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Full Version: Dan Wolken absolutely nails one
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nca...t/1752757/

"Each time the ACC puts out a trite statement with nothing to turn those empty promises into unbreakable bonds, it becomes more and more obvious: The future of the conference is at the mercy of Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and the SEC's Mike Slive. And until the ACC's schools agree to a so-called "grant of rights" like the once-shaky Big 12 did last year, those solidarity statements aren't worth the Internet bandwith it took to Tweet them.

A grant of rights, in case you haven't been following the realignment carousel for the past 2 ½ years, is powerful because it requires schools to sign their media rights to the conference for the length of the contract. In other words, if Oklahoma wanted to leave the Big 12, for instance, it couldn't bring its television rights with it to another league. In the case of the Big 12, that's about $200 million.

And that matters. That binds. That can be taken seriously."

I had no knowledge of the "grant of rights". Signing a conference's school to this makes a $10 million dollar buyout look like a pimple.

Realignment is, unfortunately, not over, and again unfortunately, UAB is not positioned to benefit as an active participant. As a domino, sure, and we might yet fail upwards, but the BoT has hamstrung us quite effectively.
UAB will be the perfect location to hurt the sec IF THE BIG12 OR EVEN THE BIG 10 COME TO PICK US AS PART OF THE CONFERENCE
We have not demonstrated the investment required to do such. If 5 years ago we were serious with a stadium and a coach, we would be in the Big 12. Instead, we are not a large enough dent in the Birmingham market to matter. We could be yet, but our timing was way off.
Does anyone see the problem with travel as far as fans. Hell, we barely get fans to travel well to surrounding states muchless most of the schools in the big10 or big 12. Even the ACC with its distance has a few closer schools.

I can't blame the other schools for leaving to better themselves financially, but if they would've held the line C-USA would be in a better position to bargain against the bigeast. Some folks may be tired of hearing it, but part of our problem is the BOT and not being able to invest in the program, and part of it is puttng a winning team on the field.
(12-09-2012 12:46 PM)UABFRENCHY Wrote: [ -> ]UAB will be the perfect location to hurt the sec IF THE BIG12 OR EVEN THE BIG 10 COME TO PICK US AS PART OF THE CONFERENCE


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Don't laugh. I would not sell ourselves short. I can go down the list of many teams that have been pulled up and show warts worse than some of ours. If a conference wanted a foot hold here UAB becomes more attractive and would gain instant credibility upon joining a more established league. Factor in the money you would get and the sky is the limit.
(12-09-2012 01:14 PM)rook360 Wrote: [ -> ]Does anyone see the problem with travel as far as fans. Hell, we barely get fans to travel well to surrounding states muchless most of the schools in the big10 or big 12. Even the ACC with its distance has a few closer schools.

They don't give a damn about that. They couldn't care less about the fans; all they care about is money.
I thought for sure this thread was about Wolken getting laid. I clicked it because I was curious as to what species.
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Let's just pretend for a moment that a Big 5 league actually approached UAB (which seems extraordinarily unlikely at this point), would the BOT let this happen?
As long as we are pretending...of course they would. They would do whatever it took to help UAB succeed and be on equal footing with Alabama.
(12-09-2012 08:47 PM)FNblazer Wrote: [ -> ]Let's just pretend for a moment that a Big 5 league actually approached UAB (which seems extraordinarily unlikely at this point), would the BOT let this happen?

Brian Mackin accepts and cites the authority he was granted to change conferences when the MWC merger appeared imminent (which does not cite a conference name).

The fact that it would make the bammers wet their pants in outraged fury is probably the strongest case we have for a Big Five invite.
Those conference bosses are very aware of the BOT issues regarding UAB football. As long as their presence in any "picture" of UAB as the "500lb gorilla" standing behind us and dominating our decision making, they will probably shy away from inviting UAB to join their league. Those of you in business know the desire when dealing with any company is to talk to the REAL decision makers from the start. I don't think they regard our President and AD to be in that position in athletics.
(12-10-2012 10:50 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote: [ -> ]Those conference bosses are very aware of the BOT issues regarding UAB football. As long as their presence in any "picture" of UAB as the "500lb gorilla" standing behind us and dominating our decision making, they will probably shy away from inviting UAB to join their league. Those of you in business know the desire when dealing with any company is to talk to the REAL decision makers from the start. I don't think they regard our President and AD to be in that position in athletics.

While I agree with everything you said, even if none of those factors existed it wouldn't matter at this point. Unless we're talking about the so-watered-down-it's-drowning Big East, the idea that UAB would be attractive enough to any other legitimate conference to draw a direct invitation is delusional. We can certainly blame where we are in some measure on the BOT, and we all have varying levels to which we assign that blame.

But purely as a moving-forward analysis in a hypothetical world where the BOT ceased to exist and we had full control over our own destiny, we have absolutely nothing attractive to offer a better conference (again, excluduing the Big East). The Birmingham market has to be discounted outright because, even if it is deemed stronger than the raw numbers would make it because it is an elite college football market, it is dominated by Alabama, Auburn and the SEC at a level that makes any other product in the market virtually worthless. Paul Finebaum, for Christ's sake, has become a big deal nationally solely on the back of that unfathomable domination.

We are dead in the water on this issue. I agree with almost everyone who says the BOT pushed us off the pier, but that's where we are. The only thing that can save us now is further defections from the ACC that cause the Big East to move again (or blow up entirely), and we end up mostly where we started. And I'll take it if somebody offers.
I would agree that there we don't have the proverbial snowball's chance of the SEC/Big 10/Big 12. The BE if it continues to be raided is a possibility. The ACC is possible I suppose, but a long shot.

Basically, all we can do is be ready to move if the dominos fall in a way that allows us to. I'm not holding my breath. OTOH, I can't help but think we are now positioned in the upper tier of today's C-USA, for what that's worth.
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