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(04-02-2020 10:48 AM)blazerjay Wrote:  

(04-02-2020 10:29 AM)the_blazerman Wrote:  Samford probably would bring more than most other in state programs that aren't SEC members.
Not saying we should play them or not.

I don't think we should rely on fans of other schools for attendance at least in basketball.

I agree that it is probably time to try to play Samford again. It's been over 30 years since the one short 3 years series in the '80s was marred by an ugly final game that led to not playing them again. The inclination to not play them was reinforced in the 90's when the one game we played them in football ended in the same ugly fashion.

FWIW, reportedly, XHCRE tried to schedule a H/H with Samford starting last season. But ADMI refused to sign the contract.

Still, Samford's average home attendance was all of 885 in 2019-20 and that was artificially bolstered by their "home" game against UAT at the BJCC which drew the whopping crowd of 5,476. Take that one out and Samford averaged 557 per game . I doubt they would "bring" more than 25-30% of that downtown.

Very interesting on Ingram shutting it down. I'd love to play them. If nothing else it's just an extra home game for UAB regardless of where it's held. I'll deal with driving the 5.3 miles to Pete Hanna vs. 4.0 to Bartow. I think it turns out to be a bad hire, but if Samford gets Bucky then there'll be some buzz there (and maybe some increased attendance). There's too many examples of good in-town rivalries (Lipscomb-Belmont is the main one I'm thinking of) for UAB-Samford not to be one of them.