A Dime Back: Firing Kevin Ollie Will Not Fix UConn’s Biggest Problem

[BlueDogs]

I have more faith in Football rejuvenating the UConn brand than basketball if KO is at the helm... which would be utterly inconceivable if the program wasn't in utter free fall. I can even get my head around how badly KO screwed the golden goose handed to him.

 

[intlzncster]

An up and comer? Name one "up and comer" that we will pay 1.5million a year for that this fan base will feel great about from day 1. Danny Hurley isn't an "up and comer" nor is he coming here for a few 100k more a year so please keep him off that list.

Hurley is coaching in the A10. By definition he's an up and comer. Up and comer's aren't guys with just have a few years of experience.

I agree that UCONN won't offer $3mil per year, but I bet it will end up being north of $2mil.

 

[whaler11]

June 29, 2017: The Huskies have a lucrative TV deal with SNY (about $1 million a year) and a media rights deal with IMG (bringing in about $9 million a year, and set to expire after 2017-18) that is one of the best in the nation. The SNY money had gone directly to the AAC and then split among all member schools, but UConn argued during recent conference meetings that it should keep that money. Athletic directors voted in favor of that proposal, and UConn will retain about $3.1 million over the next three years because of it.

Source: As Big East Money Dries Up, UConn Must Create Fresh Revenue Streams

Those aren’t games though right?

That’s like the Geno show. The games that get to SNY are sublet from ESPN.

UConn doesn’t own tier 3 game inventory they can go out and sell. They just convinced the league that some non-game revenue isn’t tier 3 and didn’t need to be shared.

 

[Storrs South]

Those aren’t games though right?

That’s like the Geno show. The games that get to SNY are sublet from ESPN.

UConn doesn’t own tier 3 game inventory they can go out and sell. They just convinced the league that some non-game revenue isn’t tier 3 and didn’t need to be shared.

Maybe. I didn't read it that way but I'm no expert on this either. I thought the games that end up on SNY qualify as Tier 3 rights. If you look at the previous deal that's the impression I get at least: UConn Women's Games Move to SNY

 

[djct1999]

Hurley is coaching in the A10. By definition he's an up and comer. Up and comer's aren't guys with just have a few years of experience.

I agree that UCONN won't offer $3mil per year, but I bet it will end up being north of $2mil.

Hurley was an up and comer when he left Wagner. He has developed into a top 20 coach nationally who will have multiple offers from high majors. This idea that he is a lock for UConn is delusional. To get him, it will have to be north of 2. Not sure if DB is willing or able to go that high.

 

[Alum86]

Plus we recr

Anyone with a twitter account knows that ADB/No Escalators is a card-carrying Ollie apologist. This take is not surprising.

seems to be. This sh#tshow has nothing to do with A-A-C and all to do with K Ollie. Cincy gets it. SMU gets it. Coaching matters.

 

[Fishy]

Those aren’t games though right?

That’s like the Geno show. The games that get to SNY are sublet from ESPN.

UConn doesn’t own tier 3 game inventory they can go out and sell. They just convinced the league that some non-game revenue isn’t tier 3 and didn’t need to be shared.

It’s for stuff that falls below the tier 3....the remnant stuff that ESPN can’t sell.

It’s mostly women’s hoop games.

But because ESPN technically owns it, they actually make the SNY games available on ESPN3 out of market.

 

[whaler11]

It’s for stuff that falls below the tier 3....the remnant stuff that ESPN can’t sell.

It’s mostly women’s hoop games.

But because ESPN technically owns it, they actually make the SNY games available on ESPN3 out of market.

Yeah that’s what I suspected based on the local Watch ESPN blackouts.

So SNY pays UConn a pittance for those games and then pays ESPN to produce them?

 

[Milo65]

Two Words: Mick Cronin

 

[Fishy]

Yeah that’s what I suspected based on the local Watch ESPN blackouts.

So SNY pays UConn a pittance for those games and then pays ESPN to produce them?

No - I think SNY produces it.

ESPN technically owns the rights, so they push on the digital platforms. It’s basically found content for them.

I’m not sure it’s a pittance...it’s usually 15 women’s basketball games that would have zero value.

SNY pays a $1M+ a year for it and effectively gives the school a NY broadcasting home.

 

[whaler11]

No - I think SNY produces it.

ESPN technically owns the rights, so they push on the digital platforms. It’s basically found content for them.

I’m not sure it’s a pittance...it’s usually 15 women’s basketball games that would have zero value.

SNY pays a $1M+ a year for it and effectively gives the school a NY broadcasting home.

Interesting. I guess I don’t get why if the games have enough commercial value for UConn to get paid their $1MM why ESPN doesn’t ultimately get that revenue.

I guess if SNY pays for the production and they get the out of market rights it comes out in the wash.

 

[Tuna]

I have more faith in Football rejuvenating the UConn brand than basketball if KO is at the helm... which would be utterly inconceivable if the program wasn't in utter free fall. I can even get my head around how badly KO screwed the golden goose handed to him.

Unless this has something to do with how important football is to getting into a P5 conference you should be really worried about your judgement.

 

[BlueDogs]

Unless this has something to do with how important football is to getting into a P5 conference you should be really worried about your judgement.

Only way to P5. Basketball success (even like being the best program over 2 decades) doesn't move the needle in CR as proven. But I'll take Edsall over KO for competence in talent selection, teaching and execution any day of the week. KO is a disaster approaching Diaco levels with exception I don't think KO is a fundamentally dishonest guy.

 

[HuskyHawk]

thoughts?

Firing Kevin Ollie Will Not Fix UConn’s Biggest Problem - A Dime Back

Blamed the conference. Complete fail.

 

[HuskyHawk]

What take? Did you actually read the article? He doesn't make an argument in either direction on keeping/firing Ollie. The argument is even if Ollie WAS winning, being in the AAC limits the amount of winning on a national scale that can be done.

And that assertion is completely wrong. Witness, Gonzaga. In a much worse conference.

 

[Palatine]

If the ACC is the prolem, the article fails to address how Cincinnati is so successful and why UConn is less successful than Houston or SMU.

 

[Fishy]

If the ACC is the prolem, the article fails to address how Cincinnati is so successful and why UConn is less successful than Houston or SMU.

There is an old aphorism that says, when you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras.

People are predisposed to coming up with complex explanations for simple problems.

UConn basketball is poorly managed and poorly coached. That’s the horse.

The conference and the travel and whatever else is the zebra.

 

[Tuna]

Only way to P5. Basketball success (even like being the best program over 2 decades) doesn't move the needle in CR as proven. But I'll take Edsall over KO for competence in talent selection, teaching and execution any day of the week. KO is a disaster approaching Diaco levels with exception I don't think KO is a fundamentally dishonest guy.

So were you referring to P5? Or were you saying if we are in the AAC long term and have Ollie as our coach, football will be better for the brand than hoops? If it's the latter, like I said you should be really worried about your judgement because you've lost your marbles.

 

[UCDaveD]

People tell me I'm not a real UConn fan for suggesting that we value our tradition and history more than the average coaching candidate might, so there's that.

No, people tell you that you're not a real UConn fan because your biggest wet dream fantasy involves UConn firing Ollie, hiring a no name scrub out of the Horizon League, and tanking further into oblivion, all so you can come back here and pound your chest about how right you were.

 

[Fishy]

Interesting. I guess I don’t get why if the games have enough commercial value for UConn to get paid their $1MM why ESPN doesn’t ultimately get that revenue.

I guess if SNY pays for the production and they get the out of market rights it comes out in the wash.

It’s content that ESPN has passed on.

Whatever ESPN doesn’t want to broadcast, it will seek to sell. They’ll produce it, but someone else can broadcast it - that’s why we’re forever trying to remember where CBSSportsNet is on the dial.

This is stuff they could not sell - it’s essentially been returned to us. We can sell the broadcast rights to it, but because of the overall deal for our rights, ESPN retains the ability to show it out of market. (They get the feed and push it out on ESPN3.)

 

[upstater]

Pretty clear what they think after last year.

Oklahoma and Texas don't need anyone cutting into their pies.

But when Iowa State and Kansas St look around and wonder what happened to their market, Connecticut's $3.6B and per capita might look more atttractive.

 

[whaler11]

It’s content that ESPN has passed on.

Whatever ESPN doesn’t want to broadcast, it will seek to sell. They’ll produce it, but someone else can broadcast it - that’s why we’re forever trying to remember where CBSSportsNet is on the dial.

This is stuff they could not sell - it’s essentially been returned to us. We can sell the broadcast rights to it, but because of the overall deal for our rights, ESPN retains the ability to show it out of market. (They get the feed and push it out on ESPN3.)

I get the transaction. I just don’t get why UConn can sell it to SNY after ESPN was ‘unsuccessful’ in their attempts to sell it.

It has to be more contractually complicated - otherwise why wouldn’t ESPN sell it to directly to SNY for less than a million dollars. Unless we think two of the biggest media entities on the planet have decided to just trickle a little down out of the goodness of their heart.

Based on the article SS posted the original deal with SNY predates the AAC TV contract. That leads me to believe these women’s games were never under ESPN’s control in market because those rights were sold to SNY before the AAC deal was done. Since they hadn’t yet sold the out of market rights those are tied up by the ESPN contract.

That would explain how the revenue got lumped in as T3 by the conference - because the schools agreed to sell the T3 rights together but they couldn’t sell these specific games twice.

I don’t know if it’s impressive that they got the league to give them the revenue back or appalling that they didn’t keep it in the first place.

 

[Towney007]

This has been bandied about so many times.

This is a basketball school. Football was upgraded as something nice to do. Then it became the life boat. And it was a crappy life boat. Now it's turned into the actual ankle weight. It's not saving us or giving us a chance for anything. Now it's an actual deterrent.

It was an unnecessary investment when it was started whose best shot was dependent on a lot of things going JUST RIGHT to keep it moving in the right direction. Then when they didn't, they never ever had a shot to get back on track. None. And here we are with all this state money spent on whatever it is you want to call the football program.

And *100% because* we have a football team, we're in the American Athletic Conference. That's indisputable. And fans aren't interested in the teams we play (and they shouldn't, why would they?) in any of the sports we play them in. So that's effected attendance everywhere else in the AD - especially in your flagship sport. Yes, Ollie stinks - and that was a dumb call (extending him) in hindsight. But take that bad decision, multiply it with other bad decisions... along with the biggest and worst bad decision - and here's what happens.

And frankly, football's not going P5. Neither is hoops. The Big East is a revenue bump. Whatever happens with football happens. The only shot they have to save their gravy train is to move it and let football do what it's going to. Was worth a shot, it just isn't anymore.

 

[Javjudah]

thoughts?

Firing Kevin Ollie Will Not Fix UConn’s Biggest Problem - A Dime Back

This article was well written by an unbiased individual.

 

[Stainmaster]

No, people tell you that you're not a real UConn fan because your biggest wet dream fantasy involves UConn firing Ollie, hiring a no name scrub out of the Horizon League, and tanking further into oblivion, all so you can come back here and pound your chest about how right you were.

I don’t want that to happen. I’m nothing like you and plenty of the other guys taking victory laps over what you see as being vindicated over Ollie. But it is a distinct possibility, and I seem to be the only one who even acknowledges that.

At least I’m not the grade-a psycho who fantasizes about arresting Ollie and putting him on trial.