The Board of Trustee's have succeeded. You know why. They have convinced the press, the Birmingham community, Jefferson County and corporations that UAB athletics is bad for Birmingham sucking money away from legitimate educational programs in a time of short funding for education.
Regardless of the fact, every public educational institution in the State of Alabama receives tax payer dollars to fund their university or college. UAB alone received more than $200 MM from the State of Alabama. And you know what, the State of Alabama gets back $11 for every $1 they invest in UAB, the whole university.
UAB contributes $2.9 billion dollars to this community. Over 50% of the jobs in the Birmingham metropolitan area are tied to UAB. UAB is the largest employer in the City of Birmingham. The only thing we share with our sister campus in Tuscaloosa is the same name and the same Board of Trustees. They want people to think that UAB athletics is somehow different from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. They have won the battle, but the war is far from over.
UAB athletics are an integral part of the same school where UAB students are getting their education. It is unfair for the Board of Trustees to dictate that UAB students should follow the Alabama football program because they are our sister school. It is unfair for the Board of Trustees to dictate to Alabama high school scholar athletes that they have to go out of state in order to obtain a free education. Trust me, this state needs as many educated individuals as we can get, especially from UAB.
So why does the Board of Trustees constantly attack UAB athletics? Why did the Board of Trustees add the scholarships from band, cheerleaders and dance team to the athletic department budget thereby making the deficit numbers look worse? Why does Paul Bryant, Jr refer to UAB as "they" and UA as "we"? Why does the Board of Trustees always single out UAB athletics from the University as a whole? Why are they so short sighted that they don't realize that UAB athletics has the potential to compliment a school that continues to strive to be one of the greatest academic universities in the State of Alabama and more importantly, the United States?
I agree that UAB should continue to work hard at growing donations from individuals and corporations. They should do this not only in just athletics, but also in every facet of the university. For every dollar that Birmingham, Jefferson County, Corporations and individuals contribute to UAB, you are getting a huge return. This makes sense for our community.
What I don't understand is why the Board of Trustees would rather harm UAB than support UAB? Are the Board of Trustees really the leadership that a school like UAB needs?
The BOT is can hardly be called "leadership" when it comes to UAB. The only thing they are leading are the masses of Bama-homers that can't stand the fact that UAB football is getting better. They can't stand the fact that we have a successful basketball program and are about to have a football team that will play in a bowl game. They can't fathom the idea that one day UAB just might get a larger chunk of the spotlight....the same spotlight that used to shine on their precious Tide.
It's evident that they feel threatened. If they do not feel threatened then they would not be making these statements. It pisses me off to no end to do a Google search for UAB and to see several news agencies with the "UAB athletics defecit" article. Why is it so important what UAB does? Why are we the ONLY university to be put under the financial microscope? Why not Troy? Why not Auburn? Why not Bama?
***Disclaimer. What I'm about to say is not meant to offend anybody, bring them down, insult them, belittle them, make them feel smaller, etc.
One of the largest problems with the State of Alabama is that very few people actually move there from another state. You will rarely find a family pack up and move to Alabama because it's a wonderful place to live. You will rarely find college graduates from other states move to Alabama because of a booming economy, great education, great healthcare, and endless opportunities.
What you actually see is the opposite. You see college graduates leave for other states, families leave for better jobs in other parts of the US, and you see a continual decline in overall education, healthcare, etc.
One must ask why this is so. The reason being is that very few people in Alabama have individual thoughts. Very few come up with original ideas, very few are not afraid to go against the grain, and very few are willing to take a risk w/ change in hopes that things change for the better.
For over 100 years the majority of Alabama citizens have followed and worshipped UAT football. They raise their kids to watch UAT football games and hate Auburn. They put their kids to sleep telling them stories about Bear Bryant and they put them on football fields in hopes that one day they will play for the Crimson Tide.
People like Paul Finebaum and Paul Bryant Jr are the "truth" to many of these narrow-minded citizens. If it comes out of their mouth, then by God it must be the truth. A lot of them can't and won't think for themself. They won't dig deep to look at facts, instead of just the surface of things.
There is a saying that "there's no such thing as bad publicity." In some ways this is true, but in our case it is not. Uneducated, biased, and underserving negative comments about UAB are filling the airwaves and crowding the papers. They are being repeated at Hardee's at 6am, at church gatherings, on Saturday mornings, and in other social events. They want to see us fail. They want UAT to be the only successful program in the state. They want it all to themselves.
They feel threatened and this is the only way for them to handle it. Things will not get better until the older generations pass on. That may sound cruel but it's true. They grew up with UAT being the only national power and now they feel UAB is trespassing on their property.
The ONLY fix would be for us to have 1) a separate BOT or 2) equal representation of UAB, UAH, and UAT on the BOT but the UAB trustees cannot be Bama homers. They must bleed green & gold through and through and serve only UAB (unlike BamaSax :D ).
whenever dr. gauld retires, i would love to see her on the BOT. there is no employee at UAB that loves the university more than her. she would be an outspoken advicate for everything that UAB does.
dfarr Wrote:whenever dr. gauld retires, i would love to see her on the BOT. there is no employee at UAB that loves the university more than her. she would be an outspoken advicate for everything that UAB does.
Rock on! Dr. Gauld is awesome
This bad mouth timing by uat supporters and trustees is connected to the slide of Bama football this season. If I am not mistaken, the same thing happened when the NCAA came down on bama a few years back.
Equal representation on the Board of Trustees of the Alabama System in one of two answers. The other is to separate UAB and its hospital system and make it independent.
Another important facet to all this is the development of a STRONG SUPPORTING ALUMNI ASSOCIATION.
The ultimate answer is for ALL major, 4-year schools in Alabama to be under a Board of Regents rather than separate BOTs. But we will see a new Constitution before we see that day...
So am I to understand that the Alabama Crisom Tide board of trustees is the same for UAB :eek: :eek: ... if so how could you guys ever really expect a fair shake
prettyricky Wrote:So am I to understand that the Alabama Crisom Tide board of trustees is the same for UAB :eek: :eek: ... if so how could you guys ever really expect a fair shake
Now you see our problem.
Please read this... it's for everyone's sanity.
Toraine's article was a crock of crap to begin with. Not only did he get his numbers wrong, the headline for the article was misleading. It said in the subheading, "Some trustees doubt program's ability to make money."
However, the only person in the entire article that shows doubt in UAB's program is Paul Bryant Jr... the same idiot who was also quoted as saying, "We're (Bama) going to play them (top-ranked teams) for the championship."
The UA System Board of Trustees' Committee Chairman Angus Cooper is quoted as saying, "They're (UAB) doing a good job. They just have to continue moving forward."
If you have any sense, the fact that the CHAIRMAN says we are doing good weighs more heavily in my mind than anything Bear Jr. has to say.
Also, Bear Jr. ONLY refers to UAB's football program in the article and says that "...if you aren't selling tickets, the money isn't there."
Unfortunately, the article fails to mention that the football program will actually make money this year.
It's funny that Bear Jr. doesn't talk about the baseball team or basketball team not selling more tickets; after all, this IS a discussion about the UAB ATHLETICS Dept as a whole, right?
Take all the BOT talk witha grain of salt and remember that this article was composed by Toraine Norris.
Schard,
You are the resident voice of reason. You would make a great mediator....the NHL could use one right now, you should sign up.
I had to take off my "UAB Hat" for a sec and reread the article.
To be fair, Toraine doesn't come up with the article headlines... Tom Arenburg sits in his office and comes up with them just like the news editor in Spiderman
We need some UAB alums to inflitrate the local media circles. Not that media makes or breaks us, but I know all the negative publicity cant help us.
I wrote this in response to reading the Montgomery article. Don't kid yourself man, Bryant jr owns the Board of Trustees. He has more money than most of the board members....period.
Bryant, Jr. has more money than Drummond? The same Drummond who has actively been helping UAB raise money for the past few years? Now, I admit Drummond is a former BOT member but don't think he doesn't still wield significant influence because of his $$$....which are MUCH more than PB & J®....
At the heart of the issue is the same problem that dogs every program in America-revenue sports-i.e. football and basketball have to pay for the rest of the program. Blame it on Title IX or any of another hundred NCAA regulations that mandate a certain level of participation to be DI.
IMHO the most important thing we can do is raise money to endow the scholarships of non-revenue sports. This would eliminate the financial drain, and would have the added PR benefit of a.) giving folks who have an interest in non revenue sports an invitation to put their money where their mouth is and b.) offering a permanent solution, 3.) good PR every time someone does a story on how (especially) womens athletics don't have to be a drain on budgets.
Now the question becomes how do you do this. How about a what if question. What if we added $10 to the student activity fee each semester (which I presume every university has and every student pays.) By dumping that $10 into an endowment fund that item alone would fund between 300K-400K. Obviously the fund wouldn't be built overnight, but over a 10 year period, it would accumulate approximately $5 million.
While these costs can be paid out of university funds under NCAA rules, eliminating or decreasing them would be a great bump for the long term security of Blazer athletics
linus Wrote:At the heart of the issue is the same problem that dogs every program in America-revenue sports-i.e. football and basketball have to pay for the rest of the program. Blame it on Title IX or any of another hundred NCAA regulations that mandate a certain level of participation to be DI.
IMHO the most important thing we can do is raise money to endow the scholarships of non-revenue sports. This would eliminate the financial drain, and would have the added PR benefit of a.) giving folks who have an interest in non revenue sports an invitation to put their money where their mouth is and b.) offering a permanent solution, 3.) good PR every time someone does a story on how (especially) womens athletics don't have to be a drain on budgets.
Now the question becomes how do you do this. How about a what if question. What if we added $10 to the student activity fee each semester (which I presume every university has and every student pays.) By dumping that $10 into an endowment fund that item alone would fund between 300K-400K. Obviously the fund wouldn't be built overnight, but over a 10 year period, it would accumulate approximately $5 million.
While these costs can be paid out of university funds under NCAA rules, eliminating or decreasing them would be a great bump for the long term security of Blazer athletics
That's a good idea, but I dont think most people would go for that. Tuition costs rise virtually every year already... I dont think too many people would like the idea of raising it even another $10.
They don't seem to mind when Alabama raises the student fees, and the trustees are quotes as saying specifically that the fees are being raised to offset athletic department financial losses due to being unable to share in SEC bowl revenue while on probation ...
Hypocrits ...
Paul Bryant, Jr is just as ignorant as his old man.
Can UAB break away from UA and have it's own BOT?
Copperblazer Wrote:Paul Bryant, Jr is just as ignorant as his old man.
Can UAB break away from UA and have it's own BOT?
Was Bryant, Sr., anti-UAB during his heydey?
For you younger folks, here's the legend:
Bear was playing golf one lovely spring day in either 1979/80 with a bunch of his cronies and a** kissers, when in the club house, someone passed along word that UAB had beaten UAT in baseball (this UAB team was coached by the legendary Harry "The Hat" Walker). Well, apparently Bear thought that he had caught too much flack from his cronies (you can bet his a** kissers never said a word) and, as athletic director, decided that UAT would never play UAB in anything ever again.
The ironic thing about this legend is that baseball is the one sport in which UAB regularly plays UAT. But when it comes to "money" sports (basketball especially because Bear knew Gene would whip Wimp and I can't imagine that Bear ever thought UAB would have a football team), Mal Moore, UAT AD and the others before him (all "Bear" men) have honored Bear's sentiments.
UAB and UAT will not play in football or basketball until there is a "non-Bama/Bear" person as AD.