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

(12-14-2014 12:43 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  First, the idea that a bowl game is some kind of audition is laughable. Decisions aren't made based on the results of a bowl game.

Second, if CUSA by chance decides to offer a bid to South Alabama, they will jump at the chance just like every other Sun Belt school has done. CUSA > Sun Belt. The TV money is better as well as just about everything else. That said, I agree with others that South Alabama is well down on the lists of potential teams.

Actually, the biggest reason USA would probably take a CUSA bid is because of the prisoners dilemma. USA might not be so torqued up to join CUSA and see it as a lateral move with more costs. But the real issue is that ULL, Texas State and App would take any bid offered by CUSA (and they really, really, really want out of the Belt). If USA turned it down, then they'd be left in a conference without one of them. The Belt has no effective exit fee, and no GOR. Until that happens, schools in the conference have to think about what moves other schools would make.

Either way, I don't see USA moving to CUSA unless several things happen. 1) Big XII expansion that involves taking two eastern teams from the AAC 2) An AAC raid that takes at least one team from the Eastern portion of CUSA (perhaps Marshall and one of WKU or MTSU). In that case CUSA would need at least one team. And that team would need to be an eastern team in order to prevent USM from having to be shifted east (which they would probably hate more than having USA in the conference). In that case, USA would be in competition with JMU for that slot. USA would be a favorite (but not an overwhelming one) in that case. This scenario is pretty unlikely.

Or if CUSA lost two more and decided for some reason to go to 14. Also unlikely.

Assuming we lose ULL, we'll still be fine. Georgia Southern and App look like good adds. We don't need 11 members and can move to 10 without much of an issue. And losing ULL would be the worst case scenario for the Belt right now.

USA played very well against Bowling Green and lost by only one TD. Did they do well enough to make a difference in how their program is perceived nationally? What do you think will be the effect of the infusion of coaching / player talents (including two of our best QBs) from UAB for 2015?

Perhaps we can follow the "Blazing Jaguars" next season?

I haven't watched a college football game since Dr. Watts ended the program here, but South Alabama is bound to be better than they were this year since they basically got proven players from another school for nothing. I still don't know about USA taking our spot in C-USA or anything like that, but I sincerely hope they do well since a lot of our players are down there.

I'm going to go for every team that got a UAB player or coach even if I really just can't get into college football for real anymore.