Is the Alabama board of trustees finally ready to kill UAB football?

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UAB listed no annual debt service on athletics facilities in 2013 for the fourth-straight year -- a rarity in Division I sports. That's the point from UAB supporters: The board's investments have only been to keep the program alive and have never given it a chance to succeed.

Most notably, Jimbo Fisher agreed to a $600,000 deal after the 2006 season to become UAB's coach; half of the money would come from UAB boosters. At the time, Fisher was also considering becoming Nick Saban's first offensive coordinator at Alabama and joining Bobby Bowden as Florida State's offensive coordinator. The Birmingham News reported UAB was ready to send a plane to bring Fisher to the introductory news conference when Alabama trustees stopped the deal.

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Clark said he grew "concerned" about UAB's future given the answers he received in recent weeks when he asked the administration about extending his contract beyond the remaining two years. Clark said he could not return in 2015 with two years left on his contract. He sought assurances the program would still be around and was told the release of the study would be expedited.

At a Nov. 9 meeting with Watts, Clark said he was told to be patient and was commended by UAB's president for fighting to make the football program successful.

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Carol Garrison, UAB's president in 2011, wanted to build up campus life in part through a stadium. UAB proposed that the stadium would carry a debt service of $60 million to be repaid over 30 years with an annual debt service of $3.88 million. The stadium never came up for a formal vote.

The Alabama board said in a statement it could not justify the borrowed money because UAB football "has not generated sufficient student, fan or financial support to assure the viability of this project." Garrison resigned in 2012, the stadium was dead, and UAB football limped along to more irrelevance under the next losing coach.

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