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https://www.al.com/uab/2023/07/qa-with-a...eague.html

Pretty good interview. It’s nice being in a conference with actual leadership.

Surprisingly good interview. But this part hurt.

Quote:The night will pass on eventually but we’re all excited about the new schools coming in and UAB is among -- I guess you could call it -- one of the flagship schools because UAB was one of the schools we sort of had our eye on for a long time. We lost UConn several years ago, as you recall, and we decided to stay at 11 (members). We always talked about, “Do we want to get back to 12?” My gut tells me, my sense is that, if we had gone to 12 at any point and -- had the realignment not happened the way it did with Oklahoma and Texas leaving and some of our schools going -- we might well have zeroed in on UAB.

I wish they would have taken us when UCONN left so we could have been in the same conference as UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati again.
I am glad that we are moving up (better than not moving up at all), but being in the AAC after UCONN left would have great.

For a 2-3 year window, the only talk about teams coming from CUSA was centered on UAB, ODU was gonna get a look if they pulled in an even number from MWC. When they couldn’t pull MWC teams such as Boise, SDSU. They then moved on to AF and CSU, but we were always intended to be brought in, just not alone. It’s sickening that we didn’t get to go alone and add some of the MWC.

(07-24-2023 08:47 AM)blazerblazer Wrote:  Surprisingly good interview. But this part hurt.

Quote:The night will pass on eventually but we’re all excited about the new schools coming in and UAB is among -- I guess you could call it -- one of the flagship schools because UAB was one of the schools we sort of had our eye on for a long time. We lost UConn several years ago, as you recall, and we decided to stay at 11 (members). We always talked about, “Do we want to get back to 12?” My gut tells me, my sense is that, if we had gone to 12 at any point and -- had the realignment not happened the way it did with Oklahoma and Texas leaving and some of our schools going -- we might well have zeroed in on UAB.

I wish they would have taken us when UCONN left so we could have been in the same conference as UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati again.
I am glad that we are moving up (better than not moving up at all), but being in the AAC after UCONN left would have great.

Yeah that would've been huge for exposure, branding, fan interest, and finances. Even if we still ended up with current iteration of the AAC, had we been there earlier we would be getting a full TV share now instead of half.

My guess is if we were as strong in 2019 as we were in 2022 (Protective Stadium completed, bball facility, another NCAA tournament, another football conf championship & bowl win) we would've been invited as the 12th team.

(07-24-2023 08:47 AM)blazerblazer Wrote:  Surprisingly good interview. But this part hurt.

Quote:The night will pass on eventually but we’re all excited about the new schools coming in and UAB is among -- I guess you could call it -- one of the flagship schools because UAB was one of the schools we sort of had our eye on for a long time. We lost UConn several years ago, as you recall, and we decided to stay at 11 (members). We always talked about, “Do we want to get back to 12?” My gut tells me, my sense is that, if we had gone to 12 at any point and -- had the realignment not happened the way it did with Oklahoma and Texas leaving and some of our schools going -- we might well have zeroed in on UAB.

I wish they would have taken us when UCONN left so we could have been in the same conference as UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati again.
I am glad that we are moving up (better than not moving up at all), but being in the AAC after UCONN left would have great.

Well we're in now, so focus in.

Nice article by Dudley. Any others

You don’t really have to interview Aresco. You just turn on the recorder and let him go.

If you were really interviewing him, you’d press him to expound on why they added 6 instead of 2 or 4, pressed him on what the commitment benchmarks are (budgets, scheduling, etc.) and bring the receipts on exactly what the conference lost in UH, UCF and Cincinnati (a huge chunk of the tv ratings power, easily documented) and ask him for details on the plans. The American certainly *can* retain its position as the top non-p5 or whatever people choose to call it, but it isn’t a layup. Would be nice to hear the commissioner speak in greater detail on how they will go about it beyond “win” …

"(Note: The following Q&A has been lightly edited for content and clarity.)"

Again, is it a Q&A or not?