Reports that the U of Alabama-Birmingham fired their AD and will drop their football program. I know they've had problems regarding support, their BOV mismanaged the program, and there's an internal investigation. It's another example of the many issues associated with being in a low-level FBS conference. Problems tend to fester when you don't have the money to make them go away. UAB is one of the better CUSA teams and are bowl eligible this season.

D3 to CUSA to bust in a little over a decade. Pay attention, GA State.

Opening for JMU? ODU would be a big rivalry.

(11-30-2014 05:34 PM)BigTribe Wrote:  Opening for JMU? ODU would be a big rivalry.

Or Liberty. More probable scenario is a SBC school jumping ship for CUSA leaving the SBC at 12 with no opening for Liberty, JMU, or whomever.

Always hate to see this happen to a program. I remember that Hofstra and Northeastern both cut football my freshman year. I always wish I had gotten to watch us play them on the gridiron

(11-30-2014 05:34 PM)BigTribe Wrote:  Opening for JMU? ODU would be a big rivalry.

Strong possibility

This has as much, if not more, to do with the domination by the Crimson Tide of all things in the state. UAB repeatedly gets steamrolled on things because of it. I'd wager there is no greater example of the "flagship" putting down other schools than in Alabama (including UNC-CHeat over their sister schools, which is bad- but not nearly this bad).

(12-01-2014 09:02 AM)TribeNiner Wrote:  This has as much, if not more, to do with the domination by the Crimson Tide of all things in the state. UAB repeatedly gets steamrolled on things because of it. I'd wager there is no greater example of the "flagship" putting down other schools than in Alabama (including UNC-CHeat over their sister schools, which is bad- but not nearly this bad).

I don't buy this...South Alabama and Troy seem to be doing fine.

(12-01-2014 09:21 AM)Tribal Wrote:  

(12-01-2014 09:02 AM)TribeNiner Wrote:  This has as much, if not more, to do with the domination by the Crimson Tide of all things in the state. UAB repeatedly gets steamrolled on things because of it. I'd wager there is no greater example of the "flagship" putting down other schools than in Alabama (including UNC-CHeat over their sister schools, which is bad- but not nearly this bad).

I don't buy this...South Alabama and Troy seem to be doing fine.

That's because South Alabama and Troy are not "threats" to continuing sports prosperity in Tuscaloosa.

UAB's entire athletic existence came into being around the late 70's when they started a basketball team. That men's team already has an elite 8 and two other sweet 16s. Hell, even the women's team has a sweet 16. They have a very strong soccer program on both sides and have been ranked in the top-10 in golf. They weren't a problem until they started football and then it appears they've made a good hire and people want to start donating for good facilities and there goes the rug.

Couple this with constantly trying to block UAB's development (see the board's attempt to block UAB's med school) and the fact that the new president de-emphasizes athletics and the undergraduate experience as a guy who came from the med-school side, and you've got a losing formula. It's a shame because they were getting back on the right track in football and have a very solid sports program overall.

(12-01-2014 09:21 AM)Tribal Wrote:  

(12-01-2014 09:02 AM)TribeNiner Wrote:  This has as much, if not more, to do with the domination by the Crimson Tide of all things in the state. UAB repeatedly gets steamrolled on things because of it. I'd wager there is no greater example of the "flagship" putting down other schools than in Alabama (including UNC-CHeat over their sister schools, which is bad- but not nearly this bad).

I don't buy this...South Alabama and Troy seem to be doing fine.

They (USA/Troy) aren't in the UA system. UAB is governed by the same group that controls UA. The Board of Trustees of the UA system is very pro Tide, as despite governing 3 schools 11/12 members went to Bama. The head of the board is Bear Bryant Jr. Despite having the money for it, the Board nixed the idea of an on campus stadium for UAB and has stopped allowing donations to the UAB football team.

The claim was that Bama dominates all things in the state, which, of course, is where USA and Troy are located. If their domination is confined to schools within the UA system and pereceived threats, it wasn't communicated in 49'ers post. Given all that, I still find it very hard to believe Bama feels "threatened" by USA.

(12-01-2014 10:52 AM)Tribal Wrote:  The claim was that Bama dominates all things in the state, which, of course, is where USA and Troy are located. If their domination is confined to schools within the UA system and pereceived threats, it wasn't communicated in 49'ers post. Given all that, I still find it very hard to believe Bama feels "threatened" by USA.

See, they don't feel "threatened" necessarily because they perceive all possible issues as threats to be dealt with early, before they really feel threatened. Basically, if anyone else in the UA system tries to have any success they will do whatever they can to stamp it out. That's how they reign supreme.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...epartments

I don't know a thing about the politics, but the budget numbers in the attached article tell me that a program losing that much annually makes an easy target.

Unfortunately, I see UAB as only the first domino. Look at the list of schools in the article. ODU, GSU, and UMass all in the top ten for most unprofitable football programs. The UMass and GSU losses are particularly unsustainable given the poor attendance and almost complete lack of on-field success. UMass financial woes will only worsen when they are forced to go independent. My guess is GSU will pull the plug on their failed experiment within the next five years barring a miracle turnaround. UMass will be forced to pull the plug or come back to the CAA for football, assuming their pride will allow them.

There are probably a dozen programs that I could see either pulling the plug or dropping down over the next decade. Price or participation continues to rise, just as revenues for non P5 programs stagnate or decline. Throw in concerns over player safety, rising tuition and increased scrutiny of the student fees used to subsidize these programs and I see it all coming to a head soon.

JMU and Liberty aside, I doubt we see any other FCS programs rushing to board the sinking ship that is non P5 FBS football. I think the pendulum is starting its backward swing toward fiscal sanity.

The common thread with all of these programs is that they don't have a rich football tradition/history. You can't just go get money and then expect everyone to come see the games. It has to be something that is either a) so compelling that you have to go watch, or b) it is a tradition/habit. ODU draws a lot of fans, but you need a ton of support outside of gate revenues to sustain a program that travels all over the country to play away games where the opponent doesn't draw a crowd.

I saw that list WM90 shared and the first thing that hit me was three CAA alums in the top ten.

I think the biggest fallacy schools go through when analyzing these moves is some sudden uptick in revenue or fan interest.

Understood ODU is confined by their stadium - but in reality haven't sold one more ticket being FBS than FCS. The excitement level today doesn't seem to match two years ago when they were blazing to a very impressive CAA championship.

In the case of UMass, there has been no noticeable swell in ticket revenue either. I still think their largest crowd was a UNH game at Gillette back in the CAA days. When you throw in the cost of transporting the team to Boston for most games now and the travel overall, it looks like their revenue has stayed neutral while their costs have skyrocketed.

Not sure on GSU though unless they play Georgia Southern every home game, not sure how this can be a winning combo either.

(12-01-2014 11:53 AM)WMTribe90 Wrote:  http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...epartments

I don't know a thing about the politics, but the budget numbers in the attached article tell me that a program losing that much annually makes an easy target.

Unfortunately, I see UAB as only the first domino. Look at the list of schools in the article. ODU, GSU, and UMass all in the top ten for most unprofitable football programs. The UMass and GSU losses are particularly unsustainable given the poor attendance and almost complete lack of on-field success. UMass financial woes will only worsen when they are forced to go independent. My guess is GSU will pull the plug on their failed experiment within the next five years barring a miracle turnaround. UMass will be forced to pull the plug or come back to the CAA for football, assuming their pride will allow them.

Are we sure the CAA would even want them back?

(12-01-2014 05:05 PM)Rocco Wrote:  

(12-01-2014 11:53 AM)WMTribe90 Wrote:  http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...epartments

I don't know a thing about the politics, but the budget numbers in the attached article tell me that a program losing that much annually makes an easy target.

Unfortunately, I see UAB as only the first domino. Look at the list of schools in the article. ODU, GSU, and UMass all in the top ten for most unprofitable football programs. The UMass and GSU losses are particularly unsustainable given the poor attendance and almost complete lack of on-field success. UMass financial woes will only worsen when they are forced to go independent. My guess is GSU will pull the plug on their failed experiment within the next five years barring a miracle turnaround. UMass will be forced to pull the plug or come back to the CAA for football, assuming their pride will allow them.

Are we sure the CAA would even want them back?

No guarantee, but we took back URI, so I imagine we would take back UMass.

I'm hearing some whispers....changes might be coming depending how all of this plays out.

If we're adding anyone back, I'd like to see it be a team that would play all/most of our sports in the CAA including basketball. Not sure you would get UMass in that case.

I don't want Georgia State back. What a useless school

(12-01-2014 05:23 PM)mainejeff Wrote:  I'm hearing some whispers....changes might be coming depending how all of this plays out.

Voices in your head at it again Jeff. Please stay on your meds.