It's not the program, its the leadership. UAB is a campus of the University of Alabama system. They share their board of trustees with the Crimson Tide. When Nick Saban is whispering in their ears, seeing your program as money that could instead go toward buying him a gold-plated bathroom next to his office, and Paul Bryant Jr is looking to exact revenge for a decades-old grudge, and the entire board of trustees comes from Tuscaloosa, your program doesn't stand a chance.