The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

To discuss conference expansion and dealing with head coaches (Rutgers situation)

We love our conference. CUSA has been a good home for us. We are dedicated to the future of CUSA and have several fine schools joining us.

(04-03-2013 12:00 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  We love our conference. CUSA has been a good home for us. We are dedicated to the future of CUSA and have several fine schools joining us.

Discussing conference affiliation is a losing proposition. I would suggest avoiding that questions, Mr. Mackin.

(04-03-2013 12:00 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  We love our conference. CUSA has been a good home for us. We are dedicated to the future of CUSA and have several fine schools joining us.

Oh, brother. Nobody is knocking on the door.

What?, I don't expect an AD to say anything different. It would be irresponsible for him to say "We really want to be in the Big East".

(04-03-2013 12:38 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  What?, I don't expect an AD to say anything different. It would be irresponsible for him to say "We really want to be in the Big East".

Especially since that would mean we would have no home for the football team

(04-03-2013 12:36 PM)KevMo4UAB Wrote:  

(04-03-2013 12:00 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  We love our conference. CUSA has been a good home for us. We are dedicated to the future of CUSA and have several fine schools joining us.

Oh, brother. Nobody is knocking on the door.

What do you want him to say.

I hate being stuck in this podunk conference!!! I'd be on the first red eye out of here if we get the call."

great way to stay in good graces with the people you are tied to for the moment. He can't say UAB is looking for anyway out, becuase then why should the conference do anything for us.

Its all politics and if you can't dance the dance you get lost in the music.

Mackin: "The reason we haven't moved is an economic issue and because we haven't been asked"

"We are very comfortable with where we are in the Conference USA"

(04-03-2013 12:49 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  Mackin: "The reason we haven't moved is an economic issue and because we haven't been asked"

"We are very comfortable with where we are in the Conference USA"

Well KevMo there you go. can't get no more blunt than that.

His economics argument makes sense. Why pay millions in exit fees and more millions in entrance fees to the new league when it's so unstable and will probably blow up again in the next couple of years?

Meanwhile us and USM can sit and collect all the exit fee money paid by the departing schools and concentrate on winning to improve our marketability for when the next wave comes.

& if we start winning consistently in football & basketball leading to increased attendance, etc, then we are much more marketable for other conference moves.

(04-03-2013 12:55 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  His economics argument makes sense. Why pay millions in exit fees and more millions in entrance fees to the new league when it's so unstable and will probably blow up again in the next couple of years?

Meanwhile us and USM can sit and collect all the exit fee money paid by the departing schools and concentrate on winning to improve our marketability for when the next wave comes.

You can bet that two schools is not going to get all the money by themselves.

As far as not being asked, I wonder if Mackin knows what the word "proactive" means.

(04-03-2013 01:26 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(04-03-2013 12:55 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  His economics argument makes sense. Why pay millions in exit fees and more millions in entrance fees to the new league when it's so unstable and will probably blow up again in the next couple of years?

Meanwhile us and USM can sit and collect all the exit fee money paid by the departing schools and concentrate on winning to improve our marketability for when the next wave comes.

You can bet that two schools is not going to get all the money by themselves.

As far as not being asked, I wonder if Mackin knows what the word "proactive" means.

The exit fees will at least be split UAB, USM, UTEP, Marshall and Rice. I don't know if ECU, Tulane and Tulsa get a piece from the teams that are leaving this year (UCF, Houston, SMU, Memphis.) Also, I don't know if the newcomers this year (FAU, FIU, UNT, UTSA) get a piece of the ECU, Tulane and Tulsa exit fees. I don't think ODU, Charlotte and WKU will get anything.

Does anyone know?

Who says he hasn't been proactive?

Who likes to bring up the time they asked the pretty girl out and got shot down?

Mackin is gonna sit back and relax for the next 2 or 3 years and hope his basketball and football hires worked out. In the meantime, he could at least show some effort in improving the athletic facilities(excluding the on-campus stadium). I dont have a clue what he does behind the scenes, but the only time i hear about him is when Blazertalk makes me aware he has an interview on the radio.

(04-03-2013 01:41 PM)BlazeNBham Wrote:  Mackin is gonna sit back and relax for the next 2 or 3 years and hope his basketball and football hires worked out. In the meantime, he could at least show some effort in improving the athletic facilities(excluding the on-campus stadium). I dont have a clue what he does behind the scenes, but the only time i hear about him is when Blazertalk makes me aware he has an interview on the radio.

Trust us...when you're the UAB AD, that exactly how you want things to be. Ann Reynolds tried the "flipping tables" approach and had nothing to show for it. The Neil Callaway and Mike Davis hires were plagued by information leaks to the wrong people at the wrong times and it gave the appearance that UAB was being publicly denied/granted permission.

Brian Mackin has the people in place to do business his way, and if you extrapolate the way the football and basketball hires went with potential upcoming campus projects related to athletics and/or student life we are in very good hands.

I would say the same thing for Banowsky, actually. He's built a firewall out west where the only circumstance where the MWC is going to go after UTEP is in a cooperative move and - while the defectors spend their millions to do whatever it is they're doing, Banowsky has marginalized the Sunbelt nearly out of existence. When the nBE starts to crumble under its own weight and unfulfilled promises of Aresco and they need things to stabilize (FAST!) once the B1G/ACC/B12 go on the prowl, there's only one player in the East.

Anyone remember the Sunbelt squawk in 2011 about overtaking CUSA in the GoF? Don't hear that anymore...

(04-03-2013 01:40 PM)HSV_BLAZER Wrote:  

(04-03-2013 01:26 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(04-03-2013 12:55 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  His economics argument makes sense. Why pay millions in exit fees and more millions in entrance fees to the new league when it's so unstable and will probably blow up again in the next couple of years?

Meanwhile us and USM can sit and collect all the exit fee money paid by the departing schools and concentrate on winning to improve our marketability for when the next wave comes.

You can bet that two schools is not going to get all the money by themselves.

As far as not being asked, I wonder if Mackin knows what the word "proactive" means.

The exit fees will at least be split UAB, USM, UTEP, Marshall and Rice. I don't know if ECU, Tulane and Tulsa get a piece from the teams that are leaving this year (UCF, Houston, SMU, Memphis.) Also, I don't know if the newcomers this year (FAU, FIU, UNT, UTSA) get a piece of the ECU, Tulane and Tulsa exit fees. I don't think ODU, Charlotte and WKU will get anything.

Does anyone know?

I think once you give notice you are officially out, so none of ECU, Tulane, Tulsa, UCF, Houston, SMU, or Memphis benefit. The 2013 teams officially join July 1, 2013 so they don't benefit. So I would guess that UAB, USM, UTEP, Marshall, and Rice would technically be the remaining members(as you said), but I don't know how the money would be distributed. They could even work a side deal to change the split as the old Big East did/is doing. Much of the exit fees may be held to cover any TV or other money shortages. I suspect the entrance fees ($1M? each from FAU, FIU, UNT, UTSA, ODU, Charlotte and WKU) are paid into the conference coffers usually spread out over a few years.

(04-03-2013 02:01 PM)blazr Wrote:  I would say the same thing for Banowsky, actually. He's built a firewall out west where the only circumstance where the MWC is going to go after UTEP is in a cooperative move and - while the defectors spend their millions to do whatever it is they're doing, Banowsky has marginalized the Sunbelt nearly out of existence. When the nBE starts to crumble under its own weight and unfulfilled promises of Aresco and they need things to stabilize (FAST!) once the B1G/ACC/B12 go on the prowl, there's only one player in the East.

Anyone remember the Sunbelt squawk in 2011 about overtaking CUSA in the GoF? Don't hear that anymore...

The "firewall" is the lack of value in moving to the MWC. If anything, Boise State built the firewall by getting a sweetheart deal from the MWC and preventing the other schools from profiting more.

The nBE won't collapse "under its own weight". What will happen is the ACC will collapse under internal struggles and external forces. Our last possible saving grace is to become a strong enough football and basketball power to appeal to the left-behinds in the ACC (Wake Forest, Duke, Miami, NC State) that we become more profitable to them then taking an ECU, and academically palatable enough.

ACC gets raided, and either they grab the attractive bits of Conference WTF or they get absorbed by it. The various remainders will be looking for a home and we can maybe pick some of them off. Keep an eye out for the main chance.

(04-03-2013 01:41 PM)BlazeNBham Wrote:  Mackin is gonna sit back and relax for the next 2 or 3 years and hope his basketball and football hires worked out. In the meantime, he could at least show some effort in improving the athletic facilities(excluding the on-campus stadium). I dont have a clue what he does behind the scenes, but the only time i hear about him is when Blazertalk makes me aware he has an interview on the radio.

You looked around campus lately? Track has a near new all purpose practice surface, although no home facilities. That's the biggest deficit I know of.

Softball, new field and clubhouse. Baseball, clubhouse and the new Barons field agreement. Soccer is on the campus plan. The football offices will come up next, and that leads into the OCS. The weight room is fine. The new athletic med/therapy is up, isn't it? Athletic/academic complex is new. Bartow is ok, I'd like to see some updates but its perfectly serviceable. Sand volleyball is up and running.

What facilities do you think Mackin should be concentrating on? Bowling alley and rifle range? He'll be looking for a WBB coach as his next priority hire. I think the rest is in pretty good shape.