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FREE UAB

Ok, fine I'll cheer.

But you guys have to cheer: "bring back baseball" (not that I care about baseball - it would be interesting to see if the media could pick up on any of what's going on.
 
BandDad said:
Put it this way - we all know that UA knows how to build a football program, but after more than 20 years when ours was killed the only football only facilities on campus were a concrete block building for coaches offices, another block building for locker rooms, a practice field so full of holes that it was a notorious ankle/knee breaker, and three goalposts. That's it. We had a donor on the line for an $8m indoor practice facility and they wouldn't allow it.
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Let me get this straight, you had 3 goal posts? I fully support the decision to shut you renegades down.
 
I haven't read much about this situation, but it does sound like some shady dealings going down here. As a big fan of college football, I hate to see a school lose their program. I can't imagine how I would feel seeing that happen to my own school. I'm not going to be at the game in person, but you can certainly count me as a supporter of the cause. More football is never a bad thing. Free UAB!
 
LOL. A practice field with one on each end, and a little half field with one. UAB is a cutting edge research university, but even we're not *that* innovative.

There was a sinkhole under the field. It was filled in but it's never been right. One of the things that our new coach was promised was field turf but they reneged on that too. Being treated like second class citizens would have been an upgrade.
 
BandDad said:
LOL. A practice field with one on each end, and a little half field with one. UAB is a cutting edge research university, but even we're not *that* innovative.

There was a sinkhole under the field. It was filled in but it's never been right. One of the things that our new coach was promised was field turf but they reneged on that too. Being treated like second class citizens would have been an upgrade.
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Are they trying to make UAB a "Research-only" type school? My wife got her PhD from Baylor College of Medicine, which got spun off of Baylor back in the 1960's. Basically, the medical school didn't want to be a part of the rest of the university, so they split up. Something similar here (only a forced separation instead of a mutual decision)?
 
aeroclone said:
I haven't read much about this situation, but it does sound like some shady dealings going down here. As a big fan of college football, I hate to see a school lose their program. I can't imagine how I would feel seeing that happen to my own school. I'm not going to be at the game in person, but you can certainly count me as a supporter of the cause. More football is never a bad thing. Free UAB!
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UAB has been blessed over the years with good Presidents, people of character with enough backbone and strength of will to face down the BoT. They've had to bite their tongue and make compromises in order to survive, and indeed a couple of them were forced out because they wouldn't bend the knee. We thought we'd be ok, but there were two big factors.

One is that we finally got a damn good coach who made a huge turnaround in one season and was positioned to put us in contention for the conference championship. We went from two wins to six, more than doubling the two previous seasons, which were the worst of our history. We were within a few points of three more wins, including beating unbeaten Marshall, we were on the five yard line needing a TD to win when time ran out on that one. Our attendance was up 130%. They knew if they didn't kill it fast they would not be able to justify doing it, not if he was coaching. The other is that they finally got their man at President, some one weak or venal enough to go along with it instead of fighting to protect the program.

Here's video from in the meeting where he told the players they were getting the chop. When you get to the guy who talks about the young kids from all over, what are they going to do, talks about his son, that's Tristan Henderson, a 27 year old tight end who served a hitch in Afghanistan. Tough as a cob, high character guy. Note the lack of any emotion or remorse by Watts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYsOFBJHfUg

There were hundreds of us waiting outside when this went down. The team went into the locker room and the coaches told them that it was official, that they were being shut down. They came out, crying, hurt, mad, hugging each other. Clark had really promoted the team as family, and they had bought in. They went next door to the meeting room and Watts addressed them. When they came out of there they were crying and raw and mad as hell. We stood outside, a few feet away, watching this, and it tore our guts out. You can't imagine how much raw emotion was in the air. Watts had been ducking us, we'd been demonstrating in front of the admin building and marching, holding rallys for days. Not only did he never speak to any of us, they didn't so much as send a PR flack out to address it. He snuck in the back door for this meeting, but the crowd finally caught him coming out going to his car. We were very angry and also we were torn up emotionally, and this is what happened. Note that as bad as it got, no one threw anything or tried to lay a finger on the guy, but he finally heard us. I'm not proud of it, but the passion shows. "Nobody cares about UAB football". Right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8pz1QEeBkA


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt1LODaW4vw

Bottom is the ESPN Gameday segment on it. The numbers used in the report to kill the program were totally bogus. We're getting a new one done but they're still fighting ir.
 
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CtownCyclone said:
Are they trying to make UAB a "Research-only" type school? My wife got her PhD from Baylor College of Medicine, which got spun off of Baylor back in the 1960's. Basically, the medical school didn't want to be a part of the rest of the university, so they split up. Something similar here (only a forced separation instead of a mutual decision)?
Click to expand...

The research side of the school generates a huge flow of money. UAB brings in 76% of the UA system dollars. We're the cash cow for the system. At the same time, UA Tuscaloosa has been on a huge building binge, and they have overbuilt in terms of classrooms and dorm space. They are relying on recruiting out of state students because they pay more tuition. They're doing what they can to screw with UAB's undergrad student life, the goal being to raid our undergrad base and take them to Tuscaloosa. They do things like not letting us have a law school or Executive MBA program because UA has them while adding a nursing school or biomechanical engineering program which are successful parts of our curriculum. They also do things like not allowing UAB to offer a degree in Mathematics, which they do, but only the lesser respected Applied Mathematics. Lots of little academic games get played.

There has always been a certain amount of tension between the med school/research side of campus and the undergrad side. East side of campus tends to think that football is a waste of money that should be going to their research programs. It wouldn't, but that's how they see it. People with a broader view understand that athletics and the undergrad experience is what binds alumni to the school long term, turning them into donors and eventually producing bequests. How do you have homecoming with no football? What is the value of your team on TV. What is the exposure of a bowl game or a NCAA run worth in PR and advertising terms?

The real killer is that this whole thing is the work of three hateful and powerful old men on the board with their own agenda and the fact that there are no checks and balances, no oversight on what they do and how they do it. Can't be fired, can't be pressured. The system needs to be changed but it's a huge boulder to roll uphill, because the Crimson Tide is a religion, and frankly might be more popular than the Baptist Church, and in this state that's saying something.
 
BandDad said:
The research side of the school generates a huge flow of money. UAB brings in 76% of the UA system dollars. We're the cash cow for the system. At the same time, UA Tuscaloosa has been on a huge building binge, and they have overbuilt in terms of classrooms and dorm space. They are relying on recruiting out of state students because they pay more tuition. They're doing what they can to screw with UAB's undergrad student life, the goal being to raid our undergrad base and take them to Tuscaloosa. They do things like not letting us have a law school or Executive MBA program because UA has them while adding a nursing school or biomechanical engineering program which are successful parts of our curriculum. They also do things like not allowing UAB to offer a degree in Mathematics, which they do, but only the lesser respected Applied Mathematics. Lots of little academic games get played.

There has always been a certain amount of tension between the med school/research side of campus and the undergrad side. East side of campus tends to think that football is a waste of money that should be going to their research programs. It wouldn't, but that's how they see it. People with a broader view understand that athletics and the undergrad experience is what binds alumni to the school long term, turning them into donors and eventually producing bequests. How do you have homecoming with no football? What is the value of your team on TV. What is the exposure of a bowl game or a NCAA run worth in PR and advertising terms?

The real killer is that this whole thing is the work of three hateful and powerful old men on the board with their own agenda and the fact that there are no checks and balances, no oversight on what they do and how they do it. Can't be fired, can't be pressured. The system needs to be changed but it's a huge boulder to roll uphill, because the Crimson Tide is a religion, and frankly might be more popular than the Baptist Church, and in this state that's saying something.
Click to expand...

This whole thing smells pretty bad. Not surprised when you think about Auburn's experiences with UA in the past.
 
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