The home games this season aren't easy. UConn has NEVER beaten the Wolfpack or Aggies. Duke has been VERY competative as late. The only "guaranteed wins" are FIU, USF, & Sacred Heart, & that's only if UConn makes measurable leaps in Coach Mora's 2nd year & the team avoids the injury plague.
I understand your concerns, but some day take a drive on Discovery Drive located on the UConn campus. It is a wide roadway that leads to Route 44. It has plenty of room there for a stadium and tailgating. Route 195 could be closed to all but local traffic during home games. Let the motorists use 44 to get home. The new stadium and related buildings could also be used by the new innovation partnership building and related uses that tie UConn's research with corporations. Try to keep an open mind. Let Central CT take over the Rent. It's close to their lovely campus.
As to Rutgers, the Big Ten reached out to them and gave them specific areas to work on without promising them anything. Rutgers really didn't promote itself at all, other than responding the Big Ten request for information. It was made absolutely clear to them that if they talked about any of the discussion publicly any possibility to join the Big Ten would be lost.
24 does have a handful of northeastern schools, which is nice. The bright side is you would hope UConn can provide a combined 7-8 wins for the home fans during 24/25.
This season is not bad. 2 ACC opponents, USF (former Big East opponent), and Utah State (competitive MW program) is a pretty solid slate. FIU and Sacred Heart don't do anything for me, but no program has six can't miss home games.
Away games - even if the home slate isn't great at least some of the away games are driveable. I mean, they are all drivable but 4 in the Northeast and Maryland. That's nice.
According to this story, it was Rutgers who reached out to the Big Ten. Delaney told Rutgers there was less than a 10% chance that Rutgers would be added. Did Rutgers give up? No, they kept reaching out to Delaney and talking about how they could bring the NY market. Is UConn doing anything remotely like this?
Good long article here:According to this story, it was Rutgers who reached out to the Big Ten. Delaney told Rutgers there was less than a 10% chance that Rutgers would be added. Did Rutgers give up? No, they kept reaching out to Delaney and talking about how they could bring the NY market. Is UConn doing anything remotely like this?
"Prior to becoming Rutgers’ athletic director in 2009, Tim Pernetti reached out to Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany to ask a very bold question:
If the Big Ten expanded, would Rutgers, then a member of the Big East, get a real look?
Pernetti, a former media executive before going to work for his alma mater, knew that Rutgers held one significant advantage over every other expansion candidate — access to the New York TV market.
Delany’s response was firm and to the point. He told Pernetti that Rutgers had a single-digit percent chance of being invited to the Big Ten.
“Well, that’s good enough for me,” Pernetti replied.
Over time, Pernetti’s calls to Delany became more frequent. He’d call Delany early in the morning when the commissioner was usually on the treadmill, and talked about how Rutgers’ TV market would boost the Big Ten Network’s audience."
Delany’s vision led Big Ten to add Rutgers
www.sportsbusinessjournal.com
It was a bad look for Susan and Warde, no doubt about it, but Jurich's victory lap notwithstanding, I wonder how much of it was based upon FSU's desire to flex it's muscles against Tobacco Road. Still, one wonders whether things would've been different if we were plugging away instead of sipping piña coladas.And here is Jurich working to get Louisville into the ACC. Note the sense of urgency on the part of the AD, just like in the case of TCU and Rutgers. Also, Jurich canceled his trip to the Bahamas; Warde Manuel and Susan Herbst did not cancel their trip.
"Then, on the morning of Nov. 17, Jurich learned that Rutgers and Maryland were expected to join the Big Ten. Suddenly, the situation became more urgent, the opportunity more realistic.
Jurich canceled his trip to the Bahamas, where Louisville's basketball team was playing in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, and he combed through the contact list he had gathered over 24 years as an athletic director.
He made progress with with Florida State athletics director Randy Spetman, whom he had befriended when Spetman was at Air Force and Jurich was at Colorado State. He found an ally in Syracuse athletics director Daryl Gross, a fellow Big East AD who had navigated through realignment just one year earlier.
Ramsey, who was an economics professor at the University of North Carolina, said his connection to the university helped, too. Still, they had to convince the ACC that Louisville was a better option than Connecticut, which seemed to have the advantage in academics, geography and market size.
"We were definitely the underdogs," Jurich said. "People had UConn not penciled in, but penned in."
ACC votes to add Louisville
Cardinal would become the 14th member, replacing Maryland.www.usatoday.com
That's why A.D. Dave has to act with stealth: publicly saying nothing & moving mountains behind the scenes in concert with President Radenka...
Yup. I believe Calhoun called Clinton personally to see if he could persuade Shalala take the call but she wouldn’t budge. Probably one of the strangest moments in our conference realignment saga.
