RIP TO A SCRAPPY, NEVER SAY NEVER UAB FOOTBALL PROGRAM, YOU WILL BE MISSED

What was once only a cruel rumor for the Blazer faithful has now become a stinging reality of the current college football landscape. G5 Conference News and Issues, has been high on both the Blazer fans(read:UAB FANS )and their new football coach Bill Clark(read:Bill Clark) since the inception of this blog. Now,after a dramatic and painful day, the UAB Blazer nation is searching for answers and struggling to come to terms with the decision of President Ray Watts and company to shut the program down.

Watts, during his 20 minute press conference given somewhere in the UAB command center/bunker, pointed to the growing deficit of the UAB athletic department and the drain the football team had put on the entire University budget. For all of the gory details click here to read the NYTimes synopsis of President Watts decision to drop UAB Football( click :UAB Drops Football)

UAB, who had struggled of late with both football attendance and winning, seemed to have been given a ray of hope in first year Head Coach Bill Clark. Clark led the Blazers to a 6-6 record this year and helped the program to become bowl eligible for the first time in many years. Clark however, and the Blazer's .500 record proved to be to little to late for the likes of Watt and the other bean counters at the University.

UAB is now the proverbial miner bird for College Football. It no longer seems out of the question that other struggling football programs like Ga State and UMASS might be next on the chopping block. Other University Presidents who are looking for a model of how or how not to kill a program, can now point to UAB as the case test.

What is clearer now than ever before, however,  is that all G5 schools are in a fight to the death. Any G5 leadership who fails to understand this new reality does so at their school's own peril. UAB fans have now learned this lesson in a cruel and unforgiving way.

SO, RIP UAB FOOTBALL, you will be remembered as a scrappy, can do program, who fought to the bitter end on a shoe string budget with  considerable odds stacked against you. You fought the good fight longer than most school's could have done given the considerable head winds your faced on a daily basis. For now, we raise a glass to the UAB Football Program and its incredibly loyal fan base. We will miss you on the football field, but more importantly will miss the spirit of your program and the Blazer faithful.