Anyone who thinks the C7 / MWC combo is a bad idea...

[junglehusky]

Some of you seem to not understand contracts. MWC have one. If ... They get any incremental dollars, it's because it's in CBS's interests. But they aren't going to mark to market. The NNNBE is in the Market. That's why they will get many times the MWC. It's a good time to have some kind of sports content.

That's what I figured about the MWC contract. But it seems to me the dead weight schools in the MWC agreed to pay the Boise a sweetheart deal as a cost to having a relatively stable conference. By taking Boise and SDSU away from the football conference formerly known as the NBE, the MWC reduces the likelihood of more of their schools (or potential MWC schools like BYU) being poached by a NNBE/FBCFKATNBE entity with a growing western presence. This was a not only a territorial move, but a move to further damage the BE - with Boise (and potentially BYU) that league increases their shot that their champion, and not the Big East's will get the "group of five" spot in the big access bowls. If it's Boise, they'll get to keep more of that $$ (correct me if I read that wrong). Now, one could argue the reconfigured MWC's dead weight will be worse than the FBCFKATNBE's dead weight, and whether a Cincy or UConn would have a better resume than Boise. But the MWC's profile is better than it was a few weeks ago, and the FBCFATNBE is not as good without Boise and is consequently less stable for the time being.

 

[junglehusky]

The problem I have with splitting from the C7 is tradition. I think it means a lot to recruits.

It means a lot to fans who grew up watching Big East basketball. I think it means a lot less to recruits than we think it does. I bet we overestimate how much they value UConn vs. St. Johns or UConn vs. Georgetown. You are right that we need to continue to recruit NYC. As long as UConn is on TV in NYC I don't think it matters as much whether we're playing St. John's or Temple, although not playing a conference tournament in MSG would be more of a factor.

 

[DW4UCONN]

It means a lot to fans who grew up watching Big East basketball. I think it means a lot less to recruits than we think it does. I bet we overestimate how much they value UConn vs. St. Johns or UConn vs. Georgetown. You are right that we need to continue to recruit NYC. As long as UConn is on TV in NYC I don't think it matters as much whether we're playing St. John's or Temple, although not playing a conference tournament in MSG would be more of a factor.

Who will get prime time scheduling in the NYC area?

 

[DW4UCONN]

My take....

The rumor of UConn/Cincinnati doing this was planted by UConn/Cincinnati. My guess is that Aresco and the NNBE was trying to force a GoR requirement for all members in order to get a slightly better media contract from the bidding entities. Obviously UConn/UC would be completely against that as they are hoping to just bide their time until the next conference realignment shift. So putting this out there in the media is UConn/UC's way of calling Arescos bluff and their attempt to take the GoR discussion off of the table.

Just a guess on my part, as I don't think this is a realistic consideration.

Plausible, but I think it is unlikely that Susan would have come out in public supporting the NBE and purposely leaked out information that would potentially harm TV negotiations. Both she and Ward were very quick to come back and emphatically deny the rumor. I'm afraid this C7 talk is purely fantasy that makes for good conversation only.

 

[upstater]

Who will get prime time scheduling in the NYC area?

Are you talking about TV?

Did you see the recent post about SNY ratings?

 

[Fishy]

Are you talking about TV?

Did you see the recent post about SNY ratings?

Those ratings were for the Hartford-New Haven market. To the best of my knowledge, they've never referenced the numbers in New York.

 

[upstater]

Those ratings were for the Hartford-New Haven market. To the best of my knowledge, they've never referenced the numbers in New York.

Right, but to top network TV on a weekday night in the 30th market means something. I'm not sure how many schools can say this outside of football games on Saturday's. That's a lot of inventory for something like BTN, it's the kind of thing that could force cable outlets in Connecticut to actually pay for something like BTN (not that I think they're going to the Big10, only that there is money to be made).

 

[ctchamps]

Given the current MWC TV deal... the top schools from the rump Big East and MWC would be better served breaking off and forming a new conference and starting over on the deal.

1.) It culls the deadweight schools
2.) Starts the TV deal over
-- 12 for football would be great.. but
3.) Hybrid deals start to fall do to non-alignment of goals for the affiliated members... It would be possible to pull together an all sports league of 16-18 teams; Eastern and Western divisions (sub-conferneces). Non-revenue sports have 0 cross-over games until the conference championships/tournaments (saves the $). Basketball plays home and home in division with limited cross-over games, while football operates on a 7-8 game division schedule + 2 cross-over games (fills 9-10 games out of the schedule and gives a ton of higher value inventory to the networks).

Keep in mind with the new playoff system and the splitting of the conferences there will be little incentives from the Big Boys to schedule the next best schools, why schedule Boise or Cincy when if you win you get no credit; but if you lose you get hammered, much better to schedule an Indiana or Wake or little brother type school from one of the power conferences or to find a Sun Belt team looking for a pay-day.

This would have been the way to go if Cincy and Uconn were firm. They're not and rightfully so. It's a Catch 22 because options are limited to start with and more so with two of the three most important football schools not all in.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Exactly.

Anyone in favor of this has to explain why the other party would do it. It's not like UConn can just decide.

OK. For starters, they would have the Big East name and MSG contract. Second UConn and Cinci are better than the other programs they could add as 11 and 12. The TV money would increase, as would the NCAA shares. The profile of the league would be higher and if they took Xavier, Dayton and Butler it would be strong.

Also, there would still be no football aspect. They could probably easily replace UConn and UC or just go to 14 right away with SLU and Creighton. When UConn and UC leave it would only be for a big time league so the name would stay.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Yawn.

 

[mattp]

I think we'd be attractive to the C7 for a few reasons. We'd presumably bring our NCAA credits with us, help them in keeping the Big East name, and most importantly help them sell tickets to their games. I'm sure they'd love to have us for all sports, but I don't see why MWC or CUSA would want just our football.

 

[RS9999X]

In a c7 they would own the voting majority
I doubt its a great solution for non revenue sports. Independence in football requires a bigger commitment to become a local media powerhouse. The goal would need to be a Husky Channel likely with SNY as a partner and the major carrier fees equal to BiG etc. They'd have to think big. Real big to create a state media phenomena that qualified as best in the nation


Sent from my Lumia 920 via Windows 8. Now bite me Apple Droids.

 

[mattp]

In a c7 they would own the voting majority
I doubt its a great solution for non revenue sports. Independence in football requires a bigger commitment to become a local media powerhouse. The goal would need to be a Husky Channel likely with SNY as a partner and the major carrier fees equal to BiG etc. They'd have to think big. Real big to create a state media phenomena that qualified as best in the natios.

Now that BE football is basically non existent it seems to me that SNY might be interested in carrying our football games. SNY doesn't have any football right now and since Rutgers and Cuse are in different conferences that control most of their media rights we're probably their best option. I think if we could get $4-5 m from the bball deal, which seems to be what the C7 think they'll get, and another few million from SNY to air our games we might be able to pull of being independent in football for a few years. The best part of that would be that if we get invited to a bowl game the money will be entirely ours to keep, and it seems from a few articles that the bowls and conferences want to have a looser affiliation set up which might help us get invited without conference tie ins

The part I like about going with the C7 is that we'll still have the BE tournament which is the highlight of the UConn sports fans year as far as I'm concerned, and I'd hate to lose it. Obviously it's worth losing for the ACC or B1G, but not this NNBE.

 

[freescooter]

OK...let's look at the real world for just a minute. UConn has been one of the most successful basketball programs in the country over the past 25 years. Arguably the most successful in the past 15 years. Conference realignment came along and what did it get us? Nothing. Not one single thing. That boys and girls is why it makes no sense to focus on basketball going forward. We can win a national championship next year too and it won't help. Let's look at another reality...The Catholic 7. Or more appropriately the Catholic 1.5. Georgetown is the big dog in that group. Marquette is fine. Villanova is fine. But folks, it isn't like that league is going to be any better once you get past Georgetown and Marquette and occasionally Villanova than the NNBE will be once you get past Temple, Memphis and Cincy. After that its a bunch of throw 'em against a wall and see if any of them stick. yeah, we have some history with Georgetown and Providence. But going forward we just have a different need and a different approach to all the private, urban regional entities that make up the C-7.

 

[HuskyHawk]

OK...let's look at the real world for just a minute. UConn has been one of the most successful basketball programs in the country over the past 25 years. Arguably the most successful in the past 15 years. Conference realignment came along and what did it get us? Nothing. Not one single thing. That boys and girls is why it makes no sense to focus on basketball going forward. We can win a national championship next year too and it won't help. Let's look at another reality...The Catholic 7. Or more appropriately the Catholic 1.5. Georgetown is the big dog in that group. Marquette is fine. Villanova is fine. But folks, it isn't like that league is going to be any better once you get past Georgetown and Marquette and occasionally Villanova than the NNBE will be once you get past Temple, Memphis and Cincy. After that its a bunch of throw 'em against a wall and see if any of them stick. yeah, we have some history with Georgetown and Providence. But going forward we just have a different need and a different approach to all the private, urban regional entities that make up the C-7.

But the schools in the proposed Big East are regional urban schools as well (some private, most public). We don't fit with them either. We'd be the only major state university in the league. If the MWC actually allowed us in for football (I doubt it) we'd be among shools that are arguably more similar. I don't think the competition level would be much different.

 

[freescooter]

But Hawk, they all have one thing in common and that is a D1 football program. And that changes your worldview. And it changes your athletic budget and the size of the department and the quality of your facilities and everything else. the basketball program is going to take a hit, whether its playing in the C7 or the NNNBE. There is no getting around that. Might as well be in a position where you have a chance of growing something.

 

[mattp]

If the C7 can get 4-5 m I'm pretty sure they'll be making more than MWC football schools. Besides you say winning 3 championships didn't get us anything, and that's bull. If you're going to retroactively not have any fun over the last decade because we're currently in a crappy conference than I think that says more about you as a fan than UConn as a school or the BE as a conference. What drives me crazy about some people here is that they think the whole world revolves around what conference you're in. It's important, but there's more to it than that. Whose fans have had a better time over the last decade Boise State, or Minnesota? Hell Gonzaga fans have had a lot more to cheer about in the last decade than Minnesota. I'm sure Rutgers ticket sales will go up for a little while, but I'm pretty sure the novelty will fade after about 3-4 years of being in the bottom half of the league. Winning generates interest more than conference affiliation, that's why Miami of the Big East was worlds better than Miami of the ACC.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The reason we shouldn't focus on the C7/MWC proposal is because it would never happen but Cincinnati and UConn pursuing it would further destabilize the Big East.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

C7? Really? Please give it up. Football, football, football.

 

[freescooter]

C7? Really? Please give it up. Football, football, football.

We have our disagreements, but the priority for our athletic department over the coming months and years need to be in order:
1. Football
2. Football
3. Football
4. Football

Everything else will take care of itself if those four things are handled properly. I'm also of the opinion that UConn can, not that it will but it can, actually succeed if it approaches this properly. Need to win lots of games in the new league. We need to be the big dog. Regular participant in the conference championship game. We don't need to win every non-conference game, but we need to win our share including some "upsets" even if they are only upsets in name only like Rutgers beating an awful Arkansas team this past season. We need some of those. And we need to win our bowl games. Doesn't matter if its the MAC Champ or the #6 Big 12 team, we need to win those games regularly. If we do that we'll be ranked and we'll solidify ourselves as the logical "next" selection. But it starts with the 4 priorities I listed.

 

[UC990411]

Memphis ..... Georgetown
Temple ..... Villanova
Houston ..... ST Johns
SMU ...... Butler
USF ...... DePaul
UCF ..... Providence
ECU .... Seton Hall
Tulane ..... Marquette
Tulsa ...... Xaiver
UMASS .....VCU
Cincinnati .....Cincinnati
UCONN ..... UCONN
/quote]
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Hell no, please stop with UMass

Maybe it's a wash. The C7 may not be as strong at the top but isn't as weak at the bottom

 

[Brochacho]

Well is the 4-5 million for the NBE for all sports? If it is I don't see the big deal of MWC for 2-3 and the C7 for 4 and then whatever SNY gives us.

I personally would enjoy it more if we did the MWC/C7 combo, better than the alphabet soup conference we have right now.

 

[uconnell]

Sure go to the MWC and be Boise's bi*t*h? No thanks. Consider the time zone also. Rather go to the B12 and be Tx's bi*t*h, better money too. No, no, no to the Malignant 7. I am so PO'd right now . Build up the NNNBE.

 

[businesslawyer]

Sure go to the MWC and be Boise's bi*t*h? No thanks. Consider the time zone also. Rather go to the B12 and be Tx's bi*t*h, better money too. No, no, no to the Malignant 7. I am so PO'd right now . Build up the NNNBE.

If the Big XII was willing to take us as Texas's bitch, we wouldn't be having this conversation.