clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Interesting Connections Within UA Board of Trustees and Companies Assessing UAB

And the hits just keep coming. AL.com is reporting that one of the BoT members has previous business ties to the PR firm that's been trying to cover for Watts and company:

Sard Verbinnen & Co, which put together detailed memos for how UAB should announce its decision as far back as September, previously worked with Birmingham-based Protective Life Corporation, whose chairman, president and chief executive officer is UA Board of Trustee John Johns, an Alabama graduate.

Two other trustees, Vanessa Leonard and Malcolm Portera, sit on Protective Life's Board of Directors.

Plenty more at the link above, but at this point the question is not whether there's a rabbit hole, instead it's just how far the hole goes down.

"By announcing post-season, UAB minimizes the risk of meeting disruption and mitigates any inference that the decision was driven by the Board of Trustees," the firm wrote in a memo addressed to Jim Bakken, the school's director of media relations.

Oh really?

Surely Alabama governor Robert Bentley will handle this situation with grace and aplomb.

During the meeting on Nurses Day at the state capital Governor Robert Bentley turned to the nursing students from UAB and said, "Do you guys have a football team up there?"

Bentley sits as head of the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees. Many UAB supporters believe pressure from the board led UAB President Dr. Ray Watts to terminate the football program. It's a claim the board has denied.

Well, that's awkward.