ACC

[UConnDan97]

All that matters is what ESPN tells us to think, right?

You're not getting it, Nelson! You need to whine!!! That is how you fix the problem. If you whine enough, then the big boys respect you and everything is set back in order. It is our new WhineHarder movement. Join us, won't you?

 

[zls44]

So then we should.....wait, I forgot what your plan was again? Oh, just wait for an invite somewhere else, and bitch until we get one. Great plan. I'm happy to be a part of it!

The plan is to wait for cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!

(Big 12 expansion)

 

[metsfan2323]

Completely inaccurate.

Oh, the facts say the two are close on the field. But that doesn't matter. It never has.

It's about history, about stadium size, media contracts, recruiting, ticket sales. The actual on-field product? Meaningless.

The minute you realize that and accept it, you will realize that UConn has zero future in college football under this format.


, we have people advocating UConn being in a football conference with BYU or UNLV or Nevada. Take a second and step back. Think for a minute. Do you not realize how completely futile and stupid that is?

You are on a major roll tonight. Lets recap the night that ZLS44 went full "Alumni69" and embarrassed himself in the Boneyard

To recap:

"on the field product? Meaningless"
BYU to the Big East football conference will be mocked by 100 out of 100 commentators
the Big East should have voted no on the playoffs
there is no making the Big East work
UCONN has zero future in college football under this format.
Taking the Lords name in vein.
Advocating interspecies relationships
Refusing to live in a fantasy land while simultaneously spending time in the Boneyard (which in essence is a fantasyland)

Who needs Observer when we have fans like ZLS44.

 

[The Funster]

On the field product is all we have to rely on, now. Schedule wisely and win games.

 

[zls44]

On the field product is all we have to rely on, now. Schedule wisely and win games.

But schedule who? What power conference team is going to schedule a deal with a C-USA-level program? Either you agree to take 3-for-1s or one-off games, get paychecks and get a tough schedule...or you play nobody and never get in a position to ever be in the playoff.

 

[The Funster]

But schedule who? What power conference team is going to schedule a deal with a C-USA-level program? Either you agree to take 3-for-1s or one-off games, get paychecks and get a tough schedule...or you play nobody and never get in a position to ever be in the playoff.

You do what you have to do and stop whining about it. Take the one off games and position the university for the next round of expansion or (gag) help raise the level of the NBE.

 

[whaler11]

But schedule who? What power conference team is going to schedule a deal with a C-USA-level program? Either you agree to take 3-for-1s or one-off games, get paychecks and get a tough schedule...or you play nobody and never get in a position to ever be in the playoff.

If their SOS is important and you can do well in the computers, isn't that better than now where the SEC and Big 10 just bury the SB and MAC all September? I don't really see how its going to be worse.

 

[whaler11]

To help the push for 1k. Michigan signed home and home with Utah for 14 and 15

 

[junglehusky]

Just to reiterate the point... HuskyFanDan is advocating an all-sports league. UConn basketball in a league with the western teams.

UCONN BAKETBALL IN A LEAGUE WITH THE WESTERN TEAMS.

But don't worry, it won't affect our basketball program at all if we just #ClapHarder. Yay! Reno and Boise at the HCC! I'm sure the season ticket sales won't go down at all!

 

[Dann]

Just to reiterate the point... HuskyFanDan is advocating an all-sports league. UConn basketball in a league with the western teams.

UCONN BAKETBALL IN A LEAGUE WITH THE WESTERN TEAMS.

But don't worry, it won't affect our basketball program at all if we just #ClapHarder. Yay! Reno and Boise at the HCC! I'm sure the season ticket sales won't go down at all!

uconn/lville/cincy/memphis is a good top of the league.
temple/sdsu are solid programs right now
byu has been relevant recently
usf/ucf/uh/sdsu have all been on a huge rise. usf made the ncaat, ucf is now competitive, uh has brought in back to back big classes.
smu all of a sudden trying with LB
bsu is actually not far off in bball, no reason to think they wouldn't give it a go up there considering what there fball became

my point is some type of big all sports league can hold its own in bball easily, EASILY.

this league isn't as good as the top of the acc or b10 as a whole and on par with a b12 top but besides that its still good. uconn can also literally call teams and offer mens and womens for home and home games. we can play anyone in bball ooc so our schedule and big time home games will never suffer. we can split and get sju/nova/gtown all with good long series contracts for u old timers. bball is not a issue no matter what. stop thinking about it. thats why were now in this mess.

 

[junglehusky]

Scheduling 1 crossover game a year in football is completely different from scheduling a nationwide basetball league. Most football games are saturdays or fridays, bball can be any day of the week. There's a reason Boise and SDSU aren't asking the BE for an all sports membership, they're asking for the BE's help to get the BW for their olympic sports. The costs alone are prohibitive. And it'll hurt the BE's only bargaining chip when negotiating with TV broadcasters, the quality of the bball product. I would bet a case of beer no TV network is salivating over having UCF and SMU, let alone Nevada-Reno and San Diego state basketball as part of their inventory. It's bad enough UConn is not going to play Syracuse and Pitt. Now you want to relegate Nova and GTown to nonconference (i.e. meaningless) games (and their contributions to SOS, etc would be taken away)

If you are looking for a way to convince UConn fans that #BegHarder is the right decision, forcing UConn bball to play in a watered down, national conference that nobody wants to watch, that would be the way to do it.

As always I admire your passion Dan. And I will allow some slack on the potential for UH, UCF, maybe SMU to improve their bball programs. But a) that's going to take a few years b) those bball programs are way down the pecking order in their markets c) UConn is going to be going through a transition period when Calhoun retires, the worst possible time to be in a league that, even if all the improvements you cite hold up, would be light years behind what the BE was the past 3-4 years.

 

[whaler11]

Why do Boise and SDSU want the Big West instead of the WCC? Does the WCC have no interest?

You can't compete in a national conference in sports like basketball. Who in their right mind is going to sign up for that much travel in the winter. Just look at the NFL and how the west coast teams play at 1pm Eastern on the road - it's a bloodbath. Going across the country that often is foolish, expensive, kills your recruiting and makes it harder to win. Sounds like a great formula.

 

[WordUpBU]

Why do Boise and SDSU want the Big West instead of the WCC? Does the WCC have no interest?

You can't compete in a national conference in sports like basketball. Who in their right mind is going to sign up for that much travel in the winter. Just look at the NFL and how the west coast teams play at 1pm Eastern on the road - it's a bloodbath. Going across the country that often is foolish, expensive, kills your recruiting and makes it harder to win. Sounds like a great formula.

WCC only want faith based private schools. Two big state universities won't be invited.

 

[UConnDan97]

WCC only want faith based private schools. Two big state universities won't be invited.

Isn't SDSU already in the Big West?? I think that is why they are trying to pull Boise in. They are trying to use their existing leverage, since the Big West knows that SDSU is by far their best basketball team (and maybe a couple of other sports). They would love to figure out a way to keep them; otherwise, SDSU goes back to the MW.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...-state-aztecs-move-14-sports-big-west-2013-14

 

[whaler11]

Isn't SDSU already in the Big West?? I think that is why they are trying to pull Boise in. They are trying to use their existing leverage, since the Big West knows that SDSU is by far their best basketball team (and maybe a couple of other sports). They would love to figure out a way to keep them; otherwise, SDSU goes back to the MW.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...-state-aztecs-move-14-sports-big-west-2013-14

Boise makes a lot more sense in the Big Sky. The Big West costs California schools that are so poor they aren't admitting students travel dollars.

I figured if the WCC will allow pretty much all faiths they could survive a couple of secular schools.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

If their SOS is important and you can do well in the computers, isn't that better than now where the SEC and Big 10 just bury the SB and MAC all September? I don't really see how its going to be worse.

When Whaler won't join in the Big East bashing, you know ZLS has gone too far.

If college football goes to an RPI and gets rid of these stupid computer services with their inherent biases and low or no incorporation of home field advantage, you will see VERY different outcomes.

 

[Waquoit]

But schedule who? What power conference team is going to schedule a deal with a C-USA-level program? Either you agree to take 3-for-1s or one-off games, get paychecks and get a tough schedule...or you play nobody and never get in a position to ever be in the playoff.

I get it. And I agree, we're screwed and he NBE will probably always suck. But Dan like has asked you, what's the alternative? You don't seem to have one. You just double down on your criticism of those trying to make the best of the cards we've been dealt. Do you really think those of us that are going to continue to go to the games, have fun and root for the team are ignorant?

 

[uconnfan68]

I get it. And I agree, we're screwed and he NBE will probably always suck. But Dan like has asked you, what's the alternative? You don't seem to have one. You just double down on your criticism of those trying to make the best of the cards we've been dealt. Do you really think those of us that are going to continue to go to the games, have fun and root for the team are ignorant?

I don't have anything to add. I just wanted to be part of this never-ending thread.

 

[UConnDan97]

I don't have anything to add. I just wanted to be part of this never-ending thread.

Welcome. I didn't have anything to add to your comment about not adding anything, so I just wanted to say welcome.

 

[UConnDan97]

I get it. And I agree, we're screwed and he NBE will probably always suck. But Dan like has asked you, what's the alternative? You don't seem to have one. You just double down on your criticism of those trying to make the best of the cards we've been dealt. Do you really think those of us that are going to continue to go to the games, have fun and root for the team are ignorant?

Thanks for the reference (much appreciated). I will say this; I don't think that the NBE will suck. I don't think that anyone thinks the NBE will suck. Unfortunately, nobody thinks that the NBE is going to be the Big10 or the SEC. They're right. It won't be.

Now that we have that statement out of the way, the question that ZLS44 and others have to ask themselves is what we as fans and UConn as an institution can do about it. To me, the first thing that we can do is improve the image of the league that we are in. That includes talking about what is right with our league more than talking about what is wrong with it (I know, I know....we are from CT....bitching is our motto). The other thing we can do is talk about how the current league can improve its product and membership. I get much more out of those discussions than the "woe is me" chatter that I normally get out of some in the Boneyard. So what else could we do to improve our situation? (can't wait to see what the responses look like)

 

[whaler11]

If UConn fans want to improve UConn's position they aren't going to do it on message boards. They are going to do it by selling out the stadium, being passionate during the games, watching college football on television to drive the ratings to where they are attractive to other leagues and cable operators, traveling to road games and making it a more attractive school for recruits to attend.

Gee maybe playing a neutral site game nearby would give UConn fans a chance to show how much they care by bringing tens of thousands to a game. That might be more productive than pretending we are too good to play a home game against a more traditional opponent anywhere but East Hartford.

So really the 15-20k passionate UConn football fans need to grow into a much larger number. Ignoring the issues in the Big East don't make them go away.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Actually, message boards drive a lot of the news cycle in sports.

 

[UConnDan97]

If UConn fans want to improve UConn's position they aren't going to do it on message boards. They are going to do it by selling out the stadium, being passionate during the games, watching college football on television to drive the ratings to where they are attractive to other leagues and cable operators, traveling to road games and making it a more attractive school for recruits to attend.

The answer to how UConn fans can improve UConn's position is actually "all of the above." I agree with all the points that you've made, with the exception of the fact that message boards don't improve UConn's position. Of course they can improve UConn's position! First, the fact that we have an active board bodes well from the standpoint of continuing the buzz about UConn football. Second, we can mobilize the fanbase and administration around ideas (i.e., trying to schedule a game against Penn State). The administration knows about the Boneyard and the press knows about the Boneyard (I found out about the Boneyard from Dez, who often references it!), so a ground-swell around an idea can actually happen right here!

Finally, in Hollywood, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Unfortunately, that statement does not hold true in college football; a world where ONLY good publicity matters (as we've witnessed over the past 12 months). The good publicity can start right here.

 

[The Funster]

Actually, message boards drive a lot of the news cycle in sports.

Actually message boards create a lot of false news cycles in sports.

 

[whaler11]

The answer to how UConn fans can improve UConn's position is actually "all of the above." I agree with all the points that you've made, with the exception of the fact that message boards don't improve UConn's position. Of course they can improve UConn's position! First, the fact that we have an active board bodes well from the standpoint of continuing the buzz about UConn football. Second, we can mobilize the fanbase and administration around ideas (i.e., trying to schedule a game against Penn State). The administration knows about the Boneyard and the press knows about the Boneyard (I found out about the Boneyard from Dez, who often references it!), so a ground-swell around an idea can actually happen right here!

Finally, in Hollywood, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Unfortunately, that statement does not hold true in college football; a world where ONLY good publicity matters (as we've witnessed over the past 12 months). The good publicity can start right here.

I think you guys are delusional on the impact of message boards, and ignore how small of a percentage of a fanbase they represent.

Of course the media know about message boards - it's the people who read their stuff commenting on it. And of course the admin knows about it - once they get done laughing at 99% of the nonsense that is posted they take note of a few things I'm sure.

To improve UConn's station in athletics it's OTHER SCHOOLS and media companies that need to be convinced. So unless you are using the message board to create more diehard fans none of it matters in the end - because at the end of the day that is what the school lacks. Thousands and thousands of people who live and die with the football team. The rest is just pointless blabbering.