AAC CALL: HC Randy Edsall On Boise & Process Program Needs to Follow

[Dooley]

You drop football without leaving the AAC.

I don’t want them to do it but when you are losing $50million a year and the state is cutting your funding... if you are still losing 62-7 3 years from now it has to be on the table.

I agree - if we are playing non-competitive games years from now, long after the landscape has been completely solidified, then go ahead and make the necessary cuts. Lots of things are still up in the air though. Until then, the only very difficult recourse is patience and keep on pluggin' at it.

 

[noeynox]

I love your enthusiasm and dedication but our football program has been thoroughly unwatchable for years. I still go to every home game, stay as long as I can until my stomach has had enough (typically with a few mins left in the 4Q of a blowout loss), and continue to support...but that's me. Can't blame anyone for not wanting to pay hard earned money to sit through 50 point losses week after week.

I stay to the end of most games including. That doesn't make me a super fan. Edsall gets at least two more years to climb out of the abyss, what no one's interested in hearing is ole bare cupboards routine. He knows he left a BCS job and returned to a non BCS job. If that's to tall an order, say so and go about your business.

 

[Dooley]

I stay to the end of most games including. That doesn't make me a super fan. Edsall gets at least two more years to climb out of the abyss, what no one's interested in hearing is ole bare cupboards routine. He knows he left a BCS job and returned to a non BCS job. If that's to tall an order, say so and go about your business.

Yup. It sucks that we've been in perpetual rebuild mode for almost a decade now but here we are and we are. I always think of my football money/time as a donation to the school and keep my fingers crossed to see an entertaining/competitive game. I do think that the only guy capable of winning and rebuilding at UConn is Randy Edsall. Eventually.

 

[Pudge]

You drop football without leaving the AAC.

I don’t want them to do it but when you are losing $50million a year and the state is cutting your funding... if you are still losing 62-7 3 years from now it has to be on the table.

This is utter BS

WE ARE DOING FAR BETTER than you ever portray. The Capital Investment is just huge and you will never find the State/Institution considering a drop football; the Branding and potential openings over time is right there; and regardless of what is going on with the revenue from TV and marketing ... you don't have this equation correct. At all.

You get energetic and on a rant. Meanwhile, 27 Major Universities have entered FBS since 1996; who's left? (ANS: Long Beach State & Pacific before the period) Do you really think all these new entrants are stupid? Of the 27, we have one of the more valued slots in AAC. (with others) You aren't losing $50m; your budget should not have forecast $80m beyond 2016-2017 (our actual revenue). You are not going to see schools exit FBS ... as one would surmise from your hysteria. You are going to see a re-construction of the division; you are going to see the AAC positioned - marginally - better; and we are hoping HCRE gets on track.

The complete "dejection" theme and crying ... is shameless. We just played two awesome programs. That should not have happened in scheduling. But ... come back to a discussion in late October to see if WE can beat Temple, Tulsa, ECU etc. And see the FR improve.

I always thought UConn fans were different than the Rutgers guys who watched a 10 year period that 3 wins was a lot. Turns out, the CT fan is just as woeful in a down period; and sucking the joy out of the experience.

 

[noeynox]

This is utter BS

WE ARE DOING FAR BETTER than you ever portray. The Capital Investment is just huge and you will never find the State/Institution considering a drop football; the Branding and potential openings over time is right there; and regardless of what is going on with the revenue from TV and marketing ... you don't have this equation correct. At all.

You get energetic and on a rant. Meanwhile, 27 Major Universities have entered FBS since 1996; who's left? (ANS: Long Beach State & Pacific before the period) Do you really think all these new entrants are stupid? Of the 27, we have one of the more valued slots in AAC. (with others) You aren't losing $50m; your budget should not have forecast $80m beyond 2016-2017 (our actual revenue). You are not going to see schools exit FBS ... as one would surmise from your hysteria. You are going to see a re-construction of the division; you are going to see the AAC positioned - marginally - better; and we are hoping HCRE gets on track.

The complete "dejection" theme and crying ... is shameless. We just played two awesome programs. That should not have happened in scheduling. But ... come back to a discussion in late October to see if WE can beat Temple, Tulsa, ECU etc. And see the FR improve.

I always thought UConn fans were different than the Rutgers guys who watched a 10 year period that 3 wins was a lot. Turns out, the CT fan is just as woeful in a down period; and sucking the joy out of the experience.

We have the head coach giving press conferences on just how awful things are and you think it's the fans sucking the joy out of the experience?

 

[whaler11]

This is utter BS

WE ARE DOING FAR BETTER than you ever portray. The Capital Investment is just huge and you will never find the State/Institution considering a drop football; the Branding and potential openings over time is right there; and regardless of what is going on with the revenue from TV and marketing ... you don't have this equation correct. At all.

You get energetic and on a rant. Meanwhile, 27 Major Universities have entered FBS since 1996; who's left? (ANS: Long Beach State & Pacific before the period) Do you really think all these new entrants are stupid? Of the 27, we have one of the more valued slots in AAC. (with others) You aren't losing $50m; your budget should not have forecast $80m beyond 2016-2017 (our actual revenue). You are not going to see schools exit FBS ... as one would surmise from your hysteria. You are going to see a re-construction of the division; you are going to see the AAC positioned - marginally - better; and we are hoping HCRE gets on track.

The complete "dejection" theme and crying ... is shameless. We just played two awesome programs. That should not have happened in scheduling. But ... come back to a discussion in late October to see if WE can beat Temple, Tulsa, ECU etc. And see the FR improve.

I always thought UConn fans were different than the Rutgers guys who watched a 10 year period that 3 wins was a lot. Turns out, the CT fan is just as woeful in a down period; and sucking the joy out of the experience.

LOL - pointing out losing 8 figures a year to lose every game is sucking the joy out of the experience is the funniest thing I’ve ever read here.

I agree they probably lose more than $50 million a year but hide enough expense elsewhere so a light isn’t shone on it.

If this program is 10-60 over the next five years any leadership that doesn’t consider dropping the program should be fired for cause.

 

[whaler11]

I agree - if we are playing non-competitive games years from now, long after the landscape has been completely solidified, then go ahead and make the necessary cuts. Lots of things are still up in the air though. Until then, the only very difficult recourse is patience and keep on pluggin' at it.

The other thing is that things aren’t still up in the air if that means UConn to a P5 conference. They actually have a better shot of joining the ACC if they DIDN’T have a football program.

Everything else is crazy talk.

 

[JMick]

This is utter BS

WE ARE DOING FAR BETTER than you ever portray. The Capital Investment is just huge and you will never find the State/Institution considering a drop football; the Branding and potential openings over time is right there; and regardless of what is going on with the revenue from TV and marketing ... you don't have this equation correct. At all.

You get energetic and on a rant. Meanwhile, 27 Major Universities have entered FBS since 1996; who's left? (ANS: Long Beach State & Pacific before the period) Do you really think all these new entrants are stupid? Of the 27, we have one of the more valued slots in AAC. (with others) You aren't losing $50m; your budget should not have forecast $80m beyond 2016-2017 (our actual revenue). You are not going to see schools exit FBS ... as one would surmise from your hysteria. You are going to see a re-construction of the division; you are going to see the AAC positioned - marginally - better; and we are hoping HCRE gets on track.

The complete "dejection" theme and crying ... is shameless. We just played two awesome programs. That should not have happened in scheduling. But ... come back to a discussion in late October to see if WE can beat Temple, Tulsa, ECU etc. And see the FR improve.

I always thought UConn fans were different than the Rutgers guys who watched a 10 year period that 3 wins was a lot. Turns out, the CT fan is just as woeful in a down period; and sucking the joy out of the experience.

Lol

 

[UConnNick]

Perhaps some folks are unaware that UCONN has had a football program since 1896. That pre-dates the BB program by five years. With the exception of brief suspensions during WWI and WWII, football has been played continuously since then. The BB program stopped and started up many times during the first 20 years of the 20th century, sometimes for years at a time.

We've likely lost money on the football program almost every season of its existence, yet nobody has ever axed it, and its overall lifetime record is mediocre at best.

We are a major, nationally respected, flagship state university. We are not going to drop football altogether.

 

[Dooley]

The other thing is that things aren’t still up in the air if that means UConn to a P5 conference. They actually have a better shot of joining the ACC if they DIDN’T have a football program.

Everything else is crazy talk.

You know what is really crazy talk? I can't find a single "drop football" opinion that wants to move hoops to any other conference other than the new Big Little East. If we are eventually going to pony up $10M-$12M to leave the AAC and put hoops somewhere else, why do we have to go to the friggin' Big East? If we are going to eventually shell out the coin to leave the AAC, then we better be parking hoops in the ACC/Big 10/Big 12...wherever. Heck, I think I could make a case for the SEC being a better option that the Big East 2.0. Any conference with a network would trip all over themselves to be able to play primetime games against a name as big as UConn. And at least with that kind of level of partnership, we could conceivably get a couple of football games scheduled on our independent schedule.

 

[whaler11]

You know what is really crazy talk? I can't find a single "drop football" opinion that wants to move hoops to any other conference other than the new Big Little East. If we are eventually going to pony up $10M-$12M to leave the AAC and put hoops somewhere else, why do we have to go to the friggin' Big East? If we are going to eventually shell out the coin to leave the AAC, then we better be parking hoops in the ACC/Big 10/Big 12...wherever. Heck, I think I could make a case for the SEC being a better option that the Big East 2.0. Any conference with a network would trip all over themselves to be able to play primetime games against a name as big as UConn. And at least with that kind of level of partnership, we could conceivably get a couple of football games scheduled on our independent schedule.

I think there are two options better than current state that are at least plausible.

1. No football with ACC/Hockey East

2. MAC football with Big East/Hockey East (with UMass to get them to even in FB)

I don’t know if either the ACC or Big East would sign up for that - but I do know they wouldn’t hang up the phone.

 

[Dooley]

I think there are two options better than current state that are at least plausible.

1. No football with ACC/Hockey East

2. MAC football with Big East/Hockey East (with UMass to get them to even in FB)

I don’t know if either the ACC or Big East would sign up for that - but I do know they wouldn’t hang up the phone.

Yeah, we have absolutely nothing in common with any leftover Big East school. We are a large public flagship. They are small private Catholics. If it ever came down to it, I'm completely confident that we could park our hoops programs in the highest P5 bidder's conference. Literally all of them would fall over themselves to be able to schedule any of their teams against UConn twice a year. That could probably include a couple of football games on the Independent/MAC/whatever schedule. We can schedule the Big East teams that truly matter to UConn fans - Nova & Georgetown - without having to sit through games against that league's garbage. We'd probably get a partial share - maybe $10M/yr? - for being hoops only with 2 or 3 football games, but it makes more sense to me than dropping football altogether or dropping down to partner up with Big East schools that are completely different types of institutions than UConn.

 

[whaler11]

Yeah, we have absolutely nothing in common with any leftover Big East school. We are a large public flagship. They are small private Catholics. If it ever came down to it, I'm completely confident that we could park our hoops programs in the highest P5 bidder's conference. Literally all of them would fall over themselves to be able to schedule any of their teams against UConn twice a year. That could probably include a couple of football games on the Independent/MAC/whatever schedule. We can schedule the Big East teams that truly matter to UConn fans - Nova & Georgetown - without having to sit through games against that league's garbage. We'd probably get a partial share - maybe $10M/yr? - for being hoops only with 2 or 3 football games, but it makes more sense to me than dropping football altogether or dropping down to partner up with Big East schools that are completely different types of institutions than UConn.

I don’t think ND gets 10 from the ACC and they unlock bowl deals.

I also don’t see any deal to be made with the SEC or Big Ten - their networks are going to lose revenue going forward they aren’t going to dilute the payday by adding more mouths tonfeed.

The ACC potentially works because of geography and the synergy in NYC and Boston.

UConn has two very important things in common with Big East schools: 1. We all care about basketball and not football. 2. A bunch of them are close

 

[BlueDogs]

It would be insanely stupid to drop from FBS let alone drop football all together. Talk about destroying any hope of being a flagship national university...what we need to do is double down and invest in success

 

[Pudge]

We have the head coach giving press conferences on just how awful things are and you think it's the fans sucking the joy out of the experience?

I used to laugh at Rutgers fans. Now ... that's the hole we are in. And I am going to bet we aren't gonna be there as long. (O ... the other thing: they went years with 0-3 wins for quite some time)

 

[noeynox]

I used to laugh at Rutgers fans. Now ... that's the hole we are in. And I am going to bet we aren't gonna be there as long. (O ... the other thing: they went years with 0-3 wins for quite some time)

So like us currently.

This is a deep hole, but it isn't the fans sucking the joy out of the experience. That's like Benedict saying the fans need to be accountable for attendance. They're laughable statements.

The fans still showing up are the ones that still care. The ones youre trying to reach and get back and share the joy with, they stopped paying attention long ago. This program is irrelevant to those people. No one left that supports this product with any combination of time and money deserves to any crap from Benedict, Edsall or anyone else.

 

[kemba]

Location and market are important, but that all relates to football because that's where the money comes from. There was nothing wrong with our location and market during prior CR dust ups, and if BB meant anything we'd already be in a P5 league.

Rutgers proved you could do it without a good football program, or anything else other than cable TV boxes, where you force people to pay for the BTN whether they want it or not. Our market isn't as good as theirs.

Right but we're not trying to go back in time and beat out those teams, we're trying to be in position to beat out the remaining teams hoping to make p5.

 

[UConnNick]

Right but we're not trying to go back in time and beat out those teams, we're trying to be in position to beat out the remaining teams hoping to make p5.

True, which means our market competition will likely be Houston, Memphis, Cincinnati, Tampa, Orlando, and possibly Philadelphia. It will essentially be the same dog and pony show the B12 ramped up a couple of years back.

 

[JustSaying]

On a side...

Fact: Most of the top FBS football programs DO have the largest fan bases. Here's just one report. There are many more.

Ranking Every College Football Team's Fanbases by Loyalty

 

[RSTuthill]

On a side...

Fact: Most of the top FBS football programs DO have the largest fan bases. Here's just one report. There are many more.

Ranking Every College Football Team's Fanbases by Loyalty

And your point is? Winning breeds fan enthusiasm which breeds more winning through the magic of recruiting the best players to the best known and highest level programs?

 

[zls44]

If I could be a logistics supplier to you morons who think throwing good money after bad because it'll surely workout eventually because REASONS, I could retire tomorrow.

 

[zls44]

Literally all of them would fall over themselves to be able to schedule any of their teams against UConn twice a year.

Which is why...almost none of them...do it...?

 

[zls44]

Yeah, we have absolutely nothing in common with any leftover Big East school. We are a large public flagship. They are small private Catholics. If it ever came down to it, I'm completely confident that we could park our hoops programs in the highest P5 bidder's conference.

Nah, you're right. UConn's entire rise was IN NO WAY involved with playing the private schools like Villanova, Georgetown and Providence. They had no role. It was only the big publics like Miami and Rutgers.

Christ.

 

[zls44]

Perhaps some folks are unaware that UCONN has had a football program since 1896. That pre-dates the BB program by five years. With the exception of brief suspensions during WWI and WWII, football has been played continuously since then. The BB program stopped and started up many times during the first 20 years of the 20th century, sometimes for years at a time.

We've likely lost money on the football program almost every season of its existence, yet nobody has ever axed it, and its overall lifetime record is mediocre at best.

Ok...but...wait...was this supposed to be an argument IN FAVOR of it? Because, uh, buddy, that's literally the opposite of what you just made.

Totally makes sense to compare what the program cost the school in 1948 to what it costs it today, yep, exact totes the same. Mmhmm. Why stop doing something dumb if you've always done it- that's the AMERICAN way!

 

[Fishy]

The only hope of this program is that somehow, some day, we'll find our way into a better conference.

Our chances are not good. Our chances without an FBS football program are zero.

If you prefer not good to zero, then you'd better hope we keep football.