Come on boys, PLAY NICE! I, for one, love the "insider" information in these epic sized posts. They help pass the time until spring football news &, hopefully until preseason camp.
Did all of my insight suddenly disappear b/c I backhanded a self-aggrandizing poster who elevates his nonsensical arguments above logic & reason, refusing to come to terms with the fact that he actually has absolutely no clue what he's talking about? Do you realize how absolutely illogical it is to presume that a non-UConn guy would suddenly appear on the board and try to gain some sort of e-cred by pretending he's some sort of insider? What the heck am I going to do with e-cred from a UConn board? Seriously. I can't convert it into food, beer, or money. It has no value. And thus, I'm not going to waste my time for something that has no value. Simple fact is, I like talking realignment. I happened to see this thread in a search I did on Google and decided to join in and chat for a bit. Once the conversation is gone, I'll be gone. I just stopped by to say "hi", share a little insight, and enjoy some discussions w/ some UConn fans. Nothing more, nothing less.
Well, IIRC UConn and ND were negotiating a long term deal, what was it, 8-9 games? And ND would not consider playing even once at Rentschler. Hathaway at the time probably was thinking it set a bad precedent, in that we were still a young program but not that young. And if we agreed to ND's terms, schools like Michigan (or similar big name schools) would balk at playing in East Hartford.
We signed a one-game deal (the 2009 game) and then Jeff and ND were negotiating a 10-game deal first (5 in South Bend, 5 in either East Rutherford or Foxboro) until the State got wind of it, and then a 6-game deal (3 in South Bend, 3 in NJ/MA), with the caveat being that in the years when we played in NJ/MA, we needed to have six East Hartford games (for a total of 7 "home" games). While the deal remained in an unresolved state, we reached agreements with other big-name schools like Michigan and Tennessee on home-and-homes, to the point where ND no longer had the "no home games" leverage over us, in terms of other schools' willingness to play us, as well as the quality of play on the field. (I can still see Anthony Davis blasting the defensive end and Andre Dixon walking in untouched, by the way...)
Yes. Clearly. Why the heck would you start a conference matchup home game on the east coast at 10pm eastern? Long post coming...... Hey, this stuff is complicated. Bottom line is that the Big East will have the potential to broadcast 3 conference games nationally every Saturday, 12:00pm EST, 3:30pm EST, and 8:00pm EST. 6 teams every Saturday going out nationally. The other games going out regionally. THat alone is nothing special. ESPN can do the same with the ACC right now, etc. Any conference with a TV deal that has national reach, can do the same thing. What is special, is that with a conference with programs coast to coast, you can schedule those 3 games, such that the media markets involved, are all in primetime regionally. No other conference can do that. ESPN can send out 3 national broadcasts of ACC conference games, but the 3:30pm game, is still going to be 12:30pm PST, and the 8:00 game is still going to be 5:00PM PST, where as the Big East will consistently be able to put the different regions in primetime. You'd need a big grid on teh wall to really see what I'm talking about. What on the surface seems like a disaster, in the realm of football broadcasting, is actually quite desireable. The reason that it's never happend before, is that football programs, are part of larger athletic departments, and a national intercollegiate conference in all sports, is simply not feasible. But the big east is breaking into entirely new territory and I'm confident in our leadership. All our leadership needs to do is imagine that basketball games last 3 hours long, and that by getting as many people to watch those basketball games as possible is the way to make the basketball conference the most dominant in the country......see if you can figure that one out.....HA. The reason for it all being the way it is, is where it gets complicated. Regional broadcasting in college football is so damn important because of the Oklahoma v. NCAA anti trust ruling in 1984. The entire reason that the concept of a group of 60 something schoosl breaking away from the NCAA comes from the 68 schools that made up the CFA from 1980-1997 or so wanting to avoid the anti-trust issues that they would incur under the NCAA umbrella if there as to be some kind of control of national broadcasting. What we got instead, is the BCS system, and the focus on regional broadcasting that has occurred. The opposite model exists with the NFL. Pete Rozelle in 1961 was able to negotiate a television contract that allowed for control over national broadcasting timeslots for all the members of the NFL because he was able to get legislation passed through congress that allowed for it - such that anti-trust laws were not breached, even though the NFL teams were not able to determine their own time slots with the contracts. The NFL has operated that way ever since. The NCAA also did it from the early 60s, but did it in cartel fashion, by restricting access to broadcasts rather than opening up the broadcasts the way the NFL did, and it resulted in the anti-trust suit. BUT - an NCAA conference, operating based on the will of it's membership, can operate that way when it comes to scheduling and not be in violation of Sherman, because the institutions are willingly turning over their broadcast rights, and have the freedom to seek other broadcasting opportunities if they so desire, see WVU v. Big East 2012. That group of 60+ programs never left the NCAA, and won't because they are not self sustaineable as intercollegiate (so called amateur) athletic institutions. THe concept of amateurism will be completely gone for any group that ever leaves the NCAA. No one has had the cajones to try to do lead something like that, and I don't think it will ever happen unless athletic departments, simply completely separate from academic institutions and go into business for profit, which has been discussed....... So, back to the topic at hand, college football was once very much more popular than the NFL nationwide. There were national followings of many, many college football programs through the media. Not too long ago. AFter the debacle of how the cheating scandal at Army was handled in 1952, and the passing of Grantland Rice, and the transition of print media into television media - the NFL and Pete Rozelle capitalized, with national broadcasts of NFL football, interspersed with regional broadcasts. It took legislation to be passed in congress in 1961, for the NFL to do it and not be in violation of Sherman. The NCAA, because of a study that was done in the 40s and 50s, about the influence of television on gate counts at college football games in the 1950s, went completely the opposite direction with broadcasting, and began cartel behavior, and restrcition of broadcasting access, and it eventually resulted in the anti-trust suit being brought anway, based on restriction of broadcasting in the highly desireable saturday afternoon time slot......which has led to the current state of affairs and the complete reduction of college football broadcasting involving regional focus only in twenty short years, because of the focus on avoiding the issues that now exist because of the ruling on anti-trust regarding college football broadcasting. THe NCAA was operating on conclusions about broadcasting and ticket sales that were 35 years outdated, and wrong, and ended up with a Sherman anti-trust lawsuit because of it. The NFL has become the most watched sporting league in teh country, by far, and has the most watched single event on the Planet. The Big East, can begin to take advantage of the ability to broadcast nationally to a wide audience, and schedule kickoff times for many programs, all in the desired primetime saturday afternoon, evening time slots and do it in such a way as to not be inviolation of anti-trust in anyway. All of this were part of right now, originated in the 1980s and early 1990s and the big east, simply wanted no part of it, and only reluctantly and minimally got involved.
I'd like to say that I admire your willingness to continue making long post after long post despite an ever building chorus of those begging you to stop. I'd like to say it but ....
Look, you can put the games on anytime during the day and adjust the time slot to work best in New York, Dallas or Los Angeles. The bottom line is that people aren't going to tune in unless the product is compelling - see Rutgers vs Louisville 2006. They aren't going to tune in if the product isn't compelling - see UCF vs Memphis 2014. No amount of timezones and/or primetime slots will doing anything to change that.
Just to say somethign short and clear. Yeah right..... The NFL leadership went to congress in 1961, and got legislation enacted that allowed for the NFL to regulate broadcasting for it's membership involving time slots, desireable national broadcasts, etc.... and not be in violation of Sherman anti-trust law. Broadcasting contracts were put in place, such that as many people as possible coudl watch pro-football coast to coast with their local teams in primetime time slots. Pro-football exploded. Competiting organizations in professional football, then united shortly after, and when there was previously no true championship among different leagues, they came up with a playoff system and a true championship game. The NFL has since turned into what it has, and the super bowl into what it has. College football, and the NCAA, based on a flawed research study about the effect of national television broadcasts on regional ticket sales and gate counts in the 1940s and 1950s....inthe 1960s, nothing to do with the concept of amateurism.....the same way that the NCAA opposes a playoff system supposedly for academic calendar scheduling......outdated and wrong.....but anyway - the NCAA mandated membership such that it began to restrict broadcasting greatly, who, and how often, football teams could be scheduled in primetime broadcasting timeslots coast to coast, and literally, there was only ONE game each week that got national television attention. ONE. Saturday afternoon at 3:30pm. ONE national broadcast allowed by teh NCAA. For nearly three decades. Instead of uniting coast to coast within the NCAA, competing leagues began to build walls aroudn themselves, and on top that, went over those walls, and formed something called the CFA, which was entirely a television broadcast union of major college football programs, within the NCAA made up of members from all conferences and independants. Instead of figuring out a national system of determining a champion on the field among competing leagues, the BCS system evolved. The ACC, is a puppet in this mess since the 1950s. THe Big East, has - and has had - for 20+ years, the opportunity to be pulling strings instead of dancing on them. It's only now, that the big east is actually beginning to pluck at those strings.
Any time I see his name at the top of the post I just keep scrolling until I've passed the post. I can't be bothered to read the whole thing just to find the one compelling sentence hidden somewhere within. It's to the point where the lengths of these missives are just ludicrous.
That's a given. Go look at the ratings for LSU Alabama II. People have to want to watch. Given. Teams have to be good, and win games. Given. The thing I'm talking about - is the essential step though. It doesn't matter how much a team wins and how good they are. They won't have a following, if people can't see them on TV. The more people that can watch, the more opportunity you have to generate interest - given that you've got a good product. Sales analogy..... you can have the best product X in the entire world......but......if product X is way back on the back shelf, and nobody can see it......it's not going to sell. Product Y.....that's definitely inferior, and cheap........but is propped up front on the shelf and has lighst and arrows tacked up around pointing at it - is going to sell more. Insert Big EAst and the BCS record over the years since 1991 for product X, and ACC for product Y and their BCS record over the years...... I'm very excited what the Big EAst leadership can do, with a full effort put into building a football league. It will be the first time to see it, and they've got a difficult job, because the easy pieces of the puzzle to do it, have all been snatched up over the years by competing product manufacturers while the big east wasn't really too concerned about football sales, and much more concerned about basketball sales.
Wow, dude. Settle down with the "are you serious? 99% of what goes on" stuff. All I wanted to see was the link that you eventually provided on the bottom of the post. What's with the "But, if you really must see a 'link" to believe it......" talk?!? It's customary on the Boneyard to provide a link if one is available for the people reading your posts. It's not that we are yelling "liar!" It's that we are interested in the topic and would like to learn more. Since we're talking about the different fields we work in, I work in the science field. ANY INFORMATION that scientists pass to each other in the field is also accompanied by the corresponding literature if it exists, and we don't fly off the handle if it's requested by another person......so thanks for the info.
Anybody actually believe this guy?? Lol @ him listing off his creds on an internet message board like we should listen
I really love your interest in UConn football, but you really need to take the time to comprehend all the stuff I'm writing. The BCS bowl system is a phantom. There is no spoon. It's a business structure conjured up out of thin air, in an attempt to stabilize an intercollegiate landscape nationally that is inherently, by nature, unstable. There's a ton of money involved in it, and that's all it means. It's got nothign to do with competition. The BCS national championship, while a very nice title, is in reality - a farce. I'm pretty sure that big east leadership understood it to be so long ago, completely farcical, and that's probably a big reason why they ignored and disrespected football so much. I'm no fan whatsover of the BCS system.....but you can't ignore the power of money, and that's what's led to where we are, and recognizing it, is what's going to make the big east strong. We at UConn, have reached a level of competition, and were going to continue to improve the level of competition, no matter what letters you use to describe it. You're not going to believe me, but the original 16 team superconference concept, if not for the existence of the Big East basketball league, would have formed in 1990, and consisted of all the former Big East programs that have left/ are leaving, current Big East/former C-USA programs, and incoming C-USA programs. The only reason that league doesn't exist, is because several of the programs, already were members of the Big EAst in other sports, and the Big East was rolling in basektball money. That conference would have dominated the college landscape in the early 1990s, and that league most likely is the recipient of the sweetheart deal from CBS in the mid 1990s, that the SEC got, after Fox took over the CBS NFL contracts. There are way too many people that follow college football these days, that don't really have a clue as to why things are the way they are in 2012, and I care too much about UConn, and football, to let it go. They did not invent football in the SEC or ACC, and they certainly didn't invent football broadcasting in the SEC or ACC either. Enough for today - have a nice weekend.
I too have worked with CBS, ABC, ESPN. and fox...there, now we have the same amount of inside credibility...actually i forgot i helped start the BBC college football network so id say im even mor credible than you
How is that going to change? I don't even get NBC Sports on my expanded cable lineup. Once ESPN has no more interest in the Big East, they won't even talk about the league anymore. I don't see how any of this ends well for the Big East.
Ok, so.........let's say someone who has a great deal of expertise in a subject happens upon a thread and wants to offer some insight. How exactly should he present said insight so that it is not taken with a grain of sand? It is beyond illogical to think I just showed up on a UConn board and decided to invent a character, some how educated myself on topics that would be impossible for me to know as an outside, then waste hours trying to build up internet cred on a message board I don't plan on sticking around on. I'm not a UConn grad or fan, and have never even watched a UConn football game. I just saw a thread and wanted to offer some insight. How do you think I know what I know? I'm not Carl. What I write not only is sensible, but is commentary that is impossible to know w/o actually being in the TV/sports world. If you'd like to think I'm some sort of drive by imposter, then that's fine. You guys have a great board here & a lot of college spirit. But, some would rather start pissing matches than intelligently discuss a subject that has a great deal of bearing on UConn. Best of luck to you guys......and congrats on yesterday's b-ball win.
What makes you think that ESPN is not interested in the Big East? You think ESPN is not interested in Notre Dame? Depending on what report you read, they were willing to pay quite a bit for it with Syracuse and Pitt and WVU markets...........and what we will have going forward, market wise, will be a lot better than what we had before. It's up to the athletic departments to go out and be competitive, but if you've followed Big EAst football at all, even in just the short time that UConn has been a 1-A program, the Big EAst, clearly has a signficiant track record of being able to elevate football programs to national recognition in short order on the backbone of that basketball league that was created 32 years ago.
