Abandoning Big East has become a disaster for one-time powerhouses

[CL82]

Yet money is so much a part of college athletics
Wouldn't that share of the ACC jackpot Pitt enjoys (without making the tournaments) look nice on UConn's bottom line.
I know you enjoy being a snark at times but Palatine's point is well taken. The NBE doesn't generate the big $ - in basketball it generates enthusiasm and last I checked, enthusiasm adds little to the bottom line - and the argument of more fans etc shouldn't mean much because a program like UConn should hold onto it's fans. As a season ticket owner for decades, I have seen that the new breed of UConn fans can be very fickle in basketball and football more so than soccer or baseball
Bottom line P5 money can help cure a lot of issues
Am I happy in the NBE? for basketball and soccer yes, but if UConn were in the ACC there would be much more upside financially and football would not be in it's present predicament
Dan Hurley could recruit as well with UConn in the ACC as the NBE, if not better
If not in the ACC than the NBE is better than the AAC, that's for sure in hoops

Football would be in pretty much the same predicament. That’s been a problem with coaching more than accounting.

 

[Watchdog]

That was the point for all of them leaving. But as a fan if the money doesn't help their winning then it's just a disaster. I'd be really turned off as a fan if UConn was lining their pockets with ACC money but the team was never relevant again.

The athletic departments are just like Washington lobbyists. As long as the money is flowing, and they can keep enhancing and building their empires, the citizens (fans) be damned (not at UConn, mind you, just the bad guys).

 

[Waquoit]

The athletic departments are just like Washington lobbyists. As long as the money is flowing, and they can keep enhancing and building their empires, the citizens (fans) be damned (not at UConn, mind you, just the bad guys).

BS, that was UConn under Perkins.

 

[Watchdog]

Villanova 1985. I’d say that was over the hump.

But wouldn't taking over 30 years to win another one mean there was another hump?

 

[CL82]

Smartest move the BE ever made was to fight for and keep the BET @ MSG. It’s a springtime ritual in the northeast.

That and buying the Big East name.

 

[Watchdog]

BS, that was UConn under Perkins.

I'm so cynical sometimes. Who knew it was only Perkins?

 

[CL82]

and BET at MSG never missed a beat with the rebirth.

It didn't sell out the first few years, right?

 

[Waquoit]

I'm so cynical sometimes. Who knew it was only Perkins?

I didn't say only Perkins, I'm just saying he ran the AD just like you described.

 

[Watchdog]

I watch all the Big East games now that we‘re in it. I only watch the hated teams Duke, Carolina, Cuse, Kentucky, etc. to see them lose. UNC-Duke has no appeal unless they can somehow both lose! And the Brooklyn arena is inferior.

The ACC must be concerned about loss of fanbases in areas outside NC and has their tournament plopping down in different cities every year. That doesn't speak well of the attractiveness of their tournament:

2021 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament Moved to Greensboro

GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – The Atlantic Coast Conference announced today that the 2021 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament will be held at Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina, from March 9-13. The tournament originally was scheduled to be played at Capital One Arena in Washington...

theacc.com

 

[CL82]

Time passes and things change, except in Syracuse, where the Orange seem to roll out the exact same team with the exact same low ceiling year after year. Over the last half decade or so, Syracuse has gotten used to living on a bubble, with a team that has almost no bench, stuck somewhere between pretty good and mediocre.

Guess what: that’s exactly how you can describe the 2021 Orange.

— Since Syracuse went 14-4 in the ACC in 2014, its best record in league play is 10-8. Including this year and moving backward, the Orange have ranked 341st, 349th, 256th, 351st, and 331st in bench minutes dating to 2017. Jim Boeheim’s reliance on a short bench is nothing new, but the front-line talent is not the caliber it was in Syracuse’s Big East days.

Ouch

NC State Syracuse Preview

 

[FriarJ]

You know what's NOT a disaster.

View attachment 64132

LOL, of course fans are just excited at the money the University gets, not about actually cheering on a winning team. This is one of the more absolutely ridiculous takes I continue to see and it’s always by the same stubborn narrow minded people. Being at the bottom of the ACC year after year is not preferable to challenging for the NCAA year after year no letter how many times you post it.

 

[FriarJ]

This is fake news. It’s not a telling of the actual events.

Tulane, the footballs schools pushed Tulane in and that was the straw that broke the camels back. Thank God.

 

[dennismenace]

I think UConn would be better off with the money. Villanova has the backing of the incredibly wealthy Catholic church. UConn has to rely on State Legislators who are not always fans, nor are the taxpayers of Ct.

Catholic Universities are not subsidized by either the diocese they are in or the Vatican. They are subsidized by alumni (some of whom, like Uconn, are "incredilbly wealthy." One possible exception is Catholic University which is the only Catholic University founded by US bishops.

 

[Watchdog]

I mean if your ACC friend can't keep track of 15 basketball teams because that's too big, that's on him(or maybe you're just making it up like "people have been saying". But do you know the best players on every team in the Big East? I sure as hell don't. The Big East is certainly not as deep this year as past seasons.

I don't know where you get that there is lower interest in the ACC. Maybe because it's a down year but also might be some northeast bias showing. We're not that far removed from VA, Duke, UNC, LVille, FSU, VA-Tech and Syracuse all being ranked in the top 25. It's perennially one of the best conferences in the country.

The ACC as a great "sports" league is a myth. They went after Syracuse, Pitt and Louisville because they had become a two team league in basketball as they were for football before going after Miami, VaTech and BCU.

The additions in football and basketball have both been failures. It's still Clemson and ???????, even after adding formerly good football schools and it's still FraudU and Duke but UVA stepped up to make it a third..

 

[Watchdog]

Wrong. The church doesn’t financially back the school.

But they could probably provide some divine guidance in a few areas.............

 

[freescooter]

The ACC as a great "sports" league is a myth. They went after Syracuse, Pitt and Louisville because they had become a two team league in basketball as they were for football before going after Miami, VaTech and BCU.

The additions in football and basketball have both been failures. It's still Clemson and ???????, even after adding formerly good football schools and it's still FraudU and Duke but UVA stepped up to make it a third..

Dream on. Even in a horrible season by ACC standards with neither Duke nor UNC having good years, they have more ranked teams than the Big East. They ended up with 4 Top 25 football teams including one in the title game. They got 8 bids to the last College World Series (the Big East gets an auto bid) and 2 teams to Omaha. They won the last ncaa lacrosse tournament played. They got 6 bids to the last NCAA women’s tournament. 9 bids in men’s soccer Including a finalist. Because I know you’ll point it out yes a Big East team won it. But the overall point is that the ACC is indeed a very good all sports league. Arguing otherwise is just showing ignorance of anything but college basketball

 

[Zissou]

But wouldn't taking over 30 years to win another one mean there was another hump?

Not when the claim is that Pitt was elite and Nova could never get over the hump. Pitt never even made a Final Four.

 

[87Xfer]

Just out of curiosity, are you a UConn alum and/or basketball fan? I've always assumed you were, albeit a grumpy one, but maybe I was wrong.

Oddly, the loud voice didn't reply to this. Are we allowed to re-ask the question?

 

[Get a Job]

Oddly, the loud voice didn't reply to this. Are we allowed to re-ask the question?

Maybe he thought I was just being facetious? I really want to know, though.

What say you, @freescooter? Are you a UConn fan?

 

[buddy]

Catholic Universities are not subsidized by either the diocese they are in or the Vatican. They are subsidized by alumni (some of whom, like Uconn, are "incredilbly wealthy." One possible exception is Catholic University which is the only Catholic University founded by US bishops.

Thanks for that info.

 

[buddy]

That was the point for all of them leaving. But as a fan if the money doesn't help their winning then it's just a disaster. I'd be really turned off as a fan if UConn was lining their pockets with ACC money but the team was never relevant again.

In the long run, money buys relevance. You are wearing men's basketball centric glasses and ignoring the big picture of Uconn athletics. Maybe UConn can regain some respect in the Big East in basketball, but it relegates other sports to the children's table of college athletics. UConn football, which had great potential, has imploded, since it was rejected by the ACC. As much as many people mock Rutgers, one cannot deny that they have improved by leaps and bounds athletically since the hit the B1G jackpot. If RU was in the Big East or AAC, I believe they still would be as they used to be. B1G money has propelled them. Maybe they will not win a national championship in anything, but they are certainly far better now than they were before in football and men's basketball.

 

[Kolumbo]

In the long run, money buys relevance. You are wearing men's basketball centric glasses and ignoring the big picture of Uconn athletics. Maybe UConn can regain some respect in the Big East in basketball, but it relegates other sports to the children's table of college athletics. UConn football, which had great potential, has imploded, since it was rejected by the ACC. As much as many people mock Rutgers, one cannot deny that they have improved by leaps and bounds athletically since the hit the B1G jackpot. If RU was in the Big East or AAC, I believe they still would be as they used to be. B1G money has propelled them. Maybe they will not win a national championship in anything, but they are certainly far better now than they were before in football and men's basketball.

It is an interesting dynamic. Rutgers University fits the B1G profile and as Ohio State and Michigan lead the conference, the conference lifts Rutgers. Let's face it, Rutgers had nowhere to go but up. It could be the extra money, but it's most likely playing B1G programs which is helping Rutgers. Syracuse on the other hand was very successful in the Big East. It left the Northeast based conference to join the NC based conference and will be relegated like everyone else not named Clemson or FSU, or Duke or UNC. If you look at the entire budgets of these universities, the revenue from the conference affiliations isn't all that signifcant.

 

[HooperScooper]

In the long run, money buys relevance. You are wearing men's basketball centric glasses and ignoring the big picture of Uconn athletics. Maybe UConn can regain some respect in the Big East in basketball, but it relegates other sports to the children's table of college athletics. UConn football, which had great potential, has imploded, since it was rejected by the ACC. As much as many people mock Rutgers, one cannot deny that they have improved by leaps and bounds athletically since the hit the B1G jackpot. If RU was in the Big East or AAC, I believe they still would be as they used to be. B1G money has propelled them. Maybe they will not win a national championship in anything, but they are certainly far better now than they were before in football and men's basketball.

While in general I agree that is true, I care most about the men's basketball team. If they're really good and relevant nationally then I'm happy. Can that happen without a lot of money in the athletic department and other sports (besides women's basketball which will be really good as long as Geno is still there) being nationally relevant? We're about to find out in the next few years.

 

[Zissou]

In the long run, money buys relevance. You are wearing men's basketball centric glasses and ignoring the big picture of Uconn athletics. Maybe UConn can regain some respect in the Big East in basketball, but it relegates other sports to the children's table of college athletics. UConn football, which had great potential, has imploded, since it was rejected by the ACC. As much as many people mock Rutgers, one cannot deny that they have improved by leaps and bounds athletically since the hit the B1G jackpot. If RU was in the Big East or AAC, I believe they still would be as they used to be. B1G money has propelled them. Maybe they will not win a national championship in anything, but they are certainly far better now than they were before in football and men's basketball.

The whole basis of this thread makes me question your cause and effect theory.

 

[superjohn]

In the long run, money buys relevance. You are wearing men's basketball centric glasses and ignoring the big picture of Uconn athletics. Maybe UConn can regain some respect in the Big East in basketball, but it relegates other sports to the children's table of college athletics. UConn football, which had great potential, has imploded, since it was rejected by the ACC. As much as many people mock Rutgers, one cannot deny that they have improved by leaps and bounds athletically since the hit the B1G jackpot. If RU was in the Big East or AAC, I believe they still would be as they used to be. B1G money has propelled them. Maybe they will not win a national championship in anything, but they are certainly far better now than they were before in football and men's basketball.

Men's basketball is going to be a juggernaut again and the football team imploded before they didn't get in the ACC, they sucked because they made atrocious coaching hires.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Big East Tournament. Nothing else like it.

The Big East still leaves the school in a precarious position financially. This could be an issue in the future in terms of competing for coaches. The school would leave the Big East for the ACC or Big Ten in a second, and anything else would be malpractice.

 

[CallMeBruce]

In the long run, money buys relevance. You are wearing men's basketball centric glasses and ignoring the big picture of Uconn athletics. Maybe UConn can regain some respect in the Big East in basketball, but it relegates other sports to the children's table of college athletics. UConn football, which had great potential, has imploded, since it was rejected by the ACC. As much as many people mock Rutgers, one cannot deny that they have improved by leaps and bounds athletically since the hit the B1G jackpot. If RU was in the Big East or AAC, I believe they still would be as they used to be. B1G money has propelled them. Maybe they will not win a national championship in anything, but they are certainly far better now than they were before in football and men's basketball.

By "other sports," you mean just football, right? And football was absolutely uncompetitive in the AAC. Going independent will help them compete, and they'll actually play some schools I care about.

 

[Zissou]

The Big East still leaves the school in a precarious position financially. This could be an issue in the future in terms of competing for coaches. The school would leave the Big East for the ACC or Big Ten in a second, and anything else would be malpractice.

The Big East is the best financial position available to UConn.

Of course UConn would take P5 money if it was offered.

 

[TJT]

While their men's basketball programs may be struggling, these school's athletic departments are laughing all the way to the bank to deposit their big fat conference checks.

 

[buddy]

By "other sports," you mean just football, right? And football was absolutely uncompetitive in the AAC. Going independent will help them compete, and they'll actually play some schools I care about.

I am not arguing that football may not be better as an independent, but financially it can turn into a disaster. Unlike the highly funded P5 schools, where will UConn get the money to pay for football? The State government will likely not fund it and tuition will have to be dramatically increased. That is really the whole point of my argument. 5 million a year cannot compete with 50 million a year as an example.