UConn needs a plan

[nelsonmuntz]

The AAC and UConn have made every bad decision possible when it comes to conference affiliation and revenue generation, and the decisions just get worse. The Big 12 looks like it is making a decision not to expand, and when that happens, the P5 door is closed forever, but it doesn't need to be the end of the athletic program.

UConn is stuck in a league where it has sold all its TV rights for virtually nothing and there is no ability to increase revenue because after waiting 3 years for ESPN to be generous, we find that the league's biggest customer's subscription-based business model is collapsing. The AAC is locked into a contract through 2020 with ESPN that will break our athletic program and every other league members' if the league does nothing.

On the other hand, there is still a lot of demand for live content, if schools can get control of their content back. If UConn is going to stay in this stupid league, it NEEDS to break the TV contract and start its own network or one in partnership with other schools or even the AAC, even if the revenues are low in the early years. Breaking the contract can be done by dissolving the conference, merging two leagues together, and I am sure there are other ways, but it needs to be done. The AAC schools need their Tier 3 rights back, and they need to expand them.

I expect the entire conference landscape to be flipped on its head in 2025, because I expect online versions of the LHN to be the way of the future, and I expect schools to control a lot more of their content while cable providers like ESPN to become increasingly irrelevant. By 2025, the rational for big conferences could be gone, and schools will take a very different view towards their league affiliations. In 10 years, ESPN will not have the revenue to afford to broadcast college football or college basketball unless ESPN dramatically changes their own business model. The subscriptions will not be there in 10 years. The AAC and UConn can start working towards that future today, or we can keep doing the same, which is mostly just praying for a miracle.

 

[shizzle787]

The AAC and UConn have made every bad decision possible when it comes to conference affiliation and revenue generation, and the decisions just get worse. The Big 12 looks like it is making a decision not to expand, and when that happens, the P5 door is closed forever, but it doesn't need to be the end of the athletic program.

UConn is stuck in a league where it has sold all its TV rights for virtually nothing and there is no ability to increase revenue because after waiting 3 years for ESPN to be generous, we find that the league's biggest customer's subscription-based business model is collapsing. The AAC is locked into a contract through 2020 with ESPN that will break our athletic program and every other league members' if the league does nothing.

On the other hand, there is still a lot of demand for live content, if schools can get control of their content back. If UConn is going to stay in this stupid league, it NEEDS to break the TV contract and start its own network or one in partnership with other schools or even the AAC, even if the revenues are low in the early years. Breaking the contract can be done by dissolving the conference, merging two leagues together, and I am sure there are other ways, but it needs to be done. The AAC schools need their Tier 3 rights back, and they need to expand them.

I expect the entire conference landscape to be flipped on its head in 2025, because I expect online versions of the LHN to be the way of the future, and I expect schools to control a lot more of their content while cable providers like ESPN to become increasingly irrelevant. By 2025, the rational for big conferences could be gone, and schools will take a very different view towards their league affiliations. In 10 years, ESPN will not have the revenue to afford to broadcast college football or college basketball unless ESPN dramatically changes their own business model. The subscriptions will not be there in 10 years. The AAC and UConn can start working towards that future today, or we can keep doing the same, which is mostly just praying for a miracle.

UConn needs to threaten the AAC with a Boise-type arrangement or threaten to go back to the Big East in basketball and independent in football. The AAC won't be stupid.

 

[djct1999]

The AAC and UConn have made every bad decision possible when it comes to conference affiliation and revenue generation, and the decisions just get worse. The Big 12 looks like it is making a decision not to expand, and when that happens, the P5 door is closed forever, but it doesn't need to be the end of the athletic program.

UConn is stuck in a league where it has sold all its TV rights for virtually nothing and there is no ability to increase revenue because after waiting 3 years for ESPN to be generous, we find that the league's biggest customer's subscription-based business model is collapsing. The AAC is locked into a contract through 2020 with ESPN that will break our athletic program and every other league members' if the league does nothing.

On the other hand, there is still a lot of demand for live content, if schools can get control of their content back. If UConn is going to stay in this stupid league, it NEEDS to break the TV contract and start its own network or one in partnership with other schools or even the AAC, even if the revenues are low in the early years. Breaking the contract can be done by dissolving the conference, merging two leagues together, and I am sure there are other ways, but it needs to be done. The AAC schools need their Tier 3 rights back, and they need to expand them.

I expect the entire conference landscape to be flipped on its head in 2025, because I expect online versions of the LHN to be the way of the future, and I expect schools to control a lot more of their content while cable providers like ESPN to become increasingly irrelevant. By 2025, the rational for big conferences could be gone, and schools will take a very different view towards their league affiliations. In 10 years, ESPN will not have the revenue to afford to broadcast college football or college basketball unless ESPN dramatically changes their own business model. The subscriptions will not be there in 10 years. The AAC and UConn can start working towards that future today, or we can keep doing the same, which is mostly just praying for a miracle.

I hope your immediate plan is to take a few steps back from that ledge my friend. If you take a second to really look at what UConn has done from specific hires to added sports etc, it's clear that the administration and athletic department have a very clear plan. Idiotic bloggers and tweeters be damned!

 

[junglehusky]

This is confusing. In the first paragraph nelson says the door to P5 is closed forever if the BXII doesn't expand. Then in the last paragraph he says in 10 years schools will change they way they think about conferences which implies movement.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

This is confusing. In the first paragraph nelson says the door to P5 is closed forever if the BXII doesn't expand. Then in the last paragraph he says in 10 years schools will change they way they think about conferences which implies movement.

It is closed for the next 10 years, and I suspect college athletics will be so different by that point that there may not be a P 5 to join.

 

[CTMike]

How many times are you going to say being in the AAC stinks without coming up with a viable solution? "They have to do something" is not a solution. Dissolve the conference? How, exactly, are you going to do that?

 

[Ha Who]

How about we drop football and join the Big East?

 

[Bobol]

I am beginning to think that the new big East has stronger legs than I originally thought. If the P5 does not materialize in the next year or so then I believe that UConn should abandon the AAC and seek membership with the Catholics and Butler.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

How many times are you going to say being in the AAC stinks without coming up with a viable solution? "They have to do something" is not a solution. Dissolve the conference? How, exactly, are you going to do that?

The AAC football contract is a catastrophe, yet almost half the membership is getting at least some consideration for the Big 12. How are Houston, UCF, USF, Cincinnati, UConn and Temple worth so much more in one league than another? Is there any way to monetize the gap between the $2MM per year those schools receive in the AAC and the $25-30 the Big 12 schools receive? Whatever that method is, it is not going to happen when schools are sitting around hoping for ESPN to sprinkle a few more dollars into a catastrophically bad TV contract.

I have been saying for 5 years that the revenue situation is completely unsustainable, and 5 years later, we are getting closer to the tipping point. UConn has to get more revenue, and also has to come up with a different revenue model. Selling TV rights to cable providers is a stupid strategy for the mid-majors, and UConn most of all. Our Tier 3 rights alone are probably worth 3x what we get in total rights fees from the AAC. That is f&#$ing insanity.

 

[noeynox]

I,think he,is right on one thing. Schools are going to be streaming some,of their content. Netflix or others may be willing to produce a LHN type network for some schools. Will it pay like it? Not a chance in hell I would think, but better than AAC schools are getting now for all tiers now.

Pure guessing on my part, but I think Netflix, Amazon or someone else may take a stable at it.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I,think he,is right on one thing. Schools are going to be streaming some,of their content. Netflix or others may be willing to produce a LHN type network for some schools. Will it pay like it? Not a chance in hell I would think, but better than AAC schools are getting now for all tiers now.

Pure guessing on my part, but I think Netflix, Amazon or someone else may take a stable at it.

Why do you need Netflix at all? Just run the stream right off your own website for a fee? Or in partnership with a local network like SNY. ANYTHING is better than what we are doing.

 

[NYUConn]

Why do you need Netflix at all? Just run the stream right off your own website for a fee? Or in partnership with a local network like SNY. ANYTHING is better than what we are doing.

Production costs, multiple camera angles, on-air talent, graphics, studio support such as editing, acquiring and paying for rights to non-game day footage.

You act as tho we can put some jabroni on the 50 yard line with an iPhone and the periscope app and get a quality product.

If it were that easy and cheap to broadcast live sports ESPN would never have existed.

Also, SNY is going to partner with UConn to take content off of people's cable boxes, ya know, where they make their money? That sure as heck won't come cheap.

What you are suggesting that we make back in retaining these rights would be dwarfed by the operational expenses of setting up a game day feed.

 

[noeynox]

Why do you need Netflix at all? Just run the stream right off your own website for a fee? Or in partnership with a local network like SNY. ANYTHING is better than what we are doing.

Well@ny uconn nailed it. I was thinking production cost. The feeds done by the schools for things like baseball when,I've seen them are pretty sheety.

 

[huskyinfl]

The UConn e-sports team will save the day.

 

[UConnNick]

It would kinda be like watching "Wayne's World" from their basement in Chicagoland.

 

[sportsart]

I'm glad all the reports coming out of the Big 12 meetings are confirming the talking head for Texas. Oh wait....

 

[Fishy]

Translating Nelson:

Join the Big East. Go independent in football. Start our own YouTube channel. Count money.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Translating Nelson:

Join the Big East. Go independent in football. Start our own YouTube channel. Count money.

Translating most of this board: check mailbox for Big 10 invitation. Open invitation. Count money.

P.s. a YouTube channel would probably be more profitable for UConn than what we are doing.

 

[pepband99]

Translating Nelson:

Join the Big East. Go independent in football. Start our own YouTube channel. Count money.

More like:
Have hissy fit.
Breed unicorns.
Count money.

Unless you know of a viable way to break our tv contract, speculating about t3 revenues is less likely than an SEC invite.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

More like:
Have hissy fit.
Breed unicorns.
Count money.

Unless you know of a viable way to break our tv contract, speculating about t3 revenues is less likely than an SEC invite.

How long will the University continue to subsidize the athletic program at its current burn rate?

 

[djct1999]

How long will the University continue to subsidize the athletic program at its current burn rate?

Don't you think UConn knows that? It's not that you are wrong in your Armageddon scenario it's how impulsive you are to act. We have limited to no information and rely on people with similar access to info. Let's rely on the few that actually understand the landscape. My opinion is that when the dust settles, UConn will be fine. I get that Herbst and McCugh and Benedict and the likes feel that way as well. UConn needs to exhaust every possible option for inclusion before they get all radical. Trust me, they are next in line.

 

[pepband99]

How long will the University continue to subsidize the athletic program at its current burn rate?

By your own math, about 10 years, when everything changes. But yes, it's a much better idea to either pretend we have leverage now with the AAC (we don't), or cut our legs off now by dropping football.

 

[CTMike]

It's not even fun anymore to watch Nelson struggle to come up with a single, realistic plan other than "do something".

Also - to throw out "UConn Needs a Plan" on May 31, 2016... As if that's something that had never occurred to UConn leadership... ... Maybe with a little luck they will read the Boneyard and start on that plan!

 

[cw00dson24]

 

[CTMike]