"I like the way you think. I'll be watching you." (Sam Kinison from the movie "Back to School")
It's incredibly unfortunate, that when we had the stage to promote our football program headed to the Fiesta Bowl, that we dropped the ball so badly. That won't happen again, we just need to get back to winning - hopefully on track to that again, after the disaster that was an old and no longer functioning college football coach in Paul Pasqualoni. Very disappointing, for many people locally. I guess many of us should have listened to the Syracuse folks, but things run so deep b/w UCONN and Syracuse that the warnings were ignored basically, and we reached a level of sucktitude in division 1A that we had never really had before. That will get turned around. We have wins against the old ball coach's team in SEC bowl territory - destroyed them. We have beating Notre Dame in their house. We earned two co-conference championships in the Big EAst (and btw - the Big East had a winning conference in BCS bowls era - if you didn't know that)....the AAC is already 1-0. Our football can compete, and will compete with the Big10. In our worst year in 12 years, we had Michigan on the ropes. In 2010, who knows what happens in that fourth Q if the ball didn't get popped loose on the goal line on our way in.
As for basketball, the results speak for themselves.
As for hockey - we are competing in Hockey East starting next season. I assume you need no info on the recruiting around hockey and where the hot spots are, and where a school like UCONN can fit in there. We're on the road.
Question for you - is there any kind of arena seating requirements, standards etc. that the Big10 mandates for hockey?
Actually 2 questions - what's up with Minnesota football? The Marion the Barbarian and Maroney running tandem was damn good, and was similar to what we had for our couple years up to the Fiesta Bowl. It's been a few years since they were running though.
I think PSU's new digs, about 6000, is comfortably right. Hockey East is obviously a great conference, but it's pretty much dominated by BU & BC. Because the BIG is so new, Hockey East will capitalize on the changes to the BIG, as well as the new NCHC, where former WCHA foes North Dakota, Minn-Duluth, Denver, Colorado College, Saint Cloud State and Neb-Omaha left to form. Btw, the NCHC is going to be a scary conference & already we have to play North Dakota on Thursday for a berth in the NCG. Denver, ND, CC, and Minn Duluth = 17 NCs - all but CC have won a NC in the past decade.
I think Hockey East fans forget that the WCHA was the true boss of college hockey, though HE definitely rose to prominence the past 15 years - mainly BC. Btw, I like parity, so I don't mind seeing HE succeeding - growth is more important than singular, regionalized dominance. But the WCHA, not the current one which is a shell of its former self, dominated for so long & much of Michigan and Michigan State's success came during their WCHA years as well - they eventually left to form the CCHA & now the new BIG. Hockey clearly has little say in college sports. I couldn't imagine a league like the SEC folding because of football. The WCHA, factually speaking, won more NCs than any other conference that participates in the NCAA, regardless of sport - 36 National Championships, again 36 NCs. Perhaps BIG wrestling might be on the heels of shattering this record, in fact they may have done it this year now that PSU is rolling. Check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Collegiate_Hockey_Association
Minnesota plays in Mariucci Arena - about 10 thousand - and sellouts are normal, which is partly why our hockey program can sustain itself & comfortably.
A great sign for UConn hockey is Yale winning it all last year - don't remind me - they upset Minnesota in the first round - OT. We were the no. 1 overall seed last year, this year as well. We're still alive this year. Hockey East will definitely prepare you for a potential BIG membership - great competition in that league - though again, BC and BU tend to dominate. But Maine sneaks through once in a while.
MN Football - they're on the right track with Kill & if not for his very distracting seizures, they might have won more games last year & the year before, esp bowl games against Syracuse & Texas Tech. Kill changed his routine for the Syracuse bowl game & decided to hit the sidelines, yet during our surge, second half of the season, he worked magic from the press box to avoid stress that may cause the seizures. I will always question his decision to abandon a plan that worked so well til this game.
Minnesota football is so frustrating, which leads to Mason. He may have been a great coach, but he started a pattern of meltdown bowl losses. Check this out:
http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/bowl_history_minnesota.html
That's just too many blown bowl games, in these specific games (2000, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2013) Minnesota coughed up last minute leads. Mason inevitably go the axe for all blown bowl games through 2006 & they were bona fide meltdowns. But he did provided crucial leadership towards the construction of TCF Stadium. And boy oh boy, Mason had Penn State's number & PSU fans love to pull the amnesia card here : ). Mason also had a winning record against SEC teams. I'll always appreciate his tenure. On the other hand, I don't see Minnesota ever becoming a national program again, but they can have solid seasons & do such with consistency. Wisky, Iowa, Neb, all nearby, house more fans & by substantial margins. These schools have simply invested more in football. The yesteryear success of Minnesota football was pre NFL. The Vikings took Gopher momentum, much like the Steelers did to Pitt. Minnesota is not an isolated campus, but quite urban. It's not a self-enclosed community - which is what you have in Storrs, right?
We preserve our place in the BIG via hockey, both sexes, volleyball, wrestling, and basketball draws consistent sell outs - 14-15 k a game. Williams Arena is quite a venue, a charming, loud antique that I hope you see someday because of conference rivalry. It helps that our other olympic sports @ Minnesota are consistently in the top 20, nationally, & we carried BIG baseball for many years, albeit consistent crashes in the baseball tourney.
