UAB kills its football program, cites high operating costs

Ken Bradley

UAB kills its football program, cites high operating costs image

The UAB football program is no more.

The university released a statement Tuesday, announcing that it had killed the football program.

"The Athletic Department faces many challenges given the rapidly evolving NCAA landscape and soaring operating costs, which place extreme pressure and a growing financial burden on programs like UAB's. Costs are continuously spiraling upwards driven by cost-of-attendance payments to players, meals, equipment, facilities, coaches, travel and more," the statement read.

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Players met with school president Ray Watts and left emotional, as shown in this photo.

"While this will be a challenging transition for the UAB family, the financial picture made our decision very clear," Watts said, according to AL.com. "We will not cut the current athletic budget, but in order to invest at least another $49 million to keep football over the next five years, we would have to redirect funds away from other critical areas of importance like education, research, patient care or student services."

More scenes from today's announcement:

The Blazers finished 6-6 under head coach Bill Clark and are bowl eligible for the first time since 2004 after beating Southern Miss, 45-24, last weekend.

Ken Bradley