You bring back football, you stay in Conference USA.
You stay in Conference USA, good things can happen in other
sports, too.
UAB saw that logic validated Friday when the conference
announced that the C-USA men's and women's basketball tournaments will return
to Birmingham for the second straight year.
Like last year, the men's tournament will be played entirely
at Legacy Arena at the BJCC. The women's tournament will play its opening round
and its quarterfinals at Bartow Arena, then move to Legacy Arena for the
semifinals and championship game.
But there will be a couple of changes in the events, which
will run from March 8-12, 2016.
Unlike last year, when only 12 of the league's 14 teams
qualified for each tournament, all 14 teams will participate next season in
each tournament. That will mean each tournament starts on Tuesday and ends on
Saturday.
Last year, when C-USA brought the conference tournaments to
Birmingham for just the second time, the UAB men made the most of that
opportunity by winning the tournament title for the first time to earn the
league's automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
The Blazers went on to upset Iowa State in their first game
in the NCAA Tournament.
"Birmingham is a wonderful location for our basketball
championships," C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said in a statement.
"We appreciate the two great arenas and the city's proximity to many of
our fans. The downtown development is impressive, but most of all, we
appreciate the spirit of the community. We look forward to another great tournament
week in 2016."
The league presidents made the decision, but it's further
proof that Banowsky has been, as some UAB supporters have called him privately,
"a rock star" in his support for the university. He was a major
proponent of bringing back football to UAB and keeping the Blazers in the
conference.
Had the university not announced last week that it was
bringing back its football, rifle and bowling programs, UAB would've been
allowed to stay in C-USA for only one more year on a transitional basis before
the school was forced to move to a new home. It's unlikely the conference
would've brought back the basketball tournaments to the home of a lame-duck
member.
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