Arizona, Arizona State, & Utah to B12....

[CL82]

Connecticut is mid-sized by population (29th) and has a larger population than two states with schools in the Big 10 and for what it's worth is not much small than Oklahoma and I don't think many conferences wouldn't want Oklahoma.

Keep in mind that, though Connecticut is not a large State, UConn is the only show in town. We're not dividing our fan base among multiple college football fans. Also keep in mind that our reach goes beyond our borders. Within a couple hundred miles of campus there are about 24 million people. Within 150 miles there are about 12 to 14,000,000 people. Many of those are Connecticut fans, but many of them are also fans of the teams that will be visiting us. We just need a little bit of football success so that we can start filling the Rent again.

 

[storrsroars]

Here is one of the more interesting thoughts I've read in awhile. It's crazy, but the idea of "owning the inventory" actually does have merit. It's from the Pitt premium board. Have at it.

• Yesterday at 5:48 PM

• New
• 
  
• Add bookmark
• #28

I really think the remnants of the PAC12, the new Big 12, and the top of the ACC need to get together and just merge. Full on safety in numbers approach.

Go 36 teams, **** it. Using the ACC umbrella change the conference name. Keep the ACCN and turn it into whatever this is called.

Keep every teams current payout, Apple can get in on it for tier 3 rights at the $20M per PAC12 school they offered. Gotta find $10M more per PAC12 from somewhere to bridge the gap not my problem (but if they join the Big12 first and get pro rate shares? Maybe something there)

6 pods of 6. You play the 5 in your pod and then NFL style where if you finish 3rd the next year you play the other 5 3rd place teams.

11 game conference schedule and do whatever with the 12th. FCS or a protected rival

Northeast Pod
Pitt, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Syracuse, UCONN, Boston College

Atlantic Pod
UNC, NC State, Duke, Wake, Virginia Tech, Virginia,

Southern Pod
FSU, Miami, UCF, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Clemson

Central Pod
Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Baylor

Southwest Pod
Arizona, Arizona State, Texas Tech, Houston, Colorado San Diego State

Northwest Pod
Oregon State, Washington State, Utah, BYU, Cal, Stanford

**** the B1G and SEC. Yeah you're 3rd. But you own the inventory

But no commissioner has the stones to approach this.

If any of the current ACC bounce, **** em, then just replace them with Memphis, UCONN, App State, whatever. Only so many gonna get B1G and SEC invites. Cuz maybe that will never come.

Be the conference that saves CFB.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

Connecticut has smaller population than the last three states which had a school go to B10. Maryland, New Jersey and Calif.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

The northeast just doesn’t support college football. It’s all about pro sports here. We have no FBS history. No tradition. We had a few years where we were decent with our Fiesta Bowl year and had some good crowds at the Rent. But that is a blip compared to these P5 schools that for the most part support their team even when they are bad. It is way more than just a few bad hires. It was the majority of our FBS existence. And it was way worse than bad. It was historically bad. And with bad came almost no support. Those of you who were with me at a near empty Rent over the last few years are nodding. Meanwhile, the South and Midwest set their clock to college football. Iowa State was 1-8 - dead last in the Big 12 and have average 57k over the last 5 years - near capacity.

I didn’t buy this doubling down on basketball stuff. I am sorry to say, nobody cares about basketball and certainly not the media partners that are driving these crazy conference deals. If folks cared, we would have already been there. But they don’t. We went back to the Big East to save basketball in the short term. Many of us on the football board were against it. But that is how the country sees it. UConn gave up on football so why the heck would these conferences just hand us $50million in TV contract $ that is 80% driven by football?

I love Mora and think he has us on the right path. I love attending UConn football games and will continue to do so. I love that we won #5 last spring and have great hockey and baseball. I trust in our Athletic Department. Yes, not getting into the Big 12 suxx and it is easy to look at the negative and doom and gloom. But there will be more change in the coming years. ALOT more change. Just keep supporting your teams. All your UConn teams - but especially football and (hopefully) things will be ok.

The Iowa State Cyclones don’t play at the Rent, they play at state of the art Jack Trice stadium, which is on campus, and not 22 miles away from the campus on an industrial dumping site. Trice Stadium is named after black American football player Jack Trice who died in 1923 in a game against Minnesota, after being trampled by three Minnesota players. When Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark came to visit UConn, did he bother to visit the Rent? I don’t think so.


Jack Trice (died prematurely in 1923) was Iowa State's first afro American athlete.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Pitt is such an obvious fit for the Big 12. They have WVU and Cincy and are quality. They didn’t vet it because the ACC isn’t open for business yet. It’s not obvious to me that the Big 12 is “more interested” in us

I don’t see Pitt being a great fit for the Big 12, and it’s no where near the NYC/Boston northeast corridor, but it is a great fit for the B1G. Right next door to Penn State, Ohio State, and the state of Maryland.

 

[NH Husky]

connecticut is a small state, uconn is not in aau, our football team was awful during the 2010s. That does not mean if UConn improves academic research and gets into AAU and the football team ends the season in the top 25 -- we wouldn't be asked to join. Maybe around the same time they go after Duke, UVA etc.

Nebraska is a smaller state, Nebraska is not in AAU, and their football team was awful during the 2010’s (especially when considering their revenue level).

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Nebraska is a smaller state, Nebraska is not in AAU, and their football team was awful during the 2010’s (especially when considering their revenue level).

Nebraska has sold out all home football games since before the Cuban Missile crisis. Their stadium is more than double the capacity of the Rent and they've consistently had spring game crowds exceeding 65k. By their standards the past dozen years have been beyond horrible but it was miles above what we put on the field during the same period. They wouldn't have lost to Holy Cross or needed a defensive stand to beat URI and Yale. They would have had third stringers on the field by halftime.

Yes, our current plight sucks and yes, we've done a lot more in football than most of the country realizes but we aren't helping ourselves with comments like that. All it does is reinforce the idea that we (our school, our fan base) really doesn't know what college football is.

 

[NH Husky]

Nebraska has sold out all home football games since before the Cuban Missile crisis. Their stadium is more than double the capacity of the Rent and they've consistently had spring game crowds exceeding 65k. By their standards the past dozen years have been beyond horrible but it was miles above what we put on the field during the same period. They wouldn't have lost to Holy Cross or needed a defensive stand to beat URI and Yale. They would have had third stringers on the field by halftime.

Yes, our current plight sucks and yes, we've done a lot more in football than most of the country realizes but we aren't helping ourselves with comments like that. All it does is reinforce the idea that we (our school, our fan base) really doesn't know what college football is.

Sold out because they brought in the likes of Ohio st, Michigan, Penn st, etc. while we brought in Tulsa and Memphis.
And Lincoln’s 200 miles from KC - they are the definition of the only show in town.
And have obviously done nothing with their historic football past to keep football strong.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Sold out because they brought in the likes of Ohio st, Michigan, Penn st, etc. while we brought in Tulsa and Memphis.
And Lincoln’s 200 miles from KC - they are the definition of the only show in town.
And have obviously done nothing with their historic football past to keep football strong.

They haven't been bring the likes of Ohio St, Michigan and Penn St for more than six decades. There was a very long stretch when Oklahoma, every other year was their chance to show their fans a top tier opponent. The remainder of their home schedule was then (when the Big Eight was called Big two and little six) was Kansas or Kansas St (when each had multiple winless seasons) Iowa St or Missouri (neither was much then) Oklahoma St (in seasons when they weren't hosting Oklahoma) and alternating home and road games with a sub-par Colorado team. Seven of their nine games (it was a nine game season in those days) were B-8 opponents and the rest were either two home games with the likes of Wyoming and one of the Dakotas (pre 1A-1Aa split) or a reasonable top program with a home and home arrangement. They didn't start selling out games once the schedule was filled with top name schools.

Using the "we aren't the only show in town here" doesn't help our argument. In fact, it helps the detractors as they can easily claim "they only care about college football if nothing else is going on".

Yes, they have done nothing the past dozen years but in that time, if we played them every year there would have been maybe two or three games where we would still have been in the game at halftime.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Nebraska has sold out all home football games since before the Cuban Missile crisis. Their stadium is more than double the capacity of the Rent and they've consistently had spring game crowds exceeding 65k. By their standards the past dozen years have been beyond horrible but it was miles above what we put on the field during the same period. They wouldn't have lost to Holy Cross or needed a defensive stand to beat URI and Yale. They would have had third stringers on the field by halftime.

Yes, our current plight sucks and yes, we've done a lot more in football than most of the country realizes but we aren't helping ourselves with comments like that. All it does is reinforce the idea that we (our school, our fan base) really doesn't know what college football is.

When you consider that almost all of Nebraska is several hundred miles away from an NFL or Major League Baseball team, it makes sense that the state’s university gets all that fandom. Even though Connecticut also has no baseball or football pro teams, the state is very close to NYC and reasonably close to Boston.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

When you consider that almost all of Nebraska is several hundred miles away from an NFL or Major League Baseball team, it makes sense that the state’s university gets all that fandom. Even though Connecticut also has no baseball or football pro teams, the state is very close to NYC and reasonably close to Boston.

Yeah, but again this would be an argument against us as it makes it too easy for one of our detractors to claim we'll never take college football seriously because our fan base will only follow it if nothing else is going on and there's normally a lot of professional sporting events going on.

 

[NH Husky]

Yeah, but again this would be an argument against us as it makes it too easy for one of our detractors to claim we'll never take college football seriously because our fan base will only follow it if nothing else is going on and there's normally a lot of professional sporting events going on.

Don’t mean to argue as I agree with most of want you’ve posted.
But I disagree with your point here. The fact that we could draw what we have against boring competition and competing locally against other pro sports options vs high profile competition with Omaha’s AAA team as options only bolsters our potential.

When we were playing good football in the BE our attendance was solid. And the Giants and Pats were playing each other in the Superbowl

 

[buddy]

Why would the Big 12 take Pitt or Cuse? IIRC the Big 12 commissioner already visited Storrs and came away very impressed while he ignored Pitt or Cuse. It’s clear the Big 12 is more interested in UConn than a low level ACC team for a northeastern corridor/NYC market grab. Cuse or Pitt didn’t make a great hire in Mora, UConn did.

He likely didn't visit them because they are tied to the GOR of the ACC. I guarantee, if the ACC implodes and it comes down to the Big 12 choosing between Pitt, Cuse, or UConn, UConn will be left out...again.

 

[buddy]

Looking back, how smart does Syracuse look now at going to the ACC? Irrelevant in both basketball and football.

They have a home there with a great income. They have football history. I don't see them as irrelevant, but middle of the pack. They did the right thing to save themselves.

 

[ctchamps]

Yeah, but again this would be an argument against us as it makes it too easy for one of our detractors to claim we'll never take college football seriously because our fan base will only follow it if nothing else is going on and there's normally a lot of professional sporting events going on.

I began rooting for Georgia after watching a game when they were number 2 in the nation and Alabama played them at their stadium coming as the number one to that game. Alabama crushed Georgia. The stadium stayed packed the entire game.

That's the cultural difference between UConn fans and the fans in the midwest and south.

We don't attend games unless they're marquis, we arrive late and leave early unless the game is tight and exciting. On the other hand many of our fans that don't prefer to have the game time experience do turn on the game at home. And that is the important factor for the media looking at us. Not how many eyeballs are at the stadium. They don't sell hot dogs and beer. But how many viewers turn on our games whoever is distributing content.

And that is where winning becomes important. Get exciting teams that provide exciting games and we will watch. The media has ways to monitor us even if a fan in Pedunk North Dakota doesn't know if we even have a football team. And eventually with sustained success he might.

Coastal Carolina had two season where they received national broadcasting even as they had trouble filling up their small stadium. Mora is on the right track. As much so because he's working to engage people in New England as he's working to improve the team.

 

[champs99and04]

The northeast just doesn’t support college football. It’s all about pro sports here. We have no FBS history. No tradition. We had a few years where we were decent with our Fiesta Bowl year and had some good crowds at the Rent. But that is a blip compared to these P5 schools that for the most part support their team even when they are bad. It is way more than just a few bad hires. It was the majority of our FBS existence. And it was way worse than bad. It was historically bad. And with bad came almost no support. Those of you who were with me at a near empty Rent over the last few years are nodding. Meanwhile, the South and Midwest set their clock to college football. Iowa State was 1-8 - dead last in the Big 12 and have average 57k over the last 5 years - near capacity.

I didn’t buy this doubling down on basketball stuff. I am sorry to say, nobody cares about basketball and certainly not the media partners that are driving these crazy conference deals. If folks cared, we would have already been there. But they don’t. We went back to the Big East to save basketball in the short term. Many of us on the football board were against it. But that is how the country sees it. UConn gave up on football so why the heck would these conferences just hand us $50million in TV contract $ that is 80% driven by football?

Ding ding ding. UConn has value, but I think people here really underestimate the extent to which they prioritize football in that part of the country. It's not a preference of one sport over the other so much as it is a full-blown lifestyle. People might care about basketball in the most literal sense of the word - I'm sure a fair number of them attend games and watch the tournament, particularly when the league is good like it has been. Football fans are typically sports fans. But it is still merely a hobby meant to keep people occupied as they wait for spring football.

Markets are not the priority for the Big 12 like they have been at times for other conferences. It is not a league built on markets. It is a league built on the hope that quality football can attract the bigger markets. They're betting that, proportionally, more people in the northeast will care about #10 TCU against #18 Oklahoma State than they will about 5-7 Rutgers vs. 4-8 Maryland.

I know people will object to this by citing the recent records of Colorado and Arizona, but it's really not at all the same. Those schools both fall within - or not too far outside of - the league's existing footprint and offer much more in the way of history, tradition, and recruiting markets than UConn does.

It was unrealistic, IMO, to expect that UConn could leave the AAC and still get promoted to a power conference one year later. From a perception standpoint, people view the AAC as a league you prove yourself in if you're serious about football. Going independent after several years in the cellar takes you completely off the map.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

He likely didn't visit them because they are tied to the GOR of the ACC. I guarantee, if the ACC implodes and it comes down to the Big 12 choosing between Pitt, Cuse, or UConn, UConn will be left out...again.

If it is true that the Big 12 wants a foothold in the NYC and northeast corridor markets between NYC/Jersey and Boston, then UConn is the obvious choice, GOR or no GOR. If Mora’s team does well this year and they very well might, things could change in UConn’s favor for a P5 invite very quickly.

 

[storrsroars]

From a perception standpoint, people view the AAC as a league you prove yourself in if you're serious about football. Going independent after several years in the cellar takes you completely off the map.

You made decent points early in your post, but you went off the rails at the end.

If anything, UConn going independent in football offers a template for other schools.

Please let us know which of the following schools has a better chance of advancing to a P4 before UConn:
UAB
UNC Charlotte
ECU
FAU
Memphis
Navy
North Texas
Rice
USF
SMU
Temple
UTSA
Tulane
Tulsa

 

[champs99and04]

You made decent points early in your post, but you went off the rails at the end.

If anything, UConn going independent in football offers a template for other schools.

Please let us know which of the following schools has a better chance of advancing to a P4 before UConn:
UAB
UNC Charlotte
ECU
FAU
Memphis
Navy
North Texas
Rice
USF
SMU
Temple
UTSA
Tulane
Tulsa

So you think those schools would be better off if they went independent?

 

[storrsroars]

So you think those schools would be better off if they went independent?

Any school in a conference of any significance has an exit fee to worry about. AAC's is $10MM and none of those schools are making money, although it could work for Navy. But Stanford and Cal are twisting in the wind, and following a UConn template could work out for them better than joining the MWC. I wouldn't be all that surprised if SDSU considers going indy in a couple of years once the penalty for leaving the MWC drops to something reasonable.

 

[champs99and04]

Any school in a conference of any significance has an exit fee to worry about. AAC's is $10MM and none of those schools are making money, although it could work for Navy. But Stanford and Cal are twisting in the wind, and following a UConn template could work out for them better than joining the MWC. I wouldn't be all that surprised if SDSU considers going indy in a couple of years once the penalty for leaving the MWC drops to something reasonable.

It might make sense for Stanford and Cal. It may have even made some sense for UConn to leave the AAC. Unfortunately, independence is still a major handicap for UConn football if the goal is to generate exposure and change the national narrative. It's just too hard too stay in the news as a non-power program unless you're near the top of your league standings vying for a NY6/playoff spot. Last season was the first breath of fresh air for UConn football in several years, and yet it largely went unnoticed due to (among other things) the lack of a conference.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Ding ding ding. UConn has value, but I think people here really underestimate the extent to which they prioritize football in that part of the country. It's not a preference of one sport over the other so much as it is a full-blown lifestyle. People might care about basketball in the most literal sense of the word - I'm sure a fair number of them attend games and watch the tournament, particularly when the league is good like it has been. Football fans are typically sports fans. But it is still merely a hobby meant to keep people occupied as they wait for spring football.

Markets are not the priority for the Big 12 like they have been at times for other conferences. It is not a league built on markets. It is a league built on the hope that quality football can attract the bigger markets. They're betting that, proportionally, more people in the northeast will care about #10 TCU against #18 Oklahoma State than they will about 5-7 Rutgers vs. 4-8 Maryland.

I know people will object to this by citing the recent records of Colorado and Arizona, but it's really not at all the same. Those schools both fall within - or not too far outside of - the league's existing footprint and offer much more in the way of history, tradition, and recruiting markets than UConn does.

It was unrealistic, IMO, to expect that UConn could leave the AAC and still get promoted to a power conference one year later. From a perception standpoint, people view the AAC as a league you prove yourself in if you're serious about football. Going independent after several years in the cellar takes you completely off the map.

The BY failed to grasp how devastating us leaving the AAC was from a general perception standpoint
Together with the Randy rehire which gave impression we wanted to save money on a sport we were no longer interested in .
Perception is critical and as you can see by the negative press it has been a killer .
We won 11 league games in 5 years in that league . 4 coming in Diaco’s 6 win season .
Even with that mediocre year I seem to recall the Houston upset was a near sell out .
True bringing in bigger names helps but a school like UConn struggling to establish themselves in football winning over the state requires being successful. Connecticut has among the best and most knowledgeable fans in the Country . But our teams have been pretty successful. You can’t fake it , you need a good product to win a fan base in the state . If they were 8-0 a Tulsa or East Carolina game would be a sellout .
When you in a league with the AAC footprint the first priority is hiring a coach who can recruit that footprint
Only Mora had a truly ability to recruit nationally.. Northeast or even Midwest guys are disadvantaged.