After having not done anything completely asinine for at least a couple of weeks, UAB has gone off the charts stupid and shut down its football program. Im just a basketball guy...err...puppet. I dont pretend to understand football. But, here is whi I think doing this completely screws up.....pretty much 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 and they did so in a surprising manner 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 been 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 the fact that they planned to do 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 at the end of next year 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 possibly be more pissed off at him right now than they already are. Understand this. UAB cut football, but this has a very adversarial impact on basketball (and for that matter all other sports). Football and basketball are more intertwined than what most people realize. They both need each other to be successful, at least in regards to negotiating TV deals that are lucrative and offer exposure. All power conferences have singular TV deals that encompass both football and basketball. They want both. If a school gets rid of one, then they dont just want the other one that you did get rid of. They want both. UAB got rid of one. It will hurt the other. CUSA is not going to approve UAB basketball, when they can kick them out AND charge them damages for blatantly violating conference bylaws AND get another school that has both football and basketball. But, UAB President Dr. Ray Watts thinks the league will still want him. Or at least thats what he says. Hes a doctor?? Hes dumber than me by a long shot and Im not a doctor!! Grab your beer. Grab your popcorn. THAT is gonna be a show.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 10:29:40 +0000
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