Marshall is playing for an unbeaten season. UAB is playing for its life.

Baron, we don't have to have Orlando's population to use the same tactics that they used successfully. Is that so hard to understand? No, everything won't cross over, but somebody had some good ideas we can steal instead of re-inventing the wheel.

 

Yes, it's possible more Group of 5 schools cut football b/c of $$. But only UAB had grudge-driven trustees sabotaging the program.
-- Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) December 2, 2014

 

Central Florida spent 17 seasons at the lower levels before going to Division I-A. UAB took five seasons. Central Florida also took 28 seasons before they had their own stadium. UAB has been around for 23. Central Florida, as noted, has multiple times the amount of students and the population base that UAB has.

It's not about ideas. It's about the capital to make it happen.

 

A dear friend of mine had an organ transplant in Birmingham. It saved his life and many others.
That is what it should be hanging its hat on, not a football program.

 

Neutral:

Am I missing something or is this football thing part of a perceived bigger plan to turn UAB back into a med school only? Seems like that wouldn't be good for the city.

 

Not for nothing but a couple of recent Jacksonville State grads -- JSU sits between Auburn and Alabama -- were just in the gallery and I chatted them up about what's happening to UAB and he's of the mindset that this is just Bryant's grudge that NC has talked about.

"He's hiding his grudge through the economic development plan."

Also said "It's more of a football thing because people who have board seats are related to Bear's son and they don't want UAB cutting into Alabama's recruiting."

 

"Y'all don't need a football team, you got a perfectly good one just seventy miles down the road. You just run on back and do medicine, that's what you're good at. Let the big boys take care of the football."

 

Correct, let the philistines wallow in their ignorance of what's really important.
Never ceases to amaze that we are actually living in a society where expertise is a vulnerability.

 

I don't know if they can pull it off but there are elements that would love to turn UAB back into an extension center. And no, it wouldn't.

http://innovationdepot.net/


This is shopped, I wish it wasn't.

 

Yes. This exactly. Without the "big boys" part.

My daughter has a rare genetic disease. The guy who wrote the book on this disease (and by that, I mean he literally wrote the damn book that we read to learn everything we could about it) is at UAB. My daughter saw him a few times. That's why my family has heard of UAB. We could give a shit about its football team, now or ever, but we're damn glad that doctor is there and has a facility that provides him a platform to do his research. That is what's important and should matter at UAB. I know "nobody cheers for math class." Well, they should. But that's a larger societal issue.

As for football itself, here's the reality: If you are not now in a Power 5 conference, or Notre Dame, you will never play for a national title. Ever. There are no Cinderella stories in college football.

And as a guy who knows a thing or two about the west coast of Florida, I can tell you that USF football might well be headed for the same fate in the not-too-distant future. I can count on one hand the number of Tampa residents I know who care about USF football who don't have a kid playing for the team. Going to Division III and building a small on-campus stadium would make a lot of sense for them. The important part of the college experience for most USF students is living close enough to your parents to go home on Saturday and do your laundry. It's not going across town to sit in a near-empty Raymond James Stadium and watch a team play third-rate football with nothing at stake.

 

FnF- good post.

This is the nut of the thing, for me. There is almost nothing at stake for a program like UAB.