University of Alabama at Birmingham to End Football Program

The University of Alabama at Birmingham has announced that it will no longer field a football team due to the ever increasing costs of remaining competitive with college football's dominant institutions.

The announcement was made in a statement posted on the university's website. It attributed the reasons for the shutdown to financial reasons only saying a primary motivation was that "Costs are continuously spiraling upwards driven by cost-of-attendance payments to players, meals, equipment, facilities, coaches, travel and more."

The university's president, Ray L. Watt M.D. said, "The fiscal realities we face...are starker than ever and demand that we take decisive action for the greater good of the Athletic Department and UAB. As we look at the evolving landscape of NCAA football, we see expenses only continuing to increase. When considering a model that best protects the financial future and prominence of the Athletic Department, football is simply not sustainable."

In addition to football, the university will ends its bowling and rifling programs. The decision was made after consulting with an outside company, CarrSports Consulting.

The university says it simply cannot afford the $49 million dollars over the next five years necessary to maintain the school's football program. On top of that $49 million to maintain the program, the school also needs $22 million to upgrade existing practice and training facilities, in order to remain attractive to top tier recruits.

In addition to costs, the university also blamed a lack of support from the state and federal government, making it impossible to shift funds from other areas.
Watt said, "These are challenging times in higher education with flat or reduced state and federal funding, and it is more important than ever that we take a close look at overall operations, set priorities and aggressively align our resources in the areas where we have the potential to make the most difference."