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UAB National Alumni Society President Wes Smith speaks at a Jan. 9, 2014 press conference in Birmingham, Alabama, to announce the formation of an Athletics Assessment Task Force, chaired by Smith, to study the school's decision to kill its football, rifle and bowling programs. (Frank Couch/fcouch@al.com)

(Frank Couch)

CarrSports Consulting "clearly indicated the decision" to kill UAB football, rifle and bowling "was made in August," according to an email sent Monday from Wes Smith, chairman of the UAB Athletics Assessment Task Force, to other Task Force members.

Smith acknowledged to AL.com Friday that he sent the email but declined further comment.

On Monday, in a story published at 9:04 a.m., AL.com reported that an outside PR firm, Sard Verbinnen & Co., had prepared detailed plans for UAB to announce in September of 2014 that the school was eliminating the three programs.

At 10:22 a.m., Task Force member Pamela Paustian sent an email to the other members: Smith, Tandy Dolin Petrov, Shannon Ealy, Harold P. Jones, Frank Messina, Anjali A Wagle, Oliver Robinson and Don Hire. Her email included a link to the AL.com story and no further message.

At 10:24 a.m., Smith sent the following email reply to the other Task Force members:

"Yes, this is something that I shared with all of you after I had the brief, courtesy meeting with Carr. They clearly indicated the decision was made in August but they recommended it not be announced until after the season. Pam, I am not sure if you were at the meeting where I shared this with the team."

AL.com has learned that Smith, without the other Task Force members present, met with Bill Carr and his CarrSports Consulting team on Feb. 27, 2015.

Smith's Monday email supports one of the documents obtained by AL.com -- a Sept. 5, 2014 letter from Bill Carr to UAB director of media relations Jim Bakken. In that letter, Carr discussed the downside of announcing the end of UAB football during the season and wrote, "CarrSports recommends that notification be delivered as soon as possible after conclusion of football's regular season."

Smith's email contradicts a Monday statement from UAB President Ray Watts. In that statement, Watts denied a claim by State Rep. Jack Williams that "the football decision was made prior to the 2014 season. This is categorically untrue."