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UAB wideout Roddy White catches a 59-yard touchdown pass from Darrell Hackney in a 41-25 win over TCU on Oct. 15, 2004, at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. (AP photo)

Long before they battled for Big 12 supremacy, before they established themselves as legitimate playoff contenders, TCU and Baylor had something in common as football programs.

They were dreamers. They refused to believe they were doomed to be bottom-feeders forever.

Oh, and one more thing.

Ten years ago, they both lost to UAB. Badly.

That's right. In the same season, in the same stadium, the Blazers ran them both out of Legion Field and sent them back to Texas with their tails between their legs.

Behind quarterback Darrell Hackney and wideout Roddy White, UAB opened the 2004 season by destroying Baylor 56-14. Six weeks later, the Blazers dismantled TCU 41-25.

UAB beat Baylor worse than anyone in the Big 12 did that year, including No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 5 Texas. That same Baylor team that couldn't stay on the field with UAB beat No. 16 Texas A&M.

That same TCU team that watched Hackney throw five touchdown passes in the first half beat the Northwestern team that beat No. 7 Ohio State.

The Blazers went on to win seven games overall that season and play in the first - and, so far, last - bowl game in school history. Baylor would finish 3-8, and TCU would end up at 5-6.

That's the same Baylor program that was ranked No. 7 in the nation Tuesday night by the College Football Playoff committee and the same TCU program that was ranked No. 5. Except they're not the same programs they were 10 years ago, and sadly, neither is UAB.

There's a very good chance that either the Bears or the Horned Frogs will win the Big 12 title and earn one of the spots in the inaugural four-team playoff. There's also a chance that the UAB administration - doing the bidding of a small band of narrow-minded puppetmasters on the board of trustees - could decide to kill its football program once this season ends.

It would be one of the most short-sighted decisions in college football history.

Ten years ago, Baylor was in the right league, the Big 12, but the Bears didn't have the right coach or the right home stadium. Along came Art Briles, a former high school coach, and now Baylor wins games, takes names and plays in brand-new, state-of-the-art, $250-million, 45,000-seat McLane Stadium.

Back then, TCU already had the right coach in Gary Patterson, and the school was about to leave Conference USA for the Mountain West, which became a stopover on the way to its current home in the Big 12. The Frogs still play in 45,000-seat Amon G. Carter Stadium, which opened in 1930 but recently underwent a $164-million renovation.

UAB has the right coach right now in Bill Clark, but the Blazers have so many other needs. Most of all, they just need a chance. That, and a little bit of vision.

It's the kind of vision that turned Tuesday's Birmingham City Council meeting into an inspiring pep rally, the kind of vision that's swimming in UAB's DNA, the kind of dreaming it and then doing it that convinced Gene Bartow to leave UCLA to start a basketball program from scratch in the heart of football country.

Ten years ago, no one thought that college football would have a playoff a decade in the distance or that Baylor and TCU would be fighting for a spot in it in mid-November. But here they are.

And here's UAB, fighting for its life. Imagine the possibilities if all the good people fighting for all the right reasons can find a way to win.