A-Sun commish: nothing in works with UAB, North Ala

Two Alabama schools – one dropping football, the other a school with football and having a hard time moving to D-I – aren't immediately bound for the Atlantic Sun Conference, the league commissioner said.

Instead, the A-Sun is likely to remain at eight schools, including FGCU, for the immediate future, said league commissioner Ted Gumbart.

"I think we'll start with eight," he said. "I think there's an open dialogue on how we improve the conference, which would include a lot of parameters, not just, 'Can we have another school at the table?' "

After announcing in December that it was dropping football after 24 seasons, effectively immediately, Alabama-Birmingham was widely speculated as an obvious candidate for the A-Sun, among other leagues

The by-laws of Conference USA, UAB's current league, require members to play Division I FBS football or be in the process of doing so.

But the Blazers, a founding member of 21-year-old Conference USA, are informally appealing to remain in the league, which has put no timetable on a decision.

And amid heavy backlash, including a no-confidence vote levied at UAB President Ray Watts from the school faculty senate, UAB early last month formed a task force to re-evaluate the decision to kill football.

"There's nothing there," Gumbart said. "They're committed to their appeal to Conference USA."

Even while making his pitch to fellow Conference USA members, however, Watts told AL.com that UAB had backup plans, and that he hoped UAB would be "attractive to a lot of conferences."

And last week, he said that NCAA legislation approved on Jan. 18 permitting schools to provide full cost-of-attendance scholarships reinforces the decision to drop football, which was mostly a financial one.

The consulting firm that did the full review on UAB athletics in advance of the decision to drop football and two other sports determined that full cost-of-attendance scholarships and unlimited meals would cost $5,422 per student-athlete – or an additional $460,870 per year for 85 scholarship athletes in football.

Total football investments needed for a five-year period were projected at $49 million, AL.com reported. UAB football had only three winning seasons in 16 years in Conference USA. The Blazers were 6-6 in 2014.

"We took that into strong consideration," Watts said of the financial situation. "I think that's part of the overall challenge we are all facing. We looked at the expenses of collegiate athletics across different conferences and they are all going up. Not linear, but faster than that."

NORTH ALABAMA

Two hours farther north, in Florence, North Alabama and its strong D-II football program continue looking to move to D-I – if a home can be found.

The Lions targeted the Ohio Valley Conference in 2012 at the time of their decision to move to D-I. But they weren't invited by the league, which has grown to 12 schools, including former A-Sun member Belmont.

After earlier voting to postpone its move to D-I, North Alabama in September said it had initial talks with the A-Sun, which has dropped from 12 to eight schools in FGCU's eight years in the league.

The Lions' football program, however, which won D-II national titles in 1993-1995 and remains well attended, doesn't fit in the football-less A-Sun, Gumbart said.

"Their folks continue to want to monitor the landscape, which I told them they need to," he said. "(They've) got a scholarship football program, and that's tough for us to discuss anything further."

A-Sun member Kennesaw State last summer joined the Big South Conference as an affiliate member for its new football program, which begins FCS football this fall.

The additions of scholarship football at Mercer and East Tennessee State also largely prompted their departures from the A-Sun to the Southern Conference last summer.

"All those things I think work out on a timeline that they need to be," Gumbart said of league additions. "It's always, 'Are you ready?' If there's not a willingness to engage, then it doesn't happen, which means it wasn't meant to be."

BASKETBALL STRIDES

Gumbart, in Southwest Florida last week for a meeting of the 22 conferences without FBS football, said the A-Sun is making gains as a whole in part because of improved men's and women's basketball programs.

That includes perhaps the league's best chance yet of receiving an at-large NCAA tournament berth in women's basketball and commitments from school presidents "to be successful in basketball."

"Basketball's our focus," Gumbart said. "For people who have been paying attention the last 3-4 years, the men's strength overall is getting better. And everybody wants to be the next FGCU."

On the women's side, league powers FGCU and Stetson might both receive at-large NCAA berths if unable to earn the league's automatic berth with an A-Sun tournament title.

FGCU, which holds a two-game lead over Stetson in the league standings going into Saturday's game in DeLand, has an RPI of 22. Stetson is No. 46.

"We are stronger as a group, and we've got teams in the top 40," Gumbart said. "If you're there, you're in the discussion. If you're in the top 20 … they should get in."

The improvement of weaker A-Sun schools out of the bottom 50 in RPI, their position in recent seasons, also has helped keep from dragging down the RPI of FGCU and Stetson.

Kennesaw State and Northern Kentucky have RPIs of 136 and 178, respectively, from the A-Sun, followed by USC Upstate (221) UNF (231), Lipscomb (248) and Jacksonville (261) out of 349 D-I programs.

"The people that make those decisions on the committee, they know how good Florida Gulf Coast is. And they know how good Stetson is," Gumbart said of the NCAA selection committee.

"The contributions that (other A-Sun teams) can make to our whole make FGCU and Stetson's accomplishments carry a lot more merit."

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FGCU hoops doubleheader

• Who: FGCU at Stetson

• When: Saturday, 1 (women's game) and 3:30 p.m. (men's game)

• Where: DeLand

• Women's records (A-Sun): FGCU 20-2 (7-0), Stetson 16-5 (5-2)

• Men's records (A-Sun): FGCU 16-7 (6-1), Stetson 7-15 (2-5)

• Online : ESPN3.com