Expansion: UAB to reunite with Marquette and DePaul in NBE?

[notkirkcameron]

Uh, ok, you have forced me into a rebuttal even though I'm not a Dayton honk.

ELITE EIGHT

P.S. 1000 would be a good crowd at a DePaul home game. (Ok, that was uncalled for, but close to true.)

Congratulations on your Elite 8 run, Dayton. All 10 magical streaky Cinderella days of it. Next time the Big East is considering its long-term expansion plans, I'm sure the school from the 71st-largest MSA's first trip to the second weekend in more than 30 years will weigh heavily.


DePaul potshot not uncalled for. DePaul reported a total attendance of 108,178 fans last year. However, according to CBS Chicago, "Based on the Ticketmaster scan system, which tracks exactly how many people enter a building, only 30,556 fans actually passed through the turnstiles in Rosemont during the Blue Demons’ 16 regular-season games, according to Crain’s. That total is about 30 percent of the 101,972 fans that DePaul reported as its full-season attendance number, Ecker reported. With this year’s dip, the average actual attendance at DePaul games over the past four seasons – during which DePaul has gone only 41-75 overall and a woeful 9-63 in the Big East – is just under 2,700 fans per game."

Attendance for the Marquette-DePaul game last year at Allstate was reported at 9,342. I was there, and that looks about right. Which means that of all the fans who attended a DePaul home basketball game last year, nearly one out of three was there at the Marquette-DePaul game. Rooting interests for that game appeared to be, let's say 66/33 DePaul, a figure which I think is pretty generous to DePaul as I'd have personally put it closer to 50/50. But that means that roughly one out of every ten people to watch a DePaul game last year was a Marquette fan.

[gosports1]

Uh, ok, you have forced me into a rebuttal even though I'm not a Dayton honk.

ELITE EIGHT

P.S. 1000 would be a good crowd at a DePaul home game. (Ok, that was uncalled for, but close to true.)

Move your school to Chicago and you're in.

On the side note. I wish PC had a new Mascot-not trying to start anything but he's a bit creepy.

this macot is actually the more "P.C." version, pun intended. The old friar was fat and bald. resembled friar tuck.

[Boyee]

UAB is the Blazers, not the Dragons. They'll never give up football and they are one of only 2 Conference USA schools to be members since the leagues founding by conference merger along with Southern Mississippi.

[NJRedman]

UAB is the Blazers, not the Dragons. They'll never give up football and they are one of only 2 Conference USA schools to be members since the leagues founding by conference merger along with Southern Mississippi.

Well the issue is the decision won't be up to them their board of directors are the board of directors for the University of Alabama. You know them better as the Crimson Tide. They don't care about UAB and might shut them down because they take up too much money in the states resources. At least thats what they're saying to justify that. UAB isn't thinking of shutting down their program, Bama is thinking of shutting down UAB's program. Yeah, thats how ass backward their state is.

[FlyJays]

Fwiw, UAB just announced they are firing their athletic director and shutting down their football program.

[R Jay]

Just going to leave this here since it's still valid.

More expansion rumors. Ugh. Can we please avoid this topic until the season ends? We've gone over this again and again and again.
The 10 schools aren't going to add UAB even if they drop football. There isn't anything the conference gets out of it. UAB doesn't get nearly the attention as Alabama and Auburn and doesn't bring any fertile recruiting grounds.

[stever20]

expansion or not, it's just sad....

will be interesting to see how many more schools this happens to.

[shupat08]

Just going to leave this here since it's still valid.

More expansion rumors. Ugh. Can we please avoid this topic until the season ends? We've gone over this again and again and again.
The 10 schools aren't going to add UAB even if they drop football. There isn't anything the conference gets out of it. UAB doesn't get nearly the attention as Alabama and Auburn and doesn't bring any fertile recruiting grounds.

Not to mention, they are a public school and not religiously affiliated in anyway (yes, I know Butler is technically not a religious school anymore - but they are still considered an Historically Religious institution)... I understand at some point BBall means more than "identity" of the schools... But they are pretty much the exact opposite in every way and will have no natural or regional rival in the NBE.

If we were going to expand, I would much rather have schools that "fit" our "identity"... But as of now, adding any 2 of those schools does not increase our exposure, prestige, etc.

[Jet915]

So is conference USA gonna keep them? Can't think of any logical fit for UAB unless its some low major conference.

[FlyJays]

So is conference USA gonna keep them? Can't think of any logical fit for UAB unless its some low major conference.

Does the Sun Belt have hoops only members? If not, I see them joining the Southland conference.