We don't need the ACC

[EdgewoodNHV]

I understand everybody's disappointment, but at the end of the day, we don't NEED the ACC to have a successful program.

Look at Boise State and TCU. They succeeded in non-AQ conferences. It's possible. Not probable, but possible. It can be done.

We still have one of the premiere basketball programs in the country. We still have an up and coming football program which is only growing in popularity. We still have an overall great athletic program and an increasingly impressive academic standing. And we have an extremely professional President who understands the importance of athletics in growing the University as a whole.

We can all throw a big hissy fit about BC blocking us, or being left out in the cold, or how our whole program is dead, or we can keep supporting it and keep spreading the UConn fanbase.

It ain't gonna be easy, but then again, nobody thought it'd be easy to build a national basketball powerhouse in the middle of nowhere, Connecticut. Stranger things have happened.

 

[coachcap]

It's past time to develop the anytime-anywhere attitude of FSU & PSU in the 70s. Tie Scheduling to hoops scheduling as we did with Michigan. We've scheduled home & homes with Texas & the Sooners for Men's hoops & with the Sooners in Women's hoops in the past. Tie in football. If the opposition wants the cachet of seeing our hoops teams on their homecourt, they have to schedule us in football also.

 

[Drumguy]

I've been thinking the same thing. Maybe it's a lemons/lemonade thing, but we'll be ok one way or the other.

F- BCU and it's inferiority complex. We are the best athletic school, hands down in New England, and overall possibly in the country when you add women's bball, baseball, mens and womens soccer, polo and track. Success begets success.

Maybe Cuse didn't have a choice given it's sucking in all sports not men's basketball. Pitt, well have they ever been a champion in anything?

As if the ACC is so wonderful. Miami, FS bastions of academics? UNC, Duke, BCU football?

We'll be ok one way or another.

 

[toppencil]

It's past time to develop the anytime-anywhere attitude of FSU & PSU in the 70s. Tie Scheduling to hoops scheduling as we did with Michigan. We've scheduled home & homes with Texas & the Sooners for Men's hoops & with the Sooners in Women's hoops in the past. Tie in football. If the opposition wants the cachet of seeing our hoops teams on their homecourt, they have to schedule us in football also.

That's smart. It should work. Maybe we should do that with Notre Dame.

 

[uconNYC]

Agree wholeheartedly. It starts with fans attending games. If we are selling-out XL, Gampel and The Rent, things will start taking care of themselves. Basically, the future of our program is in our butts!

 

[WestCoastHusky]

Agreed. What UCONN needs to do right now is focusing on building a national football program. We need a plan to expand the RENT and improve our football program. Give coach P another 2 years, if we don't turn it around go look elsewhere. A weaken BE might be a blessing in disguise. It will allow UCONN to win and flourish. If we can dominate the BE, we can go to BCS bowl games. If we can win a few of those, sky is the limit for our program.

First step right now is get more fans to the game and win some games. We need to get our football attendance to be over 60K+ at some point. At that number, we will leave BCU in the dust.

 

[epark88]

This would require really progressive thinking and creative marketing, the likes of which have not been seen in Storrs for years.

If Ms. Herbst is really 'all that', then perhaps she can get the right people in place and UConn can pull it off. It remains to be seen...

 

[uconNYC]

This would require really progressive thinking and creative marketing, the likes of which have not been seen in Storrs for years.

If Ms. Herbst is really 'all that', then perhaps she can get the right people in place and UConn can pull it off. It remains to be seen...

She's already taken the first two steps: 1) Realizing that this is an issue (see the post regarding her speech in Stamford) 2) Firing Hathaway (errr pushing him out the door)

 

[Waquoit]

Herbst has been nothing but a mouth to date. The Pitt-Syracuse defection happened on her watch and she was completely unprepared. Her new AD is clueless. Her first act was to snub the other Big East presidents. Then go begging the ACC. Then go back to the Big East. She has no idea what to do and is floundering badly.

 

[uc1974]

Waquoit, you are hard to take seriously with your avitar being "The Scream."

 

[Mr.Phat]

I understand everybody's disappointment, but at the end of the day, we don't NEED the ACC to have a successful program.

Look at Boise State and TCU. They succeeded in non-AQ conferences. It's possible. Not probable, but possible. It can be done.

We still have one of the premiere basketball programs in the country. We still have an up and coming football program which is only growing in popularity. We still have an overall great athletic program and an increasingly impressive academic standing. And we have an extremely professional President who understands the importance of athletics in growing the University as a whole.

We can all throw a big hissy fit about BC blocking us, or being left out in the cold, or how our whole program is dead, or we can keep supporting it and keep spreading the UConn fanbase.

It ain't gonna be easy, but then again, nobody thought it'd be easy to build a national basketball powerhouse in the middle of nowhere, Connecticut. Stranger things have happened.

I wrote essentially the same thing under the conference realigment board. Everyone needs to stop fretting over what is going to happen to the sh^tty BE and worry about winning games. Mandel told the truth in that Si article and UConn was singled out for harsh treatment because it had no business being in the Fiesta Bowl. Boise and TCU prove that if you win there is hope for you WHATEVER conference you are in. Put together about four 10-2 seasons and UConn will be fine.

 

[uconnfan68]

I wrote essentially the same thing under the conference realigment board. Everyone needs to stop fretting over what is going to happen to the sh^tty BE and worry about winning games. Mandel told the truth in that Si article and UConn was singled out for harsh treatment because it had no business being in the Fiesta Bowl. Boise and TCU prove that if you win there is hope for you WHATEVER conference you are in. Put together about four 10-2 seasons and UConn will be fine.

?? Of course they had the right to be there. They WON the conference. The better question was why the BCS sought to display such a mismatch and charge big money for it. If we were in the Orange Bowl against an ACC team, it would have been competitive and we would have sold our allotment.

 

[ctchamps]

I wrote essentially the same thing under the conference realigment board. Everyone needs to stop fretting over what is going to happen to the sh^tty BE and worry about winning games. Mandel told the truth in that Si article and UConn was singled out for harsh treatment because it had no business being in the Fiesta Bowl. Boise and TCU prove that if you win there is hope for you WHATEVER conference you are in. Put together about four 10-2 seasons and UConn will be fine.

Winning is part of the equation. Another part is viewership, both in game attendance and eyes to television. And the third part is out of UConn's control. The powers trying to control the direction of athletics will decide whether UConn should be included or not. DeFillipo just clue people into the process that takes place behind closed doors. In general people are more controlled than this guy and won't blurt out their pettiness. But that doesn't make the process less petty or emotional based.

 

[uconnfan68]

Herbst has been nothing but a mouth to date. The Pitt-Syracuse defection happened on her watch and she was completely unprepared. Her new AD is clueless. Her first act was to snub the other Big East presidents. Then go begging the ACC. Then go back to the Big East. She has no idea what to do and is floundering badly.

Being the spokesperson is her job, and I think she's doing it very well. Sorry if she doesn't meet your standards. Perhaps Leahy would?

 

[buckley503]

Put together about four 10-2 seasons and UConn will be fine.

This is why the legalization of marijuana faces such an uphill battle. But I wouldn't mind trying some of what you have.

 

[ctchamps]

?? Of course they had the right to be there. They WON the conference. The better question was why the BCS sought to display such a mismatch and charge big money for it. If we were in the Orange Bowl against an ACC team, it would have been competitive and we would have sold our allotment.

In the year 2000 Northwestern won the Big Ten Title with an 8-4 record. They played Nebraska at the Alamo Bowl and lost 66-17. Northwestern has an atrocious football history. Mandel went to Northwestern. He has a right to his opinion. But his alma mater is not a shining example of BCS material.

 

[ruskin]

Uh, ask Jeff Hathaway if he thinks Herbst is "nothing but a mouth".
We're burying her because she didn't have moles at Pitt & Syracuse?
We're burying her because she bought in an interim AD most people (including Calhoun & Geno) actually like?
If she's "floundering badly", where does that put Coach P?
Wow.
BTW, read her resume sometime. Pretty sure she was not just writing poetry while overseeing U. of Georgia the past three years.

 

[ctchamps]

Uh, ask Jeff Hathaway if he thinks Herbst is "nothing but a mouth".
We're burying her because she didn't have moles at Pitt & Syracuse?
We're burying her because she bought in an interim AD most people (including Calhoun & Geno) actually like?
If she's "floundering badly", where does that put Coach P?
Wow.
BTW, read her resume sometime. Pretty sure she was not just writing poetry while overseeing U. of Georgia the past three years.

He has a gripe against the firing of Hathaway. This is personal for him. Let it go.

 

[Mr.Phat]

?? Of course they had the right to be there. They WON the conference. The better question was why the BCS sought to display such a mismatch and charge big money for it. If we were in the Orange Bowl against an ACC team, it would have been competitive and we would have sold our allotment.

But UConn wasn't playing against an ACC team was it? UConn deserved to be there only because the BE has an AQ bid - which simply reinforced Mandel's argument that the BE right now does not deserve one.

 

[BugsyCT]

How is Herbst floundering badly? Was it her fault that Flipper blackballed us? I think she's been pretty proactive given the situation.

In light of Flipper spilling the beans this week, I'll be curious to see if/how she & UConn respond.

 

[Mr.Phat]

Put together about four 10-2 seasons and UConn will be fine.

This is why the legalization of marijuana faces such an uphill battle. But I wouldn't mind trying some of what you have.

Well sometimes reefer causes a wonderful clarity in thinking. You ought to try it sometime then maybe you will understand how important winning is to UConn's football future in relationship to its conference affiliation.

 

[ctchamps]

But UConn wasn't playing against an ACC team was it? UConn deserved to be there only because the BE has an AQ bid - which simply reinforced Mandel's argument that the BE right now does not deserve one.

The whole BCS system is flawed. Over the last several seasons there were several teams more worthy of playing for a national title than OSU. But that wasn't going to happen. The preseason rankings game the system reducing the effectiveness of impartial computer models. Mandel is talking about a patient with acne in focusing on UConn. The BCS is congestive heart failure. The other divisions in football have a legitimate playoff system. The BCS isn't interested in legitimacy in letting the best teams play against one another to prove a champion. They are trying to ensure viewership at venues and with television.

 

[buckley503]

Well sometimes reefer causes a wonderful clarity in thinking. You ought to try it sometime then maybe you will understand how important winning is to UConn's football future in relationship to its conference affiliation.

It makes me cough too much. Prefer my bourbon.
Anyway, how about we put together one 10 win season first before we string together 4. Lot more going into this then football victories, just ask Syracuse.

 

[Nostical]

Losing the Fiesta Bowl wasn't the problem. It simply gave Mandel fodder for his article, Consider a one point loss in BBall. Whether the shot misses or goes in changes the entire tenor of the piece. Coaching moves are analyzed differently. All because of a shot. I was at The Fiesta Bowl. Yes they were better, but so what? We make 4th and 1, we catch those tipped pick 6 passes and we're right in that game. We didn't belong? That's Bull. We didn't play as well. I remember in past years Ohio State getting crushed by Florida. And Nebraska was crushed by Miami, but beacause they were traditionally good programs they got the benefit of the doubt. I agree the better match-ups-- for lots of reasons ---would have been us v VaTech and Stanford V Oklahoma, but every team that was there deserved to be.

 

[Jimdish255]

Herbst has been nothing but a mouth to date. The Pitt-Syracuse defection happened on her watch and she was completely unprepared. Her new AD is clueless. Her first act was to snub the other Big East presidents. Then go begging the ACC. Then go back to the Big East. She has no idea what to do and is floundering badly.

Wasn't she on the job for about 5 minutes when this happened? Should she have been tapping their phones before she was hired?