Ray Watts, UAB President

UAB President Ray Watts may need to find a new conference for his school if upcoming meetings go as planned. (Frank Couch\fcouch@al.com)

(Frank Couch)

When Dr. Camden Wood Selig was working to get Old Dominion a bid into Conference USA, there wasn't a more ardent supporter of the cause than UAB.

UAB athletic director Brian Mackin went to bat for the Norfolk, Va. school and helped it get admitted into the conference in 2012.

Now, Selig must decide whether he wants to return the favor when Conference USA athletic directors and presidents meet in Boca Raton this weekend to decide whether UAB will stay in the conference.

"There is certainly a feeling of indebtedness to UAB for their support in helping Old Dominion gain access to Conference USA," Dr. Selig said. "That being said, I'm interested to hear what the general feeling is of our conference membership for a potential member that does not meet the current conference bylaws."

When UAB decided in December to discontinue its football program, it knowingly violated Conference USA bylaws, which state each member institution must play football at the Football Bowl Series level or be in the process of moving to that level. With no football team, UAB, in theory, should be expelled from the conference.

However, UAB has publicly stated its desire to stay in the conference and is expected to present its case Jan. 26 when the school presidents meet. The school declined to comment for this story, but is expected to make its case for staying in Conference USA by playing up its financial commitment to making its other sports successful. UAB is expected to reallocate funds spent on football to other sports such as men's basketball.

In a statement posted on its website after it announced cutting football, UAB said "We were a founding member of Conference USA, and our intention is to remain in Conference USA." The school could also play up its academic reputation, namely its medical school, as part of its total value to Conference USA.

"Even without football, UAB brings a lot to the table," Selig said. "It has a terrific overall intercollegiate athletic program, an outstanding academic institution -- both undergrad and graduate -- so there are many positive attributes that UAB continues to provide Conference USA."

Despite UAB's intent to stay in the conference, it is not expected to be successful in Boca Raton. The school would need the conference to pass an amendment to its conference bylaws to allow non-football playing schools to stay in the conference, and multiple industry sources don't expect the conference to go for that. One reason is that financially it makes more sense for the conference to have 14 football schools than 13.

Keeping UAB could simply create more headaches than it is worth without football, sources contend.

Joe Karlgaard, the athletic director at Rice University, believes dropping down to 13 football teams would create conference scheduling issues. He thinks "having an uneven number of schools presents some problems," but he said he's willing to hear UAB's pitch.

Middle Tennessee State athletic director Chris Massaro also wondered what dropping down to 13 would mean for scheduling and travel costs.

"Is 13 a viable number?" he asked. "Is 14 the number that allows you to do some things that geographically fits with travel partners? We need to lay it all out, look at the finances of 13 versus 14, and the pros and cons of each."

Athletic directors like Karlgaard and Massaro won't have final say on the matter -- that falls to the presidents and chancellors -- but they will clearly have a big role in developing the school's stance.

UAB has indicated that it has backup plans if it isn't allowed to stay in Conference USA, though the much-discussed CarrSports report did not analyze a potential loss in revenue from leaving the conference. The school could lose upwards of $2 million annually if it is forced to leave the conference after dropping football.

And if the meetings go as expected, UAB needs to brace for that deficit.

"I think UAB in making the decision to discontinue football understood what the bylaws of the conference were and made that decision with full knowledge that it could cost them its membership," Karlgaard said.