Rumor from CSNBBS Conference Realignment board

[noeynox]

Have a look at this "FromTheInside" post and see if you change your mind. I'd bet a six pack of decent beer if someone can do an IP trace (legally of course) it'll match HFD. He's borrowing credibility from another person's screenname. Note the csnbbs FTI user account opened this month, coincidentally when HFD disappeared from here (whether by choice or by force I don't know).

Damn it! If your right, that crazy SOB warned us that he could really write if he wanted to. Got us.

 

[Whale22]

If I'm wrong - UConn goes indy in football and a deal with SNY becomes reality - I'll change my moniker to Mr. Wrong and use a pic of a guy with his head up his butt.

SNY would basically become our own Longhorn Network. Only better it is already on all of our TV's. I would watch each and every Hockey East game we played.

 

[junglehusky]

Damn it! If your right, that crazy SOB warned us that he could really write if he wanted to. Got us.

Just for comparison's sake, here is an old post from the original FTI:

http://www.the-boneyard.com/threads/acc.15197/page-2#post-192337

Doesn't take an English professor to see the difference.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Alright I'll bite. The simple opinion of things moving forward right now, is that our perceived media rights market value moving forward is incredibly DE-valued by the American Athletic Conference media contracts. The concept of independence, is a nice thing, but hinges on two things - scheduling, and a broadcasting media cash cow contract. Access to a the post season bowl system, in football, is a big deal and matters a bunch, but not essential - see existence of Army, Navy, BYU. Access to the NCAA tournament in basketball is a an absolute must have. To my knowledge, there has not been an athletic program in the division 1 ranks that has been independent in all three money making sports - EVER. UCONN - if the fantasy were true - would be the first. If I understand the premise correctly.

let's look at a few verifiable things - I'm not posting references - you can go find them.

#1. SNY as a television network felt that UCONN was a valueable investment, such that the invested a ton of money in infrastructure in creating something called "an additional feed" into the HFD/NH region not too long ago.

#2 As of 2009, the HFD/NH demographic was the thirtieth television market in the country by size, with over a million households, not sure where it stands in 2013. (in 2009 - 100,000 separated #30 from #24) .

#3. As of Dec 2012, SNY was averaging a 5.14 HH rating for women's hoops, a 4.88 HH rating for men's hoops and 3.10 HH rating for football in the HFD/NH demographic - I don't know what those numbers and symbols really mean - but that's what they are.

#4. About a year ago, SNY agreed to an approx. $4.5 million dollar contract to broadcast - women's hoops - for 4 years. (approx. 1.1million a year) I am not sure of the breakdown of the contract as to what content - I don't think they own everything b/c I think espn does own some UConn women's stuff. so - 4.5mill/4 yrs for whatever content is involved)

#5. The American athletic conference - the ENTIRE conference signed a deal that is worth approx. $20 million per year. Roughly 2 million - per year, per school, for ALL sports. It was expressly noted that UCONN women's hoops would remain outside the contract.


OK - there end the things you can go out and try to verify.

Now - the two questions that seems to be addressed by the entire independence fantasy

#1. IF - SNY is willing to pay over 1.1mill annually for women's hoops content, how much are they willing to spend for UCONN men's hoops and UCONN football?

#2. How in the world would UCONN be able to maintain scheduling of women's, men's basketball, and football, as well as the other 19 varsity sports as an independent?

 

[CL82]

If UConn pulled off something like this, I'd take back everything I said about Warde.

Somebody bookmark this post.

But I agree 100%, Free.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Wasn't PAC-12 President in Hartford yesterday?

Les(n) Robbins of the NY Post had an article today about the PAC-12 commish with "Hartford, CT" under the by-line.

 

[CL82]

Hmmm. My spidey sense is telling me this is definitely not the same "FromTheInside" that posted here last year. In fact, to me it sounds like a certain former boneyarder - who enjoys throwing slashes on random lists and making crazy unrealistic scenarios sound easy as pie (and then get on his soapbox and rant about how everybody else is a bunch of clowns for not making that crazy scenario come to fruition in two months) - finally figured out how to edit his sentences and use capitalization.

I could be wrong, but that's my gut reaction.

You had me until you went with " finally figured out how to edit his sentences and use capitalization." See that last part is just not plausible.

 

[noeynox]

Carl what league did ND BBall play in before the Big East? I could be wrong, but I thought they were independent when their games were on NBC.

 

[businesslawyer]

4 things:

Pretty sure that is the same guy and I did run him off. In my defense, he went a little Internet stalker on me.

This would be awesome if true. Despite, not knowing the difference between a ratings point and total viewers, that guy mostly got it right 18 months ago about the ACC and ND.

Pretty sure another poster on this board thought that UConn would be better off in the Big East for hoops and Independent. That would be me.

If this starts to happen, I think the ACC will stop it and invite us. The last thing the ACC wants is dinky UConn viable as an independent. If UConn could get even $15 million, imagine what FSU could do on their own.

Neither the Big Ten nor the ACC can allow UConn to be playing meaningful football games against other conferences in Metlife or Yankee Stadium, and neither the Big Ten nor the ACC can allow UConn to be inviting SEC and Pac Ten teams into MSG and Barclays for meaningful games in January and February. In each of their cases, their hopes to dominate NYC, or even maximize their share, requires UConn to either join their conference or whither and die.

That having been said, if SNY was willing to pay that for the UConn schedule discussed, we would be in the Big already (and ESPN would have offered the ACC more to take us than LV in the first place rather than being indifferent).

 

[CL82]

If I'm wrong - UConn goes indy in football and a deal with SNY becomes reality - I'll change my moniker to Mr. Wrong and use a pic of a guy with his head up his butt.

...and definitely bookmark this post!

 

[HartbeatHusky]

The key to pulling something like this off is joining the nBE as an affiliate member in everything but men’s and women’s hoops so that we add value to their Olympic sports package and have scheduling arrangements where we play all of their teams in hoops every year. If they let us keep our own rights for men’s and women’s hoops, we could possibly join as a full member. Football goes indy, but we have to have scheduling agreements in place with other conferences, like is being suggested including football, hoops, and other sports to make our schedule attractive enough. I assume that SNY would be allowed to re-sell our games so that nationally prominent matchups could be acquired by national outlets. SNY could stand to make a profit under that model.



I don’t think this is real, but I do really like the idea.

 

[CL82]

Neither the Big Ten nor the ACC can allow UConn to be playing meaningful football games against other conferences in Metlife or Yankee Stadium, and neither the Big Ten nor the ACC can allow UConn to be inviting SEC and Pac Ten teams into MSG and Barclays for meaningful games in January and February. In each of their cases, their hoops to dominate NYC, or even maximize their share, requires UConn to either join their conference or whither and die. And that is the beauty of it Biz. One of the knocks against taking UConn has been that we'd be here waiting so there was no rush. If this scenario is deemed realistic, that changes that calculus.

That having been said, if SNY was willing to pay that for the UConn schedule discussed, we would be in the Big already (and ESPN would have offered the ACC more to take us than LV in the first place rather than being indifferent). Someone had to pitch our potential correctly first. This scenario does exactly that.

 

[businesslawyer]

Your first comment is exactly the point. But, as to your second, if you really think that Swofford or Delaney or their conferences made their decisions on "pitches," rather than their own experts carefully studying the value of various possibilities from a media perspective, you are just wrong.

 

[junglehusky]

You can pitch our potential but if you oversell, they'll know it. I'd love it if the scheduling arrangements were realistic but I have serious doubts.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I'm not the UCONN person to be asking about basketball. I have no idea where Notre Dame played hoops prior to the Big East. I know that in football, up through about 1990 or so, of the little over 100 division 1 football schools, about 28-30 if I'm not mistaken were all indendant - for football.

There have been lots of basketball leagues come and go, and constantly change, on the east coast in the past 30-40 years. The ECAC, which is still existing, was a very large organization of schools, with multiple divisions, that the majority of the schools that eventually became the Big East basketball schools played hoops in. UCONN was a yankee conference program - and I think it was the ECAC, originally, that started breaking up the yankee conference around basketball, in the 1970s and not the big east conference. In the early 1970s, it was the creation of divisions, that drove Vermont out of football, that started the demise of that conference.

I really don't know, if there are any big time basketball programs that have ever spent time scheduling without conference affiliation. I really don't know - but I don't think so, because post season tournaments have almost always been tied to conference championships for as long as I can remember.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Junglehusky is probably right. I believe from the inside is a mod on the Texas rivals board. If he had something this juicy, he would post it over there or here. Not on csnbbs.

 

[noeynox]

Biz, assuming the your first paragraph is true, then UConn should absolutely be pushing for something like this. Even if the money mentioned is optimistic, I still think UConn would be worth 12-15 mill, to a network like SNY with that type of schedule. Not every PAC or SEC game is going to be shown nationally, so agreeing to this sort of scheduling will get them showcased in NYC regularly.

If the UConn brass let's us play for 2mill a year for the duration of our contract, our basketball value will surely go down playing BBall games regularly against the likes of ECU, Tulane, and SMU twice a year.

It may be far fetched, but I think the UConn/SNY connection could be beneficial to both parties in this scenario. The trick is getting those other conferences to buy in and there would have to be something in it for them. Is NYC exposure enough? I don't know.

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

The trick is getting those other conferences to buy in and there would have to be something in it for them. Is NYC exposure enough? I don't know.

I think the only way they would even think about taking this is if you move at least every other UConn home game against the P12/SEC to NYC. It may have to be the sacrifice that you need to make to get this deal done. Although if you can make an opening weekend game in NYC a yearly tradition against a high level team, then it might be worth the one fewer game at The Rent.

 

[Stinger92860]

So the assumption is that PAC SEC and psu plays in NYC? Same for basketball, so Barclays or MSG. I can see why the other leagues and schools would be interested. Also, remember that Fairfield county is part of the ny dma. If added to new haven/Hartford/Springfield Connecticut would have the 20th largest dma in the country.

 

[Adios]

You can pitch our potential but if you oversell, they'll know it. I'd love it if the scheduling arrangements were realistic but I have serious doubts.

But...didn't Louisville succeed in overselling?

 

[businesslawyer]

Look, it would be great for us. I just don't think you could pull the scheduling off, and I don't think the contract would get us anything near that amount even if you could. That having been said, you could certainly sell our media rights with that schedule for far, far more than we're making now, so it comes down to the scheduling arrangements. I just don't see that many players wanting to do something that is good for us. But who knows what direction the P5 will go in, and how that will effect us. As I've said, I rule nothing out.

 

[superjohn]

This makes so much sense, I really hope it's true.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Hmmm. My spidey sense is telling me this is definitely not the same "FromTheInside" that posted here last year. In fact, to me it sounds like a certain former boneyarder - who enjoys throwing slashes on random lists and making crazy unrealistic scenarios sound easy as pie (and then get on his soapbox and rant about how everybody else is a bunch of clowns for not making that crazy scenario come to fruition in two months) - finally figured out how to edit his sentences and use capitalization.

I could be wrong, but that's my gut reaction.

nope... his computer didn't have a shift key... so unless he bought a new laptop or new keyboard, it's not HFD.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I still think UConn would be worth 12-15 mill, to a network like SNY with that type of schedule. Not every PAC or SEC game is going to be shown nationally, so agreeing to this sort of scheduling will get them showcased in NYC regularly.

To me, this is the weakest part of the scenario. The idea that any SEC team would play a non-conference, non-bowl game north of the Mason Dixon line in November is absurd. Simply absurd.

 

[CL82]

Your first comment is exactly the point. But, as to your second, if you really think that Swofford or Delaney or their conferences made their decisions on "pitches," rather than their own experts carefully studying the value of various possibilities from a media perspective, you are just wrong.

Uh, no, I don't and also I do not believe that Swofford or Delaney lurk on the Boneyard waiting for CR ideas. I also don't believe that any change of conference could take place in the next hour or so. I figured I'd get rid of those equally implausible scenarios at the same time so you wouldn't feel the need to profer them and then shoot them down.

I believe, but do not know, that B1G is very well aware of our value as I expect that we would be included in preliminary studies of available properties out there. (I'm not so sure about the ACC, as it seems that the LV pick up was reactionary rather than strategic.)

So let me restate my point not using shorthand. I think it is possible that UConn is pursuing a Independent strategy which will position the university to be included in the proposed Div 4 by either being independent or by making UConn as independent so unattractive to our two target conferences that it will change their analysis of our participation in their conferences and result in offer (and though it pains me to actually have to add this to the text) after doing their due dilligence, of course.

Better?