CFB Playoff Report: Year One

Sports Talk We are officially one year in to the new college football playoff system with its new committee, and one thing is very clear…clarity is much needed!

Going into the final week of the college football regular season, the rankings had 10-1 TCU at number 3, 12-0 Florida State at number 4, 11-1 Ohio State at number 5, and 10-1 Baylor at number 6.

All 5 teams won their last game of the season, however the kicker in this whole situation is that TCU and Baylor’s final games didn’t include a conference championship game due to the fact that it doesn’t exist in the BIG 12.

The final rankings completely shafted the BIG 12 Conference, as TCU and Baylor were bumped back to the 6 and 5 spot respectively, leaving them on the outside looking in to number 3 Florida State and number 4 Ohio State.

UAB Cans Football Program

UAB FOOTBALL PROGRAM SHUT DOWN 12-2-14The University of Alabama at Birmingham has officially made the decision to pull the plug on their football program, citing financial reasons.

This decision was made after UAB had a consulting firm do a campus-wide study over the past year to determine whether or not keeping a football program was fiscally responsible.

In a statement from the University, UAB explains, “From an operating budget standpoint alone, the difference between maintaining and eliminating football is more than $27 million over the next five years; this is in addition to the existing $100 million institutional subsidy.” The University went on to explain, “This investment does not include additional necessary capital improvements for facilities, which is estimated at $22 million for football facilities alone, including a field house, indoor practice facility and a turf field. This $22 million investment would not include an on-campus stadium.”

University President Ray Watts defended the decision, saying, “While this will be a challenging transition for the UAB family, the financial picture made our decision very clear. 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.”

Needless to say, the students and student-atheletes don’t see it the same way as Watts.