ACC/ESPN joining the scheduling fun, happy days for Cuse

[Carl Spackler]

ESPN, predictably, has headlines about the ACC's scheduling plans for a 14 team league, and of course the spin is there that it's not yet definite - when Cuse and Pitt are joining.

So predictable. Cuse and Pitt most definitely have a set joining date.....but I digress...

What I wanted to write is that Syracuse's new intersectional, yearly rival in basketball?
Boston College.

Yup. Syracuse has given up march basketball tournaments in MSG, for tournaments in Greensboro, and has traded the annual 35k+ ticket sales games for UConn - Syracuse - for annual games with Boston College.

I really wonder what the hell happened up there in upstate New York in the past decade. I'd be livid if I were a Syracuse person.

Not only that, they traded all of that for ACC football. The same ACC that's you know 2 and whatever in that all important BCS thing.......

Oh my oh my.

But ESPN will try to spin it.....

 

[06029]

ESPN, predictably, has headlines about the ACC's scheduling plans for a 14 team league, and of course the spin is there that it's not yet definite - when Cuse and Pitt are joining.

So predictable. Cuse and Pitt most definitely have a set joining date.....but I digress...

What I wanted to write is that Syracuse's new intersectional, yearly rival in basketball?
Boston College.

Yup. Syracuse has given up march basketball tournaments in MSG, for tournaments in Greensboro, and has traded the annual 35k+ ticket sales games for UConn - Syracuse - for annual games with Boston College.

I really wonder what the hell happened up there in upstate New York in the past decade. I'd be livid if I were a Syracuse person.

Not only that, they traded all of that for ACC football. The same ACC that's you know 2 and whatever in that all important BCS thing.......

Oh my oh my.

But ESPN will try to spin it.....

I suppose you think Uconn would not have taken that exact same deal and swap the BE for the ACC?

 

[John Greene]

Madam President would have taken it in a second. But wait would we have to give up those great budding rivalaries with BSU, SDSU, UH, etc.?

 

[Carl Spackler]

I actually don't think that UConn would have taken the deal to swap out with Pittsburgh. Nope. I'm pretty shocked that Syracuse did, still am. UConn and Syracuse together would have been a no-brainer, and would have effectively caused the Big East to implode. I"ve been over this a thousand times. Boston College, and DeFillippo, in twist of fate, are directly tied to the continued existence of the Big East, and it's position to yet again continue to thrive.

Syracuse and Boston College are going to have each other to hold on to in the landscape in coming years. That would scare the crap out of me if I had orange blood and ties to upstate NY.

Pittsburgh is in a whole different environment out there in western PA, and they've got proximity to the Maryland/Virginia's areas and plenty of recruiting ground.

Syracuse is simply joining BC as an outlier that will have a major, major problem avoiding becoming a bottom feeder and servant to Tobacco Road.

 

[John Greene]

If SU and BC are outliers in the ACC what are UConn and RU in the NBE FB conference? But then one could argue that everyone is an outlier in NBE FB.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Man are you guys missing the point. UConn/Syracuse - even in down years. Are sellouts. Football and basketball. Syracuse has traded that for an annual game w/ Pitt (which means every other year they're playing in front of 1,500 people in Heinz field, and they're losing the 35k attendance to the UConn Cuse games in the dome to whatever BC can draw in round ball.

I really feel bad for Syracuse fans.

 

[Fishy]

Yes, we are much better positioned.

Those SMU tickets are gonna be hot, hot, hot!

If anyone thinks UConn wants to be in this skidmark of a conference, they're too duck*ing stupid to be here.

 

[John Greene]

Man are you guys missing the point. UConn/Syracuse - even in down years. Are sellouts. Football and basketball. Syracuse has traded that for an annual game w/ Pitt (which means every other year they're playing in front of 1,500 people in Heinz field, and they're losing the 35k attendance to the UConn Cuse games in the dome to whatever BC can draw in round ball.

I really feel bad for Syracuse fans.

Giving up one guaranteed sellout per year in BB (not sure UConn/SU ever soldout in FB) in return for the added benefits of being in a stable conference with a better history and better payout seems like a no brainer to me.

 

[Carl Spackler]

If SU and BC are outliers in the ACC what are UConn and RU in the NBE FB conference?

Seriously? you don't see a regional profile in the new football conference? Like it or not, or biggest football rival in recent years, will continue to be our biggest football rival, and except for Boise and SDST, we've got programs in reasonable proximity in every region we're at that will draw attendance and rivalry. Florida, Texas, NYC, Midwest.

I know that there is no sentimentality and nostalgia that goes with the new big east conference, and for that, you can thank the basketball centric universe that the big east was in for so long, but the big east is going to be just fine going forward, and has a structure now, that contrary to popular opinion, actually is a legitimate nationwide football conference, and there is no reason anymore with a conference with priorities that are in line with the national intercollegiate landscape - no reason anymore for a split of the conference, or for programs to be leaving.

THe big east is not losing it's status as a BCS conference, unless the BCS itself goes away for ALL conferences, and with ESPN broadcasting and CBS broadcasting rights ending in 2013, and the entire big east inventory of basketball and football, and the basketball tournament and now a football champoinship game in NYC up for sale, there won't be a financial reason for any programs to be leaving either.

Trust me on this - ESPN doesn't want anyone realizing that, and would have everyone rather believe that the big east is the snot nosed red head stepchild.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Giving up one guaranteed sellout per year in BB (not sure UConn/SU ever soldout in FB) in return for the added benefits of being in a stable conference with a better history and better payout seems like a no brainer to me.

Thats exactly what ESPN wants you to believe. The fact is that both the ESPN contracts and CBS contracts for the entire big east are up in 2013, and there is a competitive market out there, that ESPN does not want to get a foothold, and that market is desparate for live sports inventory.

Come 2014, the payout of broadcasting and post season events for the Big East stands to be quite a significant upgrade from where it is now. The only way that wouldn't happen, is if the Big East completely dissolved.

Does anyone at this point in time, really not think that the dissolving of the big east hasn't been a major target for a variety of reasons from a variety of institutions? How about the whole concept of getting Notre Dame to join a conference in football?

 

[John Greene]

Don't want to be too negative but I doubt that UH, SMU, BSU, SDSU are going to turn on a lot of UCnn fans. If we are counting on RU asthe saving grace we may be in more trouble than we think.

As far as retaining status as a BCS conference, how long will the BCS exist? I doubt that it will be around in its current form by the time all of the new menbers (Navy, ?) get in.

 

[Carl Spackler]

The loss of Syracuse, WVU and Pitt rivalry in basketball and football. THat's all that UConn has really lost. How old are those football rivalries? Does the other side even consider them rivalries? We've gained several new football opponents, that I don't mind at all coming in to Rentschler, and having to travel to.

ALl of the other rivalries in basketball are there. The tournament in MSG is there. We've got a champoinship football game to look forward to in NYC to go with the championship b-ball tourney.

THere's no way really to replace Cuse in b-ball, and Pitt, well from a conference standpoint, hasn't really been that productive in the post season. So we lose there, and WVU basketball has a long history. No replacing that. I think it stung like hell in Providence to lose those three b-ball programs.

I can't help but feel that everybody's basketball nostalgia is clouding their judgments here. Cuse has lost a hell of a lot more than we have,a nd stands to have a very difficult road ahead of them. THey're not playing Duke and UNC in b-ball every weekend. Is Clemson really going to draw anything in Cuse? G-Tech? Miami? Tried that once before.

And the money they did it for, we stand to gain back and then some, when the new contracts are in place after 2013.

It's really a crappy situation for Syracuse, I feel bad. And yes, I think that if Cuse and UConn had been approached together, to join the ACC, that we would have in a heartbeat. I don't think we would have gone if Cuse was staying and Pitt was the partner. Not in a million years.

 

[John Greene]

What can be said at this point? I wish I could be one of those people for whom the glass is always half full but I am finding in hard to see more than a couple of drops in the glass at present. Uconn will survive but the road will be a lot harder than for either Pitt or SU.

 

[Fishy]

What can be said at this point? I wish I could be one of those people for whom the glass is always half full but I am finding in hard to see more than a couple of drops in the glass at present. Uconn will survive but the road will be a lot harder than for either Pitt or SU.

It's not you, it's him.

He's bat s*** crazy.

 

[uconNYC]

ACC has 5 schools in the Northeast: SU, BC, Pitt, Maryland, UVA (?)

Big East has 2: UConn, RU

The outlier card does not hold true anymore and it will hurt our football recruiting.

 

[FrostyNuggets]

skidmark of a conference

Truer words have never been typed in the history of internet message boards.

 

[metsfan2323]

Don't want to be too negative but I doubt that UH, SMU, BSU, SDSU are going to turn on a lot of UCnn fans..

I disagree. If those teams are good (they will be) football fans will be fired up to play them. The regional rivalries are overated, I just want to play good teams. Each of those new teams will be better in football than Cuse and Pitt (did you notice the score of the Pitt SMU bowl game?). One of the best games we have had to date at the Rent was the South Florida windstorm rain game. Why were we fired up? Because they were ranked at the time. Every league game is a rivalry game in football.

 

[John Greene]

I disagree. If those teams are good (they will be) football fans will be fired up to play them. The regional rivalries are overated, I just want to play good teams. Each of those new teams will be better in football than Cuse and Pitt (did you notice the score of the Pitt SMU bowl game?). One of the best games we have had to date at the Rent was the South Florida windstorm rain game. Why were we fired up? Because they were ranked at the time. Every league game is a rivalry game in football.

While hoping that you are right I have to disagree with your regional rivalaries point. In my experience fans get really up when they come in regular contact with fans from the other teams. Bham has a lot of UA and AU grads of course but it also has a lot of LSU and TN grads. That in my mind goes a long way towards explaining why LSU and TN have been big here even in down years for the schools involved.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I disagree. If those teams are good (they will be) football fans will be fired up to play them. The regional rivalries are overated, I just want to play good teams. Each of those new teams will be better in football than Cuse and Pitt (did you notice the score of the Pitt SMU bowl game?). One of the best games we have had to date at the Rent was the South Florida windstorm rain game. Why were we fired up? Because they were ranked at the time. Every league game is a rivalry game in football.

THIS. Yes - I agree.

I am sick over the loss of the syracuse rivalry in basketball. Makes me sick. Pitt, well, stinks that we won't play them anymore, but I'm not at a loss over that one. WVU, other than very recently in football, there was nothing there.

There are only 12 football games a year. That's it. Every game is huge, and when a ranked opponent is involved? HUGE. When TWO ranked opponents involved? Still waiting for that one at the Rent. Still waiting for us to play there with a number b-w 1-25 in front of the block C on the scorebaord. We're going to get there. We've got teams coming in to the Rent in the future from all over the country, teams that potentially will carry those numbers in with them, with much greater potential than Pitt or Cuse, so we lose one regular ranked team in WVU, but we gain potentially several.

We've been content with scheduling only 6 home games regularly til now, b/c we've been new on the block. I hope, that we'll start to regularly get the 7 and 8 home game seasons that the most successful programs routinely plan well in advance for.

That's something that's alos lost on all these so called top level people that are running around and reorganizing into these "super" conferences. Teh concept of going to super conferences is something that at UConn, has been known and discussed since 1990, that I'm aware of.

It's going to be very hard, for those big time programs out there, to regularly get 7-8 home games a year anymore.

 

[John Greene]

THIS. Yes - I agree.

I am sick over the loss of the syracuse rivalry in basketball. Makes me sick. Pitt, well, stinks that we won't play them anymore, but I'm not at a loss over that one. WVU, other than very recently in football, there was nothing there.

There are only 12 football games a year. That's it. Every game is huge, and when a ranked opponent is involved? HUGE. When TWO ranked opponents involved? Still waiting for that one at the Rent. Still waiting for us to play there with a number b-w 1-25 in front of the block C on the scorebaord. We're going to get there. We've got teams coming in to the Rent in the future from all over the country, teams that potentially will carry those numbers in with them, with much greater potential than Pitt or Cuse, so we lose one regular ranked team in WVU, but we gain potentially several.

We've been content with scheduling only 6 home games regularly til now, b/c we've been new on the block. I hope, that we'll start to regularly get the 7 and 8 home game seasons that the most successful programs routinely plan well in advance for.

That's something that's alos lost on all these so called top level people that are running around and reorganizing into these "super" conferences. Teh concept of going to super conferences is something that at UConn, has been known and discussed since 1990, that I'm aware of.

It's going to be very hard, for those big time programs out there, to regularly get 7-8 home games a year anymore.

Reading this just gave me mental whiplash. The "big time Programs" are going to have more trouble getting 7-8 home games but you look forward to Uconn being able to do it?

 

[metsfan2323]

While hoping that you are right I have to disagree with your regional rivalaries point. In my experience fans get really up when they come in regular contact with fans from the other teams. Bham has a lot of UA and AU grads of course but it also has a lot of LSU and TN grads. That in my mind goes a long way towards explaining why LSU and TN have been big here even in down years for the schools involved.

Don't worry about it. I am right. I seem to remember some fired up crowds for Louisville when they had Brian Brohm, no regional rivalry there. The crowd for the North Carolina game was intense, same with Virginia.

You won't be fired up when we play Boise at the Rent? You might be the only one.

The last time Syracuse was any good Paul Pasqauloni was their coach.

 

[zls44]

It's not you, it's him.

He's bat s*** crazy.

 

[SAMCRO]

1) UConn would sign up for that tomorrow.
2) I wish people were feeling bad for UConn and we were in SU's shoes on the whole conference front.
3) BC still plays basketball?

 

[gars44]

Don't want to be too negative but I doubt that UH, SMU, BSU, SDSU are going to turn on a lot of UCnn fans. If we are counting on RU asthe saving grace we may be in more trouble than we think.

As far as retaining status as a BCS conference, how long will the BCS exist? I doubt that it will be around in its current form by the time all of the new menbers (Navy, ?) get in.

To be honest, I really don't see any qualitative difference between UH, SMU and BSU in with WVU, Pitt and Syracuse. And I don't perceive any great rivalry between Uconn and the latter three in football. It is a big loss in basketball, but it was never a rivalry in football. Connecticut fans will show up to football games against the first three the same as they would against the latter three. None of these programs are Michigan or USC. The loss is in basketball, not football. I couldn't care less about having West Virginia as a conference rival, never mind Syracuse or Pitt. Does anyone else?

 

[gars44]

While hoping that you are right I have to disagree with your regional rivalaries point. In my experience fans get really up when they come in regular contact with fans from the other teams. Bham has a lot of UA and AU grads of course but it also has a lot of LSU and TN grads. That in my mind goes a long way towards explaining why LSU and TN have been big here even in down years for the schools involved.

I agree with all of this. But do we have that same thing going on with anyone around here? Is Syracuse a valued regional rival in football? I don't think so. I know for a fact that Syracuse doesn't think so. Boston College would be a lot closer to it, because we don't like them. But they don't think so. You are absolutely right, however, in the teams that you named.