AAC Media Contract details

[Slasher]

I've lived in the Orlando TV market. UCF is dwarfed by the Gators in its own market. The only big market AAC school that dominates its own market, other than us, is Memphis.

Cincinnati does too. OSU is dominates everywhere else in Ohio but not in Cincinnati.

 

[junglehusky]

What? There is no SNY in the Big East either, except for maybe some WBB games.

End of the day, I think AAC basketball is trending up and Big East basketball is in a slow, but steady decline. Besides, do you think the UConn leadership and academics want to align long term with a group of primarily small Catholic schools? You do realize that all of the AAC schools are rated as National Universities by US News, but only 6 out of the 10 of the New Big East schools are? Xavier, Providence, Butler, and Creighton are rated as Regional Universities. Remember, the Big East lost most of their best academic schools over time: BC, Syracuse, UConn, Miami, Rutgers, Pitt, VT.

Look at how consistently AAC teams are seeded below other major conferences in the tournament. That's going to continue to hurt MBB (and now we're seeing WBB) - there's no way to paint this as anything other than a detriment to Hurley's program building timeline.

 

[junglehusky]

I'm not going 15 rounds with people again, but everything in this post is just silly.

1.) You're in a league with a Methodist University and basically the South's second best academic school (arguably). Then there's Wichita State and Memphis and Cincinnati - which are essentially commuter schools. And what you're worried about is how our university structure lines up with catholic schools?

2.) Villanova? Pretty good school. Providence? Pretty good school. Georgetown? Fantastic school. Creighton? Pseudo Midwestern Ivy.

3.) While being academically compatible is preferred, when you're losing your shirt - people stop caring. And our best growth was existing in a conference. With those types of schools. And zero prospective students are chewing their nails off over 'regional' vs 'national' and even if they were, they're not NOT choosing us because of our affiliations in sports ball.

Would love to see #'s of CT high school grads that apply to Nova, PC, Georgetown, and then BU, BC, heck even UNH and URI, compared to those that apply to SMU, UH, Wichita, ECU, Tulane, Tulsa, UCF.

 

[CL82]

LOL @ a 50%+ reduction in average distance to opponents and a 4,000+ mile reduction in overall travel per year per team is "slightly" better.

I'm not making the argument that we must drop football and return to the Big East, but you're purporting things as fact on here that are blatantly not true.

Meh. Respectfully disagree. I'm not sure that "average distance" to an opponent is relevant on a day to day basis. Fully agree that NBE has some closer opponents but they have plenty of distant ones. The better argument, in my opinion, is that they are opponents that we care more about, largely from nostalgia, but we do care about them nonetheless. But neither the somewhat easier travel, nor opponents that we remember from the good old days justify dropping football and moving to a league of small Catholic private schools who have a worse media deal and have their games broadcast on network that few people can find on their TV and even fewer actually watch.

 

[superjohn]

I brought up buses originally - because you can (and should) take them from Storrs to multiple conference opponents in the Big East.

Most schools aren't using busses much for football and hoops. Cl82 seems to bring up how different the Big East is now with the teams added, well we weren't bussing to any of the Big East teams who left outside of BC-Cuse, Pitt, Louisville, West Virginia, Va Tech, Miami.

 

[Guapo]

Meh. Respectfully disagree. I'm not sure that "average distance" to an opponent is relevant on a day to day basis. Fully agree that NBE has some closer opponents but they have plenty of distant ones. The better argument, in my opinion, is that they are opponents that we care more about, largely from nostalgia, but we do care about them nonetheless. But neither the somewhat easier travel, nor opponents that we remember from the good old days justify dropping football and moving to a league of small Catholic private schools who have a worse media deal and have their games broadcast on network that few people can find on their TV and even fewer actually watch.

Im not sure how the NBE has a worse media deal. Sure it’s for less overall money per year but in a scenario where we drop football and join the NBE we rid ourselves of the massive money pit that is the football program.

 

[upstater]

Look at how consistently AAC teams are seeded below other major conferences in the tournament. That's going to continue to hurt MBB (and now we're seeing WBB) - there's no way to paint this as anything other than a detriment to Hurley's program building timeline.

Unlike UConn, a lot of our brethren schedule no one outside the conference. Look at the AAC schedules. They are really bad. UConn schedules tough games. With a good season, they'd be more rewarded for it than the teams who play no one.

 

[whaler11]

Im not sure how the NBE has a worse media deal. Sure it’s for less overall money per year but in a scenario where we drop football and join the NBE we rid ourselves of the massive money that is the football program.

it’s also their old deal that is about to come up. comparing the aac contract in 2032 to the big east’s in 2015 is pretty funny but par for the course around here.

 

[upstater]

Im not sure how the NBE has a worse media deal. Sure it’s for less overall money per year but in a scenario where we drop football and join the NBE we rid ourselves of the massive money that is the football program.

There would be a big savings in travel alone, and salaries, but there would still be a significant loss going 1AA.

 

[Guapo]

There would be a big savings in travel alone, and salaries, but there would still be a significant loss going 1AA.

How about not paying rent at “The Rent” and playing our 1-AA home games at the new on campus soccer stadium?

 

[Guapo]

Not for nothing, but I actually think UConn football in the 1AA (or whatever they call it now) could be more entertaining than watching my beloved Alma Mater’s butt be beaten in every weekend by UCF etc.

 

[upstater]

I'm not going 15 rounds with people again, but everything in this post is just silly.

1.) You're in a league with a Methodist University and basically the South's second best academic school (arguably). Then there's Wichita State and Memphis and Cincinnati - which are essentially commuter schools. And what you're worried about is how our university structure lines up with catholic schools?

2.) Villanova? Pretty good school. Providence? Pretty good school. Georgetown? Fantastic school. Creighton? Pseudo Midwestern Ivy.

I was never a fan of adding schools like Wichita St and Tulsa. But if we're looking for compatibility, then surely the AAC looks more like UConn.

Geography is another matter.

First off, Cincy is definitely not a commuter school. It is a full fledged public university that does a lot of research as well. That description maybe applies more to Memphis.

The big concern with the BE is that the schools are about to endure a demographic time bomb. Most middle of the road private schools will be clinging for dear life very soon. If schools like Oberlin and Hampshire are hurting, you're going to see this happen all over the USA. You'll have hundreds of Benningtons popping up everywhere. Many will go under, like Hampshire is about to do.

Georgetown and Villanova will surely survive, while some of the others are going to get dinged badly.

UConn is more like Cincy, Temple, UCF, USF than it is like any BE school. Add Tulane and SMU and you're in good academic company, not to mention Navy. Memphis, East Carolina and Houston bring up the rear of this discussion, and of course we just shake our heads at Tulsa and Wichita St. Ugh.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Look at how consistently AAC teams are seeded below other major conferences in the tournament. That's going to continue to hurt MBB (and now we're seeing WBB) - there's no way to paint this as anything other than a detriment to Hurley's program building timeline.

That's changing already. Houston got a 3 seed, higher than any Big East team. We got four teams in. Two of them won games, and our third best team nearly knocked off the #1 overall seed in a game that opened a lot of people's eyes. The league is getting much better. New coach at Tulane is going to bring up the overall NET rating. It's already a better league than the Big East. Right now. And it's better than the Pac12 too. In two years it will get 5-6 bids.

I really don't understand this focus on the past. It's not predictive. The league is too new for it to be predictive. Meanwhile, the Big East has been coasting on Villanova and a Xavier team that has now lost its coach and will return to mediocrity. It's toast. And it's TV deal is less money and less exposure than the one we are complaining about.

The American is full of large urban universities. It has huge natural advantages when it comes to basketball. The original Big East had some similar advantages as an almost entirely urban conference. UConn is the outlier in both cases, but we are sandwiched between large cities.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Unlike UConn, a lot of our brethren schedule no one outside the conference. Look at the AAC schedules. They are really bad. UConn schedules tough games. With a good season, they'd be more rewarded for it than the teams who play no one.

I looked at USF’s schedule because given their pretty decent record I was wondering why they weren’t getting NIT buzz. It was absolutely brutal, including a game vs an NAIA team in season!

 

[superjohn]

I was never a fan of adding schools like Wichita St and Tulsa. But if we're looking for compatibility, then surely the AAC looks more like UConn.

Geography is another matter.

First off, Cincy is definitely not a commuter school. It is a full fledged public university that does a lot of research as well. That description maybe applies more to Memphis.

The big concern with the BE is that the schools are about to endure a demographic time bomb. Most middle of the road private schools will be clinging for dear life very soon. If schools like Oberlin and Hampshire are hurting, you're going to see this happen all over the USA. You'll have hundreds of Benningtons popping up everywhere. Many will go under, like Hampshire is about to do.

Georgetown and Villanova will surely survive, while some of the others are going to get dinged badly.

UConn is more like Cincy, Temple, UCF, USF than it is like any BE school. Add Tulane and SMU and you're in good academic company, not to mention Navy. Memphis, East Carolina and Houston bring up the rear of this discussion, and of course we just shake our heads at Tulsa and Wichita St. Ugh.

This just really isn't accurate, Cincinnati is a commuter school and all UConn has in common with these schools is size. UConn is a lot better academically than most of them and culturally they are nothing alike. While most of the Big East schools are significantly smaller and Catholic culturally they are more similar and overall the league is better academically than the AAC.

 

[superjohn]

That's changing already. Houston got a 3 seed, higher than any Big East team. We got four teams in. Two of them won games, and our third best team nearly knocked off the #1 overall seed in a game that opened a lot of people's eyes. The league is getting much better. New coach at Tulane is going to bring up the overall NET rating. It's already a better league than the Big East. Right now. And it's better than the Pac12 too. In two years it will get 5-6 bids.

I really don't understand this focus on the past. It's not predictive. The league is too new for it to be predictive. Meanwhile, the Big East has been coasting on Villanova and a Xavier team that has now lost its coach and will return to mediocrity. It's toast. And it's TV deal is less money and less exposure than the one we are complaining about.

The American is full of large urban universities. It has huge natural advantages when it comes to basketball. The original Big East had some similar advantages as an almost entirely urban conference. UConn is the outlier in both cases, but we are sandwiched between large cities.

The Big East isn't urban? The AAC has large natural advantages when it comes to basketball?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Imagine so adamantly arguing against a conference that's top team has won 2 of the last 3 national titles.

Then again, if memory serves @HuskyHawk prefers regular season titles to national titles anyways.

 

[whaler11]

I looked at USF’s schedule because given their pretty decent record I was wondering why they weren’t getting NIT buzz. It was absolutely brutal, including a game vs an NAIA team in season!

the naia game wasnt their fault. believe it was a victim of cusa’s flex scheduling or something like that

 

[UConnNick]

Im not sure how the NBE has a worse media deal. Sure it’s for less overall money per year but in a scenario where we drop football and join the NBE we rid ourselves of the massive money pit that is the football program.

That's not completely accurate. Both of the basketball programs are in the red as well, and football is the only sport that can actually deliver guaranteed huge paydays. The Fenway game brought a windfall of over a million bucks. We have future payday games scheduled with opponents like Clemson. Regrettably we've become another Louisiana-Monroe in this regard, but it is a guaranteed consistent source of revenue for a cash strapped athletic dept., if you can manage to schedule enough of these games.

 

[Guapo]

That's not completely accurate. Both of the basketball programs are in the red as well, and football is the only sport that can actually deliver guaranteed huge paydays. The Fenway game brought a windfall of over a million bucks. We have future payday games scheduled with opponents like Clemson. Regrettably we've become another Louisiana-Monroe in this regard, but it is a guaranteed consistent source of revenue for a cash strapped athletic dept., if you can manage to schedule enough of these games.

I’m sorry but this is just wrong.

I think it’s imprtant for a lot of people here to remember that revenue is a whole lot different than making money.

By the numbers: UConn athletic department struggles to balance revenue, expenses

 

[HuskyHawk]

The Big East isn't urban? The AAC has large natural advantages when it comes to basketball?

Can you read? I said the Big East (original) was very urban, and that was an advantage to basketball. The American is very urban, and that's an advantage to basketball. The new BE is still largely urban, but schools like Butler mean it is less so than it was.

 

[Guapo]

Can you read? I said the Big East (original) was very urban, and that was an advantage to basketball. The American is very urban, and that's an advantage to basketball. The new BE is still largely urban, but schools like Butler mean it is less so than it was.

Butler is located in the city of Indianapolis

 

[HuskyHawk]

Butler is located in the city of Indianapolis

Fair. Forgot that. Both leagues are urban. One with large schools one with small.

 

[Guapo]

Fair. Forgot that. Both leagues are urban. One with large schools one with small.

The only one you can make an argument for not being “urban” is Creighton but they sell a huge number of tickets

 

[HuskyHawk]

The only one you can make an argument for not being “urban” is Creighton but they sell a huge number of tickets

Omaha is urban enough, about like Tulsa I suppose. It wasn't meant to be a comparison with the Big East as to who is more urban, it was an observation that the American, formed largely as a football league, has some of the same natural advantages as a basketball league that the Big East has. I think it will end up being better at basketball than football, down the line.

The new TV deal means the money is more than twice what the Big East gets, and ESPN >>> Fox for tv exposure.