NEWS: Birmingham-Southern will close at the end of the spring semester
The college's Board of Trustees made the unanimous decision on Tuesday
The final buzzer sounded on Birmingham-Southern’s 2023-24 season on Feb. 18 in a SAA Tournament loss to No. 2-seeded Berry College. Turns out, it wasn’t only the last game of the season. It was the last game in the program’s history.
Within the last hour, school officials at BSC announced the unfortunate decision to close the college’s doors following the current spring semester after 168 years of operation. A Division I school until 2007 before moving to Division III, the institution battled—and eventually succumbed—to financial issues. According to the breaking news report from D3sports.com, “The school's board of trustees voted unanimously to close the school after the loan program designed to help keep the school open failed to gain enough support in the Alabama legislature.”
BSC’s impending future was a major topic of discussion across Division III athletics for multiple years, with the school having neared closure on several instances. A couple of short-term lifelines allowed BSC to remain open through this year, despite the odds, but ultimately, the funding wasn’t there to continue. With just over 1,000 students and being a private college, BSC had seemingly been given yet another lifeline when the Alabama legislature pushed the idea of a loan program specifically put in place to help private institutions remain open, especially in the case of financial challenges. But ultimately, that never came to fruition for BSC, as the loan program did not win the support needed to pass in the Alabama House of Representatives.
The women’s basketball program went 5-21 overall and 2-12 in the SAA under first-year head coach Nyla Johnson this past year. The team was set to have six true seniors next season.
BSC’s closure drops the SAA down to seven members for the 2024-25 athletic year, with Trinity (TX) and Southwestern set to join starting in 2025-26. The state of Alabama now has just one Division III representative in Huntingdon, who is part of the CCS.
Report from D3Sports.com: https://d3sports.com/notables/2024/03/birmingham-southern-to-close
Report from AL.com: https://www.al.com/educationlab/2024/03/birmingham-southern-college-will-close-may-31-as-loan-bill-fails-to-gain-support.html