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UAB shuts down football program

UAB student Mallory Sisk, center, chants with other demonstrators protesting the possible shutdown of the football program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014, in Birmingham, Ala. Several hundred students, athletes and fans marched to the administration building on the third straight day of protests on campus. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves) UAB student Mallory Sisk, center, chants with other demonstrators protesting the possible shutdown of the football program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014, in Birmingham, Ala. Several hundred students, athletes and fans marched to the administration building on the third straight day of protests on campus. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)

By Associated Press December 2, 2014 1 min read

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – UAB is shutting down the football program.

The university announced the decision Tuesday minutes after President Ray Watts met with the Blazers players and coaches. UAB made the decision after a campus-wide study conducted by a consulting firm over the past year.

Watts says financial realities “are starker than ever and demand that we take decisive action for the greater good of the athletic department and UAB.”

He says UAB subdisizes two-thirds of the $30 million annual operating budget.

Several hundred UAB students and fans gathered and marched through campus the past three days showing their support of the program.