Prefer not to join ACC +++

[NH Husky]

I too prefer not to join the ACC but accept it as a likely outcome.

First choice: Big Ten
PROS: Put all instability behind and focus on continuing to build football program with no loss to all other sports status, BCS bid, $$$, and if Rutgers went too we would have some natural rivals with them and Penn State.
CONS: Travel to Nebraska and Minnesota but how is that different that USF, TCU, Miami, ....

Second Choice: ACC
PROS: Natural rivals in Cuse Pitt Duke UNC Maryland, BCS bid, $$
CONS: Instability - ACC is a couple poachings away from dire straits, mismatch with conference culture, weaker football (from Big Ten)

Third Choice: Big 12 / Big East / Conf USA
PROS: BCS bid, $$
CONS: Travel, no rivals, instable.

Fourth: Independent
PROS: Keep 1A status, buy time until dust settles.
CONS: A bunch

Fifth: Fall back to 1AA status
PROS: Stability
CONS: Probable decline in all sports and loss of investment to date. It would truly suck as a fan.

I'm hoping there are a lot of closed door negotiations going on w the Big Ten and we all get that WOW press release soon.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Options 1 and 2 are fantasies in my opinion. Options 3-5 are very real possibilities.

 

[uconNYC]

option 5 is the least likely scenario. Worst case is Big East in all sports and football in CUSA

 

[ctchamps]

I too prefer not to join the ACC but accept it as a likely outcome.

First choice: Big Ten
PROS: Put all instability behind and focus on continuing to build football program with no loss to all other sports status, BCS bid, $$$, and if Rutgers went too we would have some natural rivals with them and Penn State.
CONS: Travel to Nebraska and Minnesota but how is that different that USF, TCU, Miami, ....

Second Choice: ACC
PROS: Natural rivals in Cuse Pitt Duke UNC Maryland, BCS bid, $$
CONS: Instability - ACC is a couple poachings away from dire straits, mismatch with conference culture, weaker football (from Big Ten)

Third Choice: Big 12 / Big East / Conf USA
PROS: BCS bid, $$
CONS: Travel, no rivals, instable.

Fourth: Independent
PROS: Keep 1A status, buy time until dust settles.
CONS: A bunch

Fifth: Fall back to 1AA status
PROS: Stability
CONS: Probable decline in all sports and loss of investment to date. It would truly suck as a fan.

I'm hoping there are a lot of closed door negotiations going on w the Big Ten and we all get that WOW press release soon.

Really nice summation and it echoes my preferences except I stop at number three. If four and five happens that will suck. I'll add one more con to our second choice: politics. The northeast schools will be playing second fiddle to the North Carolina schools and FSU.

 

[warbler1055]

Options 1 and 2 are fantasies in my opinion. Options 3-5 are very real possibilities.

If this is true, then it sucks to be a UConn fan and alumni and there are several UConn graduates in our family. I really hope you are wrong !!!

 

[nelsonmuntz]

If this is true, then it sucks to be a UConn fan and alumni and there are several in our family. I really hope you are wrong !!!

I hope I am wrong too. Option 3 could be pretty good, but our President seems to oppose it.

 

[gars44]

I hope I am wrong too. Option 3 could be pretty good, but our President seems to oppose it.

She is trying to avoid it. That is different from opposing it.

 

[mattp]

i'd rather stay in the BE, assuming everyone else stays and we add a couple of decent teams, than go to the ACC. the only thing i like about the ACC are their bowl agreements. the Big10 would be the number one choice, and i think 4 and 5 listed above are about as likely as us joining the SEC, so why discuss them.

if the BE really is sunk due to a couple of other teams defecting it would be cool to go independent. with all of the conferences turning their backs on tradition in lieu of a couple dollars, i'm really hoping for a trend of schools going back to independent a la BYU. i could definitely see Texas' next move to be to independent since their TV network will be in full stride by then.

 

[nadav]

I hope I am wrong too. Option 3 could be pretty good, but our President seems to oppose it.

pretty good? It's such a grand situation that Navy is currently taking a pass.

 

[ctchamps]

pretty good? It's such a grand situation that Navy is currently taking a pass.

That pass is only because there is a lot of fluidity at present and other BE schools (their AD singled out UConn) may not be in the BE must longer. So he is waiting to see if things stabilize. I'm sure the chances are not great because Navy already has established a rivalry with Pitt and Cuse and their loss may not make the BE attractive any longer.

 

[UCHuskies08]

I don't buy the argument that the ACC is vulnerable. Even if they lost FSU and VT, they'd be just like the Big East since the raid. It'd impact the overall football quality, sure, but wouldn't adversely affect the conference. The ACC will be one of the conferences that survive.

 

[ctchamps]

I don't buy the argument that the ACC is vulnerable. Even if they lost FSU and VT, they'd be just like the Big East since the raid. It'd impact the overall football quality, sure, but wouldn't adversely affect the conference. The ACC will be one of the conferences that survive.

No argument there. But their future media contracts would take a hit if everyones assumption is correct that football is driving the media contracts.

 

[upstater]

I don't buy the argument that the ACC is vulnerable. Even if they lost FSU and VT, they'd be just like the Big East since the raid. It'd impact the overall football quality, sure, but wouldn't adversely affect the conference. The ACC will be one of the conferences that survive.

Vulnerable in the sense that everyone is moving to 16.

Who does the ACC add?

 

[UCHuskies08]

Vulnerable in the sense that everyone is moving to 16.

Who does the ACC add?

ECU and UCF!!!!

 

[upstater]

ECU and UCF!!!!

You seem to have answered your own question.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Options 1 and 2 are fantasies in my opinion. Options 3-5 are very real possibilities.

Options four and five are closer to being real possibilities than one or two?

Every time I begin to think that Waylon can no longer post something thatw leads me to the respone "WTF is he thinking?" I read something like this.

 

[whaler11]

I won't bother making another thread, but..

Anyone who doesn't want to be in the ACC is crazy. ++++++

 

[whaler11]

Options four and five are closer to being real possibilities than one or two?

Every time I begin to think that Waylon can no longer post something thatw leads me to the respone "WTF is he thinking?" I read something like this.

Why stop at FCS. Why not go all the way to low-scholarship FCS. RHODE ISLAND DID IT!

Although he is right about the Big 10. That's a fantasy wrapped in a wet dream.

 

[Mr.Phat]

There's an option just before 5 - remain 1A but disarm to a non BCS status. I am starting to have my doubts that UConn can ever crack the top 20 in football. The embarrassing bowl loss to OU reminds us the chasm that exists between UConn football and top caliber programs. It's gigantic.

 

[CTMike]

I too prefer not to join the ACC but accept it as a likely outcome.

First choice: Big Ten
PROS: Put all instability behind and focus on continuing to build football program with no loss to all other sports status, BCS bid, $$$, and if Rutgers went too we would have some natural rivals with them and Penn State.
CONS: Travel to Nebraska and Minnesota but how is that different that USF, TCU, Miami, ....

Second Choice: ACC
PROS: Natural rivals in Cuse Pitt Duke UNC Maryland, BCS bid, $$
CONS: Instability - ACC is a couple poachings away from dire straits, mismatch with conference culture, weaker football (from Big Ten)

Third Choice: Big 12 / Big East / Conf USA
PROS: BCS bid, $$
CONS: Travel, no rivals, instable.

Fourth: Independent
PROS: Keep 1A status, buy time until dust settles.
CONS: A bunch

Fifth: Fall back to 1AA status
PROS: Stability
CONS: Probable decline in all sports and loss of investment to date. It would truly suck as a fan.

I'm hoping there are a lot of closed door negotiations going on w the Big Ten and we all get that WOW press release soon.

Probabilities of each happening, based on whatever I feel :

1 : 9%
2 : 50%
3 : 40%
4 : 1%
5 : 0%

Personal preference :

2 : 100%

Mr. Phat, please name for me another team that has done more in less time since going 1A. Yeah, there's a gap, but they have chipped away at it each and every year... can't really do much about the fact that they are still in their D1 infancy, except to keep plugging away. Not quit.

 

[uconnbaseball]

There's an option just before 5 - remain 1A but disarm to a non BCS status. I am starting to have my doubts that UConn can ever crack the top 20 in football. The embarrassing bowl loss to OU reminds us the chasm that exists between UConn football and top caliber programs. It's gigantic.

You always find a way to see the negative side of things. One bad year and all of a sudden we can't compete? Do you not forget the previous 4 years?

 

[UCHuskies08]

You always find a way to see the negative side of things. One bad year and all of a sudden we can't compete? Do you not forget the previous 4 years?

That time we beat South Carolina never really happened, shhhhh.

 

[UCDaveD]

I am starting to have my doubts that UConn can ever crack the top 20 in football.

I guess you missed that time when we were ranked #16 in football.
http://advance.uconn.edu/2007/071105/07110501.htm

 

[FfldCntyFan]

There's an option just before 5 - remain 1A but disarm to a non BCS status. I am starting to have my doubts that UConn can ever crack the top 20 in football. The embarrassing bowl loss to OU reminds us the chasm that exists between UConn football and top caliber programs. It's gigantic.

I remember somewhere around 1988 when we just started turning the corner as a hoops program going into POurdue and getting smoked. A number of fans used that game as evidence that we were fooling ourselves in believing that we ever could compete at the top of the BE (outside of perhaps an occasional upset of Georgetown or syracuse).

Early in the 89-90 season (right after we came back from Alaska where we disappointed) I was at the Civic center for the first games 9doubleheader) of the ACC-BE challenge. A handful of people sitting right behind where ai was sitting with my buddies were b!tching about JC and the team throughout the Pitt game (forst of the double header) claiming we should have hired Penders (he took URI to the sweet sixteen the prior spring) and that we didn't belong in the BE (they quieted down quickly when we belw Maryland out in our game). Early in the 93-94 season (after we did nothiing down the stretch of the prior season and lost in the first round of the NIT) the gripes were that JC had his chance and all he did was show that he couldn't do more than build a decent team (implying that either we needed to look for a new coach if we wanted to get better or that we couldn't get any better regardless of who was in charge).

My guess is that it is in the DNA of many of our fans to always be overly skeptical until they see championships. Most other fan bases would be very happy with progress.

 

[ctchamps]

I remember somewhere around 1988 when we just started turning the corner as a hoops program going into POurdue and getting smoked. A number of fans used that game as evidence that we were fooling ourselves in believing that we ever could compete at the top of the BE (outside of perhaps an occasional upset of Georgetown or syracuse).

Early in the 89-90 season (right after we came back from Alaska where we disappointed) I was at the Civic center for the first games 9doubleheader) of the ACC-BE challenge. A handful of people sitting right behind where ai was sitting with my buddies were b!tching about JC and the team throughout the Pitt game (forst of the double header) claiming we should have hired Penders (he took URI to the sweet sixteen the prior spring) and that we didn't belong in the BE (they quieted down quickly when we belw Maryland out in our game). Early in the 93-94 season (after we did nothiing down the stretch of the prior season and lost in the first round of the NIT) the gripes were that JC had his chance and all he did was show that he couldn't do more than build a decent team (implying that either we needed to look for a new coach if we wanted to get better or that we couldn't get any better regardless of who was in charge).

My guess is that it is in the DNA of many of our fans to always be overly skeptical until they see championships. Most other fan bases would be very happy with progress.

Their are pessimists and optimists everywhere. Very few situations that we treat as hopeless are in fact hopeless. But starting off with a pessimistic attitude doesn't help. I have my set of preferences which way I would like to see things play out.

My first has sailed. Second would be B!G. Third is a tie between the ACC or a reconfigured BE conference depending on what football schools come in. And lastly the UConn football program is relegated to independent or a conference like Conference USA.

But however this plays out the best thing is to put all our support into making sure it succeeds. That would give the University more options in the future. This 4 conference 16 model may undergo another change down the road.