If UAB leaves who replaces them?

[Cerebus]

Speaks his mind and rubs outsiders the wrong way.

I don't think your AD is a "bad guy." He is smart and incredibly active and I would take a North Texas version of him in a heartbeat. However, he could still be just as effective as he is without bad mouthing anyone. Wish he would cut that out of his act.

I wish we could have taken ASU and ULL instead of the Florida schools but that would have unbalanced the conference and the eastern schools wanted to get in front of Florida recruits.

Did selling the Mizzou game ever get settled?

I think in the long term when this all shakes out and the P5 really locks out everyone they can, the remainders will all end up in regional conferences. Realistically, I think that means NT and ASU will be conference mates again sooner or later.

[Cerebus]

And it looks like they got him for a pretty good price too .....

From the DRC:

UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal will receive a base salary of $275,000 with an annual $100,000 retention bonus and a $7,200 car allowance beginning on Sept. 1, 2013, under terms of his new contract that will run through Feb. 28, 2017.

Villarreal will receive a $250,000 base salary and a $50,000 retention bonus for the school year beginning on Sept. 1. His salary from March 1 to Aug. 31 will be $228,000, a prorated portion of his base pay.

The last of Villarreal’s three scheduled $100,000 bonuses during the term of the contract will be paid on Sept. 1, 2015.

Take a look at what ASU is getting for their money:

Played football at AState, secured a $5 million donation for our press box with construction underway (had to redo the plans multiple times because demand for suites, club seats, and loge boxes was so strong), has an indoor practice facility under construction (walls going up now, roof is already on). Unlike other AD's who goes out and borrows money to build a facility hoping new revenue will pay for it, he locks the money up first then builds. The $7 million+ in new revenue (over 7 years) locked in from press box is going to go toward building another new football complex.

Has signed Mizzou, Miami, Iowa State, Utah State, UNLV, and Toledo home and home. Popular interview with Little Rock media.

It's all about hiring good coaches. I'm not saying AD's will hit on every one of them but RV's track record is awful and what's worse is once a hire is made we're stuck with it because the funds aren't their to buy them out when in reality keeping bad coaches longer only worsens the state and perception of the program. We don't have to look to far as we can look at Arkansas State and the role they've been on hiring coaches.

Hugh Freeze - 2011 Now at Ole Miss

Guz Malzahn - 2012 Now at Auburn

Bryan Harsin - 2013 Back to Boise State and were ranked last I checked.

Blake Anderson - 2014 and beyond and who knows when he ends if he continues on having success.

If ASU can do it being in Jonesboro, AR (no offense to anyone there) then surely NT can do it.

Edited December 1, 2014 by Cerebus

[Coffee and TV]

I'm sure they have a better setup with the Mountain West, but maybe New Mexico?

[untjim1995]

This is how you build a program, folks. The one thing that really holds us back is having a bunch of BOR members who have zero connection to this school.

Also, the A St. AD is able to get Mizzou and Iowa St. to come to Jonesboro for one and ones, and our super scheduling AD gives us freaking Incarnate Word.

UNT has never taken athletics seriously, and the retention of RV for SIXTEEN YEARS while continuing to make bad hires and not put effort into scheduling for a new football stadium is proof positive of this.

We deserve to be exactly where we are.

I hear you, but the other side of the coin is that having UNT alumni on the BOR may very well hurt our athletics funding or direction just because of the cultural history of this place. I really can see it both ways...I do know that a BOR full of UNT alums would be a boon to the music and arts programs, though...

[Arkstfan]

I don't think your AD is a "bad guy." He is smart and incredibly active and I would take a North Texas version of him in a heartbeat. However, he could still be just as effective as he is without bad mouthing anyone. Wish he would cut that out of his act.

I wish we could have taken ASU and ULL instead of the Florida schools but that would have unbalanced the conference and the eastern schools wanted to get in front of Florida recruits.

Did selling the Mizzou game ever get settled?

I think in the long term when this all shakes out and the P5 really locks out everyone they can, the remainders will all end up in regional conferences. Realistically, I think that means NT and ASU will be conference mates again sooner or later.

The "selling" of Mizzou was three political moves in one.

One.

Big boosters called and were upset. They were told if the suites, club seats, and loge boxes got sold, we wouldn't move. We sold out the 15 suites BEFORE we formally announced we even building them (it was a poorly kept secret but the actual announcement wasn't until August).

Two.

It was also a dig at Little Rock. War Memorial Stadium has been begging us to move a game to Little Rock, our response was why would we pay $75,000 to rent your stadium when St. Louis and Kansas City are offering $1.5 million and $2 million respectively to move the game.

Little Rock is still trying to get a game but has dropped the rent to $37,500 and the response remains the same. You want us, you pay us, not you want us, we pay you. There have been a couple pieces in Little Rock talking about how AState's refusal to come and UArk's tapering off is demonstrating that if the city wants college football, they are going to have to pay for the privilege.

Three.

It was a shot at the Jonesboro City Council. The council held up renaming Stadium Blvd to Red Wolf Blvd for a couple months to study the issue (AState was paying for the signs). The city council has a dedicated tax that can only be used to promote tourism. They use that to give money to the United Way despite no discernible tourism purpose and had balked at spending any of it with AState. Since the saber-rattle they are now looking at buying a big sponsorship package.

I'll take the hit we got from some sniping MTSU and WKU posters on the Sun Belt board (those guys can't stay away). Strategy paid off well for us.

As for Mohajir's comments. If the price of joining C-USA is to stop saying we think we have a better program than FAU, FIU, then it's not worth joining.

[Cerebus]

So no resolution on the Mizzou game yet? I heard rumors the offer was up to almost 3 million dollars. As much as we complain about lack of P5 home games if I could get that much I would sell it in a flash. Use that money to build facilities, advertise or just help buy homes games for years to come.

That sort of strategy to get your hands on the hotel tax is EXACTLY the kind of thinking I wish we had the ability to pull off. Denton also has underrated the value of NT football for a very long time.

[Arkstfan]

So no resolution on the Mizzou game yet? I heard rumors the offer was up to almost 3 million dollars. As much as we complain about lack of P5 home games if I could get that much I would sell it in a flash. Use that money to build facilities, advertise or just help buy homes games for years to come.

That sort of strategy to get your hands on the hotel tax is EXACTLY the kind of thinking I wish we had the ability to pull off. Denton also has underrated the value of NT football for a very long time.

No we announced Mizzou was staying in Jonesboro the same day we did the presentation of the $5 million check from Johnny Allison

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2014/08/26/johnny-allison-gives-5-million-to-arkansas-state-to-enhance-football-stadium

[NT80]

I don't think your AD is a "bad guy." He is smart and incredibly active and I would take a North Texas version of him in a heartbeat. However, he could still be just as effective as he is without bad mouthing anyone. Wish he would cut that out of his act.

I like that the ASU AD is proactive in some areas, and he will probably move on to a bigger program, but his conference attitude is going to keep ASU in the SunBelt while he goes. Be careful what you ask for.

[Arkstfan]

I like that the ASU AD is proactive in some areas, and he will probably move on to a bigger program, but his conference attitude is going to keep ASU in the SunBelt while he goes. Be careful what you ask for.

Depends on what you want in a conference mate?

You want a school that NEEDS you to pull them up or you want someone who thinks conference affiliation isn't the be all end all measure of success?

We aren't ULL or TXST with multiple AAC and CUSA schools fighting us for media coverage or recruiting. AState doesn't NEED CUSA membership to validate us in those battles as ULL or TXST do. They NEED to be in CUSA because they NEED to be viewed equally in fighting you for recruits.

Joe Fan or Joe Reporter comes up and asks about conference affiliation and the bottom line is it's a major deal. AState is big in its market, growing in Little Rock and not butting heads with CUSA schools often on the recruiting trail other than UAB and AState was winning most of those.

If CUSA picks ULL because they fawn over CUSA and AState doesn't that says far more about the quality of leadership in CUSA than anything about AState.

[untjim1995]

Depends on what you want in a conference mate?

You want a school that NEEDS you to pull them up or you want someone who thinks conference affiliation isn't the be all end all measure of success?

We aren't ULL or TXST with multiple AAC and CUSA schools fighting us for media coverage or recruiting. AState doesn't NEED CUSA membership to validate us in those battles as ULL or TXST do. They NEED to be in CUSA because they NEED to be viewed equally in fighting you for recruits.

Joe Fan or Joe Reporter comes up and asks about conference affiliation and the bottom line is it's a major deal. AState is big in its market, growing in Little Rock and not butting heads with CUSA schools often on the recruiting trail other than UAB and AState was winning most of those.

If CUSA picks ULL because they fawn over CUSA and AState doesn't that says far more about the quality of leadership in CUSA than anything about AState.

I realize that you guys are doing very well in the SBC, but your fellow teams are ULL, ULM, Texas State, Troy, South Alabama, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Appy State, New Mexico State, and Idaho. Since you do have no competition for fan interest, imagine what it would like if your division mates in CUSA West were La Tech, Southern Miss, UTEP, UTSA, UNT, and Rice. You cannot tell me that wouldn't be worth the jump for the costs, from an attendanace standpoint, to outreach of alumni in DFW, Austin-San Antonio, Houston, and Shreveport. With your game against Memphis every year, which is a very nice series to have for your alumni and fans, you'd make up that difference sooner than you think, in my opinion. And I'd argue that you guys bring an entire state and Memphis as potential markets to pull from, versus UAB's place in Birmingham, which was almost nil.

Just my opinion--but I think if you got the invite, you should jump on it, assuming the upfront costs are in line with what was previously mentioned. No one would block your entry, either, while I could see Rice, La Tech, and Southern Miss all fighting to keep ULL out. And I believe ULL would be a nice pickup for CUSA, too...

[Ben Gooding]

I've said all along. Dump both Florida schools and bring in ULL and AState. I don't care about market and realistically wasn't that decision to have them in CUSA solely based on trying to please ECU? Well..they are gone.

[Arkstfan]

I realize that you guys are doing very well in the SBC, but your fellow teams are ULL, ULM, Texas State, Troy, South Alabama, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Appy State, New Mexico State, and Idaho. Since you do have no competition for fan interest, imagine what it would like if your division mates in CUSA West were La Tech, Southern Miss, UTEP, UTSA, UNT, and Rice. You cannot tell me that wouldn't be worth the jump for the costs, from an attendanace standpoint, to outreach of alumni in DFW, Austin-San Antonio, Houston, and Shreveport. With your game against Memphis every year, which is a very nice series to have for your alumni and fans, you'd make up that difference sooner than you think, in my opinion. And I'd argue that you guys bring an entire state and Memphis as potential markets to pull from, versus UAB's place in Birmingham, which was almost nil.

Just my opinion--but I think if you got the invite, you should jump on it, assuming the upfront costs are in line with what was previously mentioned. No one would block your entry, either, while I could see Rice, La Tech, and Southern Miss all fighting to keep ULL out. And I believe ULL would be a nice pickup for CUSA, too...

Hey we get invited, I'm buying an antenna so I can watch the OTA games (assuming KATV doesn't move the games to 7.1).

AState has a number of incentives to join.

1. If we don't someone else does and unless that someone is Georgia State, a MAC, or an FCS move-up, the league gets weaker.

2. It gets us away from Benson. It was bad when in 2012 he suspended one of our best players for targeting when the supervisor of officials said no suspension was warranted (next game was WKU). It was unacceptable when last year he declared the football regulations weren't binding to prevent AState from automatically clinching the GoDaddy berth and then told GoDaddy we would be invited to I-Bowl (lie). This year he has been pushing Texas State for a bowl over us. Throw in the Arkansas Rice Bowl disaster and it gets worse. Little Rock wants a bowl game but couldn't do the dates ESPN wanted because of the state high school playoffs. Benson didn't want to do a deal with any other network (yet signed on to the Cure Bowl which will be on NBC Sports). The guy heading the bowl effort says CUSA and MAC are both interested in Little Rock but neither wants to do a deal with Benson and Little Rock doesn't want to do a deal that can't potentially involve AState unless its with AAC because of Memphis, SMU and Tulsa. So we'd love to get out in order to get Rice Bowl going (assuming Arkansas Rice Federation and Riceland want to be the sponsor).

3. Exposure wise, TV on Fox SW suits us well because most cable systems in the state carry the channel.

4. Schedule wise much of our fan base no longer remembers playing La.Tech and it's been even longer since Rice was in the same conference with Arkansas but the names are familiar except for UTSA and ODU and our fans love USM, other than Memphis or Central Arkansas no one else has brought as many fans as they did. I always detour by their stadium on the way to the GoDaddy Bowl.

The hitch is TV money is an unknown after next season. The $2 million entry may or may not be warranted depending on the NCAA unit balance and TV. If Fox does what I think they might do and use CUSA as the gap filler and an anchor for an online offering, the TV might go up.

[Cerebus]

The hitch is TV money is an unknown after next season. The $2 million entry may or may not be warranted depending on the NCAA unit balance and TV. If Fox does what I think they might do and use CUSA as the gap filler and an anchor for an online offering, the TV might go up.

I know several people in that industry and the talk is that Fox is desperate to get an ESPN3 alternative up as soon as possible. If not, they sure are hiring or signing contracts with a lot of IT folks who specialize in multi site streaming such as akamai for no damn reason...

Because of this, I don't have any fear that the contract goes down, or is as disappointing as the MAC contract. I have no idea what it will be but I expect it to be much better than what it is now.

[JesseMartin]

First to the Fox version of ESPN3, they already have FoxSportsGO, but I can never get it to work properly so maybe they're going to be expanding it, do you think that may be the case?

Now back to the main issue...I would think those of you who said Ark St., TX St. or ULL are probably on the right track but I'm wondering why not NMSU? They suck at football lately but that hasn't always been the case, so I'm mostly wondering why UTEP would be against them joining. Don't they already play them every year anyway?

Also if nothing geographically sound works out, and if they HAVE to add an East team and then push somebody else out west...what about Georgia Southern? They've become VERY competitive, even with the P5 teams, VERY quickly.

[GreenTexan13]

Well according to all the news stories I'm seeing, it looks like UAB football is closing business for sure. Can anyone tell me how CUSA goes about selecting another university to take their spot? I'm not familiar with the politics side in football.

http://m.espn.go.com/ncf/story?storyId=11967626&src=desktop&rand=ref~%7B%22ref%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F%22%7D

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/12/uab_president_ray_watts_expect.html

[Cerebus]

Looks like it's happening

UAB commit says he was told this morning football program was dead

The 6-foot-2, 270-pound defensive end was a standout football player at Spanish Fort High School. After high school he enrolled at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, Miss. and is on the verge of winning his second junior college national championship this Sunday.

He was all set to graduate from East Mississippi in two weeks and enroll at UAB in January. Playing football at UAB allowed him to be closer to his son and gave him a chance to reunite with offensive coordinator Bryant Vincent, who coached him at Spanish Fort.

Vincent called Montgomery on Tuesday morning to tell him the UAB football program would be killed. Vincent said the decision was out of the football staff's hands and that it was made by the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees.

Now, the junior college standout will have to quickly scramble and find another college in the next three weeks. He hopes to take official visits to Memphis, Kansas State and Arizona in the coming weeks.

[Shof]

Just my opinion--but I think if you got the invite, you should jump on it, assuming the upfront costs are in line with what was previously mentioned. No one would block your entry, either, while I could see Rice, La Tech, and Southern Miss all fighting to keep ULL out. And I believe ULL would be a nice pickup for CUSA, too...

Hey guys! Long time since I've visited the site. Just my 2 cents; but I feel USM and La Tech "administrations" would support the Cajuns. Now if you are basing your opinions off of fan sites; we don't have a chance! LOL But realistically, La Tech and the Cajuns help each other within the UL System for a number of initiatives. We have to, or fall further and further behind LSU for anything. And both schools do a very good job of presenting a good product with the budgets we have. And I'm talking about the big picture, not just athletics.

For the Cajuns, having Rice (and UTSA) within easy driving to the West, Tech (and UNT) to the North, and USM to our East would make for a tight geographic footprint. And that works for all of us, not just those in Lafayette. The main concern around UL for the fans is whether or not the administration is willing to give this opportunity (if it actually exists) its full attention and actually try to "sell" the benefits of our program this time around. They were caught with their collective pants down the last time around! But the athletic program as a whole has never been stronger. Many of us feel its a "now or never" position. Much like ASU might think; it's not so much whether we get in; rather who else might get in, further diluting the SBC product.

P.S. And be honest. You know you want to come tailgate with us again!

Edited December 2, 2014 by Shof

[Cerebus]

“@myfoxal: UAB president Ray Watts arrives to address the football team at their 2 p.m. meeting. pic.twitter.com/Lb97lLnNc6” fire watts

— Paul D. Ensign (@pensign)

December 2, 2014

[VideoEagle]

Looks like it's happening

UAB commit says he was told this morning football program was dead

How good is this kid?

[forevereagle]

Here is my question: Since UAB is shuttering immediately, would CUSA do anything to get a new member in time for next season, or are we running with 13 next year? Is this even an option? I know that notice is usually required to leave, but could the conference do anything to help a school make the move?

I think this has an impact on who is considered. It would certainly remove any move ups from the equation. Could also mean that they wave fees or other things in order to balance the conference number.

[ChristopherRyanWilkes]

It is seriously depressing looking at UAB's fan forum right now. They have many die-hards just like this board who just don't know what do right now. Really sad situation.

[Cerebus]

It's over, players in meeting are tweeting:

WATTS SAID NUMBERS WASNT RIGHT THATS WHY ITS OVER

— Timothy Alexander (@1stN2ndTimothy)

December 2, 2014

How can President say he supported us from behind the scenes.... How can president support from behind the scenes

— Ju (@Jaye2x)

December 2, 2014

[Cerebus]

It sounds like the bowling and rifle teams are also getting the axe.

[Cerebus]

It is seriously depressing looking at UAB's fan forum right now. They have many die-hards just like this board who just don't know what do right now. Really sad situation.

I really can't imagine this happening. It would be like a family member dying.

[GreenTexan13]

It's over, players in meeting are tweeting:

https://twitter.com/1stN2ndTimothy/status/539877090368442368

https://twitter.com/Jaye2x/status/539876188265918465

Dang, talk about a slap in the face... I wish the UAB players the best in continuing their career in football.