The war of words between state treasurer Young Boozer III and supporters of Birmingham-Southern College continued over the weekend, with Boozer comparing the school’s standing to “a junk bond, one step above default.”

Boozer also took issue with the accusation that he’d said BSC was “not a good credit risk.” In a statement issued Sunday, he specified that his actual stated position is that it is a “terrible credit risk.”

A statement issued by Boozer’s office on Sunday appeared to continue the fallout from a Wednesday hearing that might have sealed the college’s fate. Earlier in October, Boozer denied BSC’s application for a multimillion-dollar loan from the state’s newly created Distressed Institutions of Higher Learning Revolving Loan Fund. Birmingham-Southern sued, arguing that Boozer had exceeded his authority and had demonstrated a pattern of acting in bad faith. But on Wednesday, Montgomery County Circuit Judge James Anderson said he was dismissing the suit.

On Friday, Birmingham-Southern President Daniel Coleman said in a letter that officials “have been working nonstop to explore every option for the future of this college.”

In his Sunday statement, Boozer accused Coleman of using “incendiary rhetoric” while attempting to “deflect blame and attack the Treasurer’s character in the court of public opinion.”

That appeared to be a reference to comments Coleman made Wednesday, after the dismissal of the suit. “While the Alabama Constitution provides for immunity to state officials, such immunity should not apply to those who act arbitrarily or capriciously, or in bad faith, or who have misinterpreted the law in question,” Coleman said.

Boozer argued that he had acted consistently throughout the process and that his denial of the loan had been in keeping with the law. Boozer said that he had “conducted a careful and thorough investigation of the creditworthiness of BSC and its ability to repay the loan.” Collateral became a sticking point, he said, particularly when it came to making sure the state had an undisputed claim on the collateral offered by the school.

“The Treasurer has never wavered from the denial based on insufficient collateral and the lack of a first perfected security interest in all collateral assets,” Boozer wrote. He cited a Moody’s credit rating of Caa2 as a junk bond equivalent. (Moody’s defines Caa-rated obligations as those that “are judged to be of poor standing and are subject to very high credit risk.”)

After BSC’s suit was dismissed, Coleman mentioned that an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court was being considered. As of Sunday, the court record didn’t show that such an appeal had been filed.

Legislators backing the loan for Birmingham-Southern, such as Sen. Rodger Smitherman, have speculated that the legislature could rewrite the new law establishing the Distressed Institutions of Higher Learning Revolving Loan Fund, giving the Treasurer less decision-making power in the process. It’s unclear whether the school can afford to wait for that process to play out.