RE: Greg Swaim: UAB a candidate for Big XII???
Here are some factors favoring UAB in the future, for any conference moves, regardless of how the landscape shifts.
-- We're smack-dab in the middle of the fastest-growing region of the country. The winds of population shifts and economic growth are blowing southeast.
-- We're the No. 1 market for college football. Yeah, it's driven by Alabama and Auburn but the ratings are undeniable that Alabama loves college football of any kind (except losing football; we don't like that). If UAB puts a competitive product on the field, people will watch. Not only will people watch UAB -- they will watch games not involving UAB. To GG's point above; with viewership declining, conferences and networks are looking for strong bets to mitigate that erosion.
-- Planting a flag in SEC territory would be important for some groupings.
-- It's a virtual certainty there will be more movement in the major conferences and thus movement up.
-- We don't have a major pro team competing for attention and corporate support.
-- The next few years are incredibly important. I know we've been saying that for 20+ years, but this is an incremental process. Things can change quickly. Five years ago, was anyone mentioning Coastal Carolina for *anything*? Heck, in 2016 when we were sitting out, it was ludicrous to most people not wearing Green and Gold to think UAB would even be *good* much less being on the radar for a conference move of any kind.
-- UAB has got to do the following things:
1. Keep winning. We're doing a great job of winning the vast majority of games against comparable or weaker teams. Can't stop that. But yeah, it'd help to win some against *better* competition. Or at least make a respectable showing.
2. Return basketball to the Bartow Standard. I think we're on our way with that.
3. Continue the financial investment, growing both the overall donor base and expanding the number of larger individual and corporate contributors.
4. Fill those seats.
5. Show up strategically. We need to take crowds on the road and to our bowl games.
6. Improve in the other sports. UAB has some success but just being honest, the overall athletic program is not as competitive as it needs to be. I know that isn't necessarily the driving force, but if you want to move past the American to whatever the next tier of grouping is (with Cincinnati, UCF, etc.) in the future, UAB needs to start turning the facilities investments into Ws in sports like baseball, softball, tennis, golf, and especially soccer.
This is all an evolution. Needless to say, we weren't doing much of any of this from 2008-13 which is why we got left out. (Yeah, politics and all that but let's be honest, the mirror tells a story too). We've addressed almost every reason we were left out. Some great thing are happening and are about to happen, but we can't ever take the foot off the gas. There are even bigger places we can go!
(This post was last modified: 09-16-2021 08:37 AM by DuelingDragon.)
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