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

(11-28-2012 04:22 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  Anyone find it odd that UAB is being so quiet when all the other Presidents and ADs are issuing statements in support of their conference & lauding new additions?

Champlin said last night he asked to speak with Mackin but no one got back to him.

Odd? Yes. Stupid? Nope. Recall how the coaching searches went down for McGee and Haase...I've never seen ANY search successfully kept so quiet. My guess is that when last Fall proved that backing the Cabal into a political corner not only didn't change their behavior, it allowed them to demonstrate just how immune they are to either public outrage or legal recriminations, the athletic department switched tactics.

It's quiet because The local media is not asking him for comments because they don't care about realignment unless it affects the SeC, not that he would comment. He is also not going to grandstand

(11-28-2012 03:08 PM)freeblazer Wrote:  

(11-28-2012 12:45 PM)HSV_BLAZER Wrote:  

(11-28-2012 11:29 AM)rebounder2u Wrote:  The C-USA teams leaving for the BIG EAST makes no sense. As stated here and other places the Big East is CUSA.
The CUSA teams that are leaving for the BE are only inheriting the name BE.
Is this whats it come down to switch and bait. I dont see this working out as it appears every team from CUSA with the exception of UAB and USM are headed to the BE.
Noone in the old BE wants to stay, but everyone in the old CUSA are trying to get in.
Come on...

The Big East is becoming C-USA, but with more $$, better bowls and better basketball. It makes sense for every school that accepted the offer.

You're right, and I wish we were included.

The problem with this line of thinking is that the only thing the new schools are doing is keeping the generator running on the Big East assisted breathing machine. Notice that there is not only is there NOT a TV deal established for the league, they have not even gotten a projection except for those from highly-paid consultants. Same with bowl agreements...bowls don't just suddenly relish the idea of, say, SMU in their bowl because "Big East" is on their jerseys now. They would rather have the 7th place team from the B1G or SEC than the 2nd place team from today's CUSA. In a shocking coincidence, bowls will prefer the 7th place team from the B1G or SEC over the 2nd place team in the Big East after realignment.

At this point, forget about the "rearranging deck chairs" on the Titanic analogy. We're at the point now where the wealthiest passengers have taken or reserved all of the lifeboats, and a member of the crew is wandering through stowage to inform those passengers that they are being upgraded free to now vacant first-class rooms. Congratulations!

Jeff Speegle's call to Brian Mackin.

Jeff Speegle : So Brian, when CONFOOSA shuts down the conference, are you guys going to join the A-10 or the Sunbelt for Basketball ?

Mackin : What ?....

Speegle : Teams are leaving the Coosa. Haven't you been paying attention ? Your footbawl team will be next and you will be out in the cold.

Mackin : Uh Jeff, I hate to break it to you but -

Speegle : Brian, buddy, I'm trying to help you here. You Seriously didn't know teams are defecting from your piddly little non-SEC conference ?

Mackin : You're an idiot. ( Click )

Speegle : And that's why your conference is a failure. Tonight's headline : Poor leadership at UAB, my interview with the outgoing AD Brian Malcolm.

You forgot, "Mr. Mackin, how has your coach being African-American affected UAB's conference realignment plans?"

(11-28-2012 04:20 PM)58-56 Wrote:  

Quote:If it's going to be about money -- and only money -- you might as well build the system from the bottom up with that as the driving principle.

We have that already. It's called the NFL. And if they turn college football into second-rate pro football, it's just going to drive fans to follow real pro football instead.

Agreed. But it's going to happen either way. College football as it was originally conceived and as the thing we grew up with is dead. I mean, aren't we already there? There is nothing about any of this that is about anything other than money, right? Which is fine if they were being honest about it. But they hide behind the mockery of amateurism.

And college football is second-rate pro football. It's a minor league for the NFL. The only difference are the passions built around the link to the schools we love. Fans who root for schools they didn't attend are absolutely legitimate, but they are rooting for them because of some family, geographic or some other random link, which is the same reason people root for pro teams.

There's disproportionate passion about it down here and in regional pockets, but it does not compare in any way to hold NFL has on this country. So in a lot of ways, I'm happier cheering for a team that can still hold on to its legitimate link to "amateur" athletics because it's not a billion dollar business. In other words, for the most part, we're cheering for the college we love. And the Bammers, for the most part, are cheering for the team that plays in a city in the state they live in that they've never been to because they have nothing else to have pride in or care about, so they worship at the altar of Nick Saban. This is already professional football. And the whole damn thing is going to come crumbling down at some point anyway. The conference realignment chaos is the very top of the slippery slope.

(11-28-2012 05:41 PM)blazr Wrote:  

(11-28-2012 03:08 PM)freeblazer Wrote:  

(11-28-2012 12:45 PM)HSV_BLAZER Wrote:  

(11-28-2012 11:29 AM)rebounder2u Wrote:  The C-USA teams leaving for the BIG EAST makes no sense. As stated here and other places the Big East is CUSA.
The CUSA teams that are leaving for the BE are only inheriting the name BE.
Is this whats it come down to switch and bait. I dont see this working out as it appears every team from CUSA with the exception of UAB and USM are headed to the BE.
Noone in the old BE wants to stay, but everyone in the old CUSA are trying to get in.
Come on...

The Big East is becoming C-USA, but with more $$, better bowls and better basketball. It makes sense for every school that accepted the offer.

You're right, and I wish we were included.

The problem with this line of thinking is that the only thing the new schools are doing is keeping the generator running on the Big East assisted breathing machine. Notice that there is not only is there NOT a TV deal established for the league, they have not even gotten a projection except for those from highly-paid consultants. Same with bowl agreements...bowls don't just suddenly relish the idea of, say, SMU in their bowl because "Big East" is on their jerseys now. They would rather have the 7th place team from the B1G or SEC than the 2nd place team from today's CUSA. In a shocking coincidence, bowls will prefer the 7th place team from the B1G or SEC over the 2nd place team in the Big East after realignment.

At this point, forget about the "rearranging deck chairs" on the Titanic analogy. We're at the point now where the wealthiest passengers have taken or reserved all of the lifeboats, and a member of the crew is wandering through stowage to inform those passengers that they are being upgraded free to now vacant first-class rooms. Congratulations!

I hear you, and that was actually the point I was making in the rest of the post. I mean, my next word after the sentence you quoted was "but." Still, your Titanic analogy doesn't quite work, because the conference will continue to exist. I fully agree there's no reason to believe if we were suddenly invited to the Big East it would be cause for wild celebration. It would be merely maintaining what was the status quo until this all started. But at least we'd get to play higher-quality basketball teams. I'd rather see Memphis and Marquette and DePaul and Temple than FIU and FAU and UTSA.

(11-28-2012 05:41 PM)blazr Wrote:  At this point, forget about the "rearranging deck chairs" on the Titanic analogy. We're at the point now where the wealthiest passengers have taken or reserved all of the lifeboats, and a member of the crew is wandering through stowage to inform those passengers that they are being upgraded free to now vacant first-class rooms. Congratulations!

That is exactly what is happening because when all is said and done there will be no more TV money or Bowl tie-ins than there was when they were in CUSA.

(11-28-2012 05:49 PM)BlazerPhil Wrote:  Jeff Speegle's call to Brian Mackin.

Jeff Speegle : So Brian, when CONFOOSA shuts down the conference, are you guys going to join the A-10 or the Sunbelt for Basketball ?

Mackin : What ?....

Speegle : Teams are leaving the Coosa. Haven't you been paying attention ? Your footbawl team will be next and you will be out in the cold.

Mackin : Uh Jeff, I hate to break it to you but -

Speegle : Brian, buddy, I'm trying to help you here. You Seriously didn't know teams are defecting from your piddly little non-SEC conference ?

Mackin : You're an idiot. ( Click )

Speegle : And that's why your conference is a failure. Tonight's headline : Poor leadership at UAB, my interview with the outgoing AD Brian Malcolm.

Why would he call Mackin for a comment when the decision is made in Tusc but they don't even need to make that call either since they already know the answer

Saw this over on ESPN:

"I'm very excited to join this prestigious conference," Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said. "For the ACC to have faith in us means the world to us athletically and academically. The biggest winner is our school being associated with all of the prestigious schools.

"While I'm very excited, I'm very sad for the Big East. The Big East has been very good to this university. I thought (when Louisville joined in 2005), it would be a lifetime commitment until things around us started deteriorating. Instead of looking back, we're looking forward. We want to be a great partner with every institution in the ACC."

Good 'ol Louisville snobbery. I wonder what Tom will say when FSU and Miami round up the $50 Million exit fee?

(11-28-2012 06:26 PM)freeblazer Wrote:  I hear you, and that was actually the point I was making in the rest of the post. I mean, my next word after the sentence you quoted was "but." Still, your Titanic analogy doesn't quite work, because the conference will continue to exist. I fully agree there's no reason to believe if we were suddenly invited to the Big East it would be cause for wild celebration. It would be merely maintaining what was the status quo until this all started. But at least we'd get to play higher-quality basketball teams. I'd rather see Memphis and Marquette and DePaul and Temple than FIU and FAU and UTSA.

I'm very certain you're wrong on the survival of the conference (as a football league at least). Why the non-football schools allow these incremental steps is beyond me. They are pissed and they want to break, but perhaps a TV rep is in their ears. I do think it was demonstrated that they do have considerable power or ECU's invite would have been all-sports and Tulane would never have been considered. But the split/disbandment/whatever of the league is not a matter of if but when. They have always had goals that were at odds, but the BCS money and ESPN slobbering over all of them was enough to cover that up. It's absolutely an untenable situation...for BOTH groups, TBH.

(11-28-2012 07:29 PM)BlazerRob Wrote:  Good 'ol Louisville snobbery. I wonder what Tom will say when FSU and Miami round up the $50 Million exit fee?

They will be very thankful to be in the Big East...

When FSU, Clemson, Ga Tech, and Duke join the Big 12;
NC St and Va Tech Join the SEC; and
UNC and UVa join the Big 10,
the ACC will be:
Boston College, Miami, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Louisville, Cincinnati, UConn, Temple.
Non-Football: Notre Dame, Georgetown, Villanova, etc...

Notice the pattern?

When the question is "Why do they..." or "Why don't they...", the answer is usually "Money."

Which ones look like they dont belong? USM & UAB

(11-28-2012 07:29 PM)BlazerRob Wrote:  Saw this over on ESPN:

"I'm very excited to join this prestigious conference," Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said. "For the ACC to have faith in us means the world to us athletically and academically. The biggest winner is our school being associated with all of the prestigious schools.

"While I'm very excited, I'm very sad for the Big East. The Big East has been very good to this university. I thought (when Louisville joined in 2005), it would be a lifetime commitment until things around us started deteriorating. Instead of looking back, we're looking forward. We want to be a great partner with every institution in the ACC."

Good 'ol Louisville snobbery. I wonder what Tom will say when FSU and Miami round up the $50 Million exit fee?

"...things around us started deteriorating" = the long-time members refused to recognize "We run this *****, now!!!"

I've come to the conclusion that when Jurich arrives at hell, he'll be met by someone telling him that, "Down here, Mr. Jurich, we understand and we appreciate your work. So this is not as bad as it might seem. In fact, we are making you COO of our Infiltration and Sabotage Division!"

Only they'll have meetings, retreats, conference calls, etc. all day for all of eternity...and no one will ever acknowledge he's in the room.

(11-28-2012 08:15 PM)BlazeNBham Wrote:  Which ones look like they dont belong? USM & UAB

What do you mean exactly by "belong?" No team earns a spot in another conference, so no one loses that spot either. It will be what it will be...nothing any of us can do to affect it, on the field or off.

(11-28-2012 08:27 PM)blazr Wrote:  

(11-28-2012 08:15 PM)BlazeNBham Wrote:  Which ones look like they dont belong? USM & UAB

What do you mean exactly by "belong?" No team earns a spot in another conference, so no one loses that spot either. It will be what it will be...nothing any of us can do to affect it, on the field or off.

They just look odd in that group of schools

(11-28-2012 07:38 PM)blazr Wrote:  

(11-28-2012 06:26 PM)freeblazer Wrote:  I hear you, and that was actually the point I was making in the rest of the post. I mean, my next word after the sentence you quoted was "but." Still, your Titanic analogy doesn't quite work, because the conference will continue to exist. I fully agree there's no reason to believe if we were suddenly invited to the Big East it would be cause for wild celebration. It would be merely maintaining what was the status quo until this all started. But at least we'd get to play higher-quality basketball teams. I'd rather see Memphis and Marquette and DePaul and Temple than FIU and FAU and UTSA.

I'm very certain you're wrong on the survival of the conference (as a football league at least). Why the non-football schools allow these incremental steps is beyond me. They are pissed and they want to break, but perhaps a TV rep is in their ears. I do think it was demonstrated that they do have considerable power or ECU's invite would have been all-sports and Tulane would never have been considered. But the split/disbandment/whatever of the league is not a matter of if but when. They have always had goals that were at odds, but the BCS money and ESPN slobbering over all of them was enough to cover that up. It's absolutely an untenable situation...for BOTH groups, TBH.

Maybe. But it's still a better situation than going down in the Titanic. In whatever iteration creates the next league or leagues for those schools, it would be better to be considered their peers than to be considered peers of Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic. Which is why we would accept immediately if the Big East invited us today. Not because it's the Big East and that's any big deal, but because of the alliances it creates for whatever is next.

Bear in mind, I agree with you that there will be a "split/disbandment/whatever" of that league because I believe there's going to be a "split/disbandment/whatever" of the entire NCAA that will leave every single school not in a super-power conference out in the cold.