UConn In Discussions With ACC?

[businesslawyer]

If the ACC was smart, they'd just offer UConn and Rutgers and go to two 8 team pods. Renegotiate with ESPN (again), raise the exit fee and be done with it. You'd have a 16 team eastern powerhouse of a conference that can set the standard as a multisport conference.

I expect something like that to happen if the offer from NBC would truly exceed what ESPN is paying the ACC. Maybe it's UConn and Rutgers. Maybe there is a deal to push Louisville, with or without Cincy, to the Big XII. But ESPN doesn't have much work to do to split the football schools off from the Catholics (and then sign a TV hoop deal with the Catholics), and if they need to do that I don't doubt that they will.

 

[UConn990411]

If the ACC was smart, they'd just offer UConn and Rutgers and go to two 8 team pods. Renegotiate with ESPN (again), raise the exit fee and be done with it. You'd have a 16 team eastern powerhouse of a conference that can set the standard as a multisport conference.

That may very well happen (eventually), but the ACC should be in no rush to expand.

The ACC has already effectively destroyed their biggest competitor, the Big East, and neither UConn nor Rutgers really does anything to add to the conference (both are decent but not great football programs, and the ACC is already going to be the strongest basketball conference). Notre Dame, on the other hand, would have a HUGE impact on football - thereby satisfying the FSUs and Miamis of the world - and they would then be able to pick the king of the remaining litter (UConn, Rutgers, etc.) to be the 16th team.

Notre Dame is probably a pipe dream for the ACC, but it doesn't really hurt the conference to wait for em. It's not like UConn or Rutgers have anywhere to go...

 

[businesslawyer]

All kidding aside BL, in the intercollegiate landscape, moving forward, and as both an academic and athletic institution, the University of Connecticut has a hell of a lot more in common with our current partners, than we do with any of the ACC membership. Not only that, with our current partnership, the University of Connecticut stands as a respected member of the group, and not a red-headed stepchild.

The reality of the Big East conference moving forward will be plain to see in coming months. It seems that in the last days of summer here, there are those that are still pining for the loss of Syracuse. It is a painful loss, to lose a partner like that, but life goes on, and UConn is in an infinitely better position for the future moving forward, than being shackled to espn for another 20 years.

THe ACC in the 2010's has quickly become the Big East of the 2000s with a quick turn of events around the four letter from Bristol.

Been there - done that. I've stood by my post all along. I'd rather be independant, than go to the ACC, until the Big East finally got the priorities right.

That's nice. But since I'm on the side of our Governor and University President, guess who would end up being right if an invitation came. And the Big East will never be able to "finally get the priorities right" to our satisfaction because it will always need to satisfy schools that don't play football as well as schools that do.

 

[businesslawyer]

That may very well happen (eventually), but the ACC should be in no rush to expand.

The ACC has already effectively destroyed their biggest competitor, the Big East, and neither UConn nor Rutgers really does anything to add to the conference (both are decent but not great football programs, and the ACC is already going to be the strongest basketball conference). Notre Dame, on the other hand, would have a HUGE impact on football - thereby satisfying the FSUs and Miamis of the world - and they would then be able to pick the king of the remaining litter (UConn, Rutgers, etc.) to be the 16th team.

Notre Dame is probably a pipe dream for the ACC, but it doesn't really hurt the conference to wait for em. It's not like UConn or Rutgers have anywhere to go...

That post is 100% correct, if the world remains rational and the Big East does not attract a TV deal that isn't substantially inferior to the ACC's TV deal. But it does hurt the ACC to wait -- it hurts the ACC a huge amount to wait -- if by waiting the Big East reestablishes itself as the ACC's competitor in football and superior in hoops, as it did after '03. I don't see how the ACC can let that happen. I don't see how it made any sense to take Syracuse and Pitt if it wasn't committing to kill the Big East in the process.

 

[Fishy]

Nothing takes a thread from merely inane to Thorazine-level crazy as quickly as a visit from Carl.

Well done.

There are optimists and then there are this board's breed of optimists. If we were all on the Titanic, I think there would be about three of us looking for a seat on a lifeboat and the rest of you would be on deck wondering why the bar closed early.

 

[Excalibur]

I remember now why I don't visit this board. Here is what I've learned in this thread.

AAA > Major League
Irrelevance > Relevance
Being on a network that nobody watches > Being on a network that everybody watches
Good bowl tie-ins < lousy bowl tie-ins
Easily accessible away games < trying to fly to Texas, Idaho and God knows where else


The ACC minus Clemson and FSU would essentially be the conference that we thought we were getting into in the first place, plus Maryland and the Carolina schools. I'd take that over the clusterduck that is/will be the NNBE.

 

[Carl Spackler]

That's nice. But since I'm on the side of our Governor and University President, guess who would end up being right if an invitation came. And the Big East will never be able to "finally get the priorities right" to our satisfaction because it will always need to satisfy schools that don't play football as well as schools that do.

Invoking Malloy? Really. Two words Bus way. Gee, I must be doing a really good job writing - did you forget that there are basketball interests at UConn?

 

[Carl Spackler]

Nothing takes a thread from merely inane to Thorazine-level crazy as quickly as a visit from Carl.

Well done.

There are optimists and then there are this board's breed of optimists. If we were all on the Titanic, I think there would be about three of us looking for a seat on a lifeboat and the rest of you would be on deck wondering why the bar closed early.

Wait, when did you lose an inch?

 

[Dann]

if we end up in the acc, i hope to god they redo the divisions to big public and losers divisions. it would suck to get a couple private in the same division on the home schedule.

uconn/clem/fsu/unc/ncst/md/uva/?
pitt/cuse/bc/duke/wake/vt/gt/miami

 

[Fishy]

Wait, when did you lose an inch?

Looks like I lost a pound, too - clearly, I am shrinking.

 

[freescooter]

That post is 100% correct, if the world remains rational and the Big East does not attract a TV deal that isn't substantially inferior to the ACC's TV deal. But it does hurt the ACC to wait -- it hurts the ACC a huge amount to wait -- if by waiting the Big East reestablishes itself as the ACC's competitor in football and superior in hoops, as it did after '03. I don't see how the ACC can let that happen. I don't see how it made any sense to take Syracuse and Pitt if it wasn't committing to kill the Big East in the process.

The other risk of waiting, and why I didn't want the Big East to wait to add football teams, is that when you make a move in reaction you always look weak. The ACC added Syracuse (1 winning season in the last 10 years) and both the ACC and the Orange look much better than the Big East adding anyone, even though most of the added Big East teams could likely whip Syracuse with their B squads. And in a business where perception is so important, the ACC has been exceptional in making moves that make it appear as more than it is, and leaving the Big East to look like less than it is. You can always replace a team, but that is a reactionary move which hurts perception.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Looks like I lost a pound, too - clearly, I am shrinking.

You should get that looked at.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[businesslawyer]

View attachment 1158

Thank you.

 

[Carl Spackler]

The other risk of waiting, and why I didn't want the Big East to wait to add football teams, is that when you make a move in reaction you always look weak. The ACC added Syracuse (1 winning season in the last 10 years) and both the ACC and the Orange look much better than the Big East adding anyone, even though most of the added Big East teams could likely whip Syracuse with their B squads. And in a business where perception is so important, the ACC has been exceptional in making moves that make it appear as more than it is, and leaving the Big East to look like less than it is. You can always replace a team, but that is a reactionary move which hurts perception.

I'm pretty sure that nobody in the football world looked at Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC as anything meaningful for ACC football. Even ESPN has been reluctant to try to pimp Cuse and Pitt as any sort of improvement in football.

The entire premise of the "strength" of the ACC conference is founded on the premise that the Big East conference is weak.

The premise that the Big EAst conference is weak, is false, and all it takes is somebody to shine a spotlight on it, and we've got that guy out front now - to do that.

The ACC is in trouble. ESPN can pimp them all they want, but it reaches a breaking point and will backfire. Look at the McMurphy article the other day.

THey simply can't keep propping the ACC up, by digging on the Big East.

As for ACC basketball? Well if you look at things like revenue, the ACC has actually been not #2, but actually #3, behind the Big EAst and Big 10. There's no guarantee that changes with the addition of PItt and Syracuse.

 

[Dann]

90 to go. chug

 

[businesslawyer]

90 to go. chug

I do admire your sense of purpose Dan.

 

[huskypantz]

Yeah but we wouldn't get threads like this.

"we"? Sounds very inclusive. Clearly Gene D has lost his influence.

 

[CL82]

The best part is thin basis for the ACC speculation is thin, at best and it still generated a 10 page thread.

 

[huskypantz]

if we end up in the acc, i hope to god they redo the divisions to big public and losers divisions. it would suck to get a couple private in the same division on the home schedule.

uconn/clem/fsu/unc/ncst/md/uva/?
pitt/cuse/bc/duke/wake/vt/gt/miami

I thought you had the slashes habit kicked, but I see that all we needed for a relapse was another "UConn to the ACC" thread.

 

[huskypantz]

The best part is thin basis for the ACC speculation is thin, at best and it still generated a 10 page thread.

C-kitty made an appearance - 'nuff said.

 

[mavblues]

That said, my usual source (my neighbor's dog, Sam) tells me that UConn is on the verge of signing a deal worth $22.5M a year, to start, on forming the UCONN (University of Connecticut Original National Network) cable station. Maybe we should hold out for that. Sure he has been routinely wrong before, but that only means that he's due.

Already did. They called it ESPN.

 

[HuskyBandDad]

After reading every post here you guys have convinced me we are going to the Big 10.

 

[SubbaBub]

Now that we've got this thing rolling...

Large, public, state universities:
NNBE: UConn, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Louisville, South Florida, Central Florida, Houston, Memphis, Temple

ACC: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh

Group 2 looks a lot better than Group 1.

 

[junglehusky]

If the Big East had been smart all along, the ACC would be the Big East.

I don't know if you've noticed, but the ACC IS the Big East. Miami, BC, Syracuse, Pitt, VT, all the original BE football members. Just add Rutgers and UConn.