ACC

[RS9999X]

Here's some BE spin with 1/2 the Sweet 16 decided.

BE 3 teams
BiG 3 teams
B12 1 team
SEC 1 team
ACC 0 teams
PAC-12 0 teams

The curse is well underway.

Coach K in fetal position after Lehigh loss

 

[Adios]

I really have got to question whether or not the Big East can support 6 Eastern Pennsylvania programs.

You'll have Temple, Villanova, UPenn, Bucknell, Lafayette and Lehigh. I agree it makes for a solid division ( quality - ND esque program in Nova and good regional rivalries) but maybe we dilutre the area of quality talent?

I really think the absolute max should be the Big East CT dvision of 4 teams: UConn, Yale, Fairfield and Sacred Heart.

Penn and Yale wouldn't come.

You forgot CCSU!

 

[whaler11]

What amazes me is that from what I remember, Business Lawyer and I were the only posters who were in favor of the ND series with our home games at NFL stadiums in the northeast instead of the Rent. Today none of the posters who jumped all over the two of us are thumping their chest in this thread.

I was 100% on board with those ND games. Many here think that if you act as though you are bigtime, that makes you bigtime.

 

[uconnfan68]

I was 100% on board with those ND games. Many here think that if you act as though you are bigtime, that makes you bigtime.

Big deal. If you can't do something for ND, they don't want you anyway. How far over were you willing to bend? I'd rather put UConn's interests ahead of ND's.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I was 100% on board with those ND games. Many here think that if you act as though you are bigtime, that makes you bigtime.

sorry to interrupt your little "I told you so" circle jerk with FFCountyFan, but the only way you even get to say "I told you so" is if you believe the speculative, some would say absurd, assertion that a few scheduled non-conference games drove all the decisions in expansion.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

sorry to interrupt your little "I told you so" circle jerk with FFCountyFan, but the only way you even get to say "I told you so" is if you believe the speculative, some would say absurd, assertion that a few scheduled non-conference games drove all the decisions in expansion.

I know that you really aren't this obtuse, you are merely altering the facts for convenience but the issue I brought up was not whether the there was or was not sound logic to the premise that cancelling the ND series cost us a spot in the ACC. It was solely questioning the many who within this thread claimed they knew all along that cancelling the series was a bad idea when at the time the series was being negotiated, there was a very small minority who actually believed (or at least were willing to put these beliefs in the old boneyard) that increasing the football program's national profile by playing a school who had the name and popularity of ND could actually benefit the growth of the program.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I was 100% on board with those ND games. Many here think that if you act as though you are bigtime, that makes you bigtime.

Exactly. What's more "Big Time" playing at Notre Dame and then at an NFL stadium or home and homes with Buffalo, Western Michigan?

Not saying it was ND or Buffalo, etc. but when our scheduled is littered with games like that, the ND game could've really provided some serious juice.

 

[Dann]

hey mets did u read page 27 of this thread??? u have to add to your summary that there was a "circlejerk". the cliff notes of this thread are getting better by the hour.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Exactly. What's more "Big Time" playing at Notre Dame and then at an NFL stadium or home and homes with Buffalo, Western Michigan?

Not saying it was ND or Buffalo, etc. but when our scheduled is littered with games like that, the ND game could've really provided some serious juice.

Actually, the choices were a 7 game road series with Notre Dame or home and homes with Michigan and Tennessee.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I know that you really aren't this obtuse, you are merely altering the facts for convenience but the issue I brought up was not whether the there was or was not sound logic to the premise that cancelling the ND series cost us a spot in the ACC. It was solely questioning the many who within this thread claimed they knew all along that cancelling the series was a bad idea when at the time the series was being negotiated, there was a very small minority who actually believed (or at least were willing to put these beliefs in the old boneyard) that increasing the football program's national profile by playing a school who had the name and popularity of ND could actually benefit the growth of the program.

Other than the claim that if UConn had played a 0 for 7 road series with Notre Dame, the Huskies would now be in the ACC, how would that series have benefited UConn?

Actually, I will give the series credit for one thing. It appears that series gave UConn the leverage to book home and homes with Tennessee and Michigan, so I guess it wasn't all bad.

 

[SAMCRO]

The one game already played at ND was a one and done, not part of the bigger series we were discussing.
My understanding was we were in negotiations for a 6 game series w/ ND (3 at South Bend and 3 at some combo of Gillette and Meadowlands), and we passed b/c we couldn't get at least one game at the Rent. We also signed the home and homes w/ UT and UM. I didn't realize it was an either or situation, where if we inked a deal w/ ND we wouldn't have scheduled UT and UM (I must have missed that quote in the articles I read, or is this yet another case of someone posting their opinion as fact). UM reached out to us b/c they were looking for a BCS team (but not a national power type team) to open up the season in their newly expanded stadium. We were one of only 2 or 3 such schools who could make the dates work. UT was part of a BB?FB home and home deal.

Either way, I don't buy it as the reason we're not in the ACC. I would have been fine with the series if the 3 games not in South Bend were considered "home" games for UConn and we controlled the gate. Didn't happen, so we move forward.

 

[Waquoit]

Actually, the choices were a 7 game road series with Notre Dame or home and homes with Michigan and Tennessee.

I believe that would be check and mate.

 

[Carl Spackler]

The one game already played at ND was a one and done, not part of the bigger series we were discussing.
My understanding was we were in negotiations for a 6 game series w/ ND (3 at South Bend and 3 at some combo of Gillette and Meadowlands), and we passed b/c we couldn't get at least one game at the Rent. We also signed the home and homes w/ UT and UM. I didn't realize it was an either or situation, where if we inked a deal w/ ND we wouldn't have scheduled UT and UM (I must have missed that quote in the articles I read, or is this yet another case of someone posting their opinion as fact). UM reached out to us b/c they were looking for a BCS team (but not a national power type team) to open up the season in their newly expanded stadium. We were one of only 2 or 3 such schools who could make the dates work. UT was part of a BB?FB home and home deal.

Either way, I don't buy it as the reason we're not in the ACC. I would have been fine with the series if the 3 games not in South Bend were considered "home" games for UConn and we controlled the gate. Didn't happen, so we move forward.

Revenue sharing was the obstacle. Correct. The one game at South Bend was a one game contract. We were goign to skip a year and then start a 6 year (3 / 3). The hangup was revenue sharing. We wanted one home game. Ideally, we wanted Rentschler, but Notre Dame wouldn't budge on that, wasn't even an option. What we really wanted was one home game financially - revenue sharing wise. They wouldn't budge on that either. They wanted a larger venue, and they wanted control of the revenue sharing.

They wanted our end of the deal to be 3 home games for THEM, which would put them in control of gate receipts, TV revenue sharing etc.

(i.e. Notre Dame v. Maryland @ FedEX in D.C. last season 2011 - played in Washington D.C, was a home game for Notre Dame. - get it? ND took the 70,000+ gate receipts and TV revenue and they decide how the revenue gets split up.)

We would not bend over and take that. We wanted the home games in NYC or Foxboro to be either neutral sites which mean 50/50 revenue sharing, or home games for us. THey weren't budging on that. I believe it came down to it that we would have agreed to the 6 game series, if only one of those three games in a NYC or Foxboro would be a neutral site - not even a home game, (not sure about that). One game, we would have split revenue 50/50 and we would have agreed. I'm pretty sure that's how it went down. THey still wouldn't budge, and wanted complete control of the revenue, so both sides walked away.

I'm perfectly fine with it. I'm not excited about getting fleeced financially by Notre Dame, lose a home game at Rentschler at the same time..... when we can continue to win games and build our national profile on our own, in our own stadium.

 

[Carl Spackler]

FYI: To my knowledge, every Notre Dame football game that has been scheduled in the NYC area, Yankee Stadium, etc....are all scheduled as "off-site" home games for ND.

UConn is the only program to stand up against that.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Correction: Just checked. Syracuse scheduled two games at Meadowlands w/ ND, and ND agreed to make them Syracuse home games. THis happened in 2009 - AFTER they tried to bend UConn over for games for a series of "off-site" home games in the northeast corridor, but we wouldn't do it. They proceeded to land "off-site" home games in Washington D.C., and Chicago, got the "off-site" home game against Army at Yankee Stadium, and then agreed to let Syracuse have the 'home' game rights to Meadowlands for two games. Syracuse has made a big push to schedule games at Met-Life, but I'm not sure how happy that's making people in upstate.

2012 home games at the carrier dome are Northwestern, Stony Brook, UConn, Louisville and Pitt.

Sure looks like Syracuse has agreed to do what UConn wouldn't, and agree to play seasons of only 5 games at their home field, and then go to NYC to play their 6th.

 

[RS9999X]

The visibility with ND is huge. National TV. Yankee Stadium. Sportsbars everywhere. It was as good a piece of branding as can be bought. That's as good a way to anchor the schedule as any. It was and is a no brainer.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

ND series? Still a no way. Not without an appearance at the Rent. Nothing has changed. The promise at UConn was for big time college football right in our back yards. Not exporting games to "Broadway".

 

[Waquoit]

I think some here have forgotten how the proposed ND deal triggered an enormous public backlash. It was never going to happen once the details became known. Any hand-wringing about it is wasted energy.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I know that you really aren't this obtuse, you are merely altering the facts for convenience but the issue I brought up was not whether the there was or was not sound logic to the premise that cancelling the ND series cost us a spot in the ACC. It was solely questioning the many who within this thread claimed they knew all along that cancelling the series was a bad idea when at the time the series was being negotiated, there was a very small minority who actually believed (or at least were willing to put these beliefs in the old boneyard) that increasing the football program's national profile by playing a school who had the name and popularity of ND could actually benefit the growth of the program.

It's obvious that being on national TV is going to contribute to raising the national profile of UConn football. The ability to broadcast both nationally AND regionally from coast to coast across all four time zones in conference games....... contrary to the insider clown's position in this discussion, is going to be a major factor for Big East football in the future. IMO, the future of the conference basically hinges on it. We don't have the name draws and outright ownership of all the markets. But we have HUGE potential to draw new viewership, which doesn't exist elsewhere. Putting several three hour windows of live college football sports programming in saturday football primetime from 3:30pm to 11:00pm across the country is a big deal.

It's also obvious that if we had signed the 6 year deal that Notre Dame wanted us to take, several years ago now, that we'd still have a couple years left of taking it up the keester hard financially on "road" games in our own yard. Syracuse is pushing to play games in NYC, and they've got USC, Penn St, and Notre Dame scheduled at Giants Stadium. Rutgers has worked their deals out in Yankee Stadium. We need to get some home games scheduled in the city too.

The only reason that NYC is not a college football town currently, is that for all the same reasons that football was minimized in the northeast many, many years ago, nobody....until recently, has really made an effort to make college football a presence in the city. Scheduling games at Yankee Stadium is a train we do need to get on as a football program.

Good lord, you can pick up a metro north train on the New Haven line and get off the 153rd street stop at the stadium in under an hour. They have to cross the river from Jersey, and syracuse, no matter how much they say NYC is theirs....Syracuse is still 200 miles from the city last time I checked.

I hope that getting involved at Yankee Stadium with scheduling UCONN football games and promoting the hell out of them to tri-state area is on AD Manuel's agenda.

It doesn't matter who we are playing there, as long as we are playing there.

 

[Carl Spackler]

You know what would make me happy? I"d like to see our Michigan scheduling get renewed and work out long term, and start playing a couple of those games in Yankee Stadium alternating with Rentschler. Rutgers can have Army alternate at home and in the Bronx.

I want Michigan alternating with Rentschler and Yankee Stadium in the future......

Come on Warde! Make it happen!!

(as if he's reading..... )

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Actually, the choices were a 7 game road series with Notre Dame or home and homes with Michigan and Tennessee.

Is that a fact? Or is it just circumstance that it ended up that way?

 

[HuskyBandDad]

ND series? Still a no way. Not without an appearance at the Rent. Nothing has changed. The promise at UConn was for big time college football right in our back yards. Not exporting games to "Broadway".

You got it right. Anyone who plays ND anywhere but their own home field is like being the visitors whether we control the gate or not because there are more ND fans that would fill the stadium. I am a season ticket holder and would not travel for a "home" game - It''s pure Bullcrap. Play at the Rent or not at all. If it's all about the money than I would be open to paying a little more for my ticket at the Rent for a ND game - a real home game. I would rather have home and home with Mich and Tenn anyway.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I never referred to the the Nielsen data as "TV sets". I was on auto-pilot earlier and referred to them as ratings, rather than total viewers. Ratings are not TV sets, but rather, the percentage of households w/ a TV that are watch a specific program/game.

The extrapolation between TV sets to viewers changes from situation to situation. So, two programs with the same exact rating can actually have different "total viewers". That's b/c when Nielsen logs TV usage, it also records total viewers, based either on demographic information required when you sign up to allow Nielsen to watch your viewing habits, or by keying in the number of viewers when you turn on the TV (Nielsen has several different systems). Generally, for college sporting events, there are 1.35 - 1.55 viewers per TV set.

Also, despite the popularity of college football, it is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of many other categories. The NFL absolutely obliterates college football in viewership. So, drawing in 4M+ viewers on average for a football game is pretty darn good, especially when you're talking about ALL games across ALL channels. The conference measures aren't solely Tier 1 games. They include Tier 2, which would include all of the ESPN brand, Fox Sports, etc. And, it also includes Tier 3, which are your PPV, Raycom, Sun Sports, Longhorn Network, etc.

I am confused by your definition. I thought Ratings was a standard measurement of sets watching a show. "Share", a separate measurement, is the measure of TV sets on during a given time period. Am I incorrect in this?

Your ratio seems really low. If there are 115 million sets and 290 million total viewers per Nielson, then the ration is more like 2.5:1 viewers:set. Why is college football so much lower than the standard? I would think it would be higher, because it is on in so many bars and generally watched in large social settings, unlike a sitcom or drama which is usually watched alone or in small groups.

The SEC number looks even more enormous given your definition. If that average represents Tier 1 through Tier 3 games, 4.45 viewers/game at 1.45 viewers per set would translate into 3.069MM sets. There are typically 3 SEC prime time games on Saturday night, which would represent over 9MM sets, or 8% of the total population of TV sets. That is probably a 20-30% share for Saturday night. If they really had those kind of ratings, they would be in prime time on every network.

Those ratings just do not add up. I think those ratings numbers represent major NETWORK broadcasts, and don't even include ESPN, much less the Tier 2 and Tier 3.

 

[whaler11]

sorry to interrupt your little "I told you so" circle jerk with FFCountyFan, but the only way you even get to say "I told you so" is if you believe the speculative, some would say absurd, assertion that a few scheduled non-conference games drove all the decisions in expansion.

I'm not saying I agree with that, although 'Insiders' posts are compelling, just that I had no problem with playing the UConn home games in NJ and MA.

 

[whaler11]

I believe that would be check and mate.

I think if I were going to claim checkmate for Nelson, I'd wait for the huge NBC deal he's been predicting forever. You know since he was the one who banged the drum loudest on sticking it to ESPN..... that has worked out splendidly.