2014 NCAA Football Thread

They did in fact bring UAB football back. I still think it's bad for the university, but as a CFB fan in B'ham unaffiliated with the university, it's good for me :D

It will be interesting to see if they can sustain the momentum that axing the program got them. My prediction is that after the initial boost, in five years or so interest will be about the same as it was the day before they cancelled the program . . .

But if all this gets UAB and UAH closer to getting their own BoT, that's good for the university and the football program. So there's that . . .
 
I was complaining a lot about how the NCAA and the NFL were run, and now that the FIFA scandal went down, I am feeling a little bit more desensitized to the short comings of CFP and Pro Football organizations.
 
There was nothing in that press conference that made me confident that UAB's AD is run well enough to have a capable football program. The talent and market are there for the Blazers to be a pretty good G5 program...but without facilities and administrative backing, it won't work.

I actually doubt UAB is ready to come back in 2016. I'd guess 2017 at the earliest, at least for FBS.
 
What has their coach been doing? :scan:

Recruitment might be a tad low.
 
Well they kept the coach, who had actually had a really impressive career even before he got UAB to their first non-losing season in over a decade his first year on the job. He has also been coaching in the state of Alabama since 1990, so his recruiting ties in-state are strong . . .

But the problem is the same that they had before: UAB plays in a state where there are no UAB fans, only Alabama or Auburn fans who also pull for UAB. It's just not sustainable . . .

But the university has capped their budget at $20 million, so I guess they can't really get hurt. It will be sad to see interest wane -- again -- over the next few years, but at least there's another team for me to pull for :dunno:
 
What did they keep him for?
Just such an occaision?

Wonder what his job title was temporarily.
 
I think it was more that they agreed to continue to pay him due to the abrupt nature of the elimination of his job. They weren't paying him to do anything, specifically, and he was free to apply for other jobs if he had wanted to. But he chose to hang on and see how this played out . . .
 
Clark had previously worked at Jacksonville State and didn't want to leave Alabama because he wanted to keep his state pension, I believe.

The # of UAB fans really doesn't enter that much into the calculus here, I think. Just about anybody who pulls for a MAC, Sun Belt or CUSA school has another primary rooting interest, and that's totally okay. The question is whether the administration will release the funds needed for facility improvements, a competitive coaching staff, and recruiting. They did not do that before (the board wouldn't let UAB hire Jimbo Fisher, fix the practice field turf, etc etc), and if they don't, UAB will never win more than 4 games a year and the program will scuttle.

If they actually pay just market rate in CUSA, there is no structural reason why UAB can't be an upper-level football program in that conference.

Wonder when they're actually going to play in CUSA again though. No way in hell they have an FBS roster ready for 2016....
 
He was at Jax State for one year, after serving as USA's DC for their first five years of football. But he made his name mostly as HC at one of Alabama's major high school programs, where he lost eleven games in nine years. I think he's about as good a coach as UAB is reasonably likely to get, doubly so since he doesn't seem to view the job as a stepping stone . . .

UAB has won more than four games in fourteen of their twenty-four seasons. The trouble is that eleven of them came before 2005 . . .

I don't think the BoT is the problem, or that Jimbo Fisher would have ever actually coached at UAB or stayed for more than two years if he had, but I do think UAB and UAH getting their own boards would eliminate the illusion that that was the problem, and that would be good. Again, that's the best thing that could possibly come of this . . .

Unfortunately, folks locally are already talking about how to shift momentum from "Free UAB" to the next phase now that the football team has returned. Bringing football back didn't free UAB, they still don't have their own board . . .
 
As a public service on this fifth of June, I'd like to remind you all that conference championship weekend is exactly six months away. The regular season is a brief and precious thing . . .
 
As a public service on this fifth of June, I'd like to remind you all that conference championship weekend is exactly six months away. The regular season is a brief and precious thing . . .

I thought the regular season didn't matter anymore since we have a playoff now

:mischief:
 
It doesn't. It's sad. That was kind of my point . . .

Well, okay, obviously it matters bc you're still taking like 125 teams and picking four. It's not like hockey where the regular season is totally irrelevant. But it's hard to argue that it matters as much as it used to, since losing to a 6-6 team in the regular season is okay now . . .
 
There's another thing that's better about hockey -- not only does the most important player on the team play defense, he's never far from getting yanked if he's not playing well. Those pampered QBs and their fragile self-confidence :gripe:
 
Further evidence of the increased difficulty of scheduling. After Oklahoma scheduled a home-away-home series with Tulane, Miss State has agreed to visit UMass in their inaugural FBS season, 2016 . . .
 
Hey Tulane is not to be trifled with! The second to last time they went undefeated, they declined an invitation to the Rose Bowl!
 
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