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Message: [QUOTE="EdgewoodNHV, post: 2957133, member: 126"] 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: [B]Scenario One (current hope):[/B] 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. [B]Scenario Two (most basketball-only fans think this is the likely one): [/B]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. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach