BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Jan Weisberg prefers his team to play on the road. It’s an unusual preference for a coach, especially during do-or-die postseason play. But in this particular case, he believes it’s for the best.
“Just with all the emotions that we’ve been facing,” Weisberg said, “to not have that one on our back of, ‘God, this could be the last game in this dugout.’”
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Weisberg’s Birmingham-Southern College Panthers have been the fourth-winningest baseball program in NCAA Division III since 2010, a run that features nine 30-win seasons (including this season), nine conference championships and a national runner-up finish five years ago.
But the stakes of this year’s postseason are higher than ever. When Birmingham-Southern’s season ends, it will be the end of the program altogether. The 1,300-student college founded in 1856 will close May 31 after a nearly two-year battle to replenish its depleted endowment to stay afloat. In October, the Alabama state treasurer declined a $30 million loan, and the school officially voted in late March to close. So if the baseball team continues to win, it will play for a school that no longer exists.
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BuyBirmingham-Southern’s fate is another blow to small liberal arts institutions, many of which are closing, merging or scaling back to cut costs. According to athletic director Kyndall Waters, schools such as Birmingham-Southern have faced an uphill battle since the 2007 recession as enrollment in liberal arts schools and fundraising have steadily declined while operating costs have increased, issues that have accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic.
In total, 279 individual, unique campuses in the private nonprofit sector have closed since 2018, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. Twenty-three university systems have closed since 2018, or about five small liberal arts college closings per year, and that soon will include Birmingham-Southern.
According to a SHEEOA case study conducted in 2022 and updated in 2023, 52 percent of students who were displaced as a result of school closures never re-enrolled at other institutions. Of the 48 percent who did, 67 percent never completed their education. Statistically speaking, Birmingham-Southern’s NCAA Tournament run could be the final collegiate experience for several players.
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Still, Weisberg and his team play on, trying to channel the closure into a potentially historic moment.
“It was a release, and I think they’ve played with that,” Weisberg said of playing baseball during this time.
Since March 26, the day Birmingham-Southern officially announced it would close, the baseball team has gone 17-4. A sense of togetherness has taken over the team, but there’s another feeling, too: freedom. It’s not the desired outcome, but it has been channeled into success on the field, as the team departs Wednesday for Granville, Ohio, for the Super Regional round and a best-of-three series against Denison University, with a spot in the College World Series on the line.
“They’re playing for freedom, for fun,” Weisberg said.
Waters is Birmingham through and through.
A Birmingham native, she played volleyball at Birmingham-Southern, graduated in 2005 and has spent her entire administrative career at the school, including serving as the athletic director since 2016. She has been on the front lines trying to save her alma mater for the past two years.
“It’s really been a labor of love for me,” Waters said. “It’s been difficult, honestly. Everyone here at Birmingham-Southern has faced enormous challenges, just from a well-being standpoint and trying to keep it student-focused and making sure our students are well taken care of. That’s what BSC has been about since the beginning, so it’s not surprising, but it has been stressful.”
At one point in 2023, Waters thought the college would be saved. Birmingham-Southern had been engaged in an 18-month effort to secure a $30 million loan from the state via the Distressed Institutions of Higher Learning Revolving Loan Program, established by the Alabama Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey in June 2023. The original act put state treasurer Young Boozer in charge of the program, for which BSC met the statutory qualifications, including continuous operation for at least 50 years, impact on the community, assets to pledge as collateral and a plan for returning to good financial standing.
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But after months of delay, Boozer denied the loan in October. The $30 million set aside for the fund remains unused, according to Birmingham-Southern’s administration.
So, how did the school get here? Its endowment had fallen below $50 million, but it had a goal to reach $200 million. School president Daniel Coleman had $50 million in assurances from alumni and donors but made a promise not to take any money until the school reached $100 million. The $30 million loan from the state would’ve given the college more time to reach that mark, and it could’ve cashed in on the assurances and been $50 million away from its goal.
But the college ran out of time, and the administration didn’t want to enter the 2024-25 school year facing uncertainty.
“To lose this type of educational experience is really, really devastating and a tragedy for our state,” Waters said. “It’s really a shame that the people who have the ability to make a difference didn’t. And that’s donors, our state government or local entities not realizing how important having an option like this is for the students of Alabama and of the southern region.”
A statement announcing the school’s closure was released the same week its students were on spring break. Weisberg met Waters in her office early that morning and heard the news. Weisberg wanted to call a team meeting to make sure his players heard the news from him and not via email. The players had been living in uncertainty all school year about the future of the college, but they finally had their answer.
“A lot of sadness, a lot of crying,” Weisberg said of the team meeting.
The team had an off day March 27, but the players and coaches were together, and Weisberg suggested they go into the batting cage as a team. Hitting wasn’t required, but he just wanted his players to be around one another for 20 minutes. It turned into what Weisberg described as the best hitting workout he had seen in more than two months.
“I just told them, quite simply, that they have a choice to make,” Weisberg said. “They can allow unfortunate circumstances to lead them to a place where they can quit, or they can just move on and finish strong.”
After the announcement, the team had a much-needed trip to Kentucky on March 29 and won two of three games against Centre College. Then, on April 2, came a trip to
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Off to the right of the home-side dugout is an open patio known as Hulse Patio Social Club — complete with a grill, smoker and deep fryer — where parents cook before, during and after games. They feed fans, Birmingham-Southern players and opposing players.
That weekend, the club fed a large crowd as the Panthers took two of three games. Junior catcher Shane Nelson was approached by a former player who wore his same No. 9 and told him how proud he was of the team’s representation of the program. In the weeks since, Weisberg’s phone has been buzzing with support and well wishes from coaches and former players across the country.
“It was the most fun atmosphere I’ve ever gotten to play in,” Nelson said. “Everybody wasn’t all sad, but they were all behind us, giving us the inspiration and the energy that we needed. Just shows that this program has meant a lot to a lot of people, and it has affected everybody in the city of Birmingham.”
Still, there has been adversity amid the support. The Panthers lost in the first round of the Southern Athletic Association conference tournament but still earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which wasn’t a universally accepted seeding.
“A lot of people doubted our ability, our bid and our deserving of being in the tournament,” Waters said.
The Panthers made the most of their opportunity in the Regional with a 3-0 record, including a 4-2 win over No. 1 seed Spalding.
“That was a performance of Birmingham-Southern baseball as we’ve known it for years,” Waters said.
Now another trip for the Super Regional is on the schedule. Beyond baseball, it’s just another opportunity for this group to spend time together before most of the players and coaches go their separate ways.
On the field, it’s another chance and perhaps the last chance to channel a long stretch of negativity and turn it into a triumphant finale. Waters said Blue Eyes Entertainment, the group behind shows such as “Two-A-Days,” “Titletown High” and “A Season With” will follow the Panthers for the remainder of their season.
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“These guys have been through so much in the last two years,” Weisberg said. “That’s one reason I was so happy when we made it (to the Super Regional) because they have had so much negative emotion, uncertainty, and we find out we’re closing, and there was sadness and pain. But then when they see the joy they had, and we made it, and to see that negative emotion be replaced by positive ones was awesome.”
The team’s 12 seniors, including pitcher Hansen McCown, will miss graduation to play this weekend in hopes of continuing their season. The end of the season will be the end of baseball for McCown, a business major who has accepted a position with BCR Wealth Strategies in nearby Vestavia Hills, Ala., and he hopes to end on a historic note.
“I’ve yet to make a World Series,” McCown said. “To do this as the very last team to have something that not only baseball fans care for but just people that have been to the school, went here, and just something to just pull for one last time for Birmingham, I think it’s really special.”
For the non-seniors like Nelson, there’s the challenge of putting everything into the rest of this season while trying to figure out where to attend college next year, regardless of whether they continue playing baseball. Waters said Birmingham-Southern carries about 400 student-athletes, and those who have eligibility remaining are in the transfer portal in hopes of finding a new home.
They also will try to find a fit like they have with Birmingham-Southern.
“Every professor I’ve ever had knows me and remembers me,” Nelson said. “If someone isn’t, I’d suggest thinking about a liberal arts school. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had. I know pretty much everybody at the school. It’s all family.”
Like the players, Waters and Weisberg are trying to figure out their next steps. Waters is unsure if she’ll continue in athletics but hopes to stay local. She’s focusing on making sure the college’s affairs are in order before May 31.
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“No one really knows how much work goes into closing a college,” Waters said. “It’s a lot.”
Weisberg would be open to coaching again, but only for the right opportunity. But first, he and Waters see their obligation as being to the student-athletes, whether that’s trying to lead them to a championship or helping find homes in the portal.
Fewer than 10 of the 27 baseball players who have eligibility remaining have committed to another program, although a few more have serious interest.
With a trip to the College World Series on the line, Weisberg doesn’t feel the pressure to deliver an all-time speech to his team. Rather, he expects his players to follow their mantra: “Don’t stop the train.” That’s self-explanatory.
As Weisberg stood on his team’s home field recently and looked across the back wall lined with accomplishments from the last decade and a half, it’s easy to understand what this program and college have meant.
“What a special time it was,” he said.
(Top photo courtesy of Transylvania University Athletics)
