http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/06/uab_will_reinstate_football_so.html

By John Talty | jtalty@al.com
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on June 01, 2015 at 12:55 PM

UAB will reinstate its football program, sources told AL.com.

UAB school president Ray Watts is expected to make the announcement official at a 4 p.m. news conference. UAB supporters told AL.com "it's a miracle" and the decision was "very positive for UAB and this community."

The decision is a stunning reversal after Watts announced the dismissal of the sport a mere six months ago. Last December, UAB became the first Division I, Football Bowl Series (FBS) school to drop football in nearly two decades. Watts stated it wasn't financially feasible to support the football program, citing the CarrSports Consulting report. The CarrSports report said the program needed to invest $49 million over five years to maintain a competitive football program.

That decision was met with school protests and cries for "Free UAB." Supporters rallied around the idea of returning the program and demanded more transparency regarding the process behind the decision.

The school announced the creation of task force in January to study the decision. That task force hired an outside firm, College Sports Solutions, to review the initial decision and created a fundraising subcommittee, led by former football player Justin Craft, to raise private funds to reinstate football. The CSS report stated it was viable for UAB to both reinstate football and maintain the status quo, describing a $3.165 million annual financial delta.

Craft raised more than $15 million to cover any financial deficits. The Birmingham City Council and the UAB Undergraduate Student Government Association made multi-million dollar pledges, totaling nearly $6 million over five years. Jimmy Filler, a Birmingham businessman, also pledged to raise $7.5 million for an on-campus stadium.

The decision to reinstate football should allow UAB to remain in Conference USA, which requires its members to have a Football Bowl Series level football program. Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky told AL.com last week he believed UAB reinstating its program would be well received by the conference.

If UAB didn't reinstate football, it would have been forced to leave the conference and lost upwards of $2 million annually.

Stay tuned for more information. For live updates of UAB decision, follow along here.

Hasn't all or most of their players transferred to other schools? Do they have to start over?

Man talk about some epic beatdowns in the near future.

Yeah I just looked it up, they had 56 transfers.

Stupid move for UAB.

Was the program so corrupt that they had to clean house?

Stupid move indeed. IF they build an on campus they might survive.....

This doesn't make any sense to me. Who were the powers to be that made the decision to shut it down in the first place. How in the world will this president that helped in shutting it down be able to keep his job? They also let a damn good coach get away.

So who is going to be in the stands and support the program when you are having to rebuild the team. Your record is crap for 3-4 years at best while you try to find schools to schedule games with you again.

I hate to say it but UAB will have a long road to recovery after this EPIC fail. The damage has already been done.

Sad thing is I think that they had found a decent coach who had momentum building before this cluster. He only has one more year remaining on his contract I believe. He may kick Watts in the nuts and just go find another gig instead of deal with all that will be required.

They don't need to try the D1 route. They should go FCS or D2 in my opinion.

No kidding I hadn't even thought about how hard it will be to schedule games. The bigger teams especially are scheduling 5-6 years in advance at least.

I hate it but this will be like starting over. The degree that allows me to earn my living came from UAB so anything that can happen good to them, I'm OK with. The epic fail was not building a stadium on or near campus in the first place. Having students and fans drive 20-30 minutes (with traffic) to a stadium that needs to be in the gulf attracting snapper and grouper was huge mistake. Not to mention it's not in the most safe area of town.

Janet's son just finished his baseball career at UAB and I'll tell you, all the athletes were ready to skin the nuts of Ray Watts and Paul Bryant Jr. when they axed the program.

Dr. B

Good for UAB...

BOTH of the UAB football fans are thrilled

There has been a whole lot of hollering by people to start it back up, but if they don't have more support than they have had in the stands in the past, it will be pure stupid. Games with 2,000, at best, fans is pitiful support.

Homecoming opponent for everyone now

....

I think it's going to be a tough few years, but this may wind up being a great move. If they can get Alumni to start donating and actually build a competitive football program with great on-campus facilities, they could set themselves up very nicely. They've gotten a ton of publicity and there should be lots of corporations wanting to sponsor the team to show they're helping rebuild a football program

I thought the same thing in 91 while I was there and they started this. By the time they take the field, where ever that is, folks will have forgotten all of this. UAB fans don't even remember they have a football team unless they win a few games. I think Watt is basically saying "OK kids here's your football team, good luck with it!" I hope I'm wrong but I've had to admit being wrong about it from the start.

Word I heard was this was Paul Bryant Jr.'s final (on the way out of the door of the UA board of trustees) swipe at UAB. Allegedly due to bad feelings left over from when Gene Bartow turned UA (with Bear Bryant at the helm) in to the NCAA for recruiting violations. Considering that action was on the order of thirty SEVERAL years ago, it seems like a LONG time to hold on to something.

I guess PB Jr. felt like screwing UAB out of Jimbo Fisher and giving them Neal Callaway instead wasn't enough of a knife to the heart of the program. He may have felt like Bill Clark had them headed in the right direction and thought it was now or never to swing the axe.

An on campus stadium of any decent size is WAY beyond the limits of fiscal reason. I wish Bham could do something like Mobile does with Ladd Stadium (although obviously with a better facility). Ladd is used every Thursday, Friday, and sometimes twice on Saturdays PLUS the Senior Bowl and the GMAC/Go Daddy/whoever signs up for it this year bowl game. It's an old facility in a bad neighborhood, and Mobile's been run by a clown committee for several years, but it seems to me to be a pretty smart use of a public facility.