Unlike the 2014 Carr Report, the 2008 study was only used to assess options and not provide a determination for the future of UAB football. Another option of trying to be more competitive in football listed a net loss of $11.3 million. The study suggested UAB would have lost money in the Missouri Valley and barely broke even in the Atlantic 10 by eliminating football. Unsurprisingly, those alternatives were found to be iffy propositions for UAB in the long term: Solomon recently revealed that then-University of Alabama system chancellor Malcolm Portera requested a study back in 2008 about the feasibility of keeping or ending UAB football as well as the possibility of dropping UAB down to the Missouri Valley Conference or Atlantic 10 Conference, or even forming a new league. UL-Lafayette, South Alabama, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, and Texas State, among others, will be watching UAB's moves with great interest. Given UAB's dream run into the Round of 32 in the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament, the conference would probably like to keep the Blazers if for no other reason than basketball, but it appears C-USA's anger over UAB's administrative incompetence transcends any desire to view Blazer hoops as irreplaceable.Ĭ-USA also knows there will likely be plenty of suitors for UAB's spot with similar or better clout in football, if not in men's basketball or media markets. In other words, they've left the door open for UAB to get their proverbial excrement together and reinstate football. The conference has left room for changes to their 2016 schedule by making the 2015 schedule a one year only model, which means a 14-team schedule could be implemented in 2016. However, C-USA's relative mercy on UAB is likely based more on self-interest than altruistic motives. By virtue of UAB dropping football and Charlotte's pre-planned move to C-USA, conference officials had to implement a convoluted 13-member schedule on short notice where certain teams in the seven member East division won't play each other because of the unbalanced nature of the division. One could argue that C-USA is being far more generous than UAB officials have been to the conference. C-USA is reluctant to kick out UAB and leave its sports without playing schedules. They'll give Blazers administrators one more year to review the CSS report that's due May 15 about reinstating football and get their house in order, with football or without.Īssuming UAB doesn't reinstate football for 2016, the school will most likely be a C-USA member for one more academic year in 2015-16, given the short timeframe for the Blazers to find a new home. C-USA Storylinesĭespite their understandable move to enforce their own bylaws, C-USA likely won't just dump UAB on the curb this summer. But there is not interest from two-thirds of C-USA's presidents to change the league's bylaws requiring football as a condition of membership. This decision thus has numerous implications for UAB officials as well as potential C-USA members who may look to take UAB's spot in the event that football is not re-instated.Ĭonference USA's executive committee meets in June and will formally vote on UAB's future. The unlikely hopes of UAB President Ray Watts, administrators and athletic officials to stay in Conference USA just took a big hit, as sources indicated to CBS's Jon Solomon that the conference will stick to their guns and continue to require all active members to have a football program.
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