CSNbbs

First no one on this board is dumb enough to believe that the BOT is on the side of UAB football. However the origination of this attack is not the BOT but the East side or the UABSOM (See largely ignored but excellent part of 58-60 post below). Now I admit members of the BOTs may be sitting back and LOL I know its fun and we enjoy releasing our frustrations. However this time we are wasting a lot of time and energy on railing at the BOT - because as the great philosopher POGO said we have met the enemy and it is us.

Second, Watts and the rest of the east side do not hate football. Their indifferent. The east side just resents the 15 million a year of "THEIR" money going towards sustaining it. Show them the money . That is all they care about.

Third, it is not fair but there should be many creative ideas to raise money. The academic departments have taken a 10 to 20 percent cut since 2008 - at the same time the athletic budget has grown 20 percent. (Cut operating budget to the mean of new CUSA.) Change funding sources for athletics from grants(indirectly) to such things as raise student fees for athletics - heck even charge faculty and staff a fee. The new foundation should start a fund raising effort for a 25 million for a endowments to fund athletic scholarships. Heck a lot of people on this board are smarter than me any ideas?

(11-23-2014 01:16 PM)58-56 Wrote: [ -> ].............
UAB Football faces the likelihood of becoming collateral damage in a fiendish attempt by a small cadre of partisans of the School of Medicine to re-direct funds from undergraduate education to their own ego enhancement. Unable to compete for grants, now that the best researchers have left for better schools and the UABSOM under the “leadership” of Ray Watts, M.D. has fallen to #43 per U.S. News, they now seek to cannibalize the very institution that gives them life. If they were good enough to deserve the cash taken from the undergraduate programs, they’d be good enough to compete for grants against the 42 medical schools judged more worthy than they. In the person of Ray Watts, M.D., these selfish, coddled prima donnas would put the exaltation of their own mediocrity above the excellence of the overall, comprehensive university.

Let me repeat that: UAB Football is not the central issue. The east (medical) side is attempting to castrate the west (undergraduate) side of campus, and crushing football is just a side benefit in their eyes. If they succeed, they will wreck this city and region’s economy and society for the remainder of this century. And that is not hyperbole. They may or may not realize this, but either way, in their pampered selfishness this small band of the foolish and vain simply does not care.

It’s common in American politics to say, “You can’t fix X by throwing money at it,” where X equals something the speaker doesn’t want fixed. Money is not the only problem at the UABSOM; were that so, they wouldn’t have dropped so precipitously in the rankings. Now that we’ve had a chance to see how Ray Watts, M.D. leads the university as a whole, I think we can hazard a guess as to why the UABSOM declined in status. There are still many outstanding professionals in the UABSOM, teaching and research physicians and staff who are appalled at what is being perpetrated in their name. With strong leadership, the UABSOM can regain its rankings without damaging the rest of UAB.

There is evil at work, a gross and disgusting evil, but it is not the doing of Brian Mackin. He is not the defender I would choose, but he is the defender that we have. I will stand with him until he gives me reason to believe otherwise.

My brothers, my sisters, the moment is here. Gene Bartow prepared us for this moment. We cannot allow Joseph Volker’s dream to be sodomized by the incompetent and the corrupt.

We fight.

Bean I agree up to a point. This is about money and this is probably generated from the east side. However, the board is tasked with setting policy and institutional direction for all 3 campuses. In my opinion, not communicating with the board on this issue is going to make us complicit in any negative decision since they'll have to assume that there's no push back.

The medical center/school needs to understand this. They are part of a comprehensive university not a stand alone entity. We rise and fall as one. Blaming their recent fall on a football program is simply laughable and the board needs to hear that.

The other thing the board needs to hear is there is a leadership vacuum. This has turned into a dumpster fire and no one seems to have the slightest idea how to fix it. There has been significant and possibly permanent damage to the relationship with the people and leadership in Birmingham. Leaders lead.

As far as funding right now it's like proving a negative. It's hard to gauge the level of internal funding needed when you don't know the level of booster money that can be obtained because of this mess. A month ago people were willing to commit to infrastructure changes that could have made this at least a break even proposition. Now all those relationships will have to rebuilt, if they even can be repaired.

I keep saying this... they can lower the athletic budget without cutting football. Our athletic budget has NO facilities debt, yet it's one of the largest budgets in C-USA! Where does all the money go?

Just get rid of the UAB Athletics marketing department and let the fans promote the games on Twitter like we did for the Marshall game.

Come up with something like a 4 year plan to turn things around.

(11-24-2014 10:32 AM)UABslant Wrote: [ -> ]I keep saying this... they can lower the athletic budget without cutting football. Our athletic budget has NO facilities debt, yet it's one of the largest budgets in C-USA! Where does all the money go?

Having "the largest budget in C-USA (if exactly true)" is not having "a cup that runneth over". We have no facility debt because we have little in the way of facilities. "Where does all the money go?" That is a question many families have trouble answering without a complete audit by some experts. Has there been one that we know about in recent years?

Your implication is that lots of money is being wasted by the athletic department, but it may be that we are just not getting enough money for present day expenses. Costs of everything UAB buys (as with a family) is going up while the school's state funding has declined sharply since 2008.

We'll show them the no money.

(11-24-2014 10:39 AM)ElliotBreakingnewsBrindley Wrote: [ -> ]Just get rid of the UAB Athletics marketing department and let the fans promote the games on Twitter like we did for the Marshall game.

You did a better job of promoting the game than the marketing department did. I saw your tweet from several people. Maybe we can get rid of the marketing department and hire you.

(11-24-2014 10:28 AM)biglizard Wrote: [ -> ]The other thing the board needs to hear is there is a leadership vacuum. This has turned into a dumpster fire and no one seems to have the slightest idea how to fix it. There has been significant and possibly permanent damage to the relationship with the people and leadership in Birmingham. Leaders lead.

Leaders lead? Not our leaders. They release a single non-commital statement and then go hide.

If this crap does not stop, some of our best boosters are going to say "Screw this nonsense, I'll go give my money where it's not a giant clusterF."

We have already lost many big time boosters over the years for that exact reason.

(11-24-2014 11:14 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-24-2014 10:28 AM)biglizard Wrote: [ -> ]The other thing the board needs to hear is there is a leadership vacuum. This has turned into a dumpster fire and no one seems to have the slightest idea how to fix it. There has been significant and possibly permanent damage to the relationship with the people and leadership in Birmingham. Leaders lead.

Leaders lead? Not our leaders. They release a single non-commital statement and then go hide.

If this crap does not stop, some of our best boosters are going to say "Screw this nonsense, I'll go give my money where it's not a giant clusterF."

To me this is one of the most important points that needs to be made. This has been a chronic problem for years. We've lacked the leadership with the political skills to get buy in from all the stakeholders. Great at administration and technical stuff but lousy and getting people to go along with a vision, if there was one.

(11-24-2014 11:20 AM)BlazerMatt Wrote: [ -> ]We have already lost many big time boosters over the years for that exact reason.

& I have a feeling this is only the beginning. #OccupyHattiesburg