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Dan Wolken ‏@DanWolken 1m
The people associated with UAB (and the Alabama BOT) should be ashamed they let this happen. Even a little ambition and they'd be in.

That's the problem. There was no one at the helm when all of this went down. This required presidential leadership.

Would've been easier for them to just kick UAB out of CUSA than for everyone to leave.

(04-02-2013 11:16 AM)WesternBlazer Wrote:  Dan Wolken ‏@DanWolken 1m
The people associated with UAB (and the Alabama BOT) should be ashamed they let this happen. Even a little ambition and they'd be in.

:(

Good ole Wolkenstein

(04-02-2013 11:32 AM)Smaug Wrote:  Good ole Wolkenstein

Is dead on target.

(04-02-2013 11:16 AM)WesternBlazer Wrote:  Dan Wolken ‏@DanWolken 1m
The people associated with UAB (and the Alabama BOT) should be ashamed they let this happen. Even a little ambition and they'd be in.

Yeah, no crap, Dan. Thanks for reminding us. :muttering:

(04-02-2013 12:11 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(04-02-2013 11:32 AM)Smaug Wrote:  Good ole Wolkenstein

Is dead on target.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean I care to be reminded.

How is it so that UAB would be in with a little ambition? Before the C7 and Boise State and SDSU (football only) decided to leave Memphis had to practically beg to be included and had to bring FedEx to the table. Is the idea that with a little ambition UAB could have gotten the spot given to Tulane when Rutgers left? The C7 revolted over private Tulane, surely they would have revolted over public UAB. Now this last spot has gone to the 2012 C-USA football champion with modest tradition in a decent market. Where is the spot UAB could have gotten with a little ambition?

I think the point is that UAB has not even been in the conversation and with the size of the metro and UAB's potential it would be if not for...

What he's saying is that if we'd committed on a stadium we probably would be in, that the BoT's knifework worked just as designed... or that with the active support of a BoT with the best interests of UAB in mind, we'd probably be in, which amounts to the same thing.

The key issue of ambition to me is for UAB to be ready to do something if the dust ever settles on UConn and Cincinnati. The all-sports football group that included Memphis but not Tulane and Tulsa wanted the C7 to stay and satisfying the C7 is why all-sports members that included football were being so restricted thereby making it very difficult for a UAB to be included. Now with the C7 gone UConn and Cincinnati are not content and are making it known to the ACC and Big 12. If they ever leave and the possibility opens up for UAB to move with Southern Miss and say Old Dominion with its Norfolk Navy presence then UAB needs to be more than just a little ambitious.

Does this indicate that Dan Wolken and others like him actually BELIEVE the System BOT REALLY cares to act on behalf of UAB's athletic growth and welfare? Where have they been living these last two decades of unremitting BOT hostility towards UAB sports? If UAB can't even build a small FB stadium without being blocked by (probably illegal - like the BOT cares-) BOT actions, how can UAB actions alone be considered possible to move to a new conference?

I think we would have been considered even without a stadium in the works if we had proactive leadership, instead of just saying "we are committed to CUSA" and slamming the door.

Might be an unpopular opinion here with some who think Mackin walks on water and I don't buy the presidency vacancy. Someone was in charge and if there was any seriousness about UAB being in the mix, someone would have stepped up and at least got us into discussions.

Island, that's all well and good... but no matter what UAB is "ready to do", if we don't gett support from our BoT, or they actively cockblock it as they did when the OCS was removed from the agenda, it won't matter.

There are people in power at UAT and on the BoT who really don't want to see UAB move up the food chain. They think we need to "do what we're good at", like educating people, and leave athletics to "THE University of Alabama", and any step forward on our part is not to be supported if it can be avoided.

I mean, during all the various conference realignment, have you seen or heard anything that makes you believe that UAB was scrapping for a place at the table the way say ECU was? Do you really think that the UAB administration, particularly the athletic department, does not want that move up?

(04-02-2013 03:56 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  ? Do you really think that the UAB administration, particularly the athletic department, does not want that move up?

I saw nothing except Mackin's statement that we are committed to CUSA. And Do we need BOT approval to change conferences? I don't know.

(04-02-2013 04:05 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(04-02-2013 03:56 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  ? Do you really think that the UAB administration, particularly the athletic department, does not want that move up?

I saw nothing except Mackin's statement that we are committed to CUSA. And Do we need BOT approval to change conferences? I don't know.

Yes

In what, we are already in CUSA, the original CUSA. Tulsa is leaving CUSA, to go to CUSA... I just dont get what the fuss is...even if every team in the new CUSA, BIG EAST or what ever it will be called, leaves and go to a vacant ACC, it will still be CUSA...
We are acting like Tulsa, Memphis and the other defectors left CUSA and went to a top conference instead at best a little above a lateral move in conferences.
In a few years after UCONN and Cincy leaves, the conference yet to be named will die, if the current CUSA members stay away.... I just dont get it...
If a hundred Zebras were standing in a field, I couldnt tell the difference from one to the other, even though, there may be one, I cant see it...

I think Mackin's statement is kinda like Jeff Lebo's saying he wasn't going to leave Auburn.

Of course not, because no one's asking you to leave.

If the Blazers start winning in football and mens basketball and contending for conference championships in this C-USA and experiencing a spike in athletic fund raising there will be a lot more UAB people who will beat this drum about the BOT being a barrier to athletics and needed facilities at UAB with proof in the pudding so to speak if nothing is being done. Winning is what the "cry" is missing.