UAB shutting down football program

#176
#176
bamawriter said:
Again, not defending the meddling.

But with their level of fan support, I'm simply not convinced they would ever succeed no matter what. Most of the schools in similar situations aren't. Add in the cost of attendance coming down the pike, and it doesn't seem viable.

None of that excuses anyone's actions if anyone has made this a personal issue. Emotion is bad for business. If it were up to me, I would have explored the possibility of dropping back to FCS, but I have no idea how realistic that option is.

In the end, I don't think anyone can make a convincing case for UAB's success absent the board's meddling. I understand that there's no way to know, but again, other programs in their situation aren't fairing any better even with administrative support. Unfortunately, UAB is simply going to be the first in a line of FBS programs that fold.
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Of course you can't. You're seeing this through crimson colored beer goggles.
 
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#177
#177
bamawriter said:
Again, not defending the meddling.

But with their level of fan support, I'm simply not convinced they would ever succeed no matter what. Most of the schools in similar situations aren't. Add in the cost of attendance coming down the pike, and it doesn't seem viable.

None of that excuses anyone's actions if anyone has made this a personal issue. Emotion is bad for business. If it were up to me, I would have explored the possibility of dropping back to FCS, but I have no idea how realistic that option is.

In the end, I don't think anyone can make a convincing case for UAB's success absent the board's meddling. I understand that there's no way to know, but again, other programs in their situation aren't fairing any better even with administrative support. Unfortunately, UAB is simply going to be the first in a line of FBS programs that fold.
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FCS seems worse really - you have many of the same expenses but considerably less revenue potential.

Perhaps UAB is a bellwether but the reality is the vast majority of programs in FBS are in the same boat as UAB yet they make a go of it.

I'm affiliated with NIU who was floundering when I was there (90s). Dismal attendance. They made investments in personnel and facilities and since then they've won a significant number of games including wins over Alabama, Northwestern, Maryland and competitive games with many other BCS-era schools. In addition, they actually made a BCS game. They are consistently competitive. They've been to bowl games for 6 consecutive years and 8 of the last 10 (prior to that it had been since 1983).

I bet NIU is losing money in football but I guarantee it has brought money in via alumni and enrollment.

Bottomline, there's no reason UAB couldn't do what NIU did other than they were never allowed to.
 
#178
#178
Death of UAB football depicts larger issues

I thought the SDS piece on the matter was pretty good (oddly enough):

The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s decision to shut down its football program provoked cries of outrage from the campus and shock within the national football media. No Football Bowl Subdivision program has ceased operations outright since the University of the Pacific did so in 1995.

But while Pacific is a small private school in California, UAB is a public university located in the heart of college football country. And the end of UAB football may signal the start of a contraction within the FBS as the SEC and other power conferences move toward autonomy.

UAB by the numbers

UAB retained CarrSports Consulting, LLC, to compare the five-year cost of maintaining its football program in Conference USA versus proceeding without football at all. This was an all-or-nothing study.

CarrSports apparently did not consider other alternatives, such as dropping UAB football down to the Football Championship Subdivision or even Division II or III. Instead, the priority was determining the best way for UAB to maintain an overall Division I athletic program.

The NCAA requires Division I members field scholarship teams in at least 14 sports, seven of which must be women’s sports. UAB presently has 12 women’s sports teams and six men’s teams. In addition to football, UAB will also eliminate women’s rifle and women’s bowling. It will then need to add men’s track and cross country teams in order to comply with Title IX’s gender-balance requirements.

According to CarrSports, UAB would have to invest an additional $47.5 million over the next five years just to remain competitive within Conference USA.

Although UAB isn’t exactly competitive right now: Since joining the conference in 1999, UAB has produced just three winning seasons and never won more than seven games. (Ironically, CarrSports president Bill Carr helped bring UAB into Conference USA when he was athletic director at Houston.)

CarrSports projected an operating shortfall of $5.1 million for 2015-2016 if UAB retained football. Without football, the athletic department is projected to run a $400,000 surplus. On the flip side, losing football will also mean a 55% drop in revenue, from about $7.5 million in 2014-2015 to $3.2 million in 2015-2016.

UAB will also forgo planned improvements to football facilities, which CarrSports said would have cost $22.2 million. Instead, the school will focus its capital expenditures on soccer, baseball and softball, and track and field.

How does this affect the SEC?

UAB’s shutdown will have a short-term impact on the SEC’s non-conference schedule. Tennessee was scheduled to play the Blazers in 2015, with Kentucky following suit in 2016. UAB will have to pay nearly $1.5 million to get out of those contracts.

There is also the potential for political and media backlash against Alabama. Many UAB supporters blame their football program’s demise on the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, specifically board member Paul Bryant, Jr., son of legendary Crimson Tide coach Bear Bryant. As reported by Jon Solomon of CBS Sports last month, “To UAB supporters, there is no doubt Bryant Jr. plans to finally kill UAB football before he leaves the board this year after a decades-old feud tied to Gene Bartow, the late founder of UAB athletics.”

But UAB’s decision was likely driven more by the present-day politics of the NCAA than an old argument between coaches.

The CarrSports report referenced the “ongoing Division I restructuring” as a key factor underlying its analysis. This restructuring includes proposals to increase the amount of scholarships—to cover the so-called full cost of attendance—and grant the SEC and other major conferences greater autonomy in their decision-making.

These proposals will inevitably increase the operating costs for all football programs. And unlike the SEC, Conference USA members do not have the luxury of escalating television contracts to cushion the financial blow. UAB therefore faced the prospect of spending millions of dollars—either through increased student fees or taking on debt—just to maintain its standing as a second-rate program in a second-tier conference.

UAB will not be the last mid-major program to face the prospect of dropping football unless the NCAA undertakes an even more radical change in its governance structure.

The NCAA may want to consider reducing the number of required sports for Division I membership while granting full independence to the SEC and other major football conferences. Taking the Football Bowl Subdivision out of the Division I equation entirely may be the best way to prevent other schools from taking the same drastic measures as UAB.
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#179
#179
The NCAA may want to consider reducing the number of required sports for Division I membership while granting full independence to the SEC and other major football conferences. Taking the Football Bowl Subdivision out of the Division I equation entirely may be the best way to prevent other schools from taking the same drastic measures as UAB.
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A buddy of mine and I were discussing this option today - let those that want to be in an arms race do so outside the NCAA; create their own organization and return some sanity to college sports
 
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#180
#180
volinbham said:
A buddy of mine and I were discussing this option today - let those that want to be in an arms race do so outside the NCAA; create their own organization and return some sanity to college sports
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This should have happened years ago.
 
#181
#181
I don't blame Alabama. UT should do the same to UT-Martin or let them be self sufficient athletically if they are able to, if not let them go. No sense in artificially supporting a program just for the sake of having one.
 
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#182
#182
bamawriter said:
Not a single cent of that money was subsidized. Every bit came from donors and PSL sales.

Take a look at the numbers before accusing someone of playing a game with them.
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You might want to rethink some of this. The government helped out some there
 
#184
#184
So a few more items pointing to the duplicitous nature of UABs spin on this.

1. Last year when UABs multi-year contract with Legion Field was up they pushed for and finally received a one year contract ending in 2014. All prior contracts had been multi-year. Seems UAB was preparing for the possibility of no football (conflicts with claims from Watts yesterday)

2. This summer the team was denied the ability to spend money they had in the budget for field turf. Their practice field sucks and this would have improved it but they were denied.

And worst of all

3. To begin the "study" the AD told each program to give him a wish list of what'd they need to be "competitive" in CUSA. They didn't know at the time that this information would be used in the report showing it costs too much to keep them. So the FB coach puts together a wish list in good faith and the information is used to justify canning the program. Of course if he knew it would be used that way he would have scaled it back.
 
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#186
#186
Here's another view of the player meeting - if you saw the earlier video the audio is better here. If you don't want to rewatch the one guys comments skip to 3:00 to hear Dr. Watts.

Amazing how he can be so tone deaf and arrogant in this setting.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6urb50B36M[/youtube]
 
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#190
#190
Tristan Henderson was impressive. I doubt that I could have even put together three sentences in that situation.

lol guys, he's a tight end... Former MP and a philosophy major? That's different.
 
#192
#192
bamawriter said:
While I won't defend that meddling, I will ask this:

Would hiring Jimbo Fisher have made a significant difference? There's no way to argue that he'd still be there. Either he'd have failed and been fired, or he'd have succeeded and moved on. Their last coach left to be an offensive coordinator at Louisville, so it's not like UAB's going to be anyone's destination job.
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Wat? If he'd have succeeded and moved on he'd have left the program in better shape than Bryant Jr's buddy, who absolutely sucked.
 
#193
#193
Septic said:
Wat? If he'd have succeeded and moved on he'd have left the program in better shape than Bryant Jr's buddy, who absolutely sucked.
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And your point is what?

There is no guarantee that they would make a successful hire after he left. In fact, history suggests that they wouldn't have. Programs rarely stray far from their mean.
 
#194
#194
bamawriter said:
And your point is what?

There is no guarantee that they would make a successful hire after he left. In fact, history suggests that they wouldn't have. Programs rarely stray far from their mean.
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Again you have to question what their "mean" is. They had 10 years total at D1 before Fisher. If he stayed 3 years and had them consistently winning that would be enough to change the brief history which also included a winning record in 2004. So after 13 years UAB would have had 4 winning season with all four being in the last 6 years. That's not bad at all for a new program.

Instead, the BOT forced Neil Calloway on the team and guaranteed 4 years of crap making 2004 the outlier rather than the trend.

There was no "mean". There was no chance to become a winning team and the BOT was a major reason for that.
 
#195
#195
volinbham said:
Again you have to question what their "mean" is. They had 10 years total at D1 before Fisher. If he stayed 3 years and had them consistently winning that would be enough to change the brief history which also included a winning record in 2004. So after 13 years UAB would have had 4 winning season with all four being in the last 6 years. That's not bad at all for a new program.

Instead, the BOT forced Neil Calloway on the team and guaranteed 4 years of crap making 2004 the outlier rather than the trend.

There was no "mean". There was no chance to become a winning team and the BOT was a major reason for that.
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Whole lotta "ifs" either way.
 
#196
#196
volinbham said:
Again you have to question what their "mean" is. They had 10 years total at D1 before Fisher. If he stayed 3 years and had them consistently winning that would be enough to change the brief history which also included a winning record in 2004. So after 13 years UAB would have had 4 winning season with all four being in the last 6 years. That's not bad at all for a new program.

Instead, the BOT forced Neil Calloway on the team and guaranteed 4 years of crap making 2004 the outlier rather than the trend.

There was no "mean". There was no chance to become a winning team and the BOT was a major reason for that.
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Well stated.

I don't see that as an 'if'.

It seems fairly obvious the program was at a disadvantage the vast majority of the time.
 
#198
#198
There's no doubt Jimbo Fisher was worth a minimum of 2 extra wins/season over Callaway.

As we saw this year - a winning team draws fans. The trajectory of UAB could have been drastically different with the Fisher hire.
 
#199
#199
I think everyone can agree that, if the numbers don't match that programs that cost too much will at some point have to be eliminated. However, if the program was intentional hamstrung on purpose and the end result is the numbers don't match, then, of course, you get into the IFs. Perception is reality in the eyes of the public, that is why complete honesty and openness are a must. I can't pretend to know all the facts in this situation because I really don't, but when have basic questions are asked as to the release of funds in the not too distance past... which are not answered... you get the perception that something is wrong.

There was some discussion on ESPN yesterday, all the guys were like if the numbers don't work they don't work.... then one guy was like, well, if there is nothing else going on then that would be the case... then he said basically it the situation seemed to stink.

If basic questions are being refused to be answered then my spidey sense goes off.
 
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