The Missouri Valley Conference is interested in adding UAB to the league, according to an article from al.com.
UAB announced the end of its football program in December. The school may eventually bring back football, but that is very much up in the air for financial reasons.
If the Blazers continue without football or with a FCS program, the MVC might not be a bad fit.
The Blazers would be a quality addition from a basketball standpoint. They won the Conference USA Tournament to reach the NCAA Tournament, where they upset No. 3 seed Iowa State in the Round of 64. They then fell to No. 11 seed UCLA in the third round Saturday.
UAB has also had some historical success with six NCAA Tournament appearances in the last 16 seasons, including a Sweet 16 run in 2004.
However, geographically UAB does not make much sense in the MVC.
Evansville is the current member closest to UAB at approximately 310 miles.
Three institutions — Northern Iowa, Drake and Wichita State — are more than 600 miles away from Birmingham, Alabama.
The MVC has been been a 10-team league since 1996 when Tulsa left. In 2013, Creighton left and Loyola Chicago replaced the Bluejays.
Adding UAB would be the conference’s first change since then in terms of basketball.
