The UAB Blazers football program represents the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the sport of American football. In the 2017 season, the Blazers will compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the West Division of Conference USA. The team will be coached by Bill Clark, who also coached the 2014 Blazers, the team's most recent season. The Blazers play their home games at Legion Field, which has a seating capacity of 71,594. The Blazers have made two postseason bowl appearances. On November 30, 2014, a day after the Blazers had become bowl eligible for the first time since 2004, Sports Illustrated reported that UAB was planning to fire athletic director Brian Mackin and end the football program. On December 2, UAB president Ray Watts officially announced that the school would be shutting down the football program, as well as the bowling and rifle programs, at the end of the 2014–15 academic year. He stated that the main reason for the shutdown was the rapidly increasing cost to field a competitive football team.