Return of UAB football

[DoubleA]

Strange but true, to be announced today

[TheMoody1]

I guess that means no spot for the CUSA wanna' bees.

[firemoose]

This is really just a half step above not having football at all for them. They have to restart the program from scratch with everybody already transferred away. It will take several years for them to build back players and depth to be a true FBS level program, even using JUCO's, which is not the way to build anyway. And what will C-USA do for scheduling given that they have prepared expecting UAB to not be there? Plus how many of the fans that have begged for them to bring it back will stick around until they rebuild and while they are playing FCS and DII teams until they can get back into the C-USA rotation, only to be pounded by those teams during the rebuild? Talk about a complete Charlie Fox.

[T-Dog]

UAB Football (and women's bowling and rifle) were killed by Paul Bryant Jr, son of Bear Bryant. Gene Bartow, godfather of UAAB athletics, turned in Alabama to the NCAA once upon a time and the Bryant family never forgot. PBJ is a scumbag of the highest order, but has a lot of power on the Alabama BoT and got himself UAB Football's death as a retirement gift through their puppet, UAB president Ray Watts.

What happened was that the city of Birmingham and local power players rallied around the program. Not just with social media posts, but with their checkbooks. Enough money was committed to UAB bringing back football to make it solvent.

UAB could have always had a solvent football team, but any updates were stifled for the last ten years by PBJ and his cronies, included an on-campus stadium that would have paid for itself in three years.

The battle has been won, but UAB still has a long way to go to fight against the Roll Tide BoT to make sure this doesn't happen again.

[firemoose]

Yep. I know what happened and why. Knowing several people who work there gives a person a lot of insight. Just hope the people who begged for it to come back and those who wrote the checks are prepared for and are in it for the long haul, and a continued fight with the Alabama PTB's. They destroyed an FBS football program. Going to take some work to get it back.

[JTApps1]

This is a great first step for them, but it will be a long recovery. Think back to SMU getting the death penalty which cost them 2 seasons. UAB is likely going to miss 2 years, and they still have to fix all of the problems they had before axing the program in December. Basically every bit of the money pledged will go towards fixing facilities such as practice fields, training rooms, and offices. They still have to fund a new stadium at some point if they truly want to be competitive long term. Plus they have to hire an entirely new staff (minus Bill Clark), and fill out their roster which is said to be around 40 players at the moment.

This is a good thing for the Sun Belt as it will force everyone to stay put, and it once again makes our opening for a 12th member the only spot available in FBS. I actually hope we boot Idaho and have 2 spots, but that is a different discussion.

[DoubleA]

UAB football has their work cut out for them. Have to build a stadium downtown to have any hope of making a go of it. Even then, they are faced with being somewhat irrevelant outside of UAB circles.

[DoubleA]

UAB football is somewhat in the same predicament as UNCC. Each sits in a nice size metro area, but plays second fiddle to others and must rely on their student and alumni base, with potentially little outside support. UAB sits in the shadows of Alabama and Auburn, in a college football / SEC football crazed city and state. UNCC sits is a pro football city, in the shadows of the Carolina Panthers, then must pick up the college football scraps left over by UNC, NC State, App, USC, Clemson, Va Tech and WVA. (seems like we have more than our share of Va Tech and WVU fans who have migrated down I77). UAB's football problems run far deeper than any issues with Paul Bryant, Jr, in their fight for relevancy deep in the heart of SEC territory. UNCC is off to a golden start, thanks to uncles Jerry and Hugh, but may find themselves challenged to put butts in the seats. it will be interesting to see how things go for both programs over the course of time.

[moehler]

pretty much puts the final nail in the coffin for JMU hopes for CUSA, atleast for the next 3 or 4 years, I wonder if the SBC even cares anymore about offering them membership.

[AppinVA]

pretty much puts the final nail in the coffin for JMU hopes for CUSA, atleast for the next 3 or 4 years, I wonder if the SBC even cares anymore about offering them membership.

Of course they would. Name a university better suited than JMU to put in their place. They, like us and GaSo, are ready-made for the transition, and solve the travel partner problem. No other school can do that at this point in time.

[AppfaninCAALand]

pretty much puts the final nail in the coffin for JMU hopes for CUSA, atleast for the next 3 or 4 years, I wonder if the SBC even cares anymore about offering them membership.

Of course they would. Name a university better suited than JMU to put in their place. They, like us and GaSo, are ready-made for the transition, and solve the travel partner problem. No other school can do that at this point in time.

All of the JMU fans I know (and I discussed this very topic with one yesterday) are hoping the JMU administration pulls their heads out of their butts before the SBC gives up on them and fear it's too late already.

As for UAB, what a colossal waste of time and money to kill the program and then announce to restart it as soon as the players and coaches leave. A sane board would have either never killed it or let it stay dead.