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(03-16-2015 08:27 PM)WesternBlazer Wrote:  

(03-16-2015 08:21 PM)Big Dee Wrote:  

(03-16-2015 08:17 PM)Blazer85 Wrote:  I don't expect many to leave over possibly losing conference affiliation. Now if we were to lose Haase then I could see us losing some folks. But I don't see it from changing conferences. If we were to drop to a lower tier conference, we would have a good shot at being a perennial host site for their conference tournament and a perennial NCAA team. If we somehow lucked up and found our way into an even better conference (less likely and would be purely accidental if Watts managed to maneuver that since he wants us to fail), then our at-large chances go up.

Either way, I think our current state of basketball is strong. If Haase remains, I expect us to grow stronger in the coming years.

As much as I hate to say it I would beg the AAC.

Requires FBS football. The non-FBS football schools left and took the Big East name with them...

Have you seen their by-laws or are you guessing? Just because those schools left doesn't necessarily mean the remaining schools changed the conference bylaws to require FBS membership (remember the AAC is the old conference with a new name).

There is no basketball-only team in the conference. However, there is a team coming in that is football-only(Navy).

The AAC makes more sense and actually might be more plausible than the MVC or A10. Don't know that there would be enough support to get us in even though we would probably be a better addition than half the teams in that league.

OVC might be interesting. Murray State needs someone to give them a good game. Southern Illinois is good most years. Lots of teams, including Jacksonville State within easy travel.

The AAC is suffering from realization that they aint that great. They are not going to take another CUSA team.

(03-16-2015 10:42 PM)Blazer85 Wrote:  The AAC makes more sense and actually might be more plausible than the MVC or A10.

You say that as if UAB has choices.

The AAC has a similar problem to what CUSA has, but at more extreme levels. The top 6 teams were in the top 83, including 4 in the top 50. The bottom 5 teams were 214 plus. It would make sense to add another good basketball program. I am just not sure we would qualify as good at the moment.

Also, that entire conference pretty much left us behind at some point. I'm not sure how many of those teams would be in favor of us joining them. I would think temple and uconn would be against adding a school in Alabama. If it is a viable option though, we need to look into it, so naturally we won't.

(03-16-2015 11:09 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  OVC might be interesting. Murray State needs someone to give them a good game. Southern Illinois is good most years. Lots of teams, including Jacksonville State within easy travel.

The AAC is suffering from realization that they aint that great. They are not going to take another CUSA team.

Southern Illinois is in the MVC.

(03-16-2015 11:09 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  OVC might be interesting. Murray State needs someone to give them a good game. Southern Illinois is good most years. Lots of teams, including Jacksonville State within easy travel.

The AAC is suffering from realization that they aint that great. They are not going to take another CUSA team.

This. Assuming we can't get in the A10, MVC, or the AAC now that it's been mentioned, I would be in favor of joining the OVC if CUSA boots us. Several of those schools are close to us and many are basketball-centric. Belmont, Murray, and Morehead have all had recent success. The conference tournament would always be close if it stays in Nashville but we would probably be able to bring it to Bham some. If this were to happen I really wouldn't be too upset.

You guys don't get it. We don't get to "join" a conference. We have to be invited to, and that's subject to all kind of variables that we have zero control over. That's why losing our affiliation with C-USA scares hell out of us, because there's no telling how far we'll drop.

(03-17-2015 01:37 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  You guys don't get it. We don't get to "join" a conference. We have to be invited to, and that's subject to all kind of variables that we have zero control over. That's why losing our affiliation with C-USA scares hell out of us, because there's no telling how far we'll drop.

Yep. And again, I ask the question, who would be lobbying for us? The answer to that is probably what scares me the most.

(03-17-2015 01:37 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  You guys don't get it. We don't get to "join" a conference. We have to be invited to, and that's subject to all kind of variables that we have zero control over. That's why losing our affiliation with C-USA scares hell out of us, because there's no telling how far we'll drop.

Except for the toxic Ray Watts situation, I'm sure the OVC would love to have us.

Nobody wants Ray Watts.

(03-17-2015 01:37 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  You guys don't get it. We don't get to "join" a conference. We have to be invited to, and that's subject to all kind of variables that we have zero control over. That's why losing our affiliation with C-USA scares hell out of us, because there's no telling how far we'll drop.

And I think there are several conferences that would love to have UAB. And not the bottom of the barrel conferences. You think the OVC is thrilled that Murray State won 25 straight games, but didn't get an invite because no one other than Murray State was good. They would love to have a second good team.

Frankly I lose no sleep over leaving CUSA. CUSA was good for football, but for basketball it sucks. If we must play in a sucky basketball conference, I want to play in one where more than a one or two schools care about basketball.

(03-17-2015 12:59 PM)BlazintheATL Wrote:  

(03-16-2015 11:09 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  OVC might be interesting. Murray State needs someone to give them a good game. Southern Illinois is good most years. Lots of teams, including Jacksonville State within easy travel.

The AAC is suffering from realization that they aint that great. They are not going to take another CUSA team.

This. Assuming we can't get in the A10, MVC, or the AAC now that it's been mentioned, I would be in favor of joining the OVC if CUSA boots us. Several of those schools are close to us and many are basketball-centric. Belmont, Murray, and Morehead have all had recent success. The conference tournament would always be close if it stays in Nashville but we would probably be able to bring it to Bham some. If this were to happen I really wouldn't be too upset.

And we could take over Jacksonville State's gym once a year.

(03-17-2015 01:53 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(03-17-2015 01:37 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  You guys don't get it. We don't get to "join" a conference. We have to be invited to, and that's subject to all kind of variables that we have zero control over. That's why losing our affiliation with C-USA scares hell out of us, because there's no telling how far we'll drop.

And I think there are several conferences that would love to have UAB. And not the bottom of the barrel conferences. You think the OVC is thrilled that Murray State won 25 straight games, but didn't get an invite because no one other than Murray State was good. They would love to have a second good team.

Frankly I lose no sleep over leaving CUSA. CUSA was good for football, but for basketball it sucks. If we must play in a sucky basketball conference, I want to play in one where more than a one or two schools care about basketball.

The OVC is worse than CUSA, so I dont really understand the reasoning. It is really depressing to think how far we will have fallen in basketball conference affiliation in barely over 10 years. Has anyone else ever gone from a top 10 RPI league to a bottom 10 RPI league in a decade?

It's not much worse. My reasoning was stated. There are several schools in the OVC that give a damn about basketball so the passion is there. With the exception of UTEP,WKU and maybe ODU, there is no passion for basketball in CUSA.

I worry that a drastic drop in conference level will also result in a drastic drop in the UAB program.

(03-17-2015 02:04 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  It's not much worse. My reasoning was stated. There are several schools in the OVC that give a damn about basketball so the passion is there. With the exception of UTEP,WKU and maybe ODU, there is no passion for basketball in CUSA.

Do they really though? Most of their schools average under 2,000 basketball attendance and are in the 1,000 range.. Murray St. is around 3400. Thats it. There is nothing to be excited about by joining the OVC. Would it be better than the Asun? Of course, but that doesn't make it good or anywhere near equal to even current CUSA. The best we could hope for is to dominate that league and move up to somewhere else.

(03-17-2015 02:04 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  It's not much worse. My reasoning was stated. There are several schools in the OVC that give a damn about basketball so the passion is there. With the exception of UTEP,WKU and maybe ODU, there is no passion for basketball in CUSA.

Charlotte?

Given how bad CUSA was this year, we are running out of conferences that are lower than us. I think UAB could still be strong if we went to another conference even if not the AAC, MVC or A10. It's all about how invested you are in the program at your school and what resources you have. UAB has tremendous resources and significant history that we should be able to continue to succeed.

The bigger issue is about us being able to control our own destiny and be able to play football if we want to play football.