The AAC and ESPN: will there be an eventual slide?

[Buzzyboy]

Pasqualoni drove the program into the ground. Diaco is a young and energetic coach and hopefully as he starts getting more of his own recruits he will be able to help the program rise from the ashes.

I like the idea of being a little optimistic. Too many people here are already a little down on Diaco. He's a new head coach and his year started out roughly. I'm inclined to think that he'll evolve as will his team and his energies and positiveness might entice kids who would have otherwise said no to a program like UConn's. From what I understand, he's really working on getting the kids fit and UConn does have this great practice facility. With a little more seasoning, I'd like to think we'll get appreciably better and maybe get a few of those skilled players that sometimes can elevate a team. Seems like getting Dan Orlovsky really made UConn appreciably more competitive and helped even after he left with the recruiting. Prior to that, I don't think Randy Edsall was doing too much.

 

[Buzzyboy]

The population of Connecticut is slightly smaller than Kentucky. Who has two P5 teams,as do smaller states like Kansas,and Iowa.
Market certainly isn't isn't the big issue for us.especially when Fairfield County is added. Sometimes forgotten in the figures.
The one major issue is these fans who love UConn basketball ,never adopted football to anywhere the same level.
The reasons for this are pretty complex , but my feeling is their is huge pent up demand just waiting to be tapped. Exciting competative football ,and opponents whose names actually mean something to the traditional Connecticut football fan will release that potential.

I think Kansas was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. They've been in the Big 8 forever and they've seldom had anything but a pathetic football program. The only really viable athletic team they've had over the years has been Kansas men's basketball and they are in the boondocks, to say the least. If they were unaffiliated, would anyone ever pick them up???? I would say no. A lot of the Big 10 schools don't offer a whole lot on the competitive side of athletics including Northwestern, Minnesota but owe their positions to having been there over the years. They do have football programs that don't win very much but probably do get decent support and have a big stadium but it's probably more to do with Michigan or Ohio State or Michigan State and Purdue coming to town that started the "tradition" of attending games that they would inevitably get beat in. UConn has a heck of a lot of success with their athletic programs other than football that should be important to a conference but somehow doesn't seem to be. We shall see down the road. Hopefully we'll find a better home and enhance the conference that's lucky enough to get us.

 

[Buzzyboy]

Unfortunately, UConn is already getting hurt by its conference affiliation. The Men's Basketball team for example was ONLY able to recruit 2 kids(both of them local) in a year in which they won a National Championship, opened a state of the art practice facility, and signed Ollie to a long extension.

The same thing happened three years ago when conference affiliation wasn't nearly a big thing. It has a lot less to do with that than what you're implying. There is absolutely nothing about the men's basketball recruiting class that suggests it is attributable to being in the AAC. Yet people seem to want to make it so. I hate that because I'm one of those people who think no matter how wrong or irrational it is, if you keep saying things long enough, they become true, at least in a lot of peoples eyes.

 

[Buzzyboy]

Like Goodgood said it all hinges on the football team. If UConn is to have any kind of shot at getting into a decent conference the football team has to start winning.
I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen and I don't think anyone else should either. The program has been abysmal since Randy Edsall left for Maryland.

I think the one player who made a massive difference in how Randy Edsall was perceived was Dan Orlovsky and his impact and the teams success with him, enhance Edsall's recruiting over the next few years, minimally. With no Dan Orlovsky, I think we might have thrown Edsall out the door long before Maryland came calling. The teams success with Dan and the residual effect he had was what made Edsall's teams for a few years.

 

[Palatine]

Connecticut has 1.3 million television households. The UConn brand also significantly penetrates the New York and Boston markets. That is what should be sold to perspective conference suitors.

Look how bad Rutgers sucks. They got into the B10 because of their 3.1 million TV households.

 

[Buzzyboy]

ESPN, like any for-profit business, is interested only in making money, so they follow teams that attract the most viewers - those with the biggest fan bases.

You noted that Syracuse would help with the New York city area viewing and I think that's a fairy tale. I think UConn has a far bigger footprint in New York than does the Orangemen. I do agree that we have to improve our football team and the perception of our football team. The Orange used to be highly successful in football but they are no longer anywhere near the team that some older people relate to, when Jimmy Brown and Larry Csonka and Floyd Little made them a powerhouse. They are so far from New York that a lot of people in the New York City area don't even relate to them on any level.

 

[Buzzyboy]

College football as we know it was fathered in Connecticut by a Connecticut Native
Yale built the largest stadium in the world to accomodate crowds of up to 80,000 people. We have 3.5 million people and zero professional teams. The pent up demand is just waiting to be released. The missing ingredient is a viable product.
The Ivies de-emphasized football and no Connecticut team was there to pick up the mantle until UConn was cajoled by the Big East nearly 30 years later.
They made the expenditure just as the Big East was falling apart,sped along by the leagues rejection of a new ESPN contract.
If UConn by some miracle gets into the BiG and offers a half way competative product. UConn football will be the hottest ticket in the state.
With only 6 or 7 home dates they will easily fill the Rents expanded capacity.
Diaco needs to deliver or it will be a tough road ahead.

A good product and having some storied teams coming in like Ohio State, Michigan, Purdue with a few other prime dates would change everything. I realize Michigan did play one game here but you've got to continually have good programs coming in to get people energized. Once you do that, it would change forever and people would forget about how it was when we first went 1A.

 

[Buzzyboy]

Connecticut has 1.3 million television households. The UConn brand also significantly penetrates the New York and Boston markets. That is what should be sold to perspective conference suitors.

Look how bad Rutgers sucks. They got into the B10 because of their 3.1 million TV households.

And yet no one turns on those tv sets for Rutgers.

 

[Buzzyboy]

Just look at the football bowl games shown in the last two days... The Pinstripe Bowl (whatever that is) broadcast from Yankee Stadium between Boston College and Penn State... Neither team a NY area team, but northern, eastern based... A bowl game with a sold out boisterous crowd; a national audience; an exciting game... Rutgers playing in the Quick Lane Bowl... What do the best of the AAC get??? The Military Bowl between Cincinnati losing to VA Tech (9th best ACC team) from Washington DC area... And the Miami beach bowl for our AAC champion, Memphis... Our football team has a very long way to go before anyone thinks we are material for the ACC or the Big 10.

Thanks for your words of cheer!

 

[HoopsFan21]

You noted that Syracuse would help with the New York city area viewing and I think that's a fairy tale. I think UConn has a far bigger footprint in New York than does the Orangemen. I do agree that we have to improve our football team and the perception of our football team. The Orange used to be highly successful in football but they are no longer anywhere near the team that some older people relate to, when Jimmy Brown and Larry Csonka and Floyd Little made them a powerhouse. They are so far from New York that a lot of people in the New York City area don't even relate to them on any level.

The living proof of what you are saying is when the Orangemen were pre-empted by a UConn WCBB game. If you're Syracuse, that tells you everything you need to know about where you stand in NYC. Boy were those Syracuse fans pissed although it had to be sobering.