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What a downer

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I feel bad for the seniors. With the news of our athletics being left in the dust and a really bleak future, I can't help but think that many of the fans that know what is going on will be talking about that rather than beating Cincy and salvaging a bowl. We have Big Ten vs ACC tomorrow night for the conference championship while the "leftovers" play on Saturday. The seniors deserve better and I wish this news came out a week later. Great career at Uconn guys - congrats.
 
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How is the future really bleak? Do you really think expansion is over? We won't be in this lousy mess of a conference for more than a year or two so back off the ledge.
 
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Well, we aren't going to the Big Ten. We aren't going to the Big 12. There is absolutely NO guarantee that Uconn is going anywhere after this latest move. Cincy can get in before us. Seriously, they can. Quite frankly I have no idea how you can think we WILL be OK in the long run. Wait until we see the Rent half empty or more for some of these games coming up. Basketball too - Uconn vs. Tulane? Uconn vs. SMU? Wow.
 
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I'm trying to stay off the ledge but honestly......I don't see how this ends well for UConn.

And I'll be done with college sports. Completely done if we end up in this sh!thole conference with these schools. Call me whatever you want. Done.
 
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Look,you guys should be upset more at ESPN then anyone else who puts together these expansion moves in conferences they have the TV rights with(what happened to ACC academics concern -like WVU?). Its obvious the ACC felt the pressure from Clemson and FSU to add Louisville over Uconn because it makes the football schools in the ACC happy. Expansion is NOT over,it will just be in delay mode till the Maryland lawsuit over exit fee is settled,once thats done Clemson,UVA and probably FSU will leave the ACC..Keep the faith..its not over and on the flip side ESPN still wants to kill the Big East so maybe it will happen even quicker in the end..The 16 school super conferences will still happen.
 
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Seems like we just keep getting caught up in the perfect storm (geography, market size too small here, academics not good enough for there, new FB program, bla bla bla, etc.) Whatever, you name it, someone finds a reason why we're just not good enough for the big boy's table. Call it lack of hindsight by UConn & the state's brass or just lingering animosity by the ACC over the lawsuit. Who knows? There's just always a reason.

Do we really deserve this? Seriously? In a decade's time we've seen our conference turn from the Big East to Conference USA. Are we just paying the price for simply not having an established 1-A football program long enough?

Expansion is probably not over, and hope may arise for us again, but in reality - screw all this realignment. Screw the friggin' ACC for all this(yes, I said not long ago we should lighten up on that talk but I still will always hate 'em). Sick to death of getting the shaft in all the post-realignment carnage.

Let's just get to the Rent Saturday, support the home team, beat Cincy and get to a bowl game. The players deserve that much. About all we can control now anyway.
 
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What's UConn to the ACC worth? Maybe not quite 50 million but a lot of programs were looking to jump ship rather than have UConn on board as a conference mate.
 

Waquoit

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Downer is right. I was getting more and more pumped for the game every day. I was even talking myself into going to a possible bowl game. Now? Poof.
 
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Downer for a lot of people:
Max 4⃣4⃣ DeLorenzo@Max44Delo
Who wouldn't want to see Uconn hoops play unc,duke? How about Uconn fball play fsu,Clemson? No we will play Tulane #joke
 
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I'm trying to stay off the ledge but honestly......I don't see how this ends well for UConn.

And I'll be done with college sports. Completely done if we end up in this sh!thole conference with these schools. Call me whatever you want. Done.

Pink hat.
 
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What's UConn to the ACC worth? Maybe not quite 50 million but a lot of programs were looking to jump ship rather than have UConn on board as a conference mate.

They're going to leave eventually anyway. You think FSU will ever be happy in the ACC?
 
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Downer is right. I was getting more and more pumped for the game every day. I was even talking myself into going to a possible bowl game. Now? Poof.

This is exactly how I feel. Was jacked for this game. Now, not so much.
 

Uconnalliance

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Just curious to know who did Uconn f¥ck to get this runaround?depressing very depressing.
 
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We need people that know how to market and do deals. We have neither. We have a bunch of a$$clowns. Could you imagine a Gov. of another state letting this happen. Uconn sports is a significant economic engine. Malloy should be putting his foot up people's rear-ends and there should have been an active marketing and investment effort underway a long wile ago. While Malloy j's off with hs first five, he's allowed a major economic success story evaporate. Id fire Herbst, Manuel and PP, GDL just for being incompetent and ineffectual. I know I speak hersey and have been skewed alive for attacking Herbst, but come on folks. This is absolute ineptitude.
 
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We need people that know how to market and do deals. We have neither. We have a bunch of a$$clowns. Could you imagine a Gov. of another state letting this happen. Uconn sports is a significant economic engine. Malloy should be putting his foot up people's rear-ends and there should have been an active marketing and investment effort underway a long wile ago. While Malloy j's off with hs first five, he's allowed a major economic success story evaporate. Id fire Herbst, Manuel and PP, GDL just for being incompetent and ineffectual. I know I speak hersey and have been skewed alive for attacking Herbst, but come on folks. This is absolute ineptitude.

No argument here. Where was the lobbying efforts behind this latest venture? Would like to see our Congress Reps and Senators withhold support for something near and dear to either the ACC states or Big Ten states and when they need our support maybe we can trade for conference membership.
 
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While I want stability with good opponents as much as the next guy, I also think about the fact that many of my best times over the past 8 years have been going to football games at the rent, and even if we are playing Tulane and co., I would rather be cooking breakfast in the parking lot and watching a football game live than doing most anything else on a Saturday morning.

Now we don't yet have the generations of people who feel the same, probably more like 15-20k, and I'm certainly not going to second guess someone's fandom based on how many games they make etc. But if you are in the same mindset, the one that doesn't understand why anyone would have a fall wedding when there is all of baseball season to take care of things like that, it is much better for your stress level to remember that part of it and how great it could be for this team to get back to a bowl this Saturday, and leave the decisions which are made at levels far removed from the field go for a while
 
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While I want stability with good opponents as much as the next guy, I also think about the fact that many of my best times over the past 8 years have been going to football games at the rent, and even if we are playing Tulane and co., I would rather be cooking breakfast in the parking lot and watching a football game live than doing most anything else on a Saturday morning.

Now we don't yet have the generations of people who feel the same, probably more like 15-20k, and I'm certainly not going to second guess someone's fandom based on how many games they make etc. But if you are in the same mindset, the one that doesn't understand why anyone would have a fall wedding when there is all of baseball season to take care of things like that, it is much better for your stress level to remember that part of it and how great it could be for this team to get back to a bowl this Saturday, and leave the decisions which are made at levels far removed from the field go for a while

I think many here have been at the Rent (or even Memorial for some of us) from day 1, and we are the ones that took the ride, believed in the vision and put our money down betting that this time Connecticut would get it right. The tragedy is a decade of hard work, many season tickets, lots of screaming, tears and joy, are being destroyed literally in 18 months of abject incompetence. Its hard to go back to the begining, and thats where we are headed.
 
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Great attitude Pete, and the great thing is that by the time we're complaining about P coming back for a 3rd season there's a good chance we'll have a new home. I think our main hope right now is that Maryland gets out of the ACC paying much less than the $52.5 m they want as that would probably speed up the process. That's probably the main thing holding up any more realignment moves. Up until a month or so ago everyone was waiting for ND. Now they made their move and everyone's waiting to see how much it costs to leave the ACC.
 
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Great attitude Pete, and the great thing is that by the time we're complaining about P coming back for a 3rd season there's a good chance we'll have a new home. I think our main hope right now is that Maryland gets out of the ACC paying much less than the $52.5 m they want as that would probably speed up the process. That's probably the main thing holding up any more realignment moves. Up until a month or so ago everyone was waiting for ND. Now they made their move and everyone's waiting to see how much it costs to leave the ACC.

I tend to agree, just like the wvu lawsuit being settled allowed Pitt and cuse to finalize their plans, I think the same process is likely to play out in the ACC.

As for having to "start over" I think that's only an issue if those of us who have been there from the start abandon ship, and I don't think that will happen. While it is still a new thing in the overall history of big boy football, every year there is that portion of student who graduate who enjoy football and continue to come back, and who have families that become fans long before they ever are of college age. That's really the long term fan base growth, the kids who expect that at least a few times a year they are going to see "their Huskies" yes there will be bubbles along the way that will help, where a great season will bring people out, but especially for state universities its really the long term that builds the fans. Unless something changes catestrophically where football is no longer D1 I'm pretty sure that over time the fans will grow and many of these concerns will shift to complaints over ever increasing seat license prices as demand exceeds capacity :)
 
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Seems like we just keep getting caught up in the perfect storm (geography, market size too small here, academics not good enough for there, new FB program, bla bla bla, etc.) Whatever, you name it, someone finds a reason why we're just not good enough for the big boy's table. Call it lack of hindsight by UConn & the state's brass or just lingering animosity by the ACC over the lawsuit. Who knows? There's just always a reason.

Do we really deserve this? Seriously? In a decade's time we've seen our conference turn from the Big East to Conference USA. Are we just paying the price for simply not having an established 1-A football program long enough?

Expansion is probably not over, and hope may arise for us again, but in reality - screw all this realignment. Screw the friggin' ACC for all this(yes, I said not long ago we should lighten up on that talk but I still will always hate 'em). Sick to death of getting the shaft in all the post-realignment carnage.

Let's just get to the Rent Saturday, support the home team, beat Cincy and get to a bowl game. The players deserve that much. About all we can control now anyway.

Be warned. What follows is a, probably irrational, contribution submitted by a very disappointed, dis-heartened individual. It probably rambles, as well.

It is not academics! UCONN is ranked 97 places higher than Louisville in "US News and World Report." It's not market size. Even without NYC, UCONN's market is larger, it's combined demographic far more affluent with more disposable income.

I believe the reasons go much deeper. The State and the University have been sending the wrong messages, to people that matter, since the first "raid." I said it then, and I'll say it again. The law suit was a dumb move. Yeah, other schools were party to the suit, but Blumenthal made sure his fingerprints, and therefore the State's, were all over the damn thing. All the suit accomplished was leaving of a bad taste in some very important mouths.

The law suit, together with the way the Notre Dame (and now Michigan) venue location arguments were handled, by the State, (I say "State" because I think the school was willing to be more flexible) caste the State, and therefore UCONN, in a perceptual negative. We're the inflexible guys that call Lawyers when things don't go our way. While some of our politicians and a good number of fans were busy banging on their collective chests, the world of college athletics was asking, "Who @#$ do these guys think they are?"

And that, the "who are we" argument is a big part of the problem. Too many define the incredible success of the basketball programs as leverage/clout/juice. While we have right and reason to be proud of basketball success, we have to understand that, in today's environment, success in anything but football is heavily discounted by the elite clubs we are trying to join. If it wasn't apparent before, how little leverage/clout/juice we have is becoming very clear. Not much, and any we do have can not be subjected to erosion caused by mouthy politicians.

Finally, to date, the school has done nothing to promote itself, more specifically, it's football success; marginal though it may be. That may be changing, but it might have taken too long to have the desired effect. You can say what you want about Rutgers, but, they got the deal. A big reason for that was Schiano. He knew how to promote his University, his State and, most of all, his football program. The result? A school that is hemorrhaging cash and falling off the academic ledge, with a fair football program is, today, sitting in high cotton. Hell, UCONN didn't lose NYC. It, in the face of knowing that an improving NYC profile would greatly enhance the UCONN product, chose not to bother. It's almost as if Rutgers said "we are NYC's college athletic program" and we said, "oh, okay."

The concept of "blowing you own horn" is at odds with NE academia and the "Yankee work ethic." But, damn it, we better become comfortable with it very quickly. We also better become comfortable with the understanding that impressive leverage/clout/juice is gained through an outstanding FB program, or a program perceived as such. That will require both winning and personality with personality maybe the more important (see" "Schiano") of the two. Remember Kelly's first year at Cincy? How he raged against the local Cincy media for not covering the annual meeting in Newport? Or, the stories about him attending any and every event that gave him a chance to promote his program? It seems like every thing Kelly touched or did was positive for Cincy FB and it wasn't long before all his work culminated in much improved recruiting and team performance. While we have had moderate success, our coaches have been workman-like, one brick at a time, old-fashion, boring, ho-hum coaches. Hell, if UCONN's two 1A coaches had a personality contest, no one would win. Throw in Hathaway, and .......... Is RE a better FB coach than Schianno? Probably. Did RE accomplish more for his program? I'll answer by asking how are the two FB programs perceived?

Suggestions? Prez SH: Get the new advertising guy moving and don't hinder him with a bunch of restrictions. He's probably told you that extolling the FB program (and the school) while undoing present perception is going to be costly. Tell the AD to appoint a trusted assistant to all things not related to FB. Tell the AD that, until things improve, his total concentration is to be football and wealthy boosters. "Improve" means team performance, outward perception (how the world sees the program) and overall tone (the actual environment surrounding the program). Right now, at least as it looks to the outside, the only coach with a pulse, the only one who let's his players act like they are enjoying (without self-promotion) the moment is the DC. Articulate, happy players that perform on the field help sell a program.

UCONN and the State just got slapped with reality. Reality is football and more football. To my mind. it's fix it or it will die.
 
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A big part of this whole football business is that starting with RE and continuing with the "Corpse", this program thought 1950s football would be enough to get it done. Score 10-17 points and rely on defense. They overlooked the fact that sports are entertainment and they compete for the entertainment audience (at the stadium and on television). College football today is fast paced, exciting and chock full of playmakers. Like it not, that's the modern game.

The future begins with the firing of PP. Get someone that's thinks offense,offense and more offense. That the way to win is outscoring your opponent, not outlasting them. Make it an exciting program and enough good athletes who play defense will also find their way to Storrs.

Next step is expand that stadium to 60k. Don't care if it's not full. Give the impression of commitment to being big time. Also make the stadium look attractive on the outside so that even casual passers by can be impressed.

The list could go on, but just compare facilities in all sports at Virginia, Maryland and UConn. You tell me which are more impressive. And, I didn't even pick the more glamourous schools.
 
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Next step is expand that stadium to 60k. Don't care if it's not full. Give the impression of commitment to being big time. Also make the stadium look attractive on the outside so that even casual passers by can be impressed.

TDH - do you live in the State?
 
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Our football team is going to use the snub as motivation. They know the athletic department is better than where we are right now.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...ticut-huskies-scrambling-again-left-acc-plans

But Louisville was thought to be a better fit for ACC football, with better facilities, a larger stadium, a longer history as a major college football program, and the perception of being a better "football school."

That upset some UConn players, who noted Tuesday that UConn is just two seasons removed from a Fiesta Bowl berth, and is 4-4 against Louisville in Big East play after beating the Cardinals last Saturday.

"When you're judged and people don't know what really happens, it gets under your skin," defensive end Trevardo Williams said. "We'll use that as motivation because we're actually a good team."
 
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TDH - do you live in the State?
He is correct on the need to expand. Build and they will come. Look at what it did for Rutgers and Louisville. If we sit there and cry, we'll fail. Look at ECU fans. They didn't give up, did they? PP has to go too.
 
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"We'll use that as motivation because we're actually a good team."
I love ya Trev but Temple, Western Michigan and USF say "hi"
 
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