Open Letter to Chancellor Witt and the Alabama Board of Trustees

Dear Chancellor Witt and Members of the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees (BOT),

In the last few weeks there has been uncertainty surrounding the status of the UAB Football Program.  Compounding the uncertainty is the fact that no one in a position of authority is willing to provide clarity or leadership.  As former UAB Football letter-winners, we are looking for your unqualified support for our football program, University and City of Birmingham.

At Saturday’s game against Marshall, several members of the B-Club were informed by administration officials that a few prominent BOT members are actively encouraging the abandonment of UAB Football. We were told that in order to keep our program, we must convince these members of our very right to exist.

Although it feels an injustice to have to continually fight this matter and always endure the inequity of not being able to enjoy the same type of passion and support that dozens of other G5 schools receive from their governance, we will again do our best to illustrate why UAB Football is vital for our University and City. Here are just a few of the many reasons:

UAB will lose its ability to have a robust undergraduate program if football is abolished. Only two Division I (FBS) schools have dropped football in the past quarter century while a considerable number of institutions have added FBS football, including the University of South Alabama, Troy University, and East Tennessee State University, which is bringing football back to their campus to add more value to their undergraduate experience.  FBS football generates revenues far beyond the balance sheet of an athletic department and considering the intense competition to recruit students; we can assume the costs of football are often viewed as programming and institutional marketing rather than a departmental Enterprise Fund. 

UAB Football is succeeding now with minimum capital investment.  When declining UAB's request to build a 27,000 seat stadium, the BOT charged UAB to demonstrate more fan support.  This year, UAB Football ranks 5th in C-USA in attendance and has seen an increase of more than 130 percent over last year while playing in an outdated facility. In 2014, UAB would have sold out the prospective 27,000 seat stadium three times. Last Saturday, UAB had the top attendance for all teams in Conference USA, the MAC, and the SunBelt, and drew 6,000 more supporters than Colorado State who is 10-1 and in contention for a major bowl berth.

Following through on the BOT's directive to generate support, UAB Football now has a foundation comprised of members of the private sector who are willing to raise millions for the program. Further, Mayor William Bell and members of the Birmingham City Council have gone on record stating they are willing to invest millions more into capital projects for the program.

UAB Athletics will see hundreds and potentially thousands of donors abstain from future giving which is especially problematic in the midst of the Campaign for UAB.  The Birmingham business community will follow suit because the university abandoning FBS football sends a clear warning about folding the remainder of athletics and other substantive undergraduate programs.

UAB Basketball Head Coach Jerod Haase stated in his postgame remarks following last week’s game against ULM that a strong football program was essential to the success of UAB basketball and all UAB sports. Without football, UAB Athletics will see diminishing returns in community fan support, student support, and alumni support. One of the objectives of UAB Football has been to ensure UAB’s status within a strong national conference. To dissolve UAB Football is to cripple all of UAB’s sports. Our best hope would be to drop down to a lower conference whose geography and school profiles will reduce revenues in areas like TV contracts, game guarantees, and ticket sales while increasing expenditures in areas such as team travel.

UAB will forfeit the opportunity to build a future alumni base that will contribute their time, talents and treasure.  In the South, college football is part of our heritage and how we gather to celebrate so much about who we are.  Whether tailgating with friends or singing our fight song after a victory, football creates a personal bond with your university. No other sport creates the same social dynamic and builds lifelong and active alumni and supporters.  With the right investment, UAB Football can become this needed catalyst for our young institution.

Hundreds of student-athletes and auxiliary scholarships will vanish in year one alone. Many of these scholarships were awarded to student-athletes who do not have the financial means to afford tuition at UAB. Dozens of these students will leave our State and invest outside of our own community. What is the cumulative effect of this over the next few decades? 80 percent of UAB's undergraduate students are Alabamians, and we should protect and grow our intellectual capital in Alabama.

The BOT will create irreparable political disharmony that will cost UAB tens of millions of dollars in lost funding annually from decreasing legislative appropriations and/or student enrolment.  In the past two weeks alone, we have seen legislation introduced that would change our governance structure and watched the Birmingham City Council take the extraordinary step of petitioning UAB to keep its own football program.  If UAB Football is dissolved, the negative political ramifications would cast a long shadow over the years ahead.

Whether real or perceived, the BOT will be negatively viewed as anti-UAB and anti-Birmingham while acting arbitrarily to protect its interests in Tuscaloosa.  How do you believe the City will react when they see other cities in our state like Troy and Mobile investing in FBS football?  When over 70 percent of FBS football schools require subsidies, why are UAB and the people of Birmingham unworthy of this investment?  

In closing, it is time that UAB be allowed to move forward with its mission of building a world-class undergraduate program that includes UAB Football.  We must move past the differences that have caused tensions between UA and UAB and marginalized our campus’ growth. The stakes are simply too high. As the BOT, you have an opportunity to create a new beginning that launches UAB and the City of Birmingham on an upward trajectory that can be transformational.

We look to you for your public support, and for you to seize this moment so that UAB may in turn seize its moment to make you and our State very proud.

Sincerely,

Justin Craft, Izell Reese and Lee Miller

Representing all former players and B-Club