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Regardless of the divisional alignment for football, surely C-USA officials will realize that the UAB Blazers need to be paired home and home in men's basketball with the UNC Charlotte 49ers, the Old Dominion Monarchs, and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers; history should reign in this regard. Depending on the UAB athletic director to get this done with C-USA.

Nope. We will get nice H&H with UTEP and USM, though.

Students and fans in their 20’s have no history with those teams who make up a big portion of our fan base, . UTEP and USM are better rivals to them.

We have been in CUSA longer than we were ever in the Sun Belt.

With a 14-member non-divisional basketball setup all C-USA members will have either three or five home and home games. Southern Miss makes sense. The legacy of real UAB basketball success and building of a fan base occurred playing WKU, VCU, ODU, UNCC, JU, USF, & USA in conference. The success of UAB basketball during that time provided an invitation to the Great Midwest; and then came Memphis and Cincinnati. Playing home and home versus three of those seven makes more sense than anyone else in the new look C-USA; except USM.

The danger in getting more conference games with teams with higher RPI's is every now & then a team will finish in the top of the division or conference due to the fact that they had a way easier schedule.

UTEP has been the most exciting conference series we have played in the past three or four years. I'd rather play them than Charlotte or ODU

I'm thinking UAB basketball can also develop rivalries with La Tech and Middle Tennessee in the new look C-USA. USM, UTEP, La Tech, MTSU, UNCC, ODU, WKU is a decent core for UAB basketball rivalries and putting fans in Bartow Arena.

MTSU, Southern Miss, WKU, UNCC and UTEP would be best for rivalries and rpi, as all expect to compete in CUSA and get in NCAA's.
UTEP will be loaded with talent and our games the last few years have been fun.
Would think two games vs them would be good for our rpi, provided we win.

(06-17-2013 09:30 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  Students and fans in their 20’s have no history with those teams who make up a big portion of our fan base, . UTEP and USM are better rivals to them.

We have been in CUSA longer than we were ever in the Sun Belt.

I'm still in my twenties and I absolutely hate UNCC from their CUSA days and WKU during the series we played against them out of conference. I think USM is our best rival now, but I could careless about playing UTEP home and home if I get to play UNCC and WKU home and home.

The 14-member C-USA with a 16 game basketball schedule means that each member will play the other 13 once and home and home with 3. UNC Charlotte, Southern Miss, and Western Kentucky as UAB's permanent home and home C-USA opponents works as natural basketball rivals. Hope our AD can make this happen.

Charlotte has more natural geography eivals with east Carolina or Marshall. MTSU is a more natural rival than WKU.

(06-19-2013 09:16 PM)uab278 Wrote:  but I could careless about playing UTEP home and home if I get to play UNCC and WKU home and home.

So, how much do you care about playing UTEP? could you care a little less, or a lot less?

(06-20-2013 08:26 AM)Island Blazer Wrote:  The 14-member C-USA with a 16 game basketball schedule means that each member will play the other 13 once and home and home with 3. UNC Charlotte, Southern Miss, and Western Kentucky as UAB's permanent home and home C-USA opponents works as natural basketball rivals. Hope our AD can make this happen.

There has been serious discussion of going to 19 conference games for future seasons. You would play each member of your division twice and opposing division members once.

I didn't used to care about UTEP, but then we started having some hellacious games with them, and now I'm glad we do.

(06-20-2013 09:42 AM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  

(06-20-2013 08:26 AM)Island Blazer Wrote:  The 14-member C-USA with a 16 game basketball schedule means that each member will play the other 13 once and home and home with 3. UNC Charlotte, Southern Miss, and Western Kentucky as UAB's permanent home and home C-USA opponents works as natural basketball rivals. Hope our AD can make this happen.

There has been serious discussion of going to 19 conference games for future seasons. You would play each member of your division twice and opposing division members once.

I think this makes the most sense. I also wouldn't mind some form of scheduling to where you group the the teams based on their finish the prior year to give the top of the conference some help if we stay at 14 teams. So if UTEP, UAB, USM, and MTSU finished 1-4, they would have home and homes the next season. Then do it with 5-8, and then divide the home and homes some way among the bottom 6 finishers. I really think with the diversity of programs in the league right now, the league may want to try and get a little creative in its scheduling.

'Creative' and 'Conference USA' are two terms that have never, ever met. Not even accidentally.

(06-20-2013 09:42 AM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  

(06-20-2013 08:26 AM)Island Blazer Wrote:  The 14-member C-USA with a 16 game basketball schedule means that each member will play the other 13 once and home and home with 3. UNC Charlotte, Southern Miss, and Western Kentucky as UAB's permanent home and home C-USA opponents works as natural basketball rivals. Hope our AD can make this happen.

There has been serious discussion of going to 19 conference games for future seasons. You would play each member of your division twice and opposing division members once.

playing 19 games could be a disaster for our RPI with the weakness of new teams. We probably need to keep in conference at 16 or so to be able to play a few more strong OOC teams. I have hopes in a couple of years, we will win a lot of games and have a strong enough schedule to get at large berth

Rivalries are usually not planned by others but result from the history between certain teams in actual play. A rivalry may result from some fan's actions, some coach's quotes, or some game site promotions. They can "wax & wane" based upon the comparative strength of two schools over time. This current edition of C-USA will probably give rise to new rivalries that may not be planned in advance but arise from the history established between two or more schools. If UAB should not play Memphis for 4 years, the only ones who will care about the rivalry will be us "old codgers" with good memories.

EX: In the SEC there is less current talk this year about Bama vs Auburn than Bama vs TX A&M or Bama vs Florida.

Are you f'ing kidding me? There is more talk about Bama-TX A&M right now because the game is the 2nd game of their season. And I'm not sure who is talking about Bama-Florida, but those people are pretty dumb. When it boils down to it the Auburn game means way more to the fans, and that is what a rivalry is all about.

Bama-Florida, you have to be kidding.

Pffft. There is more talk about bammer vs. aTm because the Aggies beat them last year and have a returning Heisman winner. UA vs AU is the biggest rivalry game for the fans, always, but it's far from the most appealing game on the schedule.