Heh, prepare for reading. I think PitMaster set up the Alabama fan's perspective fairly well. Towards the end he touched on the reason I have such an axe to grind with UAB. There is some animosity, but it goes beyond that. UAB signifies what is wrong with college football in general. He put together a post that's well worth reading...
Anyway, to set things up, I'd point to right after Alabama's championship win in 2009. They'd just finished one of the toughest schedules in history. They'd had the greatest BCS season in history. Yet, some ESPN announcer has the gall to ask about Boise State. Alabama's SoS was 2, Boise State's was 96. They were basically playing in a lower division. Yet, for a few years we still had to hear about Boise State and they were occasionally part of the championship discussion. This was never warranted though, this was always a low SoS, cupcake schedule that had one or two reasonable tests at most and the rest was utter drivel.
How did it come to that though? How could a top ten team play a 96 SoS in a division that only had about 100 teams in the relatively recent past? The answer is lowering the bar, the 85 scholarship limit. The limit was 95 for a while, but during the 90s the 85 limit came into place, and with it quite a few programs either sprang into existence (like UAB), or moved up. It a significant sign from the NCAA that they were going to hold the big boys back and welcome in the little guys, deserving or not. Consider what this move did though, you take 10 scholarships from 100 programs (it was less since not all programs were using the max), and you could have up to 1,000 D1 scholarship quality players available. That's enough for around 12 more programs to spring into existence and that's exactly what happened.
Decades earlier, a second division has been created. I-AA, and this served a valid purpose, to let those lower level programs play without mucking things up. The scholarship limit move to 85 signaled a reversal (it's not even I-AA anymore, it's FCS), the NCAA hasn't even enforced attendance requirements. If you want to move up to the FBS, just do it, they've lowered the bar as far as they can, they've ignored their own rules, come one come all!
The problem is the FBS still requires a significant investment. What motivates a team to move up? Well, in the state of Alabama it's pretty much jealousy and delusional ambition. The UAB program was built in the idea that they could be important to, a delusion at best. It wasn't just UAB though, South Alabama football was born of the same wasteful, delusional ambition. They both cry about the same things, they need better stadiums, they occasionally propose spending tens of millions of other people's money to "fix" that problem. The simple fact though is that people care much more about Alabama, Auburn, and the SEC. There's not even history to prop those guys up, they're supported by a relatively small group of power hungry people, often spending other people's money to have their own football program.
Long before the report about UAB football losing millions, I was saying they were losing millions on this very forum. It was obvious, look at the attendance, look at where that attendance is coming from, and look at the money they are spending. It was obviously not profitable. They're wasting taxpayer dollars so they can have a football program, and that ain't right. It's not right that South Alabama is doing it either. And at PitMaster alluded to, they're not the only ones. I'm not one of those guys calling for only 60 programs in the FBS, but there darn sure shouldn't be more than around 100! You can clean things up, save taxpayer dollars, stop trying to undermine the best programs, all at once.
UAB could have been one of many responsible choices. Let football go, move on, stop trying to be something you can't be, and stop wasting our money to do it. Now though? They're an insult, they're an affront, they're living out an extravagant delusion that we're made to pay for.
Anyway, to set things up, I'd point to right after Alabama's championship win in 2009. They'd just finished one of the toughest schedules in history. They'd had the greatest BCS season in history. Yet, some ESPN announcer has the gall to ask about Boise State. Alabama's SoS was 2, Boise State's was 96. They were basically playing in a lower division. Yet, for a few years we still had to hear about Boise State and they were occasionally part of the championship discussion. This was never warranted though, this was always a low SoS, cupcake schedule that had one or two reasonable tests at most and the rest was utter drivel.
How did it come to that though? How could a top ten team play a 96 SoS in a division that only had about 100 teams in the relatively recent past? The answer is lowering the bar, the 85 scholarship limit. The limit was 95 for a while, but during the 90s the 85 limit came into place, and with it quite a few programs either sprang into existence (like UAB), or moved up. It a significant sign from the NCAA that they were going to hold the big boys back and welcome in the little guys, deserving or not. Consider what this move did though, you take 10 scholarships from 100 programs (it was less since not all programs were using the max), and you could have up to 1,000 D1 scholarship quality players available. That's enough for around 12 more programs to spring into existence and that's exactly what happened.
Decades earlier, a second division has been created. I-AA, and this served a valid purpose, to let those lower level programs play without mucking things up. The scholarship limit move to 85 signaled a reversal (it's not even I-AA anymore, it's FCS), the NCAA hasn't even enforced attendance requirements. If you want to move up to the FBS, just do it, they've lowered the bar as far as they can, they've ignored their own rules, come one come all!
The problem is the FBS still requires a significant investment. What motivates a team to move up? Well, in the state of Alabama it's pretty much jealousy and delusional ambition. The UAB program was built in the idea that they could be important to, a delusion at best. It wasn't just UAB though, South Alabama football was born of the same wasteful, delusional ambition. They both cry about the same things, they need better stadiums, they occasionally propose spending tens of millions of other people's money to "fix" that problem. The simple fact though is that people care much more about Alabama, Auburn, and the SEC. There's not even history to prop those guys up, they're supported by a relatively small group of power hungry people, often spending other people's money to have their own football program.
Long before the report about UAB football losing millions, I was saying they were losing millions on this very forum. It was obvious, look at the attendance, look at where that attendance is coming from, and look at the money they are spending. It was obviously not profitable. They're wasting taxpayer dollars so they can have a football program, and that ain't right. It's not right that South Alabama is doing it either. And at PitMaster alluded to, they're not the only ones. I'm not one of those guys calling for only 60 programs in the FBS, but there darn sure shouldn't be more than around 100! You can clean things up, save taxpayer dollars, stop trying to undermine the best programs, all at once.
UAB could have been one of many responsible choices. Let football go, move on, stop trying to be something you can't be, and stop wasting our money to do it. Now though? They're an insult, they're an affront, they're living out an extravagant delusion that we're made to pay for.
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