AAC & Grant-of-Rights

[StunningSteve]

First time for everything.

Actually UAB tried a couple years ago. This season they’re bowling again.
So perhaps if UConn engages the process, it will improve the football team.

 

[yukonfan4]

@Pudge- based on your profile pic you should know better than anyone that uconn is the charlie brown of football programs

a swing and miss laughingstock over and over and over again

 

[HuskyHawk]

One of the most perplexing concepts in this thread is the notion that basketball needs to be "saved". It did need to be saved and we hired Hurley so now it has been saved. Mission accomplished.

Given that basketball is now just fine, why would UConn entertain the idea of leaving a conference that preserves the chance of a P5 invite, provides greater media exposure and which will pay them more money soon than the Big East will ever earn? Playing St. Johns isn't worth a permanent spot in purgatory.

 

[StunningSteve]

So it’s ok to play Tulane, Tulsa and ecu twice a year because our football team blows?

AAC doesn’t have round robin scheduling. The top teams only play the bottom teams once.
Tulsa just beat two B12 teams last week tho, so they have work to do to reach the one-off level. (Something you can root for)

 

[Dooley]

Anyone who thinks that saving football is the priority at this point isn't someone we should be listening to, tbh. The only question is what we do with it while we save the basketball program.

I was 100% on board w/ waiting for the realignment thing to shake itself out and to give them some time to figure things out and hopefully turn it around - but the dominoes are going to fall earlier than everyone thought it seems and that program isn't going to get anymore time. They're out of time, basically. Keeping football relevant really isn't or shouldn't be part of the conversation at this point. Because I don't think it's possible to keep it relevant.

Ironically, the football program and basketball program both have "UConn" written on their jerseys. I assure you (and all others) that it is indeed possible to root for BOTH the football and basketball teams at the same time.

A successful football program re-opens the door to the ACC and, you guessed it, cementing basketball in a power conference and the national stage that it deserves to be on.

By continuing this dead horse debate, UConn fans are shooting themselves in the foot. Both feet actually.

 

[yukonfan4]

hurley's contract is for 6 years. all the dust from the next conference realignment will have settled by 2025, which is (gulp) also in 6 years....

god i hope he signs a looooong extension before then.

because you cant blame him for leaving if the future AAC is only comprised of uconn, tulane, tulsa, temple, ecu, smu, and wichita/navy.

 

[Adios]

Listen I lost 5 years of my limited life expectancy on Conference Realignment that amounted to endless and usually almost groundless speculation. I refused to be sucked in.
Let’s talk basketball.

Don't listen to armchair administrators on message boards.

 

[VAHuskyFan]

One of the most perplexing concepts in this thread is the notion that basketball needs to be "saved". It did need to be saved and we hired Hurley so now it has been saved. Mission accomplished.

Given that basketball is now just fine, why would UConn entertain the idea of leaving a conference that preserves the chance of a P5 invite, provides greater media exposure and which will pay them more money soon than the Big East will ever earn? Playing St. Johns isn't worth a permanent spot in purgatory.

How does bleeding out 8 figures annually to field a historically bad football team put us in a better position for a P5 invite than suspending the program and using the money we would have spent to build a war chest to relaunch football in a P5 conference?

How does simply having a team help us if the team isn’t winning, fans aren’t watching, and we aren’t in a position to try to spend our way out of the death spiral? The coach and AD don’t even seem to think we’ll be competitive for another two years. And that’s their BEST CASE scenario. We will be playing in front of 5,000 people by then and even deeper in the red financially. How does any of that help us get into a P5 conference?

 

[Adios]

Ironically, the football program and basketball program both have "UConn" written on their jerseys. I assure you (and all others) that it is indeed possible to root for BOTH the football and basketball teams at the same time.

A successful football program re-opens the door to the ACC and, you guessed it, cementing basketball in a power conference and the national stage that it deserves to be on.

By continuing this dead horse debate, UConn fans are shooting themselves in the foot. Both feet actually.

It's amazing how idiotic our fanbase can be.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

They haven't won a thing. Getting blown out by Oklahoma in the Fiesta bowl was embarrassing. Kill the program and focus on what made us UConn and that's Basketball.

They won two conference titles in a BCS league. Whether you want to admit that or not, it counts. We can win here. It'll be harder in the AAC but it can be done.

Getting into a P5 league playing football is the only viable long term solution to the athletic department as a whole.

The Big East is a good basketball league, but it isn't the one we left and I'm not going to throw away the chance to be relevant in 20 years just to play in the New Big East.

If it 10 years we can no longer support football, so be it. Just know that basketball will be following shortly behind.

 

[TRest]

It's amazing how idiotic our fanbase can be.

Yes, its pretty amazing all right.

 

[Madmannsucks]

So a couple things to consider. When they went 0-12, the cupboard was not bare. They were 9 and 4 the previous year. The recruiting classes were ranked in the high 60's for 2014/15/16...which is a solid class in the AAC. So that is how they did it.

 

[yukonfan4]

Getting into a P5 league playing football is the only viable long term solution to the athletic department as a whole.

didn't villanova just win 2 chips in 3 years playing in the big east, which is not a P5?

how much more relevant can you get? why are you doubting their athletic departments long term viability?

if you're claiming their bball team is an outlier then please explain how their other teams have suffered or are failing since joining the new big east e.g. baseball, lacrosse, soccer, track, golf, swimming, etc. and the womens teams.

 

[StunningSteve]

So a couple things to consider. When they went 0-12, the cupboard was not bare. They were 9 and 4 the previous year. The recruiting classes were ranked in the high 60's for 2014/15/16...which is a solid class in the AAC. So that is how they did it.

All it takes is the right hire/vision.

Memphis and Temple were both bottom feeders prior to the AAC. Memphis hired Fuente and Temple hired Rhule.
Temple has already won the conference and Memphis has appeared in the last two championship games. Both programs have put first rounders in the draft.
UConn was ahead of both those programs prior to Diaco. Hell, Temple got kicked out of the real Big East conference.

 

[Chief00]

So a couple things to consider. When they went 0-12, the cupboard was not bare. They were 9 and 4 the previous year. The recruiting classes were ranked in the high 60's for 2014/15/16...which is a solid class in the AAC. So that is how they did it.

So they did not use a terrible season as an excuse to have a bad recruiting year.

 

[polycom]

didn't villanova just win 2 chips in 3 years playing in the big east, which is not a P5?

are you doubting their athletic departments long term viability?

if you're claiming their bball team is an outlier then please explain how their other teams have suffered or are failing since joining the new big east e.g. baseball, lacrosse, soccer, track, golf, swimming, etc. and the womens teams.

Here we have an individual comparing a private school to a public school can you please explain the following to me.

Villanova Concludes Historic Comprehensive Campaign at $759 Million, Exceeding Original Goal by over $150 Million | Villanova University

https://www.foundation.uconn.edu/wp...pdf-uconnfoundation-endowment-report-2017.pdf

 

[yukonfan4]

Here we have an individual comparing a private school to a public school can you please explain the following to me.

so your saying uconns atheltic department is in jeopardy cause our endowment is over $400 million. lol. it's significantly smaller than only 4 of the big east schools.

that's a wriggle worthy of hoodini

 

[Madmannsucks]

So they did not use a terrible season as an excuse to have a bad recruiting year.

Yeah, let's compare recruiting in Storrs Ct afte 4 abysmal seasons with recruiting in Orlando Fla.

 

[Towney007]

Good lord if I hear one more homer cry about rooting for the good ole home team I’m gonna scream.

This has nothing to do with cheering flipping team. It’s the simple dollars and cents. They don’t invest in the program BECAUSE THE MONEY ISN’T THERE TO INVEST. do you think this AD *wants* to trot historically bad teams out onto the field that 3,000 delusional lunatics want to watch that just bleeds a huge part of your budget while all the other programs pay more out of their pocketa to fly to Tulsa to play soccer?

Look - I was all for waiting for realignment - but it’s clear the powers that be aren’t willing to wait to do it - they’re looking to do it now. At a point where our football team is literally worthless. It might even be an ankle weight to any conference it’d join.

There aren’t 3/5 more years to figure this out. Buzzer is up.

There aren’t going to be more investments because the money isn’t there.

And there’s no place to put this flaming pile of a program that’s going to help inch them closer to where the supposed goal is.


There isn’t the money. There isn’t anymore time. There isn’t another road.


Would have been nice to have those three years to hope for the best, but then again we had seven years to figure it out and didn’t. That’s life. That’s what happens when you consistently underinvest and half-you know what everything. They blew it. There aren’t more chances.

I’m sorry I don’t want the thing to get shot into the sun but I think it takes a borderline delusional sense of devotion to the athletics department, the university or the concept itself to have any faith in its future at this point. You take the emotion out of it there’s not much of anything to work with.

 

[StunningSteve]

Looks like Manny Diaz is taking the Temple job. The Florida pipelines look to be pointing to Philly.

 

[polycom]

so your saying uconns atheltic department is in jeopardy cause our endowment is over $400 million. lol. it's significantly smaller than only 4 of the big east schools.

that's a wriggle worthy of hoodini

No I'm saying your take that we should be compared to Nova is dumb. Our Endowment is $400M, they raised $700M in over 5 years. We are not similar schools at all. Nova could have losing seasons for years on end and they will always have the ability to hire a new coach or invest in the program. UConn doesn't have the same luxury and we should be compared to schools with the same luxury. What UConn is, is a state institution with a strong basketball tradition that needs to get much better at playing the game in advance of the next conference realignment. Conference realignment is about money power and influence currently we have none of really any of those things. The goal from now until the next cycle is to get at least 2 of them.

 

[Drew]

Looks like Manny Diaz is taking the Temple job. The Florida pipelines look to be pointing to Philly.

I think this is fake (not to say it won’t happen eventually)

 

[StunningSteve]

I think this is fake (not to say it won’t happen eventually)

You may be right. There seems to be smoke (or they are all getting it from the same post)

 

[Adios]

No I'm saying your take that we should be compared to Nova is dumb. Our Endowment is $400M they raised $700M in 1 year. We are not similar schools at all. Nova could have losing seasons for years on end and they will always have the ability to hire a new coach or invest in the program. UConn doesn't have the same luxury and we should be compared to schools with the same luxury. What UConn is, is a state institution with a strong basketball tradition that needs to get much better at playing the game in advance of the next conference realignment. Conference realignment is about money power and influence currently we have none of really any of those things. The goal from now until the next cycle is to get at least 2 of them.

We have 22 championships, are considered a blue blood in basketball by many, especially with a historic women's program, and have a very strong market.

God Almighty.