RIP UAB Football

[silverscreenselect]

The University of Alabama-Birmingham has fired its athletic director and is dropping its football program. The team just finished the year 6-6 earning its first bowl bid in ten years, but the school is reevaluating its entire athletics program due to a budget crunch. The school's head coach claims it's politics behind the move since the school is governed by the University System Board of Trustees, which is dominated by Alabama alumni, including Paul (Bear) Bryant, Jr. In 2006, the school was ready to hire Jimbo Fisher as its head coach but the Board refused to approve the hire and the program struggled since.

The move came even after attendance at home games doubled since the year before. UAB has been a member of Conference USA since 1995 and would have to leave that conference in other sports if it officially drops its program. Ironically, in its one earlier bowl season in 2004, UAB handily defeated Baylor, TCU, and Mississippi State, three current top-10 teams. This year's team lost to Mississippi State by 13 and then-unbeaten Marshall by only five points.

http://www.si.com/college-football/2014 ... c-director

[jaybee]

We (University of Tennessee - Knoxville) were scheduled to play UAB as our season opener next year. We've played them about once every 5 years or so in the past. It was always one of those 'gimmie' games that was almost a sure win. As I understand it, smaller programs like that at UAB get a pretty hefty payout if they play a large, division I football program.

It's a shame that they shut down after a bowl-qualifying season. Of course, going 6/6 does not guarantee a bowl bid. UTK went 6/6 this year and is bowl-eligible for the first time in four years - they will almost certainly get a bowl bid to a minor bowl like Music City or Hall of Fame, but that's more for their huge fan base rather than their lofty 6/6 record.

[Vandal]

You'd hope some of these turkeys would "rethink" their decision to keep playing, including my beloved Vandals, currently #9 in ESPN's Bottom Ten:

1. SMU (0-10)
Forget that the Mustangs dropped their 10th straight. Forget that they were down 27-0 at the end of the first quarter, hurtling toward a 53-7 loss to UCF. Instead, focus on the fact that defensive back Darrion Richardson hauled in an interception that looked an awful lot like New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham's catch the next day. Sadly, like Beckham's effort, it didn't come with extra added style points that could be added to the scoreboard.

2. Georgia State (1-10)
Forget that Georgia State Not Southern made the trip up I-85 to Death Valley to be handed a 28-0 loss, also its 10th of the season, by a Clemson team largely held together by congealed mustard-based BBQ sauce and pine straw baling wire. Instead, let's focus on this sweet tee that Georgia Southern Not State sent me so that I would no longer confuse the two schools that are both located in Georgia and start their official abbreviations with "GS."

3. The Boys From Oopsilanti (2-9)
Forget that Eastern Michigan continued its MAC East flat spin, a rapid descent that's not only five straight conference losses but also a free fall to within a few spots of last place nationally in multiple offensive and defensive categories (thanks to SMU for the cushion). Instead, let's focus on another Beckhamesque reception, this time from Eagles wideout Tyreese Russell.

4. UNLV (2-10)
Let's forget that the Rebels keep running up (or is it down?) the charts, this week receiving a click of the boost button via a last-second loss to Huh-wa-yuh that stung more than falling asleep on Waikiki having remembered your thong but not your sunscreen. Instead, let's focus on the fact that, hey, at least they aren't the only Rebels on this week's list ...

5. Old Miss (8-3)
Talk about a Blind Side. A month ago the Rebs were 7-0 and sitting in the middle of the playoff bracket. Since then they've lost three of four, the lone victory coming against the Blue Hose of Presbyterian College. One week later they were beaten with a rubber hose, which when followed to its end was being held between the clenched teeth of a razorback hog.

6. State of Kent (1-9)
We could focus on the fact that last week's game at Buffalo was canceled due to inclement weather. But by accentuating the positive, we realize that, hey, they didn't pick up their 10th loss. We are told by the official meteorologist of the Bottom 10, Larry Sprinkle (a real person), that the official snowfall total in Buffalo was eleventy bazillion inches. Sources have also informed us that a pair of snowmen built inside University of Buffalo Stadium by the grounds crew recorded two sacks and scored twice before Kent could get on the bus to the airport.

7. I-Ow!-A State (2-8)
Baylor, TCU, and Kansas State might still be slugging it out for the top of the Big 12, but that's so messy, isn't it? Meanwhile, the bottom of the conference is pretty much all sewn up, all nice and tidy.

8. U-Can't (2-8)
After falling to Cincinnati 41-0, the Huskies replace Tulsa as this spot's representative from the American Athletic Conference of American Athletics. Late Monday night we received an angry letter from the AACAA commissioner about one of his teams being snubbed, which came right after the first angry letter complaining that ECU receiver Justin Hardy had been snubbed by the Biletnikoff Award, and was followed by an angry letter that Imagine Dragons was snubbed at the AMAs.

9. I-Duh-Ho (1-9)
Forget the Egg Bowl. Forget the Iron Bowl. Forget The Game. Nothing says Rivalry Weekend like Saturday's tradition-drenched Sun Belt clash between Idaho and Appalachian State.

10. New Mexico State (2-9)
The Aggies edge out My Hammy of Ohio for this week's final spot primarily because they'd already gotten their loss out of the way, while the RedHawks had to wait until Tuesday night's MACtion on ESPN2. With one game remaining, a trip to Arkansas State, NMSU hasn't won since Week 2, and those victories were against Georgia State Not Southern and Cal Poly, which just wrapped up its season midpack in the Big Sky Conference. Two weeks ago, Poly lost to another group of Aggies, UC Davis, whose only other win this season was against Fort Lewis, which finished 3-8 in Division II and is so far down the college football totem pole, it doesn't even warrant a logo on ESPN.com. We spent most of Monday looking for some positive to accentuate from that. We're still looking.

Waiting List: Colora-duh (2-9), Tulsa (2-9), My Hammy of Ohio (2-9), Southern Missed (3-8), FAEIOU (and sometimes Y and W), shoving referees.

[silverscreenselect]

2. Georgia State (1-10)
Forget that Georgia State Not Southern made the trip up I-85 to Death Valley to be handed a 28-0 loss, also its 10th of the season, by a Clemson team largely held together by congealed mustard-based BBQ sauce and pine straw baling wire. Instead, let's focus on this sweet tee that Georgia Southern Not State sent me so that I would no longer confuse the two schools that are both located in Georgia and start their official abbreviations with "GS."

Georgia State is a prime example of the stupidity of teams splurging for football programs. They started as a 1-AA program from scratch about five years ago with Bill Curry as their coach. He had one good year, with a few games against lower competition, then the losses started. Despite this, and the fact that the team couldn't draw for their home games (they play in the Georgia Dome, so you get "crowds" of 10-15000 people in a stadium that seats 80,000), they decided to boost the program to 1-A, which meant leaving the Colonial Athletic Association, where they had been playing for years and going into the Sun Belt (with Idaho, a team that's really from the Sun Belt).

The school is a commuter school for Atlanta area students with a downtown campus and very little interest in any sports (a fairly good basketball team rarely draws either). Many of their students are older or attend school at night and have little interest in typical campus activities, including sports. The bulk of the campus is about 3-4 square blocks of multi-story classroom buildings near the Georgia State Capitol.

Since they've been 1-A (two years) their record has been 1-23, with that one win, a one-point victory over a 1-AA team this year. They have done one thing well, get paychecks for playing and getting clobbered by Clemson, Alabama, Tennessee, and West Virginia. They have future games scheduled with Penn State, Tennessee (again), and Oregon.

Ironically, at the same time they moved up to 1-A, so did Georgia Southern, the state's other 1-AA football playing college. The difference was that Georgia Southern had a long tradition of success at the 1-AA level, with several national championships under Erk Russell and Paul Johnson and a substantial, loyal fan base. This year, they finished 9-3 and almost beat Georgia Tech in Atlanta (while scoring 69 points on the road in their game against Georgia State).

If Georgia State pulled a UAB, almost no one would care.

[SportsFan68]

Dropping a football program seems compelling if you consider only won-loss record. However, when a school, even a Division II school with a horrible record, drops its football program, enrollment drops two or three times as much as the number of players would indicate. The school loses the player, the girlfriend, and the BFF. I tried to google up some support for this but couldn't find any; I'm just taking my alma mater's president's word for it. And maybe things have changed since he said that several years ago.

Who knows, maybe when all those schools drop out, things will improve for programs across the nation, and all the remaining schools will have winning records.

[Bob78164]

Who knows, maybe when all those schools drop out, things will improve for programs across the nation, and all the remaining schools will have winning records.

Not until Lake Wobegon State reinstitutes its program. --Bob

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

However, when a school, even a Division II school with a horrible record, drops its football program, enrollment drops two or three times as much as the number of players would indicate. The school loses the player, the girlfriend, and the BFF.

You say that like its a bad thing

[SpacemanSpiff]

I'm sadly of multiple minds of this, mostly reflecting my biases.

On one side, I see where the cries of politics by the Board of Trustees might have some merit.

OTOH, it's open knowledge down there that many (if not most) of the fans in the stands get in on free or heavily reduced tickets, which doesn't help the bottom line. And even 30,000 fans in a (now) 71,000 seat stadium doesn't make for a great environment for the fans or home team. There's been a lot of baloney going on over the years in Birmingham with various factions wanting (a) a smaller facility on campus for UAB football or (b) a civic domed stadium of a similar capacity as Legion Field -- supposedly the concept by some of the locals that the "occasional" SEC Championship game (football or basketball) and various conventions would make up for the construction costs, assuming they could pry it away from Atlanta. (Besides logistics -- the only other convenient domed stadium in the SEC footprint is the Superdome in New Orleans and now the stadium in St. Louis -- the league wants to make sure it's not available for the ACC or other conferences to use it for their tournaments.)

Keeping up the attendance has been problematic for some DI-A schools. I think the official rule is a minimum of 15,000 average "paid or actual" attendance at least once every two seasons; ten years ago, Middle Tennessee State has a "free" Big Boi concert after one of their games to boost attendance and stay in compliance.

On another hand still, as noted above, is the concept of schools moving up into D-IA (sorry, I refuse to use the FBS/FCS nomenclature). A couple of other Alabama schools have moved up from D-II through D-IAA to D-IA (Jax State and Troy State), and have had some modest success, but it's still a big hit to the pocketbook. This have basically forced the one D-II football program left in Alabama, UNA, to have to consider moving up only because there are no schools nearby left in D-II to play -- they've all either moved up, moved down to D-III, or given up altogether.

[jaybee]

Since they've been 1-A (two years) their record has been 1-23, with that one win, a one-point victory over a 1-AA team this year. They have done one thing well, get paychecks for playing and getting clobbered by Clemson, Alabama, Tennessee, and West Virginia. They have future games scheduled with Penn State, Tennessee (again), and Oregon.

You'll not be hearing anyone say that we here in Volunteer land don't know how to buy a football victory. Lately we seem to play either top ten teams (where we lose) or bottom of non-division I teams (where we win).

[lilclyde54]

I have friends who are dedicated fans of teams that UAB often plays (mostly USM, some Memphis, & Tulane). Most years they don't have stellar campaigns but they still go to the games and support the program. I know it would be a bitter pill to swallow for them to have that taken away even if they aren't a "big dog" program.

[elwoodblues]

Bama must have wanted money to expand the weight room or maybe for new tablecloths for the athletic dining hall. If I had gone to UAB I would now be an Auburn fan.

[SportsFan68]

However, when a school, even a Division II school with a horrible record, drops its football program, enrollment drops two or three times as much as the number of players would indicate. The school loses the player, the girlfriend, and the BFF.

You say that like its a bad thing

Ouch! You got me, SuitDude.

They're generally not in the top 10% of the class, or (sigh) maybe even 50%. But they do pay tuition and increase enrollment numbers, enabling the school to keep hiring top quality profs who graduated from accredited schools.

[silverscreenselect]

Apparently UAB football isn't dead, it just went on sabbatical for a year.

The University has reconsidered its decision and decided to bring back football and two other sports that were dropped for this year (rifle and bowling, both necessary to survive in Alabama). A new study revealed that the PR benefits from keeping a football team could outweigh the direct fiscal loss that might result. In addition, the City of Birmingham and others have pledged money to support the team.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... all-return

[Vandal]

USA Today got it mostly right:

[earendel]

They should choose a new nickname - the Zombies.