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

Reading the posts on this board one can conclude that the posters basically fall into two camps, those (probably the majority) who really want UAB to have a football program and those (probably a minority) who are basically just basketball fans who only care football situation to the extent that it affects the UAB basketball program.

I grew up a bigger basketball fan than a football fan, but I am definitely in the football category. Whether we like it are not, with the exception of March Madness, Football is THE college sport in this country. That is true to the extent that with very few exceptions, the best basketball schools also have football programs because that is a necessity to maintain their conference affiliations or to join more elite basketball conferences.

One only needs to look at the basketball strong American Athletic Conference to understand how important a football program is maintaining a strong basketball program. Memphis football was notoriously bad, but without a football program the Tigers could not have left UAB behind in the seriously depleted C-USA. UCF, USF, and SMU, and Tulane have not been recently known for heir football programs, but they were able to join Memphis in the AAC because they have football programs. You can bet Tulane would be relegated to some inferior conference by now had they cut football when that was discussed some years ago. UConn added a football program for that very reason.

Gene Bartow, the quintessential basketball man understood this well which was the reason he pushed so hard to start the Blazer football program.
Coach Bartow understood and believed that UAB had the potential to grow into an excellent athletic program and eventually compete on an equal basis with the best across the country and he understood that a football program is the key to unlocking that potential.

I don't want UAB to be known as mid-major basketball school which only occasional makes a bit of noise in the NCAA tournament. We can't keep good coaches or consistently recruit good basketball athletes to that kind of basketball program.

So to you posters who are primarily basketball fans and who are not overly concerned about the loss of the football program, wake up and smell the garbage.

if there were recent history of teams left & right dropping football due to financial reasons, we might be willing to listen.

Since there hasn't been, one could assume that the leader is pushing his agenda.

Because of that, I will not consider UAB to be legit again until Watts is gone, we have control over our own situation, & football is restored.

I'd prefer that we have a well supported and properly funded football program. We never have and now we don't have a football program at all. I'm all for football coming back but I don't support the idea that we should sabotage the quality of our other programs (primarily basketball) while the effort is being made to get football back.

(03-22-2015 02:17 PM)CajunBlazer Wrote:  Reading the posts on this board one can conclude that the posters basically fall into two camps, those (probably the majority) who really want UAB to have a football program and those (probably a minority) who are basically just basketball fans who only care football situation to the extent that it affects the UAB basketball program.

I grew up a bigger basketball fan than a football fan, but I am definitely in the football category. Whether we like it are not, with the exception of March Madness, Football is THE college sport in this country. That is true to the extent that with very few exceptions, the best basketball schools also have football programs because that is a necessity to maintain their conference affiliations or to join more elite basketball conferences.

One only needs to look at the basketball strong American Athletic Conference to understand how important a football program is maintaining a strong basketball program. Memphis football was notoriously bad, but without a football program the Tigers could not have left UAB behind in the seriously depleted C-USA. UCF, USF, and SMU, and Tulane have not been recently known for heir football programs, but they were able to join Memphis in the AAC because they have football programs. You can bet Tulane would be relegated to some inferior conference by now had they cut football when that was discussed some years ago. UConn added a football program for that very reason.

Gene Bartow, the quintessential basketball man understood this well which was the reason he pushed so hard to start the Blazer football program.
Coach Bartow understood and believed that UAB had the potential to grow into an excellent athletic program and eventually compete on an equal basis with the best across the country and he understood that a football program is the key to unlocking that potential.

I don't want UAB to be known as mid-major basketball school which only occasional makes a bit of noise in the NCAA tournament. We can't keep good coaches or consistently recruit good basketball athletes to that kind of basketball program.

So to you posters who are primarily basketball fans and who are not overly concerned about the loss of the football program, wake up and smell the garbage.

Wichita St, VCU, Gonzaga, Creighton, Northern Iowa, Davidson, Dayton, etc. Do you guys even watch college basketball?

The Watzis are voraciously fapping whilst reading this thread.

This is bigger than football, basketball, ethics bowl or Rhodes Scholars. This is the battle to control our own destiny as a university. If the Blazer genocide is carried out, there's not even an accredited MBA program, much less an athletics team of any sort. Our daily battling ensures we have the ability to control our own destiny.

Memphis got invited to the Big East, not the AAC as a bone to appease the basketball only schools. It was not because of their football program. After they arrived, the basketball only schools did not accept the appeasement attempt, and left, taking the Big East name with them.

Just clarifying this small piece of misinformation being put out there.

That said. I want what's best for UAB. Overall, I believe the best for UAB is to have a viable football program. But that has been wrongfully taken away. The difference in opinion is not who is a football fan and who is a basketball fan. It is who has accepted that football is gone for the time being and who hasn't. Who is willing to sacrifice the rest of the athletic dept for the football fight, and who isn't. Who looks for the best situation for UAB until football is returned and who wants to destroy everything in order to save football.

And as long as you are throwing Gene Bartow's name around, he rushed football to D1 status because of basketball and the opportunity to get it in a stronger conference. You are right. He knew football would make a stronger athletic program. But that legacy has been destroyed and has to be rebuilt. It will take time and is not the quick fix some think it is. The football fight can be fought from a stronger basketball conference than a weaker one? Staying in CUSA more than a year is a pipe dream and football won't be back within a year.

Bartow came from the Missouri Valley and knew the quality of its basketball. I have an article at home where he says he joined the Great Midwest because the teams in it reminded him of his time in the Missouri Valley.

The "basketball only" people have been quiet because all we have heard is the A10 and MVC were out of the question. Then this rumor occurred and there was some hope. But the "football only" people had to discredit it because it goes against their larger agenda. Basketball landing in a good conference goes against everything they have been preaching.

(03-22-2015 02:40 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  Memphis got invited to the Big East, not the AAC as a bone to appease the basketball only schools. It was not because of their football program. After they arrived, the basketball only schools did not accept the appeasement attempt, and left, taking the Big East name with them.

Just clarifying this small piece of misinformation being put out there.

That said. I want what's best for UAB. Overall, I believe the best for UAB is to have a viable football program. But that has been wrongfully taken away. The difference in opinion is not who is a football fan and who is a basketball fan. It is who has accepted that football is gone for the time being and who hasn't. Who is willing to sacrifice the rest of the athletic dept for the football fight, and who isn't. Who looks for the best situation for UAB until football is returned and who wants to destroy everything in order to save football.

And as long as you are throwing Gene Bartow's name around, he rushed football to D1 status because of basketball and the opportunity to get it in a stronger conference. You are right. He knew football would make a stronger athletic program. But that legacy has been destroyed and has to be rebuilt. It will take time and is not the quick fix some think it is. The football fight can be fought from a stronger basketball conference than a weaker one? Staying in CUSA more than a year is a pipe dream and football won't be back within a year.

Bartow came from the Missouri Valley and knew the quality of its basketball. I have an article at home where he says he joined the Great Midwest because the teams in it reminded him of his time in the Missouri Valley.

The "basketball only" people have been quiet because all we have heard is the A10 and MVC were out of the question. Then this rumor occurred and there was some hope. But the "football only" people had to discredit it because it goes against their larger agenda. Basketball landing in a good conference goes against everything they have been preaching.

Very well stated.

MB, to add to your sentiments, I honestly believe if we must fight a longer battle for football and fall upward in basketball status, Coach Haase is the man to rebuild Gene's legacy. I see him leaving us for two reasons:

1) The Watzis continue to degrade and destroy until our basketball program has been moved backward; or
2) An elite (and I mean ELITE) program comes for his services. He won't coach at Bammer. He won't coach at Miami. He won't even coach at Baylor or his first alma mater, Cal.

If we cannot win the legislative battle the first time around, which is the only way to restore football in <2 yr time frame, we've got to work on rebuilding the foundation. I think Haase can and will be willing to forge ahead and do that if Ealy and Haase have a shot at moving our basketball program into a better short-term solution.

(03-22-2015 02:39 PM)FNblazer Wrote:  The Watzis are voraciously fapping whilst reading this thread.

This is bigger than football, basketball, ethics bowl or Rhodes Scholars. This is the battle to control our own destiny as a university. If the Blazer genocide is carried out, there's not even an accredited MBA program, much less an athletics team of any sort. Our daily battling ensures we have the ability to control our own destiny.

This, this a thousand times. Read every word and commit to it.

Ray, Clay and the boys haven't had better reading since December 2nd. They're running short of lotion in the Admin offices.

I didn't care about sports before I came to UAB. In my second year I started to go to basketball games-- and I was hooked. The excitement of the games. This was with Mike Davis, so I was used to us pulling off some second half comebacks at home pretty often. I became a basketball fan because of Bartow Arena. (this is why I will never support home games at the BJCC)

I didn't become a football fan. I didn't want to go to legion field. All I heard was how terrible it was. I started watching football in general by watching alabama games on TV with my friend. I went to one or two games at legion field but didn't really enjoy them in the era of neil callaway. When I heard about the on campus stadium I started becoming more excited about UAB football. I started to pay attention to it, and realized the struggle with the AL-BOT when it was denied. Soon though, I hoped. Perhaps if there was an OCS when I was a student I would have become a much bigger football fan. Then came Bill Clark, and I was excited by Bill Clark's performance. Amidst rumors of shutting down football, I started to feel like I had to support it more at UAB. I realized it was about more than football. I went to the Marshall-UAB game and saw some quality football, then the dagger of shutting it down came out.

I'm want free UAB. I want our own BOT without interference. I want a football team with an OCS the quality of Region's Field. But more importantly I want a good basketball team that students camp out for every game and we fill the arena every night we play.

Honestly if the football team was cut with high transparency, input from alumni, students, and boosters with the intention of immediately moving to a much better basketball conference with significant investments into more salary for our coach and staff, more recruiting budget, more facilities improvements to help attract recruits... I'd probably support that. But I'm aware in this country football drives the boat, and that's a big part of why I support football-- for better basketball, and for a better student experience. But I guess I don't support football because I really love football.

As it is, I see football being cut as interference from the UA BOT, with an incompetent president. I see it as an assault on all of UAB. I will not tolerate it, and I will fight it. But I'm not going to screw over basketball in some 'longer vision' thinking that might revive football.

UAB is like the average looking girl who must wait until she is asked to go to the prom. Being assertive and telling our desired conference that we are coming - ready or not - is not an option. NON UAB forces are now "driving our bus" and UAB has no control of its destination until it is invited to "the prom". We can then say "YES thank you" if we like, or we can say "NO thank you" if we want, and are willing to wait for some other offer. The worst outcome would be to be left at home with no date at all for the 2015-2016 prom.

By this summer, UAB will know what help, if any, it can expect from the legislature in Montgomery (about restoring football &/or changing the BOT), and what decision C-USA will make about our membership.

(03-22-2015 03:19 PM)sadolakced Wrote:  As it is, I see football being cut as interference from the UA BOT, with an incompetent president. I see it as an assault on all of UAB. I will not tolerate it, and I will fight it. But I'm not going to screw over basketball in some 'longer vision' thinking that might revive football.

I've seen a few straw men get shredded, but I haven't seen a single actual Blazer supporter advocate "screwing over basketball." No one has said "no, UAB must reject the Missouri Valley to save football." Many rightly have questioned the existence of contact between UAB and the MVC: unlike other information we've seen surface, there is no sourcing, no detail, only a single passively-worded throwaway line buried deep in a column about Jerod Haase's conference concerns.

I'm amazed and impressed at how Jerod Haase has kept within the bounds of his contract yet shown staunch support for our cause. I don't know how he could have played things any better. We rightly praise Bill Clark for his dedication to UAB, but all of the coaches have shown the leadership lacking in the president's office.

Ray Watts must go. He must go now.

(03-22-2015 03:33 PM)58-56 Wrote:  

(03-22-2015 03:19 PM)sadolakced Wrote:  As it is, I see football being cut as interference from the UA BOT, with an incompetent president. I see it as an assault on all of UAB. I will not tolerate it, and I will fight it. But I'm not going to screw over basketball in some 'longer vision' thinking that might revive football.

I've seen a few straw men get shredded, but I haven't seen a single actual Blazer supporter advocate "screwing over basketball." No one has said "no, UAB must reject the Missouri Valley to save football." Many rightly have questioned the existence of contact between UAB and the MVC: unlike other information we've seen surface, there is no sourcing, no detail, only a single passively-worded throwaway line buried deep in a column about Jerod Haase's conference concerns.

I'm amazed and impressed at how Jerod Haase has kept within the bounds of his contract yet shown staunch support for our cause. I don't know how he could have played things any better. We rightly praise Bill Clark for his dedication to UAB, but all of the coaches have shown the leadership lacking in the president's office.

Ray Watts must go. He must go now.

I couldn't have said it better. What concerns me is that if we are not allowed to bring football back and because of that we are expelled from C-USA, we have no idea what conference we may end up in. I have no confidence in Watts to fight to get us in the best conference possible under the circumstances. He certainly did nothing to explore the conference situation before he cut football because to do so would have exposed his true agenda far too early. So we know where his true allegiances lay and it is not with the UAB athletic program or even in the best interests of the University as a whole.

C-USA is already a faint shadow of what it was ten years ago, or even a few years ago, and we are still in this conference because the total lack of support from the BOT and the Watts administration for our football program. The MVC would be be decent alternative, but it is probably only a pipe dream. As 58-56 says, we have no indication whatsoever that that is a realistic possibility. If we fall much further there is no guarantee that Coach Haas won't be gone as soon as he has better opportunities and I can't say that I would blame him. In a lower conference the current class of freshman could well be the best by far that he will ever be able to attract to UAB. In this age of frequent transfers if Coach leaves it would not be unthinkable for the best of UAB's players to follow him and/or seek grander stages on which to display their talent.

For those of you who want to sit back and pin your hopes that Watts will work hard to get us into the MVC, or even if he does, that he has enough respect from his piers to get it done, hey, you are welcome to your delusions. But as as for me and many others, we going to work our a$$es off to ensure that C-USA has no opportunity to throw UAB out on the street and to ensure that the entire University can ultimately live up to its tremendous potential.

All of that said there is not a person among us that would not like to see UAB in the best conference possible if we are kicked out of UAB. However, Watts has managed to alienate some of UAB's biggest boosters so I don't know how much financial support the program will have until football returns. Now you can rail against that all you want and argue that this is playing into Watts' hands, but not one word you write is going to change that fact. Everyone needs to understand and digest the fact that UAB will not be whole again until Watts is gone, the BOT's hobnailed boot is removed from UAB's throat, and the football program is reinstated. Anyone who argues differently is simply not being realistic.

I am definitely a basketball first fan. I love the sport. That said, I am out if Ray completes his wet dream and we are kicked out of C-USA. We want and need an FBS football team in order to secure our future. Ray ( and by Ray I mean Junior ) wants us in the MVC or ASun or Southern so we can dwindle away to nothing after the next division rearrangement.

(03-22-2015 04:22 PM)UABGrad Wrote:  I am definitely a basketball first fan. I love the sport. That said, I am out if Ray completes his wet dream and we are kicked out of C-USA. We want and need an FBS football team in order to secure our future. Ray ( and by Ray I mean Junior ) wants us in the MVC or ASun or Southern so we can dwindle away to nothing after the next division rearrangement.

I really don't understand this logic. How does going to a more nationally respected basketball conference (remember, we don't have football) expedite the demise of UAB athletics?

(03-22-2015 04:22 PM)UABGrad Wrote:  I am definitely a basketball first fan. I love the sport. That said, I am out if Ray completes his wet dream and we are kicked out of C-USA. We want and need an FBS football team in order to secure our future. Ray ( and by Ray I mean Junior ) wants us in the MVC or ASun or Southern so we can dwindle away to nothing after the next division rearrangement.

Agreed. It is all or nothing as far as I am concerned. I put in my green & gold time. Plenty of it.

I will not support a university being handcuffed any longer.

Haase will be gone after next year without changes & attendance this past year will be considered the glory days.

I believe we will get football back because its hard to compete in the South without football. Think about it, what universities in AL don't have a football program. I can think of Montevallo and UAH (coincidence? I think not). And my point is that you never hear about these schools, if one did not live in AL they would not know of these great schools. But UAB is different, they require attention. Such a major city in the South deserves a football team it will help it grow like it did for Auburn, Tuscaloosa, and even Mobile.

We will likely be allowed to remain in CUSA for 15/16. The team should be fine as they were originally recruited to UAB as a member of CUSA.
I think all will be very loyal to our CUSA tourney MVP as he returns for his final year. We can work on sorting out the football issues and either remain in CUSA for 16/17 or move to best available conference if we have to go. I think this is the best course we can chart at this time.
If MVC comes to us and tells us now or never we can decide at that time.

I am so sick of people telling us something is a pipe dream when they have no f'n clue as to what the **** they are talking about. I'm sorry for the expletives but this is just ridiculous. The same person saying the MVC is a pipe dream also said UAB would never lose football. I'm not listening to you anymore. I am done with you and these f'n scare tactics posts.

1. Our football team is gone.
2. We can't stay in CUSA without football.
3. I want UAB Basketball in the best conference available when #2 officially happens.

So if you think the basketball supporters is the minority on this board, what you're spewing Cajun is only pushing that minority further away. You need to ease up with the rhetoric and stop with the "I know all mentality!"

Fight the fight but don't alienated those who want to fight but may not share the same deep passion for football as some of us have for basketball. We're not dummies.

A lot of the "minority" have become vocal today. Here and on twitter.