of what is literally the losingest football coach in NCAA history, if you don't extend that team's next coach (which the board forced on us after blocking the hire of Jimbo Fisher) when he's 11-25, maybe the team would win, would sell some tickets and grow. This is a football crazy place and we'd be ok if we put a decent product on the field. Alabama fans would show up to the board meeting with torches if they attempted to extend an 11-25 coach - hell, he'd be gone before he got to that point, because Alabama.

At Alabama excellence is expected, demanded. The same Board that runs UA that way rewards mediocrity, and makes no move to discourage failure as long as it is at UAB.

We get no say, no matter how bad things get. Callaway was extended when he was 11-25 because he was Paul Bryant, Jr.'s college roommate. Same reason he got hired in the first place.

UAB plays at Southern Miss tomorrow. A win makes the team bowl eligible after five wins in the previous two seasons combined. Bill Clark has done a solid job, but if UAB gets a bowl bid we don't know if the BoT will authorize the spending to go to a bowl.

It's bad. Screw it, either we'll get it done and have some say in our program or the bastards will kill it.

 

Multiple reports suggesting UAB will fire its AD and shut down the program this week:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2014/11/30/uab-to-shut-down-football-program/19702899/

 

Sigh. Thanks.

*It ain't over just yet.*