AAC commissioner discusses his league's football future and its sudden split with UConn | Page 2 | The Boneyard

AAC commissioner discusses his league's football future and its sudden split with UConn

I love how Houston and SMU fans are on this board complaining about our departure.

If you really didn't want us to leave, maybe you shouldn't have tried to profit off of our destruction in the most recent contract! We wouldn't be leaving if all y'all weren't trying to monetize our best teams on a streaming service. Now, you can enjoy all the "plus" you want...
 
UConnNick said:
Go polish all your NCAA national championship trophies in men's and women's basketball. Whoops, sorry, I forgot...you don't have any. Well, you've always got those ancient trophies in men's golf over there in the corner collecting dust. Shine those babies up. You can leave now, Mr. Troll.

Thank you for your interest in UConn sports. Have a nice day, now signing off from the Capital of College Basketball, Storrs, Connecticut, USA. (15 combined NCAA DI national championships in college basketball...more than any school in the country)
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and writing out “y’all” ...that’s as fakeazz southern as it comes.
 
Scuuuuuuz me !

Been sayin' y'all all my life...nothing wrong with y'all except when youse guys do it.

But use it correctly. And, Dan, I give you kudos for correct use of all y'all.

Singular...to one person...as in y'all come back soon.

Plural..up to five people...y'all come back soon

More than five...All y'all come back soon.
 
billybud said:
More than five...All y'all come back soon.
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UConnDan97 said:
We wouldn't be leaving if all y'all weren't trying to monetize our best teams on a streaming service.
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Wait, more than 5 for "all y'all"???

I may have overestimated the amount of Houston and SMU fans...
 
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jostar1 said:
CBS Sports: Is this situation unique to UConn or a symptom of Group of Five struggles keeping up with the Power Five?
Aresco: … We did everything we could knowing they were unhappy about things.
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What did they do?
 
Waquoit said:
What did they do?
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I think he's probably talking about letting UConn host both the Mens and Womens hoops tournaments.
UConn apparently was also one of the main voices behind an Olympics-sports addition in 2017.
Conference offices stayed in the Northeast until the upcoming move.
 
Here’s a “two state” solution.

UConn exits the AAC July 2020.
UConn plays eight games against the AAC out of conference for 2020 to keep everyone’s schedule in balance. We could negotiate the exit fee and tv rights to our home games in this season as part of the deal. Since we are non a member we won’t have access to the AAC bowls / etc in 2020. Politically Aresco can argue he was tough on us and didn’t really give us anything other than a one year scheduling alliance.
UConn plays a full independent schedule for 2021 under a new SNY tv contract.
 
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When you see the words in brackets they aren't a part of Aresco's quote, they're the interviewer trying to provide context. When you read that it's pretty clear that Aresco is saying UConn won't be playing in our conference, but we plan to enforce the terms of the agreement, meaning that UConn will have to negotiate out early. There is nothing there directly from Aresco that's he's going to both kick out UConn and enforce 27 months... CBS sports added the [after 2019]
 
Waquoit said:
What did they do?
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LOL! Does "...doing everything you could..." also include torpedoing our SNY deal just because none of the other schools could benefit from it. Divvying up every single teams' Tier 3 rights and giving every school a share is sorta like Communism, isn't it Mike? The only problem is none of the other schools have any Tier 3 rights, so giving up our Tier 3 rights helps everybody else in the conference but us. What an assclown this guy is. I'd love to get him in a courtroom so he can explain all this BS to a jury.
 
UConnDan97 said:
I could be in a room with 20 women and no men, and I would still say, "Hey you guys!"

You're right... I've never been in a room with 20 women and no guys...
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Time to visit the Castle Anthrax...for the peril.
 
uconnell said:
Possibly known as bagmen.
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The Koch Brothers in Wichita own a business empire. Tillman Fertitta in Houston owns the Rockets and the Landry's restaurant chain, which includes about 35 brand offshoots. The problem with bagmen in America these days is that many of them have become very respectable.

It reminds me of Eddie DeBartolo, Jr., former owner of the SF 49'ers. Eddie is a gangster in Youngstown, Ohio. The NFL always knew about Eddie, but since he had the most successful franchise in the NFL, they looked the other way. Eventually the feds got him for tax evasion and money laundering, so the NFL was forced to ditch him by making him sell the franchise. That this guy is in the NFL HOF is disgusting.
 
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UConnDan97 said:
I love how Houston and SMU fans are on this board complaining about our departure.

If you really didn't want us to leave, maybe you shouldn't have tried to profit off of our destruction in the most recent contract! We wouldn't be leaving if all y'all weren't trying to monetize our best teams on a streaming service. Now, you can enjoy all the "plus" you want...
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1) I don’t really want you to leave. I have a ton of friends who are UConn fans and we enjoyed watching the games together. But, I don’t want UConn FB without UConn BB.

2) The destruction of your MBB program is largely a self made problem (bad hire) and memories of past BE glory by your fans. Other BB schools in the league have stepped up their game. Why did UConn fall behind?

3) The obsession by UConn fans about the SNY deal is confusing to me. Yes, you would have been able to make more money if you had been able to make your own T3 deal. But, every AAC member will make more money off the AAC TV deal than any G5 school and every independent except ND and (possibly) BYU. Why would ESPN want to pay $7m per year to UConn and not have all your MBB and WBB games on its networks? They certainly were paying that money to televise your FB games. They certainly didn’t let UCF/USF/UH keep its Tier 3 FB rights. They didn’t let Memphis keep its T3 basketball rights.

4) One last thing, ESPN essentially owns the AAC. If they want UConn to stay in the AAC for FB, the AAC would probably agree. Considering the tax breaks CT gave ESPN (and the number of UConn grads working in Bristol), CT state government should be trying to force ESPN to try to get the AAC to help out UConn.
 
MustangMan said:
1) I don’t really want you to leave. I have a ton of friends who are UConn fans and we enjoyed watching the games together. But, I don’t want UConn FB without UConn BB.

2) The destruction of your MBB program is largely a self made problem (bad hire) and memories of past BE glory by your fans. Other BB schools in the league have stepped up their game. Why did UConn fall behind?

3) The obsession by UConn fans about the SNY deal is confusing to me. Yes, you would have been able to make more money if you had been able to make your own T3 deal. But, every AAC member will make more money off the AAC TV deal than any G5 school and every independent except ND and (possibly) BYU. Why would ESPN want to pay $7m per year to UConn and not have all your MBB and WBB games on its networks? They certainly were paying that money to televise your FB games. They certainly didn’t let UCF/USF/UH keep its Tier 3 FB rights. They didn’t let Memphis keep its T3 basketball rights.

4) One last thing, ESPN essentially owns the AAC. If they want UConn to stay in the AAC for FB, the AAC would probably agree. Considering the tax breaks CT gave ESPN (and the number of UConn grads working in Bristol), CT state government should be trying to force ESPN to try to get the AAC to help out UConn.
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Your sentiments about wanting to keep UConn are nice, but your school's leadership clearly doesn't agree. We know this from the outcome of the most recent contract negotiation.

As for your comments about not understanding our love for SNY; you don't sound like you're from the northeast then. NYC is very much the lifeblood of CT. Much of our financial health as a state is derived from it, and some of our best sports recruits come from it. Also, it's millions of eyeballs on our program. We refer to UConn as "the sixth borough".

The fact that you don't understand our relationship with the city is EXACTLY why we had to get the hell out of this ridiculous conference...
 
MustangMan said:
3) The obsession by UConn fans about the SNY deal is confusing to me. Yes, you would have been able to make more money if you had been able to make your own T3 deal. But, every AAC member will make more money off the AAC TV deal than any G5 school and every independent except ND and (possibly) BYU. Why would ESPN want to pay $7m per year to UConn and not have all your MBB and WBB games on its networks? They certainly were paying that money to televise your FB games. They certainly didn’t let UCF/USF/UH keep its Tier 3 FB rights. They didn’t let Memphis keep its T3 basketball rights.

4) One last thing, ESPN essentially owns the AAC. If they want UConn to stay in the AAC for FB, the AAC would probably agree. Considering the tax breaks CT gave ESPN (and the number of UConn grads working in Bristol), CT state government should be trying to force ESPN to try to get the AAC to help out UConn.
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Buddy, you realize that when our WBB was folded into the new ESPN AAC contract it was completely inequitable because not one other AAC women’s BB program is worth two nickels. Therefore it was like UConn being asked to contribute a RollsRoyce to the kitty when everyone else brings a tricycle and then getting in return a used Ford Fusion. Yeah, the balance of the league got an upgrade, but solely on the backs of our downgrade. The arrogance of Aresco to assume we were up sheetz creek here and would have to accept this was a big gamble and he bet wrong.

Second big point, there is no P5 future for UConn aside from the outside chance the B1G or ACC come calling. We are not b12 material. And the b12 will not make the same mistake as the AAC and CUSA by adding non contiguous schools. It doesn’t work. You need rival alumni bases rubbing elbows at some capacity or there is no passion. With no passion ticket sales decline. UConn has decided our near zero odds are the same for P5 status regardless of where our football lies. After all did good football bring the B1G to rutty?

Lastly, ESPN is dominated by Syracuse people. They have never thrown UConn a bone once. For too long we have been a cats toys to them... something to play with. We shouldn’t poke ESPN in the eye on the way out the door to Fox/SNY, but there is no love loss there and really, it will be nice to be someplace that actually cares.
 
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UConnDan97 said:
Your sentiments about wanting to keep UConn are nice, but your school's leadership clearly doesn't agree. We know this from the outcome of the most recent contract negotiation.

As for your comments about not understanding our love for SNY; you don't sound like you're from the northeast then. NYC is very much the lifeblood of CT. Much of our financial health as a state is derived from it, and some of our best sports recruits come from it. Also, it's millions of eyeballs on our program. We refer to UConn as "the sixth borough".

The fact that you don't understand our relationship with the city is EXACTLY why we had to get the hell out of this ridiculous conference...
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I lived in Hartford for well over a decade and probably averaged 1-2 FB games and 2-4 BB games per year during that time. Unless they were playing SMU, I cheered them on.

Furthermore, I get why BE BB is a good/better home for you. I just don’t think SNY should have been a dealbreaker. Normal, cable channels are losing subscribers. Anyone who lives in the Farmington Valley knows people who lost their jobs at a ESPN due to cord cutting.

I couldn’t find SNY’s subscriber count, but ESPN+ is growing fast.

www.theverge.com

ESPN+ passes 2 million subscribers in under a year

A bundle with the upcoming Disney+ service might be in the works.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com
 
MustangMan said:
I lived in Hartford for well over a decade and probably averaged 1-2 FB games and 2-4 BB games per year during that time. Unless they were playing SMU, I cheered them on.

Furthermore, I get why BE BB is a good/better home for you. I just don’t think SNY should have been a dealbreaker. Normal, cable channels are losing subscribers. Anyone who lives in the Farmington Valley knows people who lost their jobs at a ESPN due to cord cutting.

I couldn’t find SNY’s subscriber count, but ESPN+ is growing fast.

www.theverge.com

ESPN+ passes 2 million subscribers in under a year

A bundle with the upcoming Disney+ service might be in the works.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com
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First off, if you lived in Hartford for a decade then you're not very bright. Nobody who has lived here for a decade talks the way you do about UConn-related issues.

Secondly, the SNY snub was only part of the greater screw job. Putting our women on ESPN+ with a fanbase average age of about 95 was going to alienate the entire supporting public.

Exposure was going to drop for less overall money in a conference with no rivals where all the members were completely fine with taking advantage of us to support the likes of Tulsa and SMU. Buh-bye...
 
Exit 4 said:
Buddy, you realize that when our WBB was folded into the new ESPN AAC contract it was completely inequitable because not one other AAC women’s BB program is worth two nickels. Therefore it was like UConn being asked to contribute a RollsRoyce to the kitty when everyone else brings a tricycle and then getting in return a used Ford Fusion. Yeah, the balance of the league got an upgrade, but solely on the backs of our downgrade. The arrogance of Aresco to assume we were up sheetz creek here and would have to accept this was a big gamble and he bet wrong.

Second big point, there is no P5 future for UConn aside from the outside chance the B1G or ACC come calling. We are not b12 material. And the b12 will not make the same mistake as the AAC and CUSA by adding non contiguous schools. It doesn’t work. You need rival alumni bases rubbing elbows at some capacity or there is no passion. With no passion ticket sales decline. UConn has decided our near zero odds are the same for P5 status regardless of where our football lies. After all did good football bring the B1G to rutty?

Lastly, ESPN is dominated by Syracuse people. They have never thrown UConn a bone once. For too long we have been a cats toys to them... something to play with. We shouldn’t poke ESPN in the eye on the way out the door to Fox/SNY, but there is no love loss there and really, it will be nice to be someplace that actually cares.
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Women’s BB may be valuable. Indeed, that is why ESPN wanted it.

But, it was nowhere near the value of what UCF, USF, UH, Memphis, and Cincinnati contributed. Imagine Aresco trying to explain to their ADs that they would get less because UConn cut a side deal with SNY. How do you think that would have gone?
 
MustangMan said:
Women’s BB may be valuable. Indeed, that is why ESPN wanted it.

But, it was nowhere near the value of what UCF, USF, UH, Memphis, and Cincinnati contributed. Imagine Aresco trying to explain to their ADs that they would get less because UConn cut a side deal with SNY. How do you think that would have gone?
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How dense are you? It’s simple, exclude WBB from the new ESPN contract. This conversation is reaching new levels of stupid. No one prices football by school. You know that.
 
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