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

(12-07-2015 12:41 AM)BlazerPhil Wrote:  Google "The SWC" then go wash your hands,; then say "Thank you Clean Gene" 3 times.

Yup. Ed Fowler, sportswriter at the Houston Chronicle, used to refer to the SWC as "the Society for Wrongdoing and Corruption".

The other reason the conference came apart besides TV markets was that people kept getting on NCAA probation. The gold standard, of course, was SMU football getting the death penalty. Rich guys at the country club would brag on the stud linebacker that they had arranged to go to their alma mater, and when that team beat the team of one of the other guys at the bar, he'd blow the whistle to the NCAA. Damn near everyone in the conference was on probation, one time or another. The death knell was when blue chip Texas recruits started to go to UCLA or Colorado so they could play in a bowl game. You had guys Like Jackie Sherrill, Ron Meyer, you had aTm giving cars to players (Eric Dickerson got a Trans-Am to go to A&M, but it got out and he gave the car back and went to SMU instead).

It is worth noting that Bear Bryant got A&M on probation while he was there... but we all know he didn't cheat and Gene Bartow was slandering a sainted coach, right?

(12-07-2015 08:25 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  

(12-07-2015 12:41 AM)BlazerPhil Wrote:  Google "The SWC" then go wash your hands,; then say "Thank you Clean Gene" 3 times.

Yup. Ed Fowler, sportswriter at the Houston Chronicle, used to refer to the SWC as "the Society for Wrongdoing and Corruption".

The other reason the conference came apart besides TV markets was that people kept getting on NCAA probation. The gold standard, of course, was SMU football getting the death penalty. Rich guys at the country club would brag on the stud linebacker that they had arranged to go to their alma mater, and when that team beat the team of one of the other guys at the bar, he'd blow the whistle to the NCAA. Damn near everyone in the conference was on probation, one time or another. The death knell was when blue chip Texas recruits started to go to UCLA or Colorado so they could play in a bowl game. You had guys Like Jackie Sherrill, Ron Meyer, you had aTm giving cars to players (Eric Dickerson got a Trans-Am to go to A&M, but it got out and he gave the car back and went to SMU instead).

It is worth noting that Bear Bryant got A&M on probation while he was there... but we all know he didn't cheat and Gene Bartow was slandering a sainted coach, right?

Really? I honestly never heard that one before.

Which? Bear? Yeah. Here.

"Paying players went back to
the times of legendary coach Paul
“Bear” Bryant. During his time
as head coach of Texas A&M,
the NCAA placed the Aggies on
probation in 1957, when the coach
had wealthy alumni give recruits money
to attend Texas A&M. Corruption became so
common in the old Southwest Conference that at one
point newspaper reporters called the conference “The
Old West,” referring to teams getting away with anything
and facing minimal repercussions from the NCAA for
their actions. In the 1980s, however, all of the schools
except Arkansas and Rice served some type of probation,
for a series of booster-related scandals of which school
personnel were not only aware but involved."

http://houstonhistorymagazine.org/wp-con...07/SWC.pdf

If you have not seen the 30 for 30 about SMU, "The Pony Express", you ought to watch it. It will blow your mind. Ron Meyer had a safe full of money in his office. The athletic office would mail payments to players, in some cases in envelopes with the school letterhead. Bill Clements was on the SMU BoT and fully aware, and he got elected Governor later.

See? It's not just Alabama.

I can remember Coach Bryant being quoted as saying that boosters should "meet the competition" which at that time were allowed much greater latitude than today. The NCAA has gradually tightened up on boosters and coaches since that era as well as the various tricks coaches used to keep players academically eligible -- like putting them in classes for which only athletes were registered or the infamous "basket weaving" classes they took until their eligibility expired.

(12-07-2015 09:57 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  If you have not seen the 30 for 30 about SMU, "The Pony Express", you ought to watch it. It will blow your mind. Ron Meyer had a safe full of money in his office. The athletic office would mail payments to players, in some cases in envelopes with the school letterhead. Bill Clements was on the SMU BoT and fully aware, and he got elected Governor later.

See? It's not just Alabama.

Pony Excess

Roger that. Thanks. I was a Houston fan at that time and lived through it. It was mind-boggling.

(12-07-2015 09:59 AM)CyberBlazer Wrote:  "Vastatio"

Ed Grimely, sorry I meant the BOT, mission accomplished.. "I must say".

"Vastatio" - great word. Latin (Roman) meaning "laying waste, desolating, ravaging, sacking, laying waste"

What Rome did to Carthage, or what the BOT has historically done to UAB athletics. BOT sux.

What we don't / can't know for certain is to what extent other conferences are put off by the demonstrated dominion of the Crimson centric system BOT over the UAB academic and athletic programs. Whenever a conference deals with a school, I would think having an implied asterisk by any agreement meaning "pending BOT approval" might make them less eager to take UAB in as a member. Just because we got them to back off in one conflict doesn't mean we have won the war. The battles with the BOT over the size and scope of UAB athletic facilities may be looming on the horizon.

(12-09-2015 12:04 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  What we don't / can't know for certain is to what extent other conferences are put off by the demonstrated dominion of the Crimson centric system BOT over the UAB academic and athletic programs. Whenever a conference deals with a school, I would think having an implied asterisk by any agreement meaning "pending BOT approval" might make them less eager to take UAB in as a member. Just because we got them to back off in one conflict doesn't mean we have won the war. The battles with the BOT over the size and scope of UAB athletic facilities may be looming on the horizon.

I agree. You have to wonder if that played a role in not getting invited to the AAC.

What motivated that more than anything else was a combination of the BoT, a cellar dwelling football team, and the complete lack of facilities, either existing or on the drawing board.

(12-09-2015 02:47 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  What motivated that more than anything else was a combination of the BoT, a cellar dwelling football team, and the complete lack of facilities, either existing or on the drawing board.

In the terms of "don't/can't know" is to what extent these lacks were due to the machinations of the Crimson centric BOT power brokers in their repeated efforts since "Black Friday" to hobble UAB athletic programs -- keeping them "on the drawing board" and only as "artist's renderings" rather than brick & mortar reality.

As FBHC Clark has illustrated, even the most talented coaches can, at best, only slightly exceed break even records without the infrastructural facilities to support their program.

(12-07-2015 10:39 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  Our best bet is Big 12 expansion waits till 2018-19. We need strong runs in basketball and two bowls under our belts, new stadium and facilities on line and we will move to the head of the line to take someone's spot in the AAC.

This. As long as the AAC has either Houston or Rice (especially Houston), UTSA is out.

The American can replace Memphis with Middle Tennessee - even though the Blue Raiders aren't in Nashville proper, they are still in the Nashville DMA, which picks up about 350,000 TV homes for the conference. Fox currently has the rights to C-USA, so ESPN can hurt Fox here.

ESPN will not want to pay more for a MAC school because it already has the rights to the MAC. This eliminates NIU, Buffalo, Toledo, Ohio, Miami (OH), etc. Ironically, Akron and NIU would be the best market grabs, but ESPN already has their inventory. Charlotte is out due to ECU. FAU and FIU share the Miami DMA with Miami (FL). Western Kentucky and Southern Miss are not even in Top 150 markets. Louisiana Tech is out due to Tulane. North Texas is out due to SMU. UTEP is in the wrong time zone.

This leaves UAB, Marshall, and Old Dominion. Marshall would be the only one I'd be worried about because of the more established history in FBS, but UAB should win that matchup. The American will need some help in basketball too, especially after losing Cincinnati and Memphis.

If UAB and MTSU replace Cincinnati and Memphis, that still nets about 170,000 additional TV households for the AAC. ESPN really can't give the conference a pay cut even after losing two of its bigger schools. UAB can also help keep the Birmingham Bowl in the AAC's portfolio.

UAB may have to play in the American West, but both UAB and MTSU could work in either division. Alternatively, the conference finds a way to guarantee Navy a game in Texas every year (such as a permanent crossover with SMU and/or Houston) and Navy could move to the East.

(12-09-2015 09:57 AM)DragonClaw Wrote:  

(12-07-2015 09:59 AM)CyberBlazer Wrote:  "Vastatio"

Ed Grimely, sorry I meant the BOT, mission accomplished.. "I must say".

"Vastatio" - great word. Latin (Roman) meaning "laying waste, desolating, ravaging, sacking, laying waste"

What Rome did to Carthage, or what the BOT has historically done to UAB athletics. BOT sux.

I missed the part where we marched elephants across the alps and terrorized the Romans. Those would be battles I'd remember.

UAB may not be considered a stable program until it proves itself by the mid 2020s. By that time, two big city schools may have become more important than they are now -- GA State in Atlanta and USA in Mobile. It is also possible that FIU and/or FAU may follow the growth patterns of USF and UCF and become expansion bait as were their fellows. There are several urban universities in the south and southwest that might be growing as well..

Who is to say that an entirely new conference (perhaps beginning as a G6) won't arise linking these and other urban universities that are wealthy enough to attract national attention by that time? What existing urban programs are in medium to large media markets (not presently in a P5) and might see fit to combine on their own?

[quote='GreenMississippi' pid='12763345' dateline='1449460810']
One advantage we have over Houston is that Birmingham is an entirely new market that is Football crazy. It is a shot at the SEC to get back at them for Texas A&M and Mizzou and gives Texas a stronger recruiting position in the state of Alabama, as well as Georgia and West Tennessee.



I am preaching that since we start the strong push for #FREEUAB

You guys are correct. The Big 12 would love to get a footprint here. let's get our facilities p to snuff and see what happens. Not saying it will happen, just saying in the future if we get or facilities up we may have a shot at moving up the food chain if everything falls into place. Right now keep raising money and lets get some shovels in the ground.

I agree. I believe it's possible, just really unlikely. It's so ridiculously dependent on so many factors that it does feel like fool's gold. Interestingly enough, I'm pretty confident we'd be alright in terms of just playing. I think our coaches are pretty good across the board and our location is a really big plus, too. Birmingham is big on good college football, and another power conference erecting a stronghold here, the place where the SEC is headquartered, would be nice.

Unfortunately, I feel like the administration is definitely too big a liability for the foreseeable future. Are these guys really going to make an effort to expand our budget to be on par with the schools we want to compete with? Does our athletic director really inspire enough confidence to trust him in securing a transition at some point? We can maintain the crowd funding and all that at our current level, but, to make the jump, we need to have the facilities, winning, and money before even being placed on the short list.

I'm not stressing, though. Any realignment stuff is pretty far away. We have more than enough time to sort stuff out. I'm still grateful to be in C-USA.

(12-14-2015 10:54 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  You guys are correct. The Big 12 would love to get a footprint here. let's get our facilities p to snuff and see what happens. Not saying it will happen, just saying in the future if we get or facilities up we may have a shot at moving up the food chain if everything falls into place. Right now keep raising money and lets get some shovels in the ground.

I guarantee you that Baylor & TCU know our name.

Sometimes you want to go ...

There are things that will speak volumes about whether the UAB Athletic Programs are ready to move up to greater conferences whenever opportunities are presented. Things like
Building a fully functional Football Operations building rather than one that is of minimal functionality.
Constructing practice fields - perhaps with one that is covered for all-weather use - that are state of the art.
Having game venues for all sports that are state of the art as well - including aquatic sports.

We are presently just trying to keep the number of sports to maintain NCAA viability. I hope one day to move into UAB being able to field teams based on what UAB wants rather than the minimum it can afford.