FSU and Clemson to Big XII?

[HuskyHawk]

What is the alternative? We are where we are. I look forward to seeing Boise State play football at The Rent. Memphis not so much. This is the best we've got, I don't think anyone feels its ideal, but for as bad as our league is supposed to be, you see teams leaving their conferences to come here.

What kind of attitude is that? Where's the damned Animal House clip? You don't just accept defeat. You don't just accept a crappy situation, you do something about it. You pull out all the stops. The worst possible thing UConn can do is resign itself to the fact that this crappy conference is the best we do, so we should make the best of it.

 

[businesslawyer]

What kind of attitude is that? Where's the damned Animal House clip? You don't just accept defeat. You don't just accept a crappy situation, you do something about it. You pull out all the stops. The worst possible thing UConn can do is resign itself to the fact that this crappy conference is the best we do, so we should make the best of it.

Say what you want about conference realignment, but don't you dare misinterpret Animal House. The whole point of the Animal House scene is that they didn't sit around whining and writing nasty, complaining emails -- they did something. So buy more tickets, watch more games, travel to more games and make bigger donations. And get others to do the same. Or, STFU.

And by the way -- resigning oneself to something and making the best of it are not interchangeable. I am not resigned to this -- I still hope there is more shuffling and we end up in the ACC. But I'm certainly going to make the best of the current situation as long as it exists.

 

[JohnUnitas]

Does that mean you live in Morgantown?
While you may continue to believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, the B12 is on life support (er, Bevo support). The conference stays together as long as either Larry Scott says so or UT starts looking away from its "committed" partners. I am not wishing for it - heck, I wish everything would go back a few years - but I will make you a quiet little bet that the B12's future is as perilous as the Colts in Baltimore were in the mid 70s.

Kansas City actually.

If you honestly think the P12 has any pull beyond the Rockies, you have no clue on the situation or lack there of.

Larry Scott, are you serious? Hah.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Don't you think you can insert Uconn and Calhoun in this statement? Everything you wrote about Cuse can be said about Uconn. Cuse is moving to a southern conference. Uconn is now part of a midwestern/southern/western conference. As of right now, Uconn and Syracuse are very much at the same point in terms of on the field/court performance. Both will need to replace legends as BB coach in the next 5-7 years with Uconn looking like they will need to make that replacement first. Both FB programs are not exactly killing it right now in both on the field results and recruiting. You could argue that Cuse has a slight advantage with an existing AD in place, no recent turnover at the top of the university and moving into a more stable conference environment that will be always near the top of the BB world (currently the most important and successful sport for both Cuse and Uconn). Uconn now becomes the second longest football member in the conference at less than 10 years and is the northern outpost in the BB part of the conference that has as much a southern flavor to it as the ACC.

It is great to be supportive and proud of Uconn but to predict failure of Cuse or Pitt because of this move and unbelievable success for Uconn as part of this national monster conference does not seem based in reality. I think more than a few Uconn fans are also tting a brick if they understand anything about intercollegiate athletics. You can see it on this board.

Syracuse has a $1billion dollar endowment. UConn has a $315 million dollar endowment. That's the only advantage they've got over us right now.

We sit in the middle of a state of 3.5 million residents, of which a vast majority are fans of the UConn brand, and have somewhere in the neighborhood of 125,000 graduates working in the tri-state area. It's the failure of UConn leadership for many years, to not have that endowment well above $1billion at this point. President Herbst, I love her, has come in and made it clear f8cking goal to get the endowment up to where it should be. I'm an alumni, and I donate money every year. If just half of the alumni in the tri-state area, donated a quarter of what I do yearly (which isn't that much in the grand scheme), UConn would be playing Penn State, Michigan, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern, etc. regularly at Rentschler (my opinion on the last part) but fact that we'd be well above a $1billion if historically for the past few decades, alumni support was there financially.

THe university jsut didn't do to go after it, not sure why. They're working at it now.

If you're an alumni out there, don't hang up the phone, the next time you get a call. Don't throw away that correpspondence in teh mail before looking at it. If you care enough about athletics, to be bitching and moaning here about the current state of affairs, and are an alumni, then do your frigging part to fix it and donate what you can to the school, and not just the athletic department for your ticket priority points.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Say what you want about conference realignment, but don't you dare misinterpret Animal House. The whole point of the Animal House scene is that they didn't sit around whining and writing nasty, complaining emails -- they did something. So buy more tickets, watch more games, travel to more games and make bigger donations. And get others to do the same. Or, STFU.

And by the way -- resigning oneself to something and making the best of it are not interchangeable. I am not resigned to this -- I still hope there is more shuffling and we end up in the ACC. But I'm certainly going to make the best of the current situation as long as it exists.

Did they just sit around and complain when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!!?

 

[MattMang23]

I just know that when this whole realignment started, almost all of us said one thing: The BE needs to hold onto the BCS bid.

With the additions, it likely will, and therefore, as a football program, UConn still has a pulse.

Now I don't want to play football with Memphis, San Diego State, or Navy as conference-mates as many of you don't, but the conference is still breathing. It's not optimal, but it'll do. If we can just win games and bide our time, we will eventually get the call. I'll never lose hope that we'll escape, but until then, we need to win.

 

[noeynox]

What kind of attitude is that? Where's the damned Animal House clip? You don't just accept defeat. You don't just accept a crappy situation, you do something about it. You pull out all the stops. The worst possible thing UConn can do is resign itself to the fact that this crappy conference is the best we do, so we should make the best of it.

Currently, it is the best we got. I hold hope for a better future, either by the Big East stepping up big time and getting a big time TV contract that allows us to keep pace with other conferences, or by virtue of an invite to another conference. Fact is, what stop is there to pull out currently? When you say do something, are proposing going independent? You can't go to another conference without an invite, unless I missed something, we don't have one.

 

[Pudge]

I don't know any Syracuse media types, so spare me.

We aspire to cultural wasteland and this conference will be a serious drag on the athletic program. Blow smoke up your own ass if you'd like, but this is a bad, bad spot for us.

We're a gold coin that was just flicked into a pile of mid-major s***.

I think there is a whole Lotta crap being thrown around here ...

John Swofford, led by ESPN, made some shrewd tactical moves; but, ultimately shortsighted football calculations. Yes ... we are in a mid-major s***; but, we really got what we deserve. We aren't at the level that SU & Pitt NOR BC are ... yet. However, I really don't see those programs growing. And, I believe the UConn football is still able to climb to so much more. Beg Harder ... would have gotten us no better.

We need to just focus on getting our Programs better. That's all we can do. And, the negativity of many here is signal that there are too much Connecticut curmudgeonly thinking. It is early in our Program; one good solid TCU-like climb could cement us a regional buzz. And, there is no way that BC could come close to the Fanbase that UConn could have. Of course ... woulda-coulda-shoulda. But congrats to SU for raising more money.

I don't think the number being thrown around as the likely NBC contract makes any sense: None of the teams that signed up would have jumped so quickly for $5m (about $3m incremental). This is going to be new programming ... but it won't be near the number that ESPN had on the table.

 

[caw]

Just a question, why are so many focused on the academics of the other conference members? As long as UConn is willing to upgrade it's academics and pay for good professors, it really shouldn't matter how good Providence or Boise is or isn't. Now if it's because UConn will not be bringing in enough money from sports to support academics that's a different story, but more to do with athletics than academics of conference members. I'm really just don't get this.


Rice and Tulane are currently in Conference USA
Vanderbilt is in the SEC
William and Mary is in the CAA
GW and Fordham are in the A-10

All of the above are probably better than UConn academically but are in conferences with some pretty bad academic institutions:

C-USA: ECU, and of course future BE members Memphis, UCF, etc.
SEC: LSU
CAA: ODU
A-10: Charlotte

C-USA is the best example because the new BE is actually taking members from there. Rice and Tulane weren't hurt academically by being associated with the same members.

 

[freescooter]

caw,

I'll give you Rice and William & Mary, Vanderbilt, maybe Tulane as long as it isn't hurricane season, though I think its a push but if you think Fordham and GW are better academically than UCONN...Fordham isn't even considered among the best of the Jesuit universities...

 

[businesslawyer]

caw,

I'll give you Rice and William & Mary, Vanderbilt, maybe Tulane as long as it isn't hurricane season, though I think its a push but if you think Fordham and GW are better academically than UCONN...Fordham isn't even considered among the best of the Jesuit universities...

For what it's worth, the USNWR rankings put GW equal with Tulane, then Fordham, then UConn.

 

[Adios]

UCF has a 46.4% acceptance rate. USF has 44.6%. UConn has 54%. SMU has 59.5%. UCF and USF must be horrible schools. Memphis has 66.5%. Boise State has 64.5%, too. We have some elitist fans here...

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Acceptance rate is one of the worst metrics by which to judge a school's academic standing. You can so easily manipulate those statistics. For instance, Northeastern has a ~40% acceptance rate because they wait list everyone. I had a friend in high school who got waitlisted there, and was then offered a half tuition merit scholarship, not need-based. Theoretically, waitlisters are borderline good enough to get in, so how then is a waitlister getting a half-ride based on how smart he/she is?

 

[whaler11]

Nope, not when I get going really fast. Not til later.

Of course basketball has taken a step down with the three programs going. We've gone from undisputed heads and shoulders above the rest of the country in basketball, to a legitimate argument as to whether or not we've got the best basketball conference in the country. How the hell do you think the membership of this conference that hasn't cared about football until this year has finally opened their eyes.

As for football, I don't have the energy right now to look, but Holgorsen's post Orange Bowl comments about the Big East, and the level of competition. I don't think he was saying that to fluff the conference that WVU is hell bent on leaving.

Women's basketball? Baseball? On down the line. Upon further review, yes I stand by waht I originially wrote. Prestige? Big East football has never had it from the media, and the leadership (and by that I mean, the commissioner, acting on behalf of the conference membership) allowed it. The moment when we could have snared the media and run with it, in 2002, after the runs of VTech and Miami to the national title games, and the secondary runs of Syracuse and WVU behind them, got crapped on in front of the biggest media market and presence in teh world, for St. John's basketball.

Only way that ever changes, the prestige thing in the media, is for the leadership to promote it like hell, and for the teams to go out and win the big games. It's a two sided affair. We have yet to both together. WE've won the games, and had no leadership out there in front. I believe we've got the leadership now, and it's on the football programs to go out and win, and I'm excited as hell.

Win the games. Just win baby.

Baseball? Are you really insane enough to believe that Big East baseball is on par with Texas, the south and California?

The Big East was like 2-13 against the BCS this year - that is the side I'd worry about.

 

[caw]

caw,

I'll give you Rice and William & Mary, Vanderbilt, maybe Tulane as long as it isn't hurricane season, though I think its a push but if you think Fordham and GW are better academically than UCONN...Fordham isn't even considered among the best of the Jesuit universities...

Not really the point and yes it could be argued UConn is better than GW and Fordham (I might have gone a bit overboard there). I think we can all agree GW and Fordham are at least good schools whose academic reputations are not hampered by the conferences they are in.