AAC & Grant-of-Rights

[CTBballfan243]

Hopefully the GOR won't include Tier 3 rights or Women's basketball. UConn's Tier 3 and WBB rights are worth some decent money for UConn. I believe currently UConn has to share the WBB $$$ with the rest of the conference.

 

[Wordbomar]

What I don’t understand is why don’t we go to the Big East and negotiate keeping our Tier-3 rights since we’d be taking a pay cut?

 

[Dooley]

What I don’t understand is why don’t we go to the Big East and negotiate keeping our Tier-3 rights since we’d be taking a pay cut?

The Big East schools all forfeited their T3 rights in their deal with FOX. Their deal is all-inclusive content.

 

[Towney007]

How quickly and easily the Big East got the MSG renewal makes me wonder if they know something. I also think that Fox gaining complete control of UConn MBB and WBB from underneath ESPN's nose could be worth them giving UConn a rather enticing football independence deal.

This was actually my exact thought, but I don't want to get too antenna-ish yet. On the sports side of things right now, they're chasing a ton of established, but undervalued brands. They just bought Smackdown's TV rights (I know, not sports, but), they bought into the Bundesliga instead of overpaying for La Liga or the EPL and I've noticed (because I only get FS1 through my sling package) - there's a lot more branded Big East content on their station. They just dumped the UFC stuff because it was getting too expensive.

I've got a feeling Fox has something going on. I'm getting a little too Glenn Beck for my tastes, but I kinda feel ya. Something's up.

 

[Husky68]

We're officially in a world where people are trying to make a case Cincinnati is a better school than Villanova.

Good lord.

Maybe I was reading it wrong, but think the response was to the research institution part of the comment below:

"Villanova is a research institution with, at least, a national brand (and 3 national championships)"

It doesn't follow that the challenge to a comment about a school being "a research institution" is the same as saying Cincinnati is "a better school".

Per the following on Wikipedia:
Universities classified as "R1: Doctoral Universities – Highest Research Activity"[edit]

Main article: Research I university

There are 115 institutions that are classified as "R1: Doctoral Universities – Highest research activity" in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.[2]

This is a pretty high caliber crew of 115 schools. Include CIT, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale (essentially all the guys you would expect plus big public schools).

Big East schools included:

Georgetown.

AAC schools included:

Temple
Tulane
UCF
USF
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Houston

Not saying anything other than as to a question of research activity this list of 115 pretty profile schools includes no Villanova, one BE school and seven AAC schools (and list excludes service academies).

 

[intlzncster]

Anybody got a good tldr they wanna offer up? Would really appreciate it. This looks like a 10 pg conference realignment thread--just can't do it.

 

[StepbackCity]

Oh no! We can't join the big east because we're too scared to play providence!

 

[HuskyHawk]

This was actually my exact thought, but I don't want to get too antenna-ish yet. On the sports side of things right now, they're chasing a ton of established, but undervalued brands. They just bought Smackdown's TV rights (I know, not sports, but), they bought into the Bundesliga instead of overpaying for La Liga or the EPL and I've noticed (because I only get FS1 through my sling package) - there's a lot more branded Big East content on their station. They just dumped the UFC stuff because it was getting too expensive.

I've got a feeling Fox has something going on. I'm getting a little too Glenn Beck for my tastes, but I kinda feel ya. Something's up.

I don't want us to go to the Big East, but this is one way to do it. Fox would need to get the B1G and Big XII to agree to play us in football on a reasonable basis. B1G has designated UConn as a "P5" level opponent (comical given our level of play).

While we are on conspiracy theories, I think ESPN could do the same by parking us in the ACC for everything but football, and guaranteeing 4 games a year home/road.

 

[Wordbomar]

The Big East schools all forfeited their T3 rights in their deal with FOX. Their deal is all-inclusive content.

Gotcha, that makes sense. Still Dooley, at the end of the day, you said it yourself that next realignment won’t include us because of football. We can still save our legendary basketball reputation and successful olympic sports reputations by going to the Big East. By staying in the AAC we are on a long road to nowhere. Imagine the AAC when Cincy, UCF, and Memphis are no longer in it?

 

[HuskyHawk]

Gotcha, that makes sense. Still Dooley, at the end of the day, you said it yourself that next realignment won’t include us because of football. We can still save our legendary basketball reputation and successful olympic sports reputations by going to the Big East. By staying in the AAC we are on a long road to nowhere. Imagine the AAC when Cincy, UCF, and Memphis are no longer in it?

If those schools leave, even I agree we have to pull the plug. But I don't see it happening. As for Olympic sports, which are better in the Big East? Basketball...a little bit. Baseball? No AAC is way better. Soccer? Basketball doesn't need to be in the Big East to be saved. We just need to win games and we absolutely can in this league.

 

[Ha Who]

After reading all this, I long for the pending Big/ACC battle over us threads.

 

[Towney007]

Posting without comment on it, but just so everyone has it - these are your academic rankings for all the schools. Big East is a little different as you're looking at Providence, Butler, Providence and Xavier being more 'regional' universities - but who are also basically among the best in that category, particularly PC, Butler and Creighton.

 

[upstater]

Yes, UC is a better school than Villanova.....lol

It is.

 

[Towney007]

I don't want us to go to the Big East, but this is one way to do it. Fox would need to get the B1G and Big XII to agree to play us in football on a reasonable basis. B1G has designated UConn as a "P5" level opponent (comical given our level of play).

While we are on conspiracy theories, I think ESPN could do the same by parking us in the ACC for everything but football, and guaranteeing 4 games a year home/road.

Yeah there are a ton of ways to do it. But whatever it'd have to be, it'd have to be creative. That much I think we'd agree on.

 

[upstater]

Better for what? Better as a liberal arts school? No.
Undergraduate Engineering? Even USNWR has Cinci #86 and Nova #107.
Their law schools are ranked similarly. How about Graduate Sciences?
Villanova doesn't even have any.

It's better in all non-professional programs (those mainly have regional appeal, ie. business and law, etc.). Villanova has higher SATs, though admissions is above 50%.

 

[Guapo]

It is.

LOL

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Nova is like Quinipiac. Fun name to say and expensive for the sake of being expensive.

 

[upstater]

It is astonishing. The old model of "this school is better than that school" is gone. Out the window. Sure Stanford is better than Memphis at everything, but if you don't think USF, UCF, Cinci and others are better than a mediocre liberal arts schools like Villanova at many things, then you aren't paying attention.

Employers know who puts out good grads in Physics, Math, Chemistry, Accounting, every engineering field etc. And in many cases it is not the "name" schools that you think it is.
Wichita State is no academic powerhouse, but if you want to be an Aerospace engineer it's better than most. And the people at Boeing know it. University of Alabama Birmingham, can't be any good right? Except the Med school is excellent.

New Englanders over-emphasize liberal arts (which is being de-emphasized by employers and students) and perceived "prestige". There is good reason, we are loaded with very good small liberal arts schools, and have very few strong graduate research and science focused schools (with a few obvious exceptions like MIT).

I don't know about very many and very few. I would consider Villanova a pre-professional school, and not really a liberal arts school. And that's based on size of department and major.

But nationally, 85% of schools are state schools, with liberal arts privates accounting for less than 7%. There are a good many private schools that are not liberal arts at all (in my area, there are dozens of them, schools one never hears about). But for the true liberal arts schools, there are probably only 100-150 of them.

 

[Dooley]

Gotcha, that makes sense. Still Dooley, at the end of the day, you said it yourself that next realignment won’t include us because of football. We can still save our legendary basketball reputation and successful olympic sports reputations by going to the Big East. By staying in the AAC we are on a long road to nowhere. Imagine the AAC when Cincy, UCF, and Memphis are no longer in it?

The best way to preserve our legendary basketball reputation is by doing everything we can to get it into a P5 conference. To me, there is no difference in the long term trajectory of the Big East or AAC. If anything, I would say the AAC will be better in 10 years as long as nobody leaves. The GOR would ensure nobody leaves.

It seems counter-intuitive, but the best way to ensure our hoops remains nationally relevant is by significantly increasing our investment in football. We are never going to be a national contender in football and we don't have to be. We just need to be a small bowl game caliber football program like we were in the old Big East years. Once we get there, we are the most attractive P5 expansion candidate BY FAR because we could then offer P5 conferences what they truly covet - year round competitive sports in the biggest market corridor in the country. In other words, money.

 

[upstater]

LOL

Department rankings + research show it is. It falls in the rankings because of its mission, which is to serve the public.

Cincinnati has 46,000 students. It's a public school. But it gives more support to faculty than Villanova does and so it attracts better faculty, who produce more, which leads to higher rankings in the metrics that look at such things.

USNews just can't account for the fact that 46,000 students will create a difference in the admission standards. It does this repeatedly. There are AAU schools ranked in the 100-200 level for heaven's sake. Meanwhile, the AAU takes a fine-toothed comb and looks at research/publication/citation of every faculty member of every department of every college of every prospective university. Their analysis is thorough--not an accident.

 

[Pudge]

Posting without comment on it, but just so everyone has it - these are your academic rankings for all the schools. Big East is a little different as you're looking at Providence, Butler, Providence and Xavier being more 'regional' universities - but who are also basically among the best in that category, particularly PC, Butler and Creighton.


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YOU seem to have a real problem understanding a BASIC component to Higher Education: Research University.

If you get a Masters at Villanova ... ok that is an extension of a good Undergrad. Nice to have on the resume. But at a Cincinnati, USF, UCONN ... you have a major regional research (READ Medical plus other things) and that is what some of the P5 conferences really desire.

I know I know ... they have been good in hoop winning NCs. I know I know ... the Prep school kids and youngsters from West Hartford & Rye (NY) are eager to go to Villanova or Georgetown. Simply does not address the issue that is vitally important. So Rant on ... dear T.

 

[xclamations]

Disney is about to own/purchase 20th century fox soon too. How does that come into play with all this i wonder... uconn and gonzaga would be great adds for basketball to the BE. If this football thing doesn't work out... like it seems