Son of UAB: Eastern Michigan

I've said it a few times, but I doubt people realize how bad the support for the MAC is. Their average attendance, average is right at the threshold for the NCAA minimum. And yes, there are incidents of UAB style, city buying up tickets shenanigans to. There are some programs that are just costing millions of dollars that ultimately come from taxpayers to keep these programs almost no one wants (which attendance attests to).

I am supportive of FCS teams, at least ones that operate within their limitations. I am not supportive of FBS programs which are just wasting money and continuing because there's a few key people powerful enough to keep it going.

UAB athletics will be costing Alabama taxpayers 8-12 million dollars per year for decades to come.

I am not sure why UAB football bothers so many on this board. Do you realize how much money the tax payers spend on HS football across a state? Either the sport is important to you, or it is not. If you are okay with a spend in some publicly funded schools, you should be okay with it in all publicly funded schools. The sport should not have to pay for itself to be allowed to continue - it should be based on voter interest. Alabama strikes me as a state which supports football, but for some reason, not at UAB. Did something happen a long time ago to cause this dislike?

B1GTide said:

I am not sure why UAB football bothers so many on this board. Do you realize how much money the tax payers spend on HS football across a state? Either the sport is important to you, or it is not. If you are okay with a spend in some publicly funded schools, you should be okay with it in all publicly funded schools. The sport should not have to pay for itself to be allowed to continue - it should be based on voter interest. Alabama strikes me as a state which supports football, but for some reason, not at UAB. Did something happen a long time ago to cause this dislike?

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Alabama isn't that big a state. Alabama football is supported well, Auburn football is supported well, but there's no other FBS program that is or will be supported well. Because some middle class guy supports two kids well does that men he can support five kids well? That's all there is to it. Troy, UAB and South Alabama all lose millions a year and have tepid fan interest. It's not just UAB, but UAB just happens to be the worst offender. Also there is no voter interest in UAB, voters never had any direct say in their program, this has always been decided by people on a board at a college.

Secondly, I care about the sport and that's why programs like UAB need to be gone (from the FBS)! What good do they do? How do they help the FBS? They just waste money, they do nothing else productive. It's not just UAB, you saw me talking about the MAC which is in your neighborhood I presume. I've contended for a long time that we need less FBS programs and less (meaningless) bowl games. This produces the consequence of untested and unproven undefeated teams by the way, this was something that didn't happen for decades until they went to the 85 scholarship limit and they let every junior college who wanted a football team in.

Also, I think Redwood did touch on the personal aspect of it. These programs don't have to die, but they deliberately positioned themselves as though they could be like Alabama and Auburn. They can't, they won't, and we don't want them in the FBS. It's basically like some woman on welfare showing up to your front door talking about she's a better woman than your wife and if you only gave her a chance she'd show you and oh yeah, you need to give her money so she can prove it. No one here asked for that!

B1GTide said:

Do you realize how much money the tax payers spend on HS football across a state?

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Assuming you mean public funds (tax dollars), I apparently don't. Could you elaborate?

Here are a few things that I know about my local high school football program:

+ Every single football coach teaches at least one subject in the school.
+ Any compensation for the coaches over and above their teaching salaries is provided by the athletic booster organization.
+ The football stadium sits on county property and is part of a public park, but the stadium was financed and is being paid for by the athletic booster organization. Plus, all field maintenance and stadium maintenance are funded by the athletic booster organization.

B1GTide said:

I am not sure why UAB football bothers so many on this board. Do you realize how much money the tax payers spend on HS football across a state? Either the sport is important to you, or it is not. If you are okay with a spend in some publicly funded schools, you should be okay with it in all publicly funded schools. The sport should not have to pay for itself to be allowed to continue - it should be based on voter interest. Alabama strikes me as a state which supports football, but for some reason, not at UAB. Did something happen a long time ago to cause this dislike?

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It bothers us because UAB's 4 fans have gone out of their way to blame the University for all of UAB football's ills. There is also the history on the basketball side that I'm not very familiar with. Something to do with Gene Bartow.

Anyway, I would be find with UAB having a football program if it was supported. It is not. Bringing it back from the dead was all a social media creation, and I don't even know if they've yet to collect all the promised donations that brought it back from the dead. Maybe they have, but I'd bet my year's salary they will be right back in the same boat a year or two after the program begins playing again.

There simply isn't enough people that attend their games on even a semi-regular basis. Maybe that can change. And I'm all for it if it can. But I don't see it and I'm sick of it all being blamed on Alabama.

Tide1986 said:

Assuming you mean public funds (tax dollars), I apparently don't. Could you elaborate?

Here are a few things that I know about my local high school football program:

+ Every single football coach teaches at least one subject in the school.
+ Any compensation for the coaches over and above their teaching salaries is provided by the athletic booster organization.
+ The football stadium sits on county property and is part of a public park, but the stadium was financed and is being paid for by the athletic booster organization. Plus, all field maintenance and stadium maintenance are funded by the athletic booster organization.

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My local HS has $131k in the budget, most of which goes to pay the coaches and maintain equipment and facilities. One school. Yes, the coaches also teach a few classes, but not classes of any real educational value.

B1GTide said:

I am not sure why UAB football bothers so many on this board.

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Not trying to be mean or snarky here, but if you haven't been able to figure out that reason from the numerous threads since you joined, you are probably better to just not join the conversation.

Alabama strikes me as a state which supports football, but for some reason, not at UAB. Did something happen a long time ago to cause this dislike?

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Yes, the state loves football, but as Krazy continues to say - the state isn't big enough to realistically support all the teams. We've all heard the cliche comment "When you move to Alabama, you're told to pick Alabama or Auburn." Think bigger picture - even fans of UAB, Troy, South Alabama, etc are Alabama or Auburn fans, so their money and attention tends to go to the bigger schools.

RTR91 said:

Not trying to be mean or snarky here, but if you haven't been able to figure out that reason from the numerous threads since you joined, you are probably better to just not join the conversation.



Yes, the state loves football, but as Krazy continues to say - the state isn't big enough to realistically support all the teams. We've all heard the cliche comment "When you move to Alabama, you're told to pick Alabama or Auburn." Think bigger picture - even fans of UAB, Troy, South Alabama, etc are Alabama or Auburn fans, so their money and attention tends to go to the bigger schools.

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Meh, we have plenty of reasons to hate Ohio, but I don't know anyone who wishes to shut down their football program or force them to FCS. This sounds more personal.

B1GTide said:

Meh, we have plenty of reasons to hate Ohio, but I don't know anyone who wishes to shut down their football program or force them to FCS. This sounds more personal.

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Is Ohio a money drain on Ohio State?

B1GTide said:

My local HS has $131k in the budget, most of which goes to pay the coaches and maintain equipment and facilities. One school. Yes, the coaches also teach a few classes, but not classes of any real educational value.

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My son's high school's coaches mostly teach PE classes where they do very little during the class. The football coach was given the title of city athletic director when he was hired, a position that did not previously exist. The city schools system consists of one high school (9-12) and one middle school (7-8). I seriously doubt he does anything at that job.

B1GTide said:

Meh, we have plenty of reasons to hate Ohio, but I don't know anyone who wishes to shut down their football program or force them to FCS. This sounds more personal.

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You have to understand the background. First off, you've made it clear you don't mind wasting taxpayers dollars. Ok, we get that, but comparing spending 100K to tens of millions just isn't comparable.You've got to understand, both UAB and South Alabama want extremely expensive stadiums and they have no way to pay for it. They actually blame their lack of support on the fact that we haven't lavished them with enough money yet. Somehow it's not their fault that no one cares, it's my fault because I haven't spent enough on a program I don't care about. You wonder why we might take exception to that?

I have alluded to other things, but when it comes down to it we're not a very big or rich state. We don't care about those other teams, those other teams didn't even exist until after the 85 scholarship limit, there's no history there, they all just thought they could somehow ride the bandwagon. Why should we pay tens of millions of dollars (one school) so they can play pretend?

B1GTide said:

I am not sure why UAB football bothers so many on this board. Do you realize how much money the tax payers spend on HS football across a state? Either the sport is important to you, or it is not. If you are okay with a spend in some publicly funded schools, you should be okay with it in all publicly funded schools. The sport should not have to pay for itself to be allowed to continue - it should be based on voter interest. Alabama strikes me as a state which supports football, but for some reason, not at UAB. Did something happen a long time ago to cause this dislike?

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Basically...UAB fans whine and blame all their problems on Bama.

RedStar said:

Is Ohio a money drain on Ohio State?

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Not on the school directly, but on the state.

KrAzY3 said:

You have to understand the background. First off, you've made it clear you don't mind wasting taxpayers dollars. Ok, we get that, but comparing spending 100K to tens of millions just isn't comparable.You've got to understand, both UAB and South Alabama want extremely expensive stadiums and they have no way to pay for it. They actually blame their lack of support on the fact that we haven't lavished them with enough money yet. Somehow it's not their fault that no one cares, it's my fault because I haven't spent enough on a program I don't care about. You wonder why we might take exception to that?

I have alluded to other things, but when it comes down to it we're not a very big or rich state. We don't care about those other teams, those other teams didn't even exist until after the 85 scholarship limit, there's no history there, they all just thought they could somehow ride the bandwagon. Why should we pay tens of millions of dollars (one school) so they can play pretend?

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Thinking about the number of people in Alabama vs. Ohio, it makes more sense.

B1GTide said:

I am not sure why UAB football bothers so many on this board. Do you realize how much money the tax payers spend on HS football across a state? Either the sport is important to you, or it is not. If you are okay with a spend in some publicly funded schools, you should be okay with it in all publicly funded schools. The sport should not have to pay for itself to be allowed to continue - it should be based on voter interest. Alabama strikes me as a state which supports football, but for some reason, not at UAB. Did something happen a long time ago to cause this dislike?

Click to expand...

B1GTide said:

My local HS has $131k in the budget, most of which goes to pay the coaches and maintain equipment and facilities. One school. Yes, the coaches also teach a few classes, but not classes of any real educational value.

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My 2c.

As for supporting High School Football programs. I have less problem supporting them than small college programs because supporting and having strong HS programs feeds Alabama with developed players. There are more and more cases of your HS level funding than the previous example though. I do think it is getting to be a problem.

I have NO problem with UAB building a program and attempting to compete with Alabama and Auburn. I have NO problem with them working with Birmingham and building their own stadium. In fact I don't think anyone is stopping them no matter what is perceived. They just need to do the work to get themselves in a financial position to do it. IMO They want what was built over decades, actually centuries given to them. So yup I guess it is personal in a way.

mittman said:

My 2c.

As for supporting High School Football programs. I have less problem supporting them than small college programs because supporting and having strong HS programs feeds Alabama with developed players. There are more and more cases of your HS level funding than the previous example though. I do think it is getting to be a problem.

I have NO problem with UAB building a program and attempting to compete with Alabama and Auburn. I have NO problem with them working with Birmingham and building their own stadium. In fact I don't think anyone is stopping them no matter what is perceived. They just need to do the work to get themselves in a financial position to do it. IMO They want what was built over decades, actually centuries given to them. So yup I guess it is personal in a way.

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this X1000. If UAB can build enough organic support to have a program that sustains itself, fantastic. I don't expect that will be quick or easy. It's taken 100 years of very good football for 'Bama to be where they are. UAB shouldn't expect they can get to that level, or anything even remotely close, in less than 10 years, AND require a substantial influx of $ from state funds

B1GTide said:

Not on the school directly, but on the state.

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There's your answer. UAB is a money drain on the UA system. The UA BoT decided to shut down the program because they were a money drain. About 50 people showed up to a rally and somehow that convinced UAB to reverse course and go against the UA BoT's recommendation.

Their stubbornness, and their insubordination has irritated a lot of people. They blamed the UA BoT when they wouldn't finance a new stadium, and now they're blaming the UA BoT for shutting the program down. Show up, support your team, fill the stadium you DO have and the rest will take care of itself. UAB fans have no one to blame but themselves.

Just like in any business, when your branch or subsidy becomes a money drain, ownership shuts you down. It's pretty simple.