AAC holding $5 million UConn conference distribution payment in escrow as part of exit fee

[bendm]

With the exception of Georgetown the folks who go to most of these schools wouldn’t get into UConn.

clemson and duke have so many similarities i often confuse the two... not! when it comes to their acc membership all anyone cares about are their football and bball teams, respectively.

if all the stuff that you think matters, actually mattered, then the big east schools wouldn't have unanimously voted to invite uconn, and we wouldn't have accepted. we're talking about sports, period.

again, not that it matters, but state schools are also primarily regional due to the tuition difference for residents.

 

[Kolumbo]

What happened to all the arguments over the last 3 or 4 years about how much better a basketball league the AAC was compared to the NBE?

That will all shift in 2020.

 

[Linekin Bay]

US News & World Report 2019 Best National Universities:
#22 Georgetown
#49 Villanova
#63 Connecticut

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities?schoolName=University+of+Connecticut

 

[pj]

What happened to all the arguments over the last 3 or 4 years about how much better a basketball league the AAC was compared to the NBE?

The AAC was never on par with the NBE, but there was a thought that the AAC might grow, as many of the schools were making significant investments in athletics for the first time and UConn was likely to come out of its downward spiral under Ollie and back to national prominence, helping to lift the conference; meanwhile the NBE might decay, as the Catholic schools had been the weaker half of the old Big East and might struggle over the long run, despite recent success. However, UConn moving to the NBE means there is no longer any comparison between the leagues.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

clemson and duke have so many similarities i often confuse the two... not! when it comes to their acc membership all anyone cares about are their football and bball teams, respectively.

Precisely. Someone let me know the next time they sit in a stadium and compare US News and World Reports university rankings (which are bogus to begin with anyways).

The Big East plays high major hoops in our geographic footprint. End of story.

 

[CL82]

To pretend that we are peers is just nonsense. This is about nostalgia. Nothing else.

Well nostalgia, branding, reduced travel costs, driveable away games (blah, blah, Creighton. blah, blah, blah DePaul and Marquette... but also Providence, St Johns and Seton Hall), better access to T3 content with in our recruiting target areas, and more money on a net basis and much more money after the NBE media deal is renewed.

 

[Guapo]

Well nostalgia, branding, reduced travel costs and driveable away games (blah, blah, Creighton. blah, blah, blah DePaul and Marquette... but also Providence, St Johns and Seton Hall.)

There’s no use in trying to argue with him.

He’s just going to cry and wax nostalgic to himself about games at Devlin Fieldhouse or wherever ECU plays

 

[CL82]

US News & World Report 2019 Best National Universities:
#22 Georgetown
#49 Villanova
#63 Connecticut

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities?schoolName=University+of+Connecticut

Tulane and SMU are ranked higher than us. Now stop making me defend the AAC.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

What happened to all the arguments over the last 3 or 4 years about how much better a basketball league the AAC was compared to the NBE?

Obviously Nova’s success skewed comparison a tad.
From a straight comparison there really wasn’t that big a difference in quality especially going forward.
It’s more just a better geographical and historical fit for UConn.
The Garden Tournament is also huge.
The other issue is the AAC is essentially a football conference first.
That’s reflected in attendance numbers of both.
Aresco made little effort to help basketball until WSU was added.
If he simply kept ECU football only and added WSU and VCU as BB only making the AAC into a power BB conference would have been a slam dunk. The conference won NC in 2013 and 2014 so maybe he thought it would magically happen.

 

[Guapo]

Obviously Nova’s success skewed comparison a tad.
From a straight comparison there really wasn’t that big a difference in quality especially going forward.
It’s more just a better geographical and historical fit for UConn.
The Garden Tournament is also huge.
The other issue is the AAC is essentially a football conference first.
That’s reflected in attendance numbers of both.
Aresco made little effort to help basketball until WSU was added.
If he simply kept ECU football only and added WSU and VCU as BB only making the AAC into a power BB conference would have been a slam dunk. The conference won NC in 2013 and 2014 so maybe he thought it would magically happen.

Actually there’s a massive difference in quality between the Big East and AAC.

 

[MU in MKE]

Oh well.

Sort of nonsense. With the exception of Georgetown the folks who go to most of these schools wouldn’t get into UConn. Maybe not in 1983 but today UConn is a much better academic institution than a bunch of regional Catholic schools. We a major national university. They are as I said, glorified Central Connecticuts. Our only peer in that group, we’ll not exactly a peer. They are better honestly, is Georgetown. This is nostalgia pure and simple. If we finish middle of the pack in the Big East hoophound wont be hopping any more flights to CT than he does now.

I am not sure if this is sarcasm, intentionally hyperbolic, or just naivete showing itself. UConn is a fine institution with very good standards. However, the bolded statement is far from accurate.

The majority of the BE schools have more in common with the academic standards of UConn than UConn does with Georgetown and Villanova. Whether you look at SAT/ACT scores for accepted students, graduation rates, median salaries upon graduation, the data all shows the same thing. UConn only slightly outpaces most of the BE except for Nova and Georgetown who are at a different level. Xavier and St. Johns, maybe Seton Hall being the only schools lower... but even those are fine schools.

I happen to have the data to back that up (except from DePaul for some reason). For example (and I can give you whichever category you'd like to see):

	SAT Verb 25th	SAT Verb 75th
Villanova University	620​	710​
Georgetown University	680​	760​
University of Connecticut	600​	680​
Providence College	580​	660​
Creighton University	520​	640​
Butler University	580​	660​
Marquette University	570​	660​
Seton Hall University	570​	640​
St John's University-New York	540​	620​
Xavier University	540​	620​
Central Connecticut State University	500​	590​

Median earnings of graduates 10 years after enrollment:

Row Labels	Sum of MD_EARN_WNE_P10
Georgetown University	$ 93,500.00
Villanova University	$ 77,900.00
Providence College	$ 64,100.00
Marquette University	$ 62,600.00
Creighton University	$ 59,700.00
University of Connecticut	$ 58,400.00
Seton Hall University	$ 57,200.00
Butler University	$ 56,600.00
St John's University-New York	$ 55,200.00
DePaul University	$ 53,300.00
Xavier University	$ 51,600.00
Central Connecticut State University	$ 47,900.00

I have a lot more data I can show, I'm just not familiar enough with this format of message board to show it in an easy to read format.


This whole land grant vs private university argument is kind of superfluous to the conversation of conference realignment. This is about sports (mainly basketball) and the target market for future students. I think UConn fits the BE just fine in both regards.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Actually there’s a massive difference in quality between the Big East and AAC.

I think head to head the AAC did very well last year against the NBE and it’s is getting been better each year. As a basketball fan I hope they continue to grow that conference.
The quality of players is pretty comparable. This coming year’s AAC might even be a tad stronger than the NBE depending on Memphis , UConn ,and Cinncy new coach.
So “Massive “ is a tad hyperbolic if not outright delusional.
Travel and the administration hoping old names will rekindle fan interest play a bigger part in our move than basketball quality.
In the end it’s all about money both costs and revenues not quality of competition to pretend otherwise is simply having your head in the sand.

 

[Guapo]

I think head to head the AAC did very well last year against the NBE and it’s is getting been better each year. As a basketball fan I hope they continue to grow that conference.
The quality of players is pretty comparable. This coming year’s AAC might even be a tad stronger than the NBE depending on Memphis , UConn ,and Cinncy new coach.
So “Massive “ is a tad hyperbolic if not outright delusional.
Travel and the administration hoping old names will rekindle fan interest play a bigger part in our move than basketball quality.
In the end it’s all about money both costs and revenues not quality of competition to pretend otherwise is simply having your head in the sand.

Look man, it just isn’t. By every single objective statistic and standard the Big East is a significantly better conference than the AAC.

Last year was the AAC’s best and the Big East’s worst and the Big East was still much better.

 

[bendm]

The quality of players is pretty comparable.

by my count, since 2014 current Big East teams have had 18 players drafted into the NBA. Current AAC teams (not including UConn) have had 8

 

[gampelcrazies]

I think head to head the AAC did very well last year against the NBE and it’s is getting been better each year. As a basketball fan I hope they continue to grow that conference.
The quality of players is pretty comparable. This coming year’s AAC might even be a tad stronger than the NBE depending on Memphis , UConn ,and Cinncy new coach.
So “Massive “ is a tad hyperbolic if not outright delusional.
Travel and the administration hoping old names will rekindle fan interest play a bigger part in our move than basketball quality.
In the end it’s all about money both costs and revenues not quality of competition to pretend otherwise is simply having your head in the sand.

AAC better than the NBE this year? What are you smoking?

The Big East is strong this year. Markus Howard and Myles Powell will be fighting for national player of the year.

 

[Slasher]

by my count, since 2014 current Big East teams have had 18 players drafted into the NBA. Current AAC teams (not including UConn) have had 8

How many of those are from Villanova?

 

[bendm]

How many of those are from Villanova?

what's it matter? that's like asking how many ACC guys were drafted but not from Duke. they still count for the conference...

 

[Guapo]

How many of those are from Villanova?

I have no idea what the answer is, but if your point is trying to show that the AAC and Big East are similar in quality than you’re wrong,

 

[MU in MKE]

I get why a UConn or Cincy fan would try to convince themselves that the AAC isn't the C-USA of the early 2000's... but now that UConn is moving back to the BE, why keep up the charade?

AZHuskyPop, in what way do you think the AAC is going to be stronger than the BE? T-rank for example has 2 of 12 AAC teams in the top 50 for this coming year compared to 7 of 10 BE teams. It just isn't comparable. UConn belongs in the BE and should have no love loss for the AAC, it was never a good fit.

 

[Guapo]

I get why a UConn or Cincy fan would try to convince themselves that the AAC isn't the C-USA of the early 2000's... but now that UConn is moving back to the BE, why keep up the charade?

AZHuskyPop, in what way do you think the AAC is going to be stronger than the BE? T-rank for example has 2 of 12 AAC teams in the top 50 for this coming year compared to 7 of 10 BE teams. It just isn't comparable. UConn belongs in the BE and should have no love loss for the AAC, it was never a good fit.

Marquette in Milwaukee?

 

[MU in MKE]

Marquette in Milwaukee?

Yep, occasional lurker until the announcement. Historically UConn was in my top 3 favorite MBB teams until the BE implosion in 2013. Only slightly bitter because I felt UConn had a hand in the disaster... but excited to see them back.

 

[Guapo]

Yep, occasional lurker until the announcement. Historically UConn was in my top 3 favorite MBB teams until the BE implosion in 2013. Only slightly bitter because I felt UConn had a hand in the disaster... but excited to see them back.

Eh, I disagree with this but welcome aboard.

I think I speak for the vast majority of UConn fans when I say I’m happy to be back!

 

[billybud]

what's it matter? that's like asking how many ACC guys were drafted but not from Duke. they still count for the conference...

In 2019...pretty good spread of draftees from ACC

3 from Duke
3 from UNC
3 from Virginia
2 from FSU
1 from VT
1 from Miami

 

[bendm]

in 2019...pretty good spread of draftees from ACC

link to AAC message board- CSNbbs - AAC Conference Talk
go bash the big east over there

 

[billybud]

I think I answered the "perception" vs reality of the poster's observation.

Sometimes the intense media concentration on a team or star will lead folks to think that they are the only thing going on...

It was that way with Duke last year and Zion...next year it will be someone else in another conference...but all that attention will mask what other programs have done in that conference.