ATLANTA (AP) – UAB was the first major college football program to shut down in nearly 20 years.
Chances are, the Blazers won’t be the last.
With the enormous cost of having a football team and the growing divide between the haves and the have-nots in college athletics, it’s inevitable that other schools will realize they simply can’t afford to stay on the gridiron.
If anything, UAB’s decision this week to throw in the towel on its money-draining program might make it easier for others to follow suit.
“The danger in one school dropping it is you never know what kind of domino effect that will have on other programs that may be struggling,” said Lynn Hickey, the athletic director at UTSA (Texas-San Antonio), where they started a football program three years ago. “It’s human nature that when someone opens the door, makes a big step, a big decision like that, sometimes that eases the pressure on other people who want to do that.”