A lot of that depends on the pre-season ranking. Had WVU or Louisville run won the conference and had an undefeated record they would have played for the National Championship. Rutgers had too much ground to make up.

As far as the goldmine to the coalmine comment, that is hysterical. The only way Rodriguez gets more of a goldmine than he already has was by staying put.

Once again, I gotta admit Mike you're right on the money. Facilities do matter however. If any program out there wants to see what the prototype facility is, they need to go to NC State. I'm not a Wolfpack fan, but that is hands down the top facility in the nation. I think last year was the first year it was totally complete and I saw in S.I. where the coaches rated it the top place in the country. Now back to the debate, they will get a coach that has potential to be a top notch coach. The problem is they had one and let him go. They have got to realize that a coach can't walk into a place anymore and say I'm the coach at Alabama and is instantly more attractive because of that. They need to give a guy 5 years and leave him alone. If they don't it will never get fixed.

so apparently UC has top facilities but not enough money leftover to pay a coach a decent wage~ well we do! BTW I've been to the UC campus and wasn't sure if I was in a government housing project or the slums of Cincinnati.
Ok they had one with the potential, well he never lived up to the potential and was never going to. Shula simply lacks confidence in his own ability to make the correct play call in crucial moments in the game, he lacks presence and disciplinarian skills, and when asked to make any changes to his staff he simply refused, thus was fired. In fact he would only take advice on a game plan from his father or Ray Perkins, one great one good, but both at least 10 years removed from the game. So once again, I ask, if you don't know what you are talking about with the Alabama situation then don't come here yapping about it, because I'll be here to take you down, all the way to Chinatown, baby!

here's a little taste for those of ya'll who don't know:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:B...opped.jpg#file

The Alabama situation is what it is....A once great program that is now in the bottom tier of it's conference, run by an administration and boosters that aren't willing to invest in a coach or understand that it is going to take a lot of time to rebuild it, (case in point, your comment about asking Shula to make changes) or the realization that they just can't make an offer to someone and expect them to jump ship because they might already be in a situation that is best for them, their long term goals, and their families.

So while you make your comments about me not knowing anything about the Alabama program, spend a little time brushing up on the coaches they have gone after and their current situations and then lets continue this debate. Perhaps you can give me a tour of Chinatown.....

Any major college stadium on any given Saturday in the Fall.

yah, sure it is!

Here's a few for ya

http://und.cstv.com/facilities/nd-stadium.html
http://utsports.cstv.com/genrel/081001aaa.html
http://www.aggieathletics.com/facilities.php?FID=7
http://www.huskers.com/SportSelect.d...D=41&SPSID=181
http://www.gopsusports.com/Facilities/beaverstadium.cfm

There's 5 and I could have put 20 up there.....some seat a few more than Alabama, some seat a few less, I'm not sure what your point was with the Stadium....like I said, every Saturday all over the country and every school.

Maybe there was just no more room in Beverly Hills?
What does the population of Birmingham have to do with the fact that there is ZERO chance that the U of Alabama will hire a black coach? If you think that there is less racism in the "new" south you are kidding yourself. Ask those that reside in the 9th ward in N.O.

all of the mentioned black coaches like Green, Willingham, Romeo are gainfully employeed...the first guy we tried to hire was a minority (hispanic). Don't blame Nawlins on Alabama, unfortunatly racism rears its ugly head everywhere

to put this into perspective, at UNC, where basketball is king, they fired Matt Doherty after only three seasons. Doherty played under the legendary Dean Smith, where he was a 4 year starter for the Tarheels. He was seen as a young coach with a ton of "potential" (as I think Samarta put it). Now when he was fired after 3 seasons, not 4 like Coach Shula, I don't remeber all the media scrutiny/or fan bashing, or racial bashing when the Heels decided to make a change. Also, when Coach Guthridge retired, they could have hired longtime assistant Phil Ford (a black man), but they wanted Matt instead (any similarities there?). Roy led the Tarheels to a title 2 years later with mostly all players recruited by Doherty.

Time to turn the tables here. Now you are talking about something you know nothing about. The North Carolina situation is nothing like it....Roy Williams was the guy from day 1. He turned down the offer originally, stayed at Kansas, but the UNC offer remained open at any time he wanted to talk. UNC didn't go after him the 2nd time, he went after them. He is from Chapel Hill, he is loved there, and he was ready to come home. Doherty was basically an interim and he knew that. Phil Ford never expressed any interest in the job nor did he have the credentials that Doherty had.

FALSE! Williams was never the guy, he spurned them after Dean retired to stay at Kansas, Matt was NEVER an "interim" otherwise he'd have laughed at them and stayed at Notre Dame. Do you think he wanted to have his reputation shot, sit out a year, then go to FIU, and now at SMU just to be an interim until Roy decides to come over???...that is utterly ridiculos!
with that post you just destroyed the little credibility you had

I can see I need to explain a little bit more...UNC didn't offer Doherty the job on an interim basis, but the job was Williams' whenever he decided he was ready to take it. So when he decided he was ready he took it. He struggled with the decision the first time, called the press conference, had 10,000 people at the football stadium expecting him to say he was going to UNC and he said he was staying at Kansas. It was at that point that they were in dire straights and Doherty had had a good year at ND and they went after him.

The most comical thing about this whole thread is your self appointed position of credibility captain. Oh I didn't ask today....How's that search going?

that's just inaccurate information, Samarta
the search is going fine
I'm not the credibility captain
if you want to buy into wrong information, that's fine
what I was trying to do was to provide correct information
on the UA job search, which the Miami Herald, ESPN, and other media outlets
have NOT been doing, and interested fans have been taking it as gossip truth
the reason I'm upset is 1) we have been protrayed unfairly in the national media 2) I had no idea there are so many anti-Bama people out there, it's fine to support your own school, but I refuse to sit by and have people sabtoge my own to a harmful extent of the program 3) and again we hear the tired old "racist state" slurs thrown our way, when the state has done a lot more than many in improving race relations
so my point, to you all, basically is:
those who live in glass houses should not throw stones!

As far as my information goes on the UNC program that is absolute fact. I'm not going to debate that one anymore, because I have waaaay more credibility on that subject than you realize.

As far as the Alabama situation goes, no one is anti-anything. Hell I admire how loyal their fans are. With that said, I think that loyality minimizes the ability to be objective in a lot of situations. It doesn't matter if it's Alabama or any other school. I have lived all over the country and I have never seen anymore loyal fans than Alabama fans. By the same token, I have never seen anymore delusional fans either. The fact is it's not that attractive of a situation. Period. Had it been, it would have been filled.

As far as playing the race card, I never even threw it out there or commented when it was.

As far as the media portraying UA unfairly, who knows. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinions without ridicule. But I gotta believe that ESPN and all the other outlets aren't totally misinformed.

then tell me why the Miami Herald would use an unnamed source
this ain't the National Enquirer, what a farce!
as far as UNC goes, you know nothing! (Hogan's Heroes)
at UA we are not delusional, we just want to win

Looks like the Crimson Tide might be opening the checkbook wide
open.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2715745

Saw that link...almost 2x what he's making at Miami....can't see how he doesn't take the job!

Saban is going to live like King at Bama if he
takes the coaching job