Key tweets, and it's all gone to Hell.

[Irvine]

The last round of realignment has taught us a lot of things about networks preferences, but most importantly the following:

They still care about tv markets, but only those in central and eastern time zones.

Brands are a lot more important than on field success, though if they are successful then all the merrier

Guess who has brands, are successful, and are in the eastern and central time zones. There'll be market for the big east, it might not be with Fox but there will be suitors.

Actually its told us that it is totally whimsical, random and shortsighted.

 

[Patman]

There are folks on here who see that and will think “yes, obviously, that’s why we needed to join the Big 12”.

To that I say: I have no interest in playing TCU and Kansas State just to be able to play in the Big College Championship Presented by FanDuel against South Carolina in Monterrey in 2036. I’m good. I’m gonna enjoy what we’ve got and hope maybe we get an ACC spot with folks we know and hate until then, thanks.

Yes, obviously, that's why we needed to join the Big 12. (I am not being sarcastic.)

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Look, you and I both know the other option is to fold up athletics all together.

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What's lined out is the future. The next thing to break, and Yormark wanted to be in front of it, is breaking off the basketball part in order to bring the money into the schools instead of the NCAA itself.

 

[Patman]

No, GoKU was a fraud. I got confirmation from someone that every single person on this board knows. Talked with them a couple hours ago. All of the smoke around us was a lie by Yormark to get the Pac schools to jump. He used us, and executed it perfectly

What lie? UConn was never anything more than the best option if the music stopped at 13 or 15. If you thought otherwise I cannot help you.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

Coverage on the demise of PAC-12 from the Bay Area tonight.

Listen to what Larry said about Stanford and Cal football. Let it be a warning to UConn.

It is a sad day when the 108 years old conference went up in smoke in one day.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

What lie? UConn was never anything more than the best option if the music stopped at 13 or 15. If you thought otherwise I cannot help you.

Please explain why UConn admin and boosters felt confident they will get a B12 invite? Are UConn admin a bunch of idiots who believe in fairy tales?

 

[Patman]

Please explain why UConn admin and boosters felt confident they will get a B12 invite? Are UConn admin a bunch of idiots who believe in fairy tales?

I think people didn't realize just how bad the PAC deal was and we all thought it'd stop at Colorado. Once it was revealed how bad the PAC deal was the rest wrote itself.

 

[huskypantz]

I think people didn't realize just how bad the PAC deal was and we all thought it'd stop at Colorado. Once it was revealed how bad the PAC deal was the rest wrote itself.

In hindsight, there was a major flaw with the entire premise. We needed the deal to bad enough to shake loose Colorado but good enough that the other schools decided to stay. The huge problem was OU and UW - it became clear that they already had conversations and a path to to B1G and once the crappy contract with GOR was released it gave mutual incentive for the 2 schools to move on. At that point, everyone who could get off the island would and did.

 

[Samoo]

Oregon State I would understand. They've had some decent football and they will have a very good team this season. Their baseball is also extremely good. But Wazzou??? Outside of a few years with Mike Leach they have been completely irrelevant in every sport. They're also in the middle of nowhere over there in eastern Washington. I would probably give up on college athletics if they got the invite over us.

Discussed before - Oregon State football has been a history of pretty bad with a couple short stretches of pretty good mixed in. Their record since 2003 is remarkably similar to UConn's, right down to the number of 1-11, 2-10 seasons. Baseball has been excellent the past two decades including 3 CWS, but prior to that hadn't been to a regional since the mid-80's.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

We are at 4 million now and the expectation is a pretty decent uptick.

I expect Fox to drop the league

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

If y’all think UConn is above a non football invite to the Big12 I have news for you: Nova, St Johns or Georgetown aren’t. If one or more go then we’re a geographic outlier in a league that doesn’t have our football team for fractions of a penny on the dollar. If that deal comes you absolutely have to take it.

 

[Bongo Fury]

I guess, but isn't us caring enough?

(in any event I wouldn't have to read columns about how Connecticut wasn't committed to football because they play 25 miles off campus)

Yes, it would be one less thing against UConn but they are just haters with no interest

 

[Bongo Fury]

If y’all think UConn is above a non football invite to the Big12 I have news for you: Nova, St Johns or Georgetown aren’t. If one or more go then we’re a geographic outlier in a league that doesn’t have our football team for fractions of a penny on the dollar. If that deal comes you absolutely have to take it.

Everyone will do what is best for them. The days of the old magical Big East are long gone.

 

[businesslawyer]

I guess, but isn't us caring enough?

(in any event I wouldn't have to read columns about how Connecticut wasn't committed to football because they play 25 miles off campus)

Eh. You’ll still have to hear it here.

 

[GG]

I’d do it ONLY if it’s for minimum $20 mil/year for all Olympic sports, with a football schedule tie-in of 4/5 games a year rotating (WVU/UCF/Cincy/Hou one year, next year the 4 corners etc). I’d miss the hell out of the BE but a basketball schedule with Kansas, Gonzaga, Houston, Cincy, both AZ schools, etc. I can live with. “One foot in the door” as they say.

I agree, we would have to take it. I think we try to make it work if it is over $15m, but I would insist on a scheduling alliance and the ability to eventually become a full member if we meet certain criteria in football.

Don’t know if you have ever watched Greg Flugar’s show but he always had us right behind Colorado, Arizona, ASU and Utah, and insisted BY’s interest in us was legitimate (but that things had to break a certain way for us to make the cut as a full member). But at certain times he thought we would be a full addition and at other times he thought we would be a basketball only addition. He indicated, as late as three weeks ago, that Yormark approached both UCONN and St. John’s as basketball only additions. He also indicated that Gonzaga was sometimes in play, but the Zags were insisting on a full invite.

If it is truly BY’s vision to have the best basketball programs to ensure the future of the big 12 (which assumes the SEC and BIG try to break away), I would have to imagine that this is a real possibility. He also believes there is more money to be made in bball in the future if the conference takes the product to the networks separately. BY has been open about his desire to have a NY (east coast) presence. We also know that the Big 12 has already completed its due diligence with the Zags and UCONN (I do not believe they got that far with St. John’s), so this move could be made relatively quickly. What continues to concern me is whether the presidents of the Big 12 schools truly understand and embrace Yormark’s vision. I happen to agree with him, there is no way you can have a bball tourney that excludes names like KU, UCONN and Gonzaga. Securing those programs means you will always be a player and have a voice.

 

[Bongo Fury]

If y’all think UConn is above a non football invite to the Big12 I have news for you: Nova, St Johns or Georgetown aren’t. If one or more go then we’re a geographic outlier in a league that doesn’t have our football team for fractions of a penny on the dollar. If that deal comes you absolutely have to take it.

Starting to warm up to it. BE may become irrelevant and if the money is decent.

 

[BPT2Storrs]

The demise of the PAC-12 has been known for a long time. Everyone knew once USC and UCLA left for the Big Ten that the PAC was going to be unable to sustain itself. Why was Oregon going to stay there? The rumors about them going to the Big Ten have been out there for as long as the rumors about us going to the Big XII (several months now). If this was widely known to the public then just think what the ADs, media execs and others knew. I think this just highlights that we were never truly a candidate. We were in fact played. You can say that BY had a vision but you think he flew all the way out here without the blessing of the ADs/university presidents? Know way he comes to UConn and talks about us publicly without knowing he has the votes to back it up. This is all done through back channels and decisions are made before the public knows. We were a pawn. They never wanted us.

 

[GG]

No, GoKU was a fraud. I got confirmation from someone that every single person on this board knows. Talked with them a couple hours ago. All of the smoke around us was a lie by Yormark to get the Pac schools to jump. He used us, and executed it perfectly

That is completely contradictory to what Greg Flugar has said and he nailed everything else. He said the interest was (is) legitimate. He always had us behind CO, AZ, ASU and Utah. He said that things had to break a certain way for us to get the nod. Unless that was never relayed to UCONN, your source does not appear to have good information.

 

[Rewster]

ACC is trash and will be the new AAC in a couple of years when the valuable teams leave. We don’t need or want to join that league at this time. It would be all exit fee for the chance to tie up our media rights and guarantee we never get into a real conference.

Can’t have it both ways. How can teams leave but any team that enters will be stuck. I think the GOR keeps them in close to the whole time. And if they do leave it would be a bit of a windfall monetarily for the teams that stay for a short period. We need a infusion of money. If it’s partial for basketball that’s grows in full with football over time we need to go.

 

[Muddler]

In hindsight, there was a major flaw with the entire premise. We needed the deal to bad enough to shake loose Colorado but good enough that the other schools decided to stay. The huge problem was OU and UW - it became clear that they already had conversations and a path to to B1G and once the crappy contract with GOR was released it gave mutual incentive for the 2 schools to move on. At that point, everyone who could get off the island would and did.

We also learned in hindsight that they could have taken UConn will Colorado too. They just preferred other schools. All of them were available as there is no PAC anymore. At least the Big 12 can say they own the Utah market now.

 

[businesslawyer]

Few basic points:

(1) we were played by YoMark and he’s another media scumbag
(2) there was nothing DB and UConn could do about it when you’re dealing with people that have bad faith
(3) the university should be out in front of this. There is no honor in getting kick in the nuts and taking it silently.

Statement should be along these lines:

“Regrettably the b12 couldn’t see the value of brining the most dominant basketball program in the nation for the last 25 years and being part of the largest media markets in the nation. Being a top 25 state university, there are conferences with more suitable academic peers in any case. We look forward to football’s continued success under Coach Mora and the continued dominance of our basketball programs. Undoubtedly, more change is coming and the tremendous value UConn brings will be recognized by astute leaders.

Optional add-on:

P.S. Yormark is a lying manipulative P.O.S. that wasted our time and resources, and your presidents are as dumb as the institutions they lead. No hard feelings, though.

One thousand per cent NO. Let me spell this out for you. There are now four major conferences to survive in long term. Two of them we should assume we will never be financially important enough to qualify for. So your strategy is to get in a meaningless war of words to tick off one of the remaining two? Why, that’s brilliant.

I understand that mean words would make you feel better. Adults shut up, keep all their options open, and quietly wait for their opportunity to get revenge without broadcasting it publicly in a manner that reduces their options going forward.