After what appeared to be a personal record of not doing anything completely asinine for at least a couple of weeks, UAB has shut down its football program. Im just a basketball guy, and before I get into all the reasons why I KNOW this is bad for basketball, allow me to drunkenly suppose why this may be bad for....everything. For starters, UAB is a member of Conference USA. CUSAs bylaws specifically indicate that all full members must play FBS football within the conference. UAB did away with football in a rather abrupt and surprising manner. The city of Birmingham has fantastic ratings for college football and basketball in general, and CUSA used this to negotiate good TV deals for the leagues football and basketball contracts. UAB, which is located in Birmingham, dropped football. They violated conference bylaws, they did so in a surprising manner, and they did so in a matter that damages the entire league. The league, understandably so, is surprised and upset. Yet, UABs plan is to stay in the league. CUSA is meeting in January to discuss the matter. If youve closely following this, UAB President Ray Watts has it in his head that the purpose of the meeting is to discuss how UAB can continue to be an asset to the conference despite brazenly ignoring and violating one of the leagues basic bylaws, and not discussing doing so with anyone in the league before they did it. My advice to current UAB President Ray Watts would be to show up for that meeting dressed in a bright red clown suit. That is the proper attire for the way he will undoubtedly be received. He seemingly arbitrarily violated a major bylaw of the conference, did not discuss it with any conference officials, disrupted two years of football scheduling that appeared to already be in place, compromise the leagues potential negotiating power for the upcoming new TV deal by dropping football from the Birmingham TV market, and citing numbers for his reason for doing so. Hes made a lot of people in CUSA very angry. Now, I make people angry all the time because I get drunk and do things that arent my fault. But this guy has made people in CUSA very angry for things that are seemingly ENTIRELY his fault. And, hes going to go before them in January and explain why he feels UAB should remain in the league, and hes going to attempt to explain this to people who could not be more pissed off at him right now than they already are. Grab your beer. Grab your popcorn. THAT is gonna be a show. Football and basketball are more closely tied together than most general college sports fans realize. Case and point...this. UAB has cut its football program. As a result, they will be kicked out of a rather vibrant basketball conference. Thats pretty much assured. Theyll end up....wherever. There arent many many basketball centric conferences at all that dont play any sort of football, and the only ones that are any good (WCC, Big East, Atlantic Ten, Missouri Valley) wont want UAB. Im a puppet, but Im smarter than most clowns. Had they consulted me, UAB wouldnt be in this mess!!!
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 10:01:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015