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

The new CUSA video package got me thinking about the overall league and what was best for UAB. Of course I would prefer to move to the AAC but that doesn't look near term for us. So that means trying to improve our current situation. I believe C-USA has run its course. The media $ and access don't justify the travel costs and fragmented identity as a league anymore. The Frisco tournament should be the final straw. I propose an "Airport Meeting" with the following schools:

UAB
MTSU
WKU
USM
LT
Charlotte
ODU
Marshall

Form a new league with new leadership. Invite other schools that might be a good fit. Competitive football and basketball preferred. Georgia State would be first on my list. Be selective from there, possibly looking to the AAC model with some non-football playing additions. College of Charleston?

CUSA has been a good league for us for a long time but it's outlived its utility for UAB and the core of eastern schools. Time to be sharks and not the guppies for a change.

(03-17-2018 05:00 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  The new CUSA video package got me thinking about the overall league and what was best for UAB. Of course I would prefer to move to the AAC but that doesn't look near term for us. So that means trying to improve our current situation. I believe C-USA has run its course. The media $ and access don't justify the travel costs and fragmented identity as a league anymore. The Frisco tournament should be the final straw. I propose an "Airport Meeting" with the following schools:

UAB
MTSU
WKU
USM
LT
Charlotte
ODU
Marshall

Form a new league with new leadership. Invite other schools that might be a good fit. Competitive football and basketball preferred. Georgia State would be first on my list. Be selective from there, possibly looking to the AAC model with some non-football playing additions. College of Charleston?

CUSA has been a good league for us for a long time but it's outlived its utility for UAB and the core of eastern schools. Time to be sharks and not the guppies for a change.

Been saying the same thing for YEARS...tighten up the conference footprint and develop rivalries...the 8 current teams mentioned and add some from the likes of:

Ga Southern, James Madison, Murray State, App State, Belmont, College of Charleston, Georgia State, UNC-Ash, UNC-Greenville, Chattanooga, William & Mary, Northern Kentucky, Winthrop/etc...then PLAY BALL

New conferences start with no basketball bids and I’m assuming no football money, correct?

No contracts, no bowl tie-ins, everyone has to pay to get out of their old conference and then pay again to join the new one so that there will be an operating budget for the new conference office, and lots more.

Forgive my skepticism about this. I've been around long enough that I've seen easily more than a hundred various threads on conference reorganizing, mostly by people whose posts make it obvious that they don't know what is entailed in doing so.

C-USA, like every other conference that is not in the P5, gets zero credit. The big schools have the majority of the money cornered, and no desire to share whatsoever. They'd get rid of us altogether, but if they did they'd have to play each other and they like champions who are 11-1 or 12-0 far better than 7-5 or 8-4. There are not enough bottom of the conference teams for everyone to beat up. They'd be forced to play legit OOC games instead of staying home and paying a designated loser $800k to get beat and pocketing the home gate. If they could figure out how to do it there would be about sixty teams skimming the cream and everyone else could suck swamp water.

At least we can point to four straight teams who have won their first round match-up. That gives us some small chance of getting a second team in if the chips fall just right. You can bet your ass that a new conference would get no slack whatsoever.

(03-17-2018 06:59 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  Forgive my skepticism about this. I've been around long enough that I've seen easily more than a hundred various threads on conference reorganizing, mostly by people whose posts make it obvious that they don't know what is entailed in doing so.

C-USA, like every other conference that is not in the P5, gets zero credit. The big schools have the majority of the money cornered, and no desire to share whatsoever. They'd get rid of us altogether, but if they did they'd have to play each other and they like champions who are 11-1 or 12-0 far better than 7-5 or 8-4. There are not enough bottom of the conference teams for everyone to beat up. They'd be forced to play legit OOC games instead of staying home and paying a designated loser $800k to get beat and pocketing the home gate. If they could figure out how to do it there would be about sixty teams skimming the cream and everyone else could suck swamp water.

At least we can point to four straight teams who have won their first round match-up. That gives us some small chance of getting a second team in if the chips fall just right. You can bet your ass that a new conference would get no slack whatsoever.

Yeah, I've been around the block a few times myself. What we have sucks and we need better. All four of those first round winning teams comes from the eight I mentioned. Our conference leadership is incompetent and the decisions seem to be getting worse. My suggestion reverses some of those poor decisions and gives us a chance to challenge the better non P5 basketball conferences. Short term pain for at least a chance at developing something worthwhile is well worth it IMO.

if it was that easy it would have already been done.

As fun as it may sound it would be at best a lateral move. At this point our best bet is to get the stadium built, continue to increase donation revenue, wait for Ray to retire and move up. We're more aligned with peer institutions in the AAC.

Let me add I’m not opposed to this. With the dead weight dropped for basketball that’s a two bid league. Where we may be hurt is football making this move right now. As stated above our landing spot needs to be with our peers in the AAC and football shall lead the way.

Yes watts has to go and Ingram as well unless he comes around. Maybe ingram is better without a dictator president?

Mark is like anyone else in his business. The department's success is his success. He's still young and and has a long way to go until retirement. If he gets the right leadership he'll work to make everyone else under him successful. That's why the next president appointment will be the most critical since Hill.

(03-17-2018 08:09 PM)biglizard Wrote:  Mark is like anyone else in his business. The department's success is his success. He's still young and and has a long way to go until retirement. If he gets the right leadership he'll work to make everyone else under him successful. That's why the next president appointment will be the most critical since Hill.

How much longer can we reasonably expect Pumpkinhead to stay in charge?

(03-17-2018 08:16 PM)Bham Blazer Wrote:  

(03-17-2018 08:09 PM)biglizard Wrote:  Mark is like anyone else in his business. The department's success is his success. He's still young and and has a long way to go until retirement. If he gets the right leadership he'll work to make everyone else under him successful. That's why the next president appointment will be the most critical since Hill.

How much longer can we reasonably expect Pumpkinhead to stay in charge?

Great question. I feel like once he's at retirement age and fully vested he'll have to give it serious thought. He's not stupid, he knows he's become a pariah at the university. Donors will need to expedite the process with the board. I think I know who is being groomed internally to take over but they may want to go outside the system.

(03-17-2018 07:30 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  if it was that easy it would have already been done.

Definitely wouldn't be easy (nothing worth a damn ever is) but UAB fans should know it's already been done. That's how we ended up one of two founding members left in CUSA. Both the AAC and MWC used this model. Can't kick teams out so you reform with the teams that are more mutually beneficial.

Standing pat would be another big mistake. The supposed benefits of the "Big Markets" model have not materialized and have instead seriously degraded our league. Time for a new direction.

*Just saw your other post. I think we mostly agree.

Lets try to be the Boise/Gonzaga of CUSA it will not matter what Conference UAB is in...Go Blazers!

(03-17-2018 08:16 PM)Bham Blazer Wrote:  How much longer can we reasonably expect Pumpkinhead to stay in charge?

Our self-described bold and visionary leader turns 65 on 18 December 18.

UTEP is the pin on the proverbial grenade. If UTEP leaves to join the MWC (and grabs someone else to go with them) you may see this sort of geographical tightening. Until then, CUSA remains an emerging football conference. The biggest issue is the perennial sub-200 teams in basketball. 7/14 teams are below 200 in the RPI, two of which are below 300.

(03-17-2018 09:06 PM)FNblazer Wrote:  UTEP is the pin on the proverbial grenade. If UTEP leaves to join the MWC (and grabs someone else to go with them) you may see this sort of geographical tightening. Until then, CUSA remains an emerging football conference. The biggest issue is the perennial sub-200 teams in basketball. 7/14 teams are below 200 in the RPI, two of which are below 300.

Yup. That's exactly where I'm coming from. Something has to change. Until we can get to the AAC, we need home and home series with MTSU, WKU, ODU, Marshall, USM and LT (maybe) every season. Those also happen to be the conference opponents our football fans can travel to and want to see at home.

I don't expect anything this forward looking to come from UAB right now but maybe some of the other core eastern schools will move that way and we'll follow along.

Nobody is going to make that move without the basketball credits, the bowl tie ins, and having to pay to leave the conference. It makes no sense.

The last round of realignment I really wish we would have tried to tighten the conference up, but that ship has sailed now. We have to do the best we can, and hole during the next round of realignment we are in a good place.

(03-17-2018 08:30 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(03-17-2018 07:30 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  if it was that easy it would have already been done.

Definitely wouldn't be easy (nothing worth a damn ever is) but UAB fans should know it's already been done. That's how we ended up one of two founding members left in CUSA. Both the AAC and MWC used this model. Can't kick teams out so you reform with the teams that are more mutually beneficial.

Standing pat would be another big mistake. The supposed benefits of the "Big Markets" model have not materialized and have instead seriously degraded our league. Time for a new direction.

*Just saw your other post. I think we mostly agree.

The AAC wasn't formed as some visionary conference. It was formed because those schools had nowhere to go. They left their old conferences thinking they were joining the Big East. The Big East schools rejected them, bolted and took their name with them. If anyone followed this model, it's the Big East who formed a new conference with the same name and dropped the dead weight who had just joined. That dead weight became the AAC.

(03-17-2018 09:06 PM)FNblazer Wrote:  UTEP is the pin on the proverbial grenade. If UTEP leaves to join the MWC (and grabs someone else to go with them) you may see this sort of geographical tightening. Until then, CUSA remains an emerging football conference. The biggest issue is the perennial sub-200 teams in basketball. 7/14 teams are below 200 in the RPI, two of which are below 300.

Although not workable in today's environment, that's why I prefer a small conference of 6-8 teams. Like the Great Midwest. One year, five of the six teams either went to the NCAA or the NiT