UAB shutting down football program

#101
#101
RollinVol said:
Then why couldn't it announce it was dropping down a level to save it. But as everybody except those who don't want to talk bad about little bear and the family, knows this was all personal.
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When's the last time someone dropped down a level? Serious question.
 
#106
#106
The upside of all this is that UAB now has a winning record against Saban and he can't make up for it. (beat his LSU team).
 
#107
#107
I wasn't planning to attend Fall graduation but now it's must see. Wonder if students will shake Watt's hand?

A week from Saturday.
 
#109
#109
maybe one of these

tumblr_lnafg1FrrV1qb1nat.gif
 
#110
#110
volinbham said:
I wasn't planning to attend Fall graduation but now it's must see. Wonder if students will shake Watt's hand?

A week from Saturday.
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Would be interesting if he got fired, then he spilled the beans about how little bear was behind it all. And how it went down.
 
#113
#113
bamawriter said:
How many of them genuinely give a crap about the football team?
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I think it's about more than the football team for many of us. That said I talked to many students yesterday and today about this and passion for the team is high. As I mentioned earlier, over the last 10 years UAB has been steadily moving towards a more traditional UG crowd.

Many feel betrayed - I'm one of them.
 
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#114
#114
Pretty pathetic. All of it. This is clearly a play to eventually turn them into a satellite campus.
 
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#115
#115
Hey VB, I know every fan base has its idiots. Are they protecting Watts house and everything tonight down there? Does the university provide a house or does he buy his own?
 
#116
#116
bamawriter said:
I have no real opinion on UAB playing football or shutting it down. I really don't care.

But your hyperventilating is absurd. UAB was doing just fine as a university before they started playing football all of 23 years ago, and they'll do just fine without it.
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Troy was doing "just fine" without football. Should they drop it?

USA was doing "just fine" without football. Why are you not demanding they drop it?

Come to think of it, Alabama and Tennessee were doing "just fine" before the Ivy Leaguers brought football down here. Why don't we just drop it?

Football is important down here for colleges and universities. It draws interest from potential applicants and alumni in a way no other sport in this region can match. This is why Georgia State and UTSA have jumped into this level and why Hendrix and Berry now have football programs at the D3 level.

Take it away and you do damage to the ability of the school to compete with peer institutions for undergraduates. UAB is no longer a commuter school. For many potential students, extra-curricular activities are important. Football in the South, whether at Tuscaloosa or Hampden-Sydney, is a drawing card for many here.

UAB can try--if allowed by the Ear Humpers on the BOT--to replace it with basketball or soccer. But it will not be the same and it will never be the kind of catalyst drawing in students, alumni, and community that football represents in the South.

I don't see UTK telling Martin or Chattanooga to kill their football programs. I don't see us trying to derail ETSU (quite the opposite). Tennessee alums in positions of power don't spend their every waking moment trying to kill MTSU or Memphis out of some paranoid belief that their presence will cause permanent damage to our football program.

Why is it that Bammers in high places seek to weaken a school that is absolutely no threat to their program? Why is it that in a moment when UAB is getting back to some semblance of strength at their level, a group of myopic Alabama grads decide to cut it off?
 
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#117
#117
volinbham said:
I think it's about more than the football team for many of us. That said I talked to many students yesterday and today about this and passion for the team is high. As I mentioned earlier, over the last 10 years UAB has been steadily moving towards a more traditional UG crowd.

Many feel betrayed - I'm one of them.
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I'm angry about this as well and I don't have ties to UAB.

But I may well have to establish them. I'm was a fan of Coach Bartow and his work at UAB. I have no doubt they'll go after hoops next. And roundball did much to give UAB national recognition. They got football. But if they get hoops they'll get the soul of that campus and a man who contributed much to help build it up.

I believe this goes deeper than football. That Board want to erase UAB and UAH from the map and replace it with one big UA. I'm afraid this is one play in a larger game.
 
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#118
#118
T.N. Buckingham said:
Troy was doing "just fine" without football. Should they drop it?

USA was doing "just fine" without football. Why are you not demanding they drop it?

Come to think of it, Alabama and Tennessee were doing "just fine" before the Ivy Leaguers brought football down here. Why don't we just drop it?

Football is important down here for colleges and universities. It draws interest from potential applicants and alumni in a way no other sport in this region can match. This is why Georgia State and UTSA have jumped into this level and why Hendrix and Berry now have football programs at the D3 level.

Take it away and you do damage to the ability of the school to compete with peer institutions for undergraduates. UAB is no longer a commuter school. For many potential students, extra-curricular activities are important. Football in the South, whether at Tuscaloosa or Hampden-Sydney, is a drawing card for many here.

UAB can try--if allowed by the Ear Humpers on the BOT--to replace it with basketball or soccer. But it will not be the same and it will never be the kind of catalyst drawing in students, alumni, and community that football represents in the South.

I don't see UTK telling Martin or Chattanooga to kill their football programs. I don't see us trying to derail ETSU (quite the opposite). Tennessee alums in positions of power don't spend their every waking moment trying to kill MTSU or Memphis out of some paranoid belief that their presence will cause permanent damage to our football program.

Why is it that Bammers in high places seek to weaken a school that is absolutely no threat to their program? Why is it that in a moment when UAB is getting back to some semblance of strength at their level, a group of myopic Alabama grads decide to cut it off?
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Martin and UTC's situations are very, very different from UAB's when it comes to football. Had UAB stayed FCS, this issue would likely never have arisen. But UAB moved to FBS withoit being able to afford it. Playing at Legion Field didn't turn them into a powerhouse by osmosis.

Further, the football as an appeal argument is as weak as it gets. Belmont, for example, has almost tripled their enrollment in the last 15 years, and they don't play football. UAB students don't show up to games. If they came to campus with an interest in the sport, they apparently lost it once enrolled.

I feel for the players, the coaches, and their families. But I don't feel for the students and fans who couldn't be bothered to fill the stadium past 1/3 capacity and now want to bemoan the loss, though it seems that only 200 or so even noticed.
 
#119
#119
bamawriter said:
Martin and UTC's situations are very, very different from UAB's when it comes to football. Had UAB stayed FCS, this issue would likely never have arisen. But UAB moved to FBS withoit being able to afford it. Playing at Legion Field didn't turn them into a powerhouse by osmosis.

Further, the football as an appeal argument is as weak as it gets. Belmont, for example, has almost tripled their enrollment in the last 15 years, and they don't play football. UAB students don't show up to games. If they came to campus with an interest in the sport, they apparently lost it once enrolled.

I feel for the players, the coaches, and their families. But I don't feel for the students and fans who couldn't be bothered to fill the stadium past 1/3 capacity and now want to bemoan the loss, though it seems that only 200 or so even noticed.
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... And the football as an appeal argument is not weak. Since Alabama hired nick saban in 2006. Out of state applications have risen 147%. Listen. Everyone with an iq over 10 knows this was a personal thing. Little bear will not stop here. He will keep advancing. This was just the first step.
 
#120
#120
Maybe fan support would have been higher if they'd had a winning team. And maybe they'd have had a winning team if they'd been allowed to hire Jimbo Fisher. Or if they'd been allowed to build that stadium on campus, instead of being forced to stay in Legion Field, which is a sewer.

The Alabama trustees made it impossible for football to flourish at UAB, and then they pointed at its failure as proof they were right all along.
 
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#121
#121
I've lived close the city, and I think the biggest reason is because Birmingham is going downhill. There's a reason it's featured on show The First 48. And Legion field is in one of the worst area's, so it keeps UAB's middle income fan base away. Plus the county filed for bankruptcy about two years ago so any future new stadium plans seemed to be squashed. It's just not an area that I see UAB getting a good ROI for new facilities.
 
#122
#122
bamawriter said:
Martin and UTC's situations are very, very different from UAB's when it comes to football. Had UAB stayed FCS, this issue would likely never have arisen. But UAB moved to FBS withoit being able to afford it. Playing at Legion Field didn't turn them into a powerhouse by osmosis.

Further, the football as an appeal argument is as weak as it gets. Belmont, for example, has almost tripled their enrollment in the last 15 years, and they don't play football. UAB students don't show up to games. If they came to campus with an interest in the sport, they apparently lost it once enrolled.

I feel for the players, the coaches, and their families. But I don't feel for the students and fans who couldn't be bothered to fill the stadium past 1/3 capacity and now want to bemoan the loss, though it seems that only 200 or so even noticed.
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Using that logic, we should only have about 50 teams playing football. That is a provincial argument and typical for an individual who doesn't have a clue about football beyond his hayseed Western Alabama ****-pot.

Not every school is going to draw 100,000. That doesn't mean the game isn't worth playing at a Gettysburg, a Mount Union, or a Maryville. It doesn't mean Lafayette and Lehigh should quit playing a rivalry game that means as much to them as any rivalry we have down here. And it doesn't mean Tulane should just give up building a new stadium because they couldn't draw fans to a facility designed for the NFL.

UAB had a valid stadium plan in place for their campus. It would've fit their needs and it would've been more in line with their level of support.

Guess who blocked it?

With that facility on campus, football would have been a winning proposition at UAB in terms of record. The fact they managed to double their crowd at that cesspool should serve to indicate what they could've accomplished on their campus.

When your world is Tuscaloosa, then I guess you fail to notice that colleges and universities are adding football programs around the country. For every Belmont that remains D1 hoops-centric, there is a Hendrix, a Berry, an ETSU, a Hardin-Baylor, a Georgia State, a Kennesaw State, and several others who choose to bring in football. They are not merely doing that in some hopeless pursuit of glory. They are not doing it to damage big boy football in their native states. They are doing it because football attracts community-wide interest in a way no other sport can match.

You didn't want to give UAB that opportunity. So your boys tried to kill it with a thousand different cuts. And even when it appeared to have renewed life, you found a stooge willing and able to slit its throat.

College football is more than just the SEC. It is the Monon Bell and The Game. It is as much Crawfordsville as it is Knoxville. It should be allowed to thrive in Birmingham as well as Tuscaloosa without the interference of ignorant morons who truly believe there is only one community in Alabama that should have the sport and one community in Alabama that should have a university.
 
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#123
#123
Vercingetorix said:
Maybe fan support would have been higher if they'd had a winning team. And maybe they'd have had a winning team if they'd been allowed to hire Jimbo Fisher. Or if they'd been allowed to build that stadium on campus, instead of being forced to stay in Legion Field, which is a sewer.

The Alabama trustees made it impossible for football to flourish at UAB, and then they pointed at its failure as proof they were right all along.
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This. Sounds like they did everything they could to make there program non viable. If I am understanding correctly they didn't kill the program because it was currently costing too much. But because a committee told them it would cost more to make it better? Why wasn't moving down to the FCS or D3 levels discussed like it is in other instances. I usually look for any reason to hate Bama but this is awful even for them
 
#124
#124
T.N. Buckingham said:
Using that logic, we should only have about 50 teams playing football. That is a provincial argument and typical for an individual who doesn't have a clue about football beyond his hayseed Western Alabama ****-pot.

Not every school is going to draw 100,000. That doesn't mean the game isn't worth playing at a Gettysburg, a Mount Union, or a Maryville. It doesn't mean Lafayette and Lehigh should quit playing a rivalry game that means as much to them as any rivalry we have down here. And it doesn't mean Tulane should just give up building a new stadium because they couldn't draw fans to a facility designed for the NFL.

UAB had a valid stadium plan in place for their campus. It would've fit their needs and it would've been more in line with their level of support.

Guess who blocked it?

With that facility on campus, football would have been a winning proposition at UAB in terms of record. The fact they managed to double their crowd at that cesspool should serve to indicate what they could've accomplished on their campus.

When your world is Tuscaloosa, then I guess you fail to notice that colleges and universities are adding football programs around the country. For every Belmont that remains D1 hoops-centric, there is a Hendrix, a Berry, an ETSU, a Hardin-Baylor, a Georgia State, a Kennesaw State, and several others who choose to bring in football. They are not merely doing that in some hopeless pursuit of glory. They are not doing it to damage big boy football in their native states. They are doing it because football attracts community-wide interest in a way no other sport can match.

You didn't want to give UAB that opportunity. So your boys tried to kill it with a thousand different cuts. And even when it appeared to have renewed life, you found a stooge willing and able to slit its throat.

College football is more than just the SEC. It is the Monon Bell and The Game. It is as much Crawfordsville as it is Knoxville. It should be allowed to thrive in Birmingham as well as Tuscaloosa without the interference of ignorant morons who truly believe there is only one community in Alabama that should have the sport and one community in Alabama that should have a university.
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Very well put
 
#125
#125
Just a interesting thing I read. Little bear only has three months left on the BOT. Wonder if this was a now or never move for him.
 
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