Earlier this month we wrote an in-depth piece on the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the cancellation of its football program. That piece detailed the corporate nature of college football and how that played a role in the cancellation of the program.  After a ton of feedback and following the emergence of new information, it made sense to do a follow-up on that piece.  When UAB President Ray Watts announced to the football team that it wouldn’t be playing beyond the 2014 season, it was met by widespread criticism from the football team itself. Now that we have more information to go on, said criticism has been taken up an entirely new level.  In attempting to play the public relations game, Watts indicated that the program didn’t receive the necessary private funding to keep the program afloat. And utilizing the term “fiscal realities,” Watts made a point of making this clear to the public.  Unfortunately for the PR spin game that Watts was employing, this couldn’t have been further from the truth. Immediately after Watts concluded, in his own terms that, “nobody has come forward with a firm commitment of any additional resources,” potential donors lined up to question this logic.  Major UAB donor Don Hire appeared on ESPN's ESPN's GameDay Morning earlier this month and indicated that he was never asked to contribute. He went on to say that he would have if asked to.  Why is this such a big deal?  Hire and his wife, Marsha, are such integral members of the financial donor program in Birmingham that the Student-Athlete Athletic Center was named after them in 2008. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that one of the only ways to have a major university facility named in your honor is by donating large sums of cash.
An updated look at the cancellation of UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham's) football program and what may have caused it.