UAB Killed Football Program Due to Math Error

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is removing their NCAA football program due to poor mathematics on the financial cost of the team.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham will become the first FBS school in almost 20 years to remove their football program. Sadly, the financial reasons given for the move don’t add up. Literally. The math is flawed.

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According to a report by Vice Sports, the CarrSport report that led to the termination of the football program is widely flawed. Canceling the football program didn’t need to happen, at least not from a financial standpoint.

There are two key elements to this. The first is an accounting mistake. Costs for the football program aren’t the same as costs for the university. If the football team is simply writing a check to another department, like for renting office space or paying scholarships, then the university as a whole isn’t actually spending any money, it is just moving it around between departments.

The second key mistake was that revenue growth was forecast to be wildly low. Football revenue has grown steadily at a rate of about eight percent per year over the last few decades. UAB is claiming that they expect their football revenue to grow only about one percent total over a four-year period.

That is some very fuzzy math, and it is unlikely that this is just some simple mistake. Companies and sports teams have a history of skewing the accounting when they make unpopular decisions. It is much more likely that UAB is simply hiding behind the financial report to keep from telling everyone the true reasons for killing the football program.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is removing their NCAA football program due to poor mathematics on the financial cost of the team.

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