One of the local Birmingham stations did an "Investigative" report of UAb football last night, but I can't find a link to it. Basically they spoke about the "Build it and they will come" attitude for building an OCS. That program has never had support on it's on. The largest home game ever was about 10 years ago, when then American Idol winner Ruben Studdard sang during halftime, after halftime, half the people left. I know cause I was there.

Their other big attendance games have been against Memphis, USM and Troy, all bringing in quite a few fans of their own. Now Memphis and Troy are off the schedule, USM is still there but currently not the USM we all know and love. UAb football is in a lot of trouble, they have a BoT that could care less they exist, they get no community support and get very little donations, they have bad facilities and play in a bad, yet historical, stadium. If they make to many complaints, it's more likely they the BoT shuts them down instead of building them an OCS.

(12-17-2013 04:00 PM)Usajags Wrote:  One of the local Birmingham stations did an "Investigative" report of UAb football last night, but I can't find a link to it. Basically they spoke about the "Build it and they will come" attitude for building an OCS. That program has never had support on it's on. The largest home game ever was about 10 years ago, when then American Idol winner Ruben Studdard sang during halftime, after halftime, half the people left. I know cause I was there.

Their other big attendance games have been against Memphis, USM and Troy, all bringing in quite a few fans of their own. Now Memphis and Troy are off the schedule, USM is still there but currently not the USM we all know and love. UAb football is in a lot of trouble, they have a BoT that could care less they exist, they get no community support and get very little donations, they have bad facilities and play in a bad, yet historical, stadium. If they make to many complaints, it's more likely they the BoT shuts them down instead of building them an OCS.

Little Bear cant stay on that board forever.

I'm not worried about it... It doesn't effect Troy whether we play it not... Their loss.

So about GSU vs UAB...would be great if both programs are turned around by then...

(12-17-2013 05:33 PM)panama Wrote:  So about GSU vs UAB...would be great if both programs are turned around by then...

Well 2 games versus UAB really should give you an excellent chance to boost your W-L percentage. They've only won 2 OOC games in the last 8 years.

And haven't won a road OOC game in even longer.

With UAb off of Troy's schedule, it gives a chance for the Troy-USA game to pick-up some attention. UAb will be left out of any in-state conversation and in turn make their program mean even less to local media.

Not sure why they have not tried to get a series going with Samford or Jax St. Other then the fact that they would probably lose both of those games.

Wow, this sure is a pile up on UAB thread as if they owe someone something. Never mind.

You have to realize that two of us share a state with UAb and have dealt with their program and fans. They harp on their history in basketball, which is impressive, but they believe they deserve something more because of it. They have done nothing in football and when you call them out on it, they get all pissy. I have been baned from the CUSA board due to my presenting the facts that their program is a shame.

And that hate it that I type "UAb" almost as much as some hate "ULL".

(12-17-2013 07:20 PM)Usajags Wrote:  And haven't won a road OOC game in even longer.

With UAb off of Troy's schedule, it gives a chance for the Troy-USA game to pick-up some attention. UAb will be left out of any in-state conversation and in turn make their program mean even less to local media.

Not sure why they have not tried to get a series going with Samford or Jax St. Other then the fact that they would probably lose both of those games.

We play them in 2014 so they arnt off our schedule yet.

So they will get one more home game of 28k+ then quit playing Troy.... Eventually they will show back up on our schedule. They stopped playing us in the mid 00s for a couple years then started up play again.

(12-17-2013 07:54 PM)Usajags Wrote:  You have to realize that two of us share a state with UAb and have dealt with their program and fans. They harp on their history in basketball, which is impressive, but they believe they deserve something more because of it. They have done nothing in football and when you call them out on it, they get all pissy. I have been baned from the CUSA board due to my presenting the facts that their program is a shame.

And that hate it that I type "UAb" almost as much as some hate "ULL".

There isnt a program in America that could have done better with their circumstances. None.

(12-17-2013 08:33 PM)panama Wrote:  

(12-17-2013 07:54 PM)Usajags Wrote:  You have to realize that two of us share a state with UAb and have dealt with their program and fans. They harp on their history in basketball, which is impressive, but they believe they deserve something more because of it. They have done nothing in football and when you call them out on it, they get all pissy. I have been baned from the CUSA board due to my presenting the facts that their program is a shame.

And that hate it that I type "UAb" almost as much as some hate "ULL".

There isnt a program in America that could have done better with their circumstances. None.

I disagree with that. They have made bad decisions that have nothing to do with the BoT. They have no donors, because even the doctors that have gone through that school could care less about the program.

It must be great living in your head

(12-17-2013 09:25 PM)panama Wrote:  It must be great living in your head

He ain't wrong... Their support is very low. Most are Bamers.

Have you seen their athletics facilities outside of basketball? I've seen nicer HS baseball stadiums.

Panama, you are incorrect on this one. UAB has handicaps, as all of our schools do, but they have advantages that they squander. They have mismanaged their community relations so spectacularly that they drew roughly the same as Samford University, a private FCS school in Birmingham (UAB actually got outdrawn twice this year by Samford). How does a FBS school in a million plus metro where college football is king and they are the only game in town manage to draw under 10,000 fans to a games several times in a season? I get that everyone in Birmingham supports Bama, but USA and Troy have to deal with that too. UAB and USA both play in off campus old stadiums (granted UAB's is in a worse neighborhood). Both are largely commuter schools. I have no idea why UAB stinks so bad.

If I'm on the UAB board, I don't think I'd vote for a 50-75 million dollar outlay for an OCS with game attendance hovering at 10k. How can that be justified? By the way, I don't think USA should be building an OCS until we can get our attendance above 20k.

The bigger issue with UAB is that the school's failure is now institutionalized; in other words, the school has a reputation for being a loser in football. UAB has had losing records in 15-18 FBS seasons, including the last 8 years. Attendance has been plummeting.

I'm beginning to wonder if football is viable at UAB.

(12-17-2013 10:14 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  Panama, you are incorrect on this one. UAB has handicaps, as all of our schools do, but they have advantages that they squander. They have mismanaged their community relations so spectacularly that they drew roughly the same as Samford University, a private FCS school in Birmingham (UAB actually got outdrawn twice this year by Samford). How does a FBS school in a million plus metro where college football is king and they are the only game in town manage to draw under 10,000 fans to a games several times in a season? I get that everyone in Birmingham supports Bama, but USA and Troy have to deal with that too. UAB and USA both play in off campus old stadiums (granted UAB's is in a worse neighborhood). Both are largely commuter schools. I have no idea why UAB stinks so bad.

If I'm on the UAB board, I don't think I'd vote for a 50-75 million dollar outlay for an OCS with game attendance hovering at 10k. How can that be justified? By the way, I don't think USA should be building an OCS until we can get our attendance above 20k.

The bigger issue with UAB is that the school's failure is now institutionalized; in other words, the school has a reputation for being a loser in football. UAB has had losing records in 15-18 FBS seasons, including the last 8 years. Attendance has been plummeting.

I'm beginning to wonder if football is viable at UAB.

UAB's major problem happened in 2007 when we weren't allowed to hire Jimbo Fisher and hired Neil Callaway instead. That was the day that our school and the AL Board of Trustees told what supporters/donors/fans we had that they didn't care about football and weren't going to support it. Ever since then the program has been in a downward spiral with zero facility upgrades. Pretty much zero chance for success that way without a miracle.

As far as the bolded quote goes:

There's really not a UAB board. It is some random people who support another school that for some reason make decisions for us. It's like if a bunch of Auburn, Troy, Alabama, etc graduates who are actively involved in those other colleges (and not involved in South Alabama's) for whatever reason made all of the financial decisions for South Alabama's athletic program. It really just doesn't make any sense at all. As far as attendance goes, game attendance wasn't at 10k before our program was basically told to stop being supported. UAB should have had a stadium built years ago and other small facility upgrades when it actually had decent momentum and 20-24k fans every year. The whole attendance argument is just something after the fact now that the board uses to try to justify rejecting everything.

It's like a restaurant owner telling customers they have to support a third-rate product before they will update it to be competitive with other restaurants in the area. Businesses don't work that way and neither do college athletics. You have to put money in to get anything out of it. Football is an arms race.

The handicaps South Alabama faces aren't even in the same ballpark as what UAB deals with. Could the UAB administration do something better? I think to some degree they could, but with the current situation and under this BOT I believe it is nearly impossible for UAB to have any real success in football unless the board suddenly has a change of heart or we hire some miracle coach. It's hard enough winning D1 football games as it is, but it is much harder when you have your hands tied behind your back trying to recruit players.

And how is it even possible that the same board that runs the most successful college football program and one of the overall top athletic programs in the country somehow manages their other school to be near dead last in FBS football. If I was an outsider looking in I would have to guess it is because they don't want the other one to even be playing football.

Sorry to invade your thread

UAB faces more challenges than a lot of Sun Belt schools faced combined.

Imagine being a ULL or ULM fan and having LSU control your every move. Imagine being a Texas State fan and the University of Texas made a lot of your important decisions.

At least we can build our own programs through our own board of trustees, and can work to get the right people appointed to it. UAB will never be able to do that.

(12-17-2013 08:44 PM)Usajags Wrote:  

(12-17-2013 08:33 PM)panama Wrote:  

(12-17-2013 07:54 PM)Usajags Wrote:  You have to realize that two of us share a state with UAb and have dealt with their program and fans. They harp on their history in basketball, which is impressive, but they believe they deserve something more because of it. They have done nothing in football and when you call them out on it, they get all pissy. I have been baned from the CUSA board due to my presenting the facts that their program is a shame.

And that hate it that I type "UAb" almost as much as some hate "ULL".

There isnt a program in America that could have done better with their circumstances. None.

I disagree with that. They have made bad decisions that have nothing to do with the BoT. They have no donors, because even the doctors that have gone through that school could care less about the program.

You realize that a majority of the physicians that we produce go somewhere else for undergrad whom they stay loyal to, right? So, yeah, most of the MDs we produce couldn't care less because they were there for professional school and not during their formative college years.

(12-17-2013 07:10 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  Well 2 games versus UAB really should give you an excellent chance to boost your W-L percentage. They've only won 2 OOC games in the last 8 years.

Something tells me that somewhere out there on a CUSA board, folks are telling UAB fans the same thing about us...

(12-18-2013 08:22 AM)Pounce FTW Wrote:  

(12-17-2013 07:10 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  Well 2 games versus UAB really should give you an excellent chance to boost your W-L percentage. They've only won 2 OOC games in the last 8 years.

Something tells me that somewhere out there on a CUSA board, folks are telling UAB fans the same thing about us...

I've not really seen that, although the general consensus is that GSU botched a start-up program, but now has a good coach in place, and this could be a win for UAB.

UAB and GSU have problems, hopefully GSU is getting it fix (although we have facilities' problems too), but UAB has hurdles others don't have to leap over.

I'm glad for the series....hell just glad to have football.

(12-18-2013 09:58 AM)gsuncc Wrote:  

(12-18-2013 08:22 AM)Pounce FTW Wrote:  

(12-17-2013 07:10 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  Well 2 games versus UAB really should give you an excellent chance to boost your W-L percentage. They've only won 2 OOC games in the last 8 years.

Something tells me that somewhere out there on a CUSA board, folks are telling UAB fans the same thing about us...

I've not really seen that, although the general consensus is that GSU botched a start-up program, but now has a good coach in place, and this could be a win for UAB.

UAB and GSU have problems, hopefully GSU is getting it fix (although we have facilities' problems too), but UAB has hurdles others don't have to leap over.

I'm glad for the series....hell just glad to have football.

Amen

and

/thread