UAB reinstates its football program.....

[Big Red Crimson Buffalo]

....donors covered the $17 million deficit through fundraising.

The AD reinstated the head coach today and they look to be playing in 2016. I wonder if any of their former players can come back? I would think that most transferred.

 

[rcaulfie]

That's crazy to me. Reinstate it after everybody transfers?

 

[YOTHN]

Yeah, at this point the players are established at other schools. If they were to transfer back I believe they would be held out for a year. The NCAA might make an exception on this case but who knows. My thought is that a lot of better players like Jordan Howard and some of those players that went to better division 1 colleges would have no interest in going back at this point. It's a strange situation though?

 

[Bligedy]

Yeah, at this point the players are established at other schools. If they were to transfer back I believe they would be held out for a year. The NCAA might make an exception on this case but who knows. My thought is that a lot of better players like Jordan Howard and some of those players that went to better division 1 colleges would have no interest in going back at this point. It's a strange situation though?

I'm sure the NCAA would give those kids a waiver if they wanted to return. I'm not sure many will as it sounds like they won't play until 2016.

 

[Vididiot]

....donors covered the $17 million deficit through fundraising.

The AD reinstated the head coach today and they look to be playing in 2016. I wonder if any of their former players can come back? I would think that most transferred.

If they thought the program was in such bad shape that they had close it down, they just made it way worse. The coach is going to have to start from scratch. Talk about screwing up things.

 

[turney333]

If they thought the program was in such bad shape that they had close it down, they just made it way worse. The coach is going to have to start from scratch. Talk about screwing up things.

Although, the UAB athletic department is coming out ahead in terms of finances. The city, university system, and alumni association are all now committing to substantial investment. And I wouldn't be surprised if reinstating the program was part of the plan all along. Certainly a crappy way to go about squeezing dollars out of people, but it worked.

 

[Big Red Crimson Buffalo]

Although, the UAB athletic department is coming out ahead in terms of finances. The city, university system, and alumni association are all now committing to substantial investment. And I wouldn't be surprised if reinstating the program was part of the plan all along. Certainly a crappy way to go about squeezing dollars out of people, but it worked.

The funny thing about it is that attendance last year was up dramatically at UAB and they were coming off their best season in years. There was optimism and they will still be operating at a deficit of $3 million even after the fundraising efforts. They also reinstated a couple of non-revenue generating programs along with football.