FB: Southern Athletic Association

[Ron Boerger]

Happy New Year to all.  Here's an nice story on first-year assistant coach (WR) Shelby Denning of Sewanee, who has been invited back for her second season with the school next year.  That's right; she's one of the few female coaches in college football.  I wish Coach Denning and the team well in 2023. 

[BSCpanthers]

Word on the street is that the BSC financial situation news will be pushed to March.  This sucks for so many reasons.  In my opinion, the delay is a sign of bad news, not good.  If it were good news, they would have been excited to put it out and start moving forward.  Waiting until March actually makes it more difficult to move forward, even if it is good news at that time.

[UMHB03]

Merry Christmas my SAA brethren. 

Right now it looks like BSC will make it through this situation.  So hopefully it will become official mid-January and we can return to worrying about conference championships and not if there will be class in September.

Wow, is that a realistic possibility at BSC? 

[BSCpanthers]

Merry Christmas my SAA brethren. 

Right now it looks like BSC will make it through this situation.  So hopefully it will become official mid-January and we can return to worrying about conference championships and not if there will be class in September.

Wow, is that a realistic possibility at BSC? 

Unfortunately yes, here is the initial news report.

https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2022/12/birmingham-southern-college-in-financial-distress-in-danger-of-closing-in-2023-lawmakers-say.html

[cush]

Would the state of Alabama take over Birmingham southern college and turn it into a public liberal arts school like st Mary's college of Maryland ? Seems like that is the better move for everyone, might change the name to Alabama College with the state takeover.

[jknezek]

Would the state of Alabama take over Birmingham southern college and turn it into a public liberal arts school like st Mary's college of Maryland ? Seems like that is the better move for everyone, might change the name to Alabama College with the state takeover.

I think there is not much chance of that happening. It would cost the state money, and Alabama is very low tax, low service oriented state. If B-SC can't raise the funds, they are going to be out of luck. Of course, from a creditor point of view, that will suck as well because while the campus is very pretty, it's not in a nice area. So the liquidation value of the property is not going to be very high.

The best shot would be for UAB to take it over as an "honors college" campus. But again, given this state's focus on Alabama and Auburn, schools like UAB, UAH, Troy... they are all fighting for scraps of higher education money. It might be hard to get approval.

[awadelewis]

I think there is not much chance of that happening. It would cost the state money, and Alabama is very low tax, low service oriented state. If B-SC can't raise the funds, they are going to be out of luck. Of course, from a creditor point of view, that will suck as well because while the campus is very pretty, it's not in a nice area. So the liquidation value of the property is not going to be very high.

I'd concur about there not being much chance of state takeover at B-SC.  They've gotten a rather lack-luster response regarding a bailout from both Birmingham-area state legislators and Jefferson County government.  That doesn't bode well for anything larger.

I teach at a small state college in the Huntsville area and the state budget for higher education is tight for us, with most of the smaller campuses fighting over the few crumbs left over after the flagships (Auburn, Alabama) and regional comprehensives (UA-B, South Alabama, UA-H, Troy, Jacksonville State) get their cut of the pie. 

[cush]

I don't believe it would be wise for the state of Alabama to let Birmingham southern close. It just seems like it would make more sense to become a public liberal arts school instead of giving them money outright. I believe they would be the only division 3 public school in the state. I am surprised BSC hasn't been able to fundraise better from foundations or very wealthy benefactors. :

[Ralph Turner]

...perhaps the Foundations and wealthy benefactors have assessed the stewardship of the University's resources by the current administration over the past several years and will forego future opportunities.

[Ron Boerger]

I don't believe it would be wise for the state of Alabama to let Birmingham southern close. It just seems like it would make more sense to become a public liberal arts school instead of giving them money outright. I believe they would be the only division 3 public school in the state. I am surprised BSC hasn't been able to fundraise better from foundations or very wealthy benefactors. :

When you burn endowments the way the school has done in the past (e.g. the spending spree on facilities) and repeatedly incur financial difficulties, it's hard to convince donors that further contributions will be well spent.  And it's not a wealthy area to begin with; median household income of $39,403 in 2021 dollars and 25.5% of the population at the poverty level (per US Census Bureau) is well below the national average ($69,201/11.6%).  It's a tough situation for the school to recover from ... again.

[jknezek]

I don't believe it would be wise for the state of Alabama to let Birmingham southern close. It just seems like it would make more sense to become a public liberal arts school instead of giving them money outright. I believe they would be the only division 3 public school in the state. I am surprised BSC hasn't been able to fundraise better from foundations or very wealthy benefactors. :

When you burn endowments the way the school has done in the past (e.g. the spending spree on facilities) and repeatedly incur financial difficulties, it's hard to convince donors that further contributions will be well spent.  And it's not a wealthy area to begin with; median household income of $39,403 in 2021 dollars and 25.5% of the population at the poverty level (per US Census Bureau) is well below the national average ($69,201/11.6%).  It's a tough situation for the school to recover from ... again.

Eh. The alumni don't live near the school. That's misleading. The alumni do pretty well, and I suspect very, very few of them come from or move back to the surrounding area. That area around Legion Field/B-SC is low income, but I suspect the education level of the residents doesn't include many college grads.

But I think you are right. There is a lot of fatigue from repeated crisis over the last 20 years. And a good part of the problem is a lot of the local alumni are more partial to whichever football school they grew up rooting for than their alma mater. I know several alums that live in the area that haven't been back since they graduated, but will spend every other Fall Saturday tailgating in Tuscaloosa or Auburn on family season tickets.

[awadelewis]

When you burn endowments the way the school has done in the past (e.g. the spending spree on facilities) and repeatedly incur financial difficulties, it's hard to convince donors that further contributions will be well spent.  And it's not a wealthy area to begin with; median household income of $39,403 in 2021 dollars and 25.5% of the population at the poverty level (per US Census Bureau) is well below the national average ($69,201/11.6%).  It's a tough situation for the school to recover from ... again.

B-SC is in the category of high-risk institutions that you find in most surveys in the higher-education press: very traditional small liberal arts college that is tuition dependent with a weak endowment.    B-SC's endowment was last reported at $49M, vs. Hendrix, Centre, Sewanee, and Rhodes in the $200M-$430M range and Trinity with over $1.2B in endowment.    That hurts. And fund-raising gets hard given how they over-dipped from that endowment in the past. 

The demographics don't help any as just over 1/2 of B-SC's student population is from the state of Alabama. Means they're competing for students not only with the flagship institutions but a number of pretty good regional comprehensive schools.   It's going to be a hard road for that school to travel.

The other SAA institution that worries me is Millsaps.   They've been going through similar economic struggles and family/friends in Jackson tell me they have some serious enrollment worries.   I get the feeling they're one mis-step away from being in the same straits as B-SC.

BTW, Huntingdon in Montgomery is the other D3 school in Alabama.

[Ralph Turner]

Millsaps is on my radar too.

[cush]

The state government of Alabama and Mississippi could do worse things than try to save Birmingham southern and millsaps from closing  if needed. Got to believe having a good division 3 liberal arts college is beneficial to each state

[Ron Boerger]

The state government of Alabama and Mississippi could do worse things than try to save Birmingham southern and millsaps from closing  if needed. Got to believe having a good division 3 liberal arts college is beneficial to each state

Given the current political leadership in both states, I would have a hard time believing either would give a damn about two small private liberal arts colleges.