If we add no one else, here's what we're looking at for 2013:
Marshall
ECU
UAB
USM
Tulane
Rice
Tulsa
UTEP
New Mexico
Colorado St.
Wyoming
Nevada
Fresno St.
Hawaii (Football only)
UNLV
Air Force
That's 16 for Football, 15 for Basketball. IF we add anyone, it should only be one school, maybe a basketball school to fill in for Hawaii.
No need to add for basketball. Play 14 conference games (7 home, 7 away), and 2 others home-and-away (1 permanent rival, 1 rotating?) for a total of 16 conference games. Other Olympic sports will shake out.
I like it. I'm warming up to the merger. I love Colorado, Las Vegas, and would love a trip to Hawaii. My 98-year-old grandmother was born in Hawaii.
Butler and move UTEP to the West for basketball. JMHO.
If we lose AFA after Louisville goes to the Big 12 I suspect Temple will fill that spot and UTEP goes West in all sports.
This merger is garbage for UAB. I don't see what the excitement is. It's only good for football, and that's assuming that we stop sucking at that soon. For basketball, it's not good at all. Sure, there's a couple of decent basketball schools in there, but nothing to be thrilled about. And the travel is going to suck no matter how you twist it.
New Mexico and UNLV are typically very good in bball.
Latest Pomeroy rankings:
New Mexico - 12
Las Vegas - 18
Wyoming - 53
Colorado State - 103
Nevada - 109
Fresno State - 165
Air Force - 192
UAB - 136
(02-09-2012 12:06 PM)Suede27 Wrote: [ -> ]This merger is garbage for UAB. I don't see what the excitement is. It's only good for football, and that's assuming that we stop sucking at that soon. For basketball, it's not good at all. Sure, there's a couple of decent basketball schools in there, but nothing to be thrilled about. And the travel is going to suck no matter how you twist it.
Okay. I hear you. Good and bad are relative. Here are examples of what could have been (or could be):
Outrageously Grand: The ACC picks up UAB -
didn't happen
Great: UAB is in a conference with some old friends/enemies like UL, Memphis, USM, Cincy, USF, UCF, SMU, Houston, ECU, Tulsa, and maybe throw in some new friends like Rutgers, UConn, etc plus hoops teams like Marquette, Villanova, DePaul, Providence, and Notre Dame. -
didn't happen
Good: C-USA stays intact. -
didn't happen
Fair: C-USA merges with MWC to form "leftover" league. We still have decent basketball and pretty good football with some new opponents and new look. It's not much worse than what we just had. -
may happen
Fairly Bad: C-USA doesn't merge with MWC and adds a few schools that are not good at football or don't have it, but they get some solid basketball-only schools. -
doubtful
Bad: C-USA does nothing.
unlikely
Disaster: UAB and a handful of others add FAU, FIU, WKU, UNT, Troy, MTSU and USA to fill it's spots.
highly unlikely
So, what should UAB do? The merger sounds good compared to other options, although it is not "good" compared to what might have been.
I know people here hate it... And so do I, but a move to the Sun Belt would make sense. The Sunbelt could expand to 14 or 16 and take UAB, Southern Miss, Tulane, and Rice/Tulsa.
(02-09-2012 01:35 PM)the Dragon Wrote: [ -> ] (02-09-2012 12:06 PM)Suede27 Wrote: [ -> ]This merger is garbage for UAB. I don't see what the excitement is. It's only good for football, and that's assuming that we stop sucking at that soon. For basketball, it's not good at all. Sure, there's a couple of decent basketball schools in there, but nothing to be thrilled about. And the travel is going to suck no matter how you twist it.
Okay. I hear you. Good and bad are relative. Here are examples of what could have been (or could be):
Outrageously Grand: The ACC picks up UAB - didn't happen
Great: UAB is in a conference with some old friends/enemies like UL, Memphis, USM, Cincy, USF, UCF, SMU, Houston, ECU, Tulsa, and maybe throw in some new friends like Rutgers, UConn, etc plus hoops teams like Marquette, Villanova, DePaul, Providence, and Notre Dame. - didn't happen
Good: C-USA stays intact. - didn't happen
Fair: C-USA merges with MWC to form "leftover" league. We still have decent basketball and pretty good football with some new opponents and new look. It's not much worse than what we just had. - may happen
Fairly Bad: C-USA doesn't merge with MWC and adds a few schools that are not good at football or don't have it, but they get some solid basketball-only schools. - doubtful
Bad: C-USA does nothing. unlikely
Disaster: UAB and a handful of others add FAU, FIU, WKU, UNT, Troy, MTSU and USA to fill it's spots. highly unlikely
So, what should UAB do? The merger sounds good compared to other options, although it is not "good" compared to what might have been.
I'm just pointing out that it feels like we're on a slowly sinking ship. And in the next decade we're going to find ourselves in deep trouble. That's just my opinion of course. It would be exciting to play a couple of those teams in basketball, and a few of them in football. But other than that, this merger doesn't excite me. And it kind of makes me feel like UAB is slowly getting pushed further into mediocrity. At least from a perception standpoint. This all just makes the new football coaches' job that much more important.
It's just that when you stand back and look at it, it just doesn't make sense to me. We've been horrible in football and don't have an OCS, and we're now going to be in a league that will lean much more on it's football programs than basketball.
(02-09-2012 01:52 PM)Homewood_Blazer Wrote: [ -> ]I know people here hate it... And so do I, but a move to the Sun Belt would make sense. The Sunbelt could expand to 14 or 16 and take UAB, Southern Miss, Tulane, and Rice/Tulsa.
I'd rather see that than this merger. Everyone is so quick to say that it would be a step back, but CUSA has been taking steps in the wrong direction for 6-7 years now. Maybe improving the Sun Belt would be a better idea than these lateral moves CUSA is making.
(02-09-2012 12:06 PM)Suede27 Wrote: [ -> ]This merger is garbage for UAB. I don't see what the excitement is. It's only good for football, and that's assuming that we stop sucking at that soon. For basketball, it's not good at all. Sure, there's a couple of decent basketball schools in there, but nothing to be thrilled about. And the travel is going to suck no matter how you twist it.
I hear you, bro. Let's do something like this instead:
Arkansas State
South Alabama
Western Kentucky
Arkansas-Little Rock
Louisiana-Lafayette
Florida International
North Texas
Denver
Louisiana-Monroe
Troy
Middle Tennessee
Florida Atlantic
Of course the TV deal in the merger, expected to be between $3 million and $6 million per school, is out the window. And we'd have to get by on splitting roughly $2 million in NCAA credits as opposed to over $8 million. But we would surely rake in some extra $$ from football attendance and donors...um, well...we'd certainly - probably - qualify for that one bowl the Sunbelt has or that 2nd one they have on years w/ 3 lunar eclipses and a full solar eclipse occurring in the Western Hemisphere.
Ok...forget football. Maybe we'd be better off just dropping it. Surely we could make some scratch with this basketball schedule:
Murray State
Tennessee Tech
Tennessee State
Southeast Missouri State
Eastern Kentucky
Morehead State
Austin Peay
Jacksonville State
SIU-Edwardsville
Eastern Illinois
Tennessee-Martin
Then, of course, we're down to around $1 million in NCAA credits.
Oh noes!!! Wut do?
(02-09-2012 01:52 PM)Homewood_Blazer Wrote: [ -> ]I know people here hate it... And so do I, but a move to the Sun Belt would make sense. The Sunbelt could expand to 14 or 16 and take UAB, Southern Miss, Tulane, and Rice/Tulsa.
So what happens when CUSA takes 4 top teams from the SunBelt as replacements? How good a decision would it be then?
No. It wouldn't make sense. If anything, adding teams from the Sun Belt would make more sense.
(02-09-2012 01:57 PM)blazr Wrote: [ -> ] (02-09-2012 12:06 PM)Suede27 Wrote: [ -> ]This merger is garbage for UAB. I don't see what the excitement is. It's only good for football, and that's assuming that we stop sucking at that soon. For basketball, it's not good at all. Sure, there's a couple of decent basketball schools in there, but nothing to be thrilled about. And the travel is going to suck no matter how you twist it.
I hear you, bro. Let's do something like this instead:
Arkansas State
South Alabama
Western Kentucky
Arkansas-Little Rock
Louisiana-Lafayette
Florida International
North Texas
Denver
Louisiana-Monroe
Troy
Middle Tennessee
Florida Atlantic
Of course the TV deal in the merger, expected to be between $3 million and $6 million per school, is out the window. And we'd have to get by on splitting roughly $2 million in NCAA credits as opposed to over $8 million. But we would surely rake in some extra $$ from football attendance and donors...um, well...we'd certainly - probably - qualify for that one bowl the Sunbelt has or that 2nd one they have on years w/ 3 lunar eclipses and a full solar eclipse occurring in the Western Hemisphere.
Ok...forget football. Maybe we'd be better off just dropping it. Surely we could make some scratch with this basketball schedule:
Murray State
Tennessee Tech
Tennessee State
Southeast Missouri State
Eastern Kentucky
Morehead State
Austin Peay
Jacksonville State
SIU-Edwardsville
Eastern Illinois
Tennessee-Martin
Then, of course, we're down to around $1 million in NCAA credits.
Oh noes!!! Wut do?
Ditto what he implies.
(02-09-2012 01:52 PM)Suede27 Wrote: [ -> ]I'm just pointing out that it feels like we're on a slowly sinking ship. And in the next decade we're going to find ourselves in deep trouble. That's just my opinion of course. It would be exciting to play a couple of those teams in basketball, and a few of them in football. But other than that, this merger doesn't excite me. And it kind of makes me feel like UAB is slowly getting pushed further into mediocrity. At least from a perception standpoint. This all just makes the new football coaches' job that much more important.
It's just that when you stand back and look at it, it just doesn't make sense to me. We've been horrible in football and don't have an OCS, and we're now going to be in a league that will lean much more on it's football programs than basketball.
So, you think Memphis, USF, Houston, UCF, et. al. got a leg up on us? Trust me, and there are plenty on this board who will back this up, in 2014 there is not going to be a spit's worth of difference between a place in the NBE and a place in the Alliance/Merger. We are all have-nots, and the next "arrangement" is going to make that line even bolder. The Big East, even as it stood last year before Pitt and Syracuse gave notice, was destined to be on "our" side of that line and still is.
A slowly sinking ship? I know of a half dozen schools that would like to be in our position right now or at least be in our league.
(02-09-2012 12:06 PM)Suede27 Wrote: [ -> ]This merger is garbage for UAB. I don't see what the excitement is. It's only good for football, and that's assuming that we stop sucking at that soon. For basketball, it's not good at all. Sure, there's a couple of decent basketball schools in there, but nothing to be thrilled about. And the travel is going to suck no matter how you twist it.
You may not like to hear this from me, 27, but I'm with you on this. This just might be the worst thing we could ever do for this program. You think we have a hard time developing rivals NOW? Just wait until this fiasco goes down. I sure hope Mackin is keeping his powder dry.
Hell, we have a hard enough time getting people to USM or Memphis or CLOSER places for away games. And now we HAVE to go to ******* Colorado? Please.
Explain to me how often you would have to go to Colorado in these sports -
Football
Men's & Women's basketball
Other sports of your choice that you would like to mention.