AAC & Grant-of-Rights

[Adios]

 

[Madmannsucks]

So what are you implying? The head basketball coach will have a direct effect on what conference UConn plays in six years from now?

He didn't last time. The Head Coach Emeritus didn't last time. Heck, the Athletic Director had only ancillary involvement. Conference affiliation decisions are made at the university president level and higher, to say nothing of the fact that conference affiliation is not an application process. Institutions must be extended an invitation. What will be the options in five years? I have a hard time believing either 1) it will be much of a choice, or 2) Dan Hurley's input will be actively solicited. What would he have to offer? His role in conference realignment is to win basketball games and graduate player. Period. That and only that will help put the athletic department's best foot forward.

Oh, I thought you were saying St Joseph's was going to the BE....

 

[CL82]

Ha ha, ... and right before leaving. That's cold.

 

[Towney007]

But seriously, in the college baseball community, the fact that UConn is currently the best program in the northeast is really not up for much debate.

No. Not even close. I'm in the college baseball community. Keep getting ranked regularly for a few more years, get to a few more CWS, get some more guys drafted and we'll talk.

Here's D1Baseball's fall report.

 

[Guapo]

No. Not even close. I'm in the college baseball community. Keep getting ranked regularly for a few more years, get to a few more CWS, get some more guys drafted and we'll talk.

Here's D1Baseball's fall report.

View attachment 37394

Look this thread has had a lot of weird side arguments.

But, UConn last went to Omaha in 1979. SJU? 1980. UConn last went to a super regional in 2011. SJU? 2012.

The UConn program has produced far supperior MLB players than St. John’s over the past few years.

Once Penders gets a facility to match the program that he’s built, they will get the recognition they deserve.

Plus, they play in the high-major AAC. SJU? In the lowly big east.

 

[Travelman6]

SJU? In the lowly big east.

Lowly unless the Uconn football program doesn't get its act together and/or UConn whiffs on the next wave of CR...than it's the *shudders* ohhhh so great big east...

 

[huskymedic]

@Towney007 @Guapo

UConn - St John baseball series stands @ 58-58 @ the end of last year. They should continue to schedule each other - each year. Good for both programs.

 

[Guapo]

@Towney007 @Guapo

UConn - St John baseball series stands @ 58-58 @ the end of last year. They should continue to schedule each other - each year. Good for both programs.

UConn won 2 out of 3 this past season!

I believe they are on the schedule this year too.

 

[Towney007]

Guys, I adore Penders. UConn's had streaks of success in the past. But they're not in St. John's zip code in terms of historical significance and reputation. If you said UConn was a better program than St. John's to anyone worth their salt in college baseball, you'd get yourself a giggle or two.

I love the UConn program, they're not just the fastest growing program in the NE, but in all of college baseball arguably. I think Penders is a game-changer as coach. But they're not St. John's yet.

 

[Guapo]

Guys, I adore Penders. UConn's had streaks of success in the past. But they're not in St. John's zip code in terms of historical significance and reputation. If you said UConn was a better program than St. John's to anyone worth their salt in college baseball, you'd get yourself a giggle or two.

I love the UConn program, they're not just the fastest growing program in the NE, but in all of college baseball arguably. I think Penders is a game-changer as coach. But they're not St. John's yet.
View attachment 37404

<3

 

[uconnyankee]

Because if you have a bad season (or 8) you will always have a bad season. Should we abandon basketball? We've had two losing seasons in a row and last year brought us the most 20+ point defeats ever in school history.

Drop basketball....

 

[Guapo]

You guys, I thought of a solution.

The AAC should be a football-only conference.

 

[Adios]

We're going to have to drop baseball now. Can use the baseball field for intercollegiate monster truck shows. Requires less scholarships.

We can ask the owners of that tailgate ambulance to enter their truck into the program after we drop football. Can use the Rent for NCAA regionals and the Final Four. Will feel like the Michigan home game again.

 

[UConnDad]

Can build an exact replica of the XL Center court to practice shooting!

 

[Lefty2one]

What's the rush to join the Big East? You think they won't take us in five or six years? They're gonna be loving that $5mm/year they get from FS2 so badly they won't need the UConn brand? Don't want to dilute Creighton too much?

The Big East will take us whenever.

Right now, we're basically gambling whatever the cost of our current football losses are to get into a P5 eventually. Two scenarios:

Scenario One (current hope): Edsalls gets his own recruits and after 2-3 years, the team is competitive again. Within 5 years, they are fighting for the AAC crown and known as a decent mid-major football program. They can compete with the likes of lesser P5 schools like Illinois, Duke, Kentucky, Rutgers, etc.

When the next wave of TV contracts are up, maybe someone, whether it's the ACC or Big Ten, decides the relatively wealthy TV market of Hartford/New Haven is pretty attractive, as well as the UConn basketball brand and the not-entirely-terrible football team, and UConn gets called up.

In this case, you've spent about $13/million a year, but now you're making between $20-30 million a year in TV rights, so obviously you've done well in the long run, your athletic department is safe. You've entered the Rutgers Safety Zone.

Scenario Two (most basketball-only fans think this is the likely one): Despite best efforts, rebuilding UConn football program remains untenable. Edsall just isn't up for the job, they continue to flounder int he AAC, attendance is terrible, and they remain a very bad football team.

Whether P5 picks someone else from the AAC or not, UConn is not going anywhere.

In this case, you dump football or go Independent (or FCS?). You put basketball in the Big East, where you can recruit, but you still don't make to much money and the TV ratings are pretty bad but at least we're all pretty happy with that. Maybe revenue goes up, but it's still nothing comapred to P5. But at least it's cheap to run a basketball program so even if you aren't really making a ton of money, you aren't losing it either.

You just spent a cool $100 million on the gamble and lost.

I can't imagine a third scenario where the Big East says no in 5-6 years, but anything is possible.


I don't think it's ridiculous to take either side of this argument. We've committed so much to Scenario One, that's why we keep going. It seems the most viable way forward, even if the gamble seems quite the gamble currently. But we've committed to it for now. Some folks think the ship has sailed, it's time to give up. Some folks think another wave of realignment will come with TV contracts up in 2023 or whatever.

Both of these sides can be intelligent, reasonable sides. That you could dismiss either as "unintelligent" is only exposing your own idiocy.

But people rooting AGAINST football to get to Scenario Two faster? That just seems crazy. I am rooting for Scenario One currently, but I don't know how likely it is. But at this point, to me, the money is worth the risk, cause so much can be gained later. If we lose it, we lose it. But the only way to be sure you lose is to not play.

This is the only sane way to look at things. It's pretty cut and dried. We're pot-committed to football until the next major round of CR; there's no way in hell we're doing anything with the football program until that happens. We need to get football to not be a complete dumpster fire; clearly P5 conferences don't care all that much about how good you are since the B1G took Rutgers and the ACC wanted us before Pitt before we got cockblocked by BC.

Now, if CR comes and we get passed over in favor of schools that we felt were unquestionably inferior to us, then maybe it's time to start looking at a move regarding football but in all liklihood I don't see anything happening even then. I think we're in the AAC until it we get a P5 invite or the American falls apart. That's the big question in all of this: what happens if the American falls apart and we have to go Independent in football, or if the top teams get poached (Memphis, Cinncy, UCF, etc) and we get left at the altar again? That may finally force our hand to make an extreme decision. At that point, it's clearly not meant to be with football.

There's no point in going to the Big East any time soon; it's Villanova (who had their moment in the sun and will likely come back down to earth the next several years) and a bunch of mid-majors. Providence and Georgetown and Butler and Xavier? It's not like we'd be going to back the original Big East. It wouldn't surprise me if in five years the top of the AAC is better than the top of the Big East either.

 

[huskyrob1]

Yeah Unless the amount of money you are getting for the deal is much larger with the GOR I don’t see how the big fish in the conference sign it (UCF, USF, Cincy, Memphis, Houston, UConn). For the other big schools don’t know if you wanna risk possible P5 realignment before 2025 with a huge exit fee. And for UConn in the more likely scenerio they ditch AAC it would be for the Big East. But if the tv deal with GOR brings in an incredible amount of money compared to now they might be compelled to sign. Idk very tricky. Also don’t wanna be the rumors guy but it can’t be a coincidence that it’s coming right off the Big east commissioners comments about expanding to 11 which i would think would be UConn or less likely Gonzaga

Forget the Big East, not happening for some good reasons.

 

[billybud]

It would be good for UConn if the media dynamics between basketball value and football changed for the P5 market (or G5 for that matter).

The ACC was all about basketball until they were caught by surprise....ESPN said..."Hey, 80% of your value to us is in football programming".

If basketball and olympic sports ever start to take a bite out of that 80%.....UConn becomes more valuable.

As far as the New York market....the ACC has tried to manage without UConn's presence....has the Altice contract sewed up for the ACCN and has football, basketball, and olympic sports on YES. But that is only a crutch for not having a Rutgers or UConn.

If it ever becomes 50-50 or even 60-40 football-basketball in media money....UConn becomes a very hot commodity.

 

[Slasher]

Not to necro an old thread but the AAC netted $18.8M from the college football playoff. They also get the payouts for every bowl the AAC played in:

UCF - Fiesta - $4.0M
Memphis - Birmingham Bowl - $800,000
Cincinnati - Military - $1.035M
Temple - Independence - $624,000
Houston - Armed Forces - $450,000
USF - Gasparilla - $567,000
Tulane - Cure - $375,000

$7.851M + $18.8M = $26,651,000 / 12 ~ $2.2M per team