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The Chairman of the Faculty Senate said that support of athletics resolution will ask for the re-instatement of football.

Both votes were 2/3 votes. They did not vote anything down. They did not downgrade from a nocon vote to just a vote to censure Watts.

I'd like things to move faster, but this was a win and keeps the pressure up. It possibly even increases the pressure on Watts, and that is coming from the academicians within UAB itself, the career educators.

I'll take it.

Me too.

(12-09-2014 12:57 PM)Southside Blazer 82 Wrote:  So basically he admitted to his wrongdoings to get a yes vote next month. We have to make him say that he is dedicated to football.

I would think him overturning his decision prior to then would be a way of doing that.

Be patient. Watts is an arrogant fool. His behaviour the past week has been an absolute gold mine of material to hammer him with. Keep giving him enough rope and he will hang himself figuratively speaking of course.

(12-09-2014 12:57 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  The Chairman of the Faculty Senate said that support of athletics resolution will ask for the re-instatement of football.

That, in itself, may keep us in C-USA. We have had some teams start in C-USA without football that were bringing it on board the following year. Maybe we get a stay of execution if we show that we are taking a year off to rebuild but the team stays?

If we can get this overturned quickly we will play football next year. Right now only one OOC game we have to schedule and one coach to hire. If we lose the other three we play four I-AA teams next year. Play Ala State and A&M. Play SWAC schools. I dig the bands.

Not only did the whole world see that what Watts did was wrong but even Watts did. Or at least he claims he did. But to have him in print acknowledging mismanagement is pretty powerful to me.

How he can claim this is just a mistake is beyond me. A decision this big should be well thought out and rehearsed. This is not the type thing you just happen to make a mistake on.

(12-09-2014 01:04 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  If we can get this overturned quickly we will play football next year. Right now only one OOC game we have to schedule and one coach to hire. If we lose the other three we play four I-AA teams next year. Play Ala State and A&M. Play SWAC schools. I dig the bands.

And this time, the whole attendance might count.

(12-09-2014 01:04 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  If we can get this overturned quickly we will play football next year. Right now only one OOC game we have to schedule and one coach to hire. If we lose the other three we play four I-AA teams next year. Play Ala State and A&M. Play SWAC schools. I dig the bands.

Now is the time to hit the phones and emails again. Fry Watts' phone lines. Hammer your state representatives to pressure the board (key word funding) and email the board itself. With the margin today and continued efforts we can get this expedited.

This is a victory and it needs to be followed up by a very public meeting/press conference of the largest stakeholders of UAB Football: UAB Football Foundation, JeffCo and Bham City Council. Now we need a plan with rock solid commitments to show the nation.

(12-09-2014 09:35 AM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  The statement

"We cannot lead this university on promises."

Yeah, there were several times I heard snickers as that was read, along with the odd "yeah, right" or other derisive comments.

(12-09-2014 01:02 PM)Cole Wrote:  

(12-09-2014 12:57 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  The Chairman of the Faculty Senate said that support of athletics resolution will ask for the re-instatement of football.

That, in itself, may keep us in C-USA. We have had some teams start in C-USA without football that were bringing it on board the following year. Maybe we get a stay of execution if we show that we are taking a year off to rebuild but the team stays?

I think that is a very realistic scenario.

Even if football gets reinstated or comes back in a few years damage has been done that will take years to fix. Coach Clark was a gift and an opportunity for us to build a program with sustainable/consistent results. At best we have been sent back to 2007. That said, I just want football back.

(12-09-2014 01:37 PM)STLouis Blazer Wrote:  Even if football gets reinstated or comes back in a few years damage has been done that will take years to fix. Coach Clark was a gift and an opportunity for us to build a program with sustainable/consistent results. At best we have been sent back to 2007. That said, I just want football back.

Maybe so, but outside of this year UAB hasn't done squat in football since 2004. We could start a program from scratch and in a few years be better than the Callaway/McGee teams played.

As multiple schools have recently shown, if you have the support of the institution and the community you can be competitive in football immediately. The past two weeks have taken care of the latter, and we're in the process of taking care of the former.

(12-09-2014 12:21 PM)Grammar-Nazi Wrote:  The faculty senate failed us, and UAB today. All they did was vote to talk about this later. As a faculty member for 20 years, the result of this will be that by January, the faculty will be moving on to other issues, it will be far too late to reverse the football decision, and nothing will happen.

This faculty senate is a worthless body with no vision and no teeth.

It was a real long shot.

It's amazing how long it takes to create a program and how quick it is to shut one down.

Coaches leaving, players leaving, schedule gets obliterated...The work of decades gone in 10 days.

I don't have a dog in this hunt, other than the fact that the precedent created by UAB's ending its FBS program could be bad for USA, but I think the Faculty Senate should be looking at things in this order of priority

1) Overall governance of the BOT's at UAB.
2) Ensuring that UAB's leaders fight for UAB's interests, even if those interests aren't shared by UAT
3) Trying to undo the football decision.

If you don't fix 1 and 2, you're going to have a hard time doing 3.

This appears to be bigger than football, and could have add on impacts throughout the University. Why would top talent come to UAB if there's a duplicative program in say, Engineering or Business, with UAT, if the school is just going to swoop down and cancel, downgrade, or merge it if it threatens to block UAT's efforts? I think that issue is one that should provide some serious motivation for the faculty senate, even if some members of the faculty might not care about UAB's football program as much as the students do.

I feel sick for you guys, but the real issue is not that football at UAB is threatened by the UAT's BOTs and Dr Watts, but really the school's ability to grow in size, programs offered, and stature. To be clear, Dr. Watts needs to go and the whole process needs to be shed light on regarding dropping football, but the real issue is institutional control.

I wish you the best, and wish this hadn't happened to y'all. Give em hell.

(12-09-2014 01:14 PM)BlazerDave Wrote:  

(12-09-2014 09:35 AM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  The statement

"We cannot lead this university on promises."

Bravo!!!

Thank you for the words, Tom.

Will someone please add the Watts quote to that letter in Photoshop and get it passed around via all social media channels? It is outstanding.