Will UAB run with the Bulls?

Saturday at Protective Stadium, first-year students from a record freshman class of 2,600 will lead the Blazers onto the field as part of UAB’s Run Out Squad for the home opener against ULM. It is the largest freshman class in school history — a 30% increase over the last two years. They will run through the tunnel of a downtown stadium that exists because a city refused to let its football program die.

They should know why that matters. So should the people searching for UAB’s next athletic director.

A school in UAB’s conference just defined it in dollars and sense. A UAB alum and Ph.D student then defined it as a matter of the head and heart. More on that later, but first, a quick detour to Tampa.

South Florida released its first return on investment and impact report this week, and the numbers should be required reading in Birmingham. For every dollar the university invested in Bulls athletics, the department returned $2.52 in value back to campus. In total, USF athletics generated $96 million in benefit to the university — $49 million in direct visitor spending, nearly $10 million in hotel revenue and $3.4 million in sales tax from visitors. Donor commitments jumped from $9.2 million to $14.3 million in a single fiscal year, setting records for major gifts and total donors. More than 21 million people watched USF on television last season — averaging more viewers per game than 13 Power Four schools. Nearly 40 percent of the student body attended a sporting event.

“We are laser focused on always being the absolute best stewards of the investment that all stakeholders continue to make in our programs,” USF CEO of Athletics Rob Higgins said. “... We firmly believe that South Florida Athletics can and will be a significant economic and marketing catalyst for not only the entire campus, but also for the local community.”

USF backed those numbers with action. Last November, the Board of Trustees approved a $16 million increase in student-athlete revenue sharing, pushing the program to the cap allowed under the House v. NCAA settlement. Memphis matched it — distributing $21.3 million to athletes this fiscal year, with $9 million to men’s basketball alone, the highest allocation in the American.

UAB plays in the same conference. But UAB and the American’s newer members will not receive a full media rights share until 2031. Five years. The university cannot wait for the television money to catch up. It needs to invest aggressively now — or find creative ways and a creative AD to close that gap before the window shuts.

Memphis athletic director Ed Scott has been transparent about why the Tigers are spending this way: to position the program for the next round of conference realignment.

USF and Memphis recognize the era they are in. They are building infrastructure to be ready if a spot opens in a higher-profile conference. UAB has the same opportunity — and less time to act on it.

UAB has been here before. A little more than a decade ago, the university shut down football — a 6-6, bowl-eligible team killed by administrators who called the sport “not sustainable.” Enrollment fell almost 2%. The backlash was immediate. What started as $17.2 million in pledges to bring the program back grew to nearly $48 million — raised by fans, donors and the city of Birmingham.

The university rode the wave — and it did real work. The administration restored the program, invested in facilities and steered UAB into the American Athletic Conference. Fans packed 45,212 into Legion Field for The Return. The community built Protective Stadium. Enrollment surpassed 20,000 for the first time in school history.

But between the momentum of the comeback and the realities of running an R1 research university through a pandemic, the connection between the administration and the community that saved the program faded. That is understandable. The timing is not. Revenue sharing, the House settlement and the next round of conference realignment demand more investment and more visible leadership — not less.

Count Protective Stadium — $175 million — and the community’s total investment in UAB athletics crosses $200 million. Fans, donors, the city of Birmingham and public financing built what UAB has today. South Florida just proved with data what Birmingham proved with its checkbook: a strong athletics department drives enrollment, visibility, revenue and civic identity.

The gap between UAB and its conference peers is not just dollars. It is whether the people running the university understand why Birmingham cares — and whether they can lead with that conviction. In Tampa, the community sees a university that maxed out its revenue-sharing cap, hired a CEO of Athletics, broke ground on a $348.5 million on-campus stadium and told stakeholders exactly how their investment was paying off. In Memphis, the community sees an athletic director willing to say out loud that the spending is designed to position the program for a bigger stage. Those fan bases are engaged because their leaders are out front — not just investing, but showing their communities where they are headed and why.

Birmingham has the same passion. More than $200 million and a decade of proof says so. What it needs is leadership that matches it — an athletic director empowered by the administration to engage this city as a partner, not a donor base, and a university willing to say out loud what Tampa and Memphis are already saying: this is where we are going. Come with us.

Before those freshmen run Saturday, they should hear from Meagan Belflower.

Belflower is a UAB Ph.D. student. She had a filmmaking career before college — lost it to health issues that required a major surgery. Multiple people told her she wasn’t college material. Ds and Cs on her high school transcript. But her mother was part of one of UAB’s early nursing cohorts, back when the campus had three buildings, and Belflower wanted the same school. She took the ACT in her 20s, sitting in a room full of 16-year-olds, got the score she needed and got in.

The first thing she wanted to do was go to a football game.

“That is where community at college is built,” Belflower said in a video posted to a UAB Football Facebook group. “Crowds of people wearing the same colors, cheering for the same people. Doesn’t matter your belief system or whatever, you’re all on the same team.”

At her first game, when the Blazers came out of the tunnel at Legion Field to play Troy, she started crying. People around her had no idea what was happening.

“That’s my team,” she said. “These are my colors. This is my university. This is my community. I was told that I shouldn’t be here, but guess what? Here I am.”

That was 2014. Later that same year, administrators killed the program. “I was robbed of my community,” Belflower said. “I was robbed of my team. I was robbed of my college experience.”

“But here is where my story and UAB’s converge,” Belflower said. “UAB was resurrected from the dead, and my gosh, was it a marvelous thing to see.”

She’s a Ph.D. student now at UAB. A course instructor. And that UAB football team did more than return. It won big — two conference championships. Multiple bowl victories. And finally, in 2021, a berth in the Independence Bowl to play nationally ranked and tradition-rich BYU on ABC.

The doubters were loud. UAB was unworthy of such an opponent, the story went.

“BYU said, ‘You don’t belong on the same field,’” Belflower said. “Just like people told me, ‘You’re not university material.’”

“Well, guess what?” Belflower said. “UAB said, ‘We belong here. We’re gonna snatch that Independence Bowl trophy, and we’re gonna walk home with it, because we deserve to be here.’ Just like I deserve to be here. Their story and my story, not much different.”

South Florida can measure its return on investment in dollars. Meagan Belflower is what that return looks like in a life. They are the same investment. The spreadsheet proves the value. The story proves why it matters. UAB’s next athletic director has to understand both — and the administration has to empower that person to lead with both.

You can already see what happens when this community hears that kind of conviction. Watch how fans have responded to Andy Kennedy as interim athletic director — not because he has all the answers, but because he is leading with the same passion they feel. Belflower said it in a Facebook video. Kennedy is showing it in real time. The energy is not gone. It is waiting for leadership to match it.

Those 2,600 freshmen should hear Belflower before they run Saturday. And the people searching for UAB’s next athletic director should hear her too — not as a question of strategy, but as a question of understanding: Do you know why they love this place? They see their own story in this place. They get to help write that story. They are part of it, and not just with their checkbooks or attendance. They are part of it to their core - and it is part of them.

That school, that football team? “That is my heart,” she said, decked out in UAB green and gold as she patted her chest. “UAB is where we make the impossible possible.”

The next AD should be the one running out of that tunnel with them.

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Tim Stephens’ coverage of the UAB AD search: Part 1: The Job | Part 2: The Profile | Part 3: The Obvious Names | Part 4: The Birmingham Connections | Part 5: The Basketball Background | Part 6: The Builders | Part 7: The Outside-the-Box Hire | Epilogue: The Dream List | Andy Kennedy has it right | To whom it may concern