Assessing the AAC after Year 1

[Sean O]

The good, the bad and the Temple: http://stholeary.blogspot.com/2014/04/assessing-aac-after-year-1.html

 

[Afroabe224]

"I wish The Horde, and by proxy UConn fans, would focus on the program and not the confusing world of realignment."

As UConn fans we're supposed to stop worrying about conference realignment?? I'll stop focusing on CR when I see Delany and Warde shaking hands at the podium.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I hate it when writers can't do math. If ESPN had to increase multiple conference TV contracts to take the Big East apart, it didn't save itself a billion dollars. It actually cost ESPN about $1.5 billion MORE than they were offering the Big East, for a lot less content

 

[Fairfield_1st]

That was a fair read I would say. The only part I had an issue with was your characterization of the influence of The Horde on the fan base. Using the BY as my point of reference, which by itself may not be fair, the fans wanted out before the AAC ever commenced. Why we want out has to do with financials and playing schools that we have very little in common with. It's hard to get too excited about a conference game versus a team from Texas or some other distant state. I feel this way moreso in football, and maybe that's because none of the AAC schools left have a great football pedigree. At least with Memphis in hoops it's a ranked school with great history (and some not so great history).
I actually think The Horde has under-reported conference realignment. They are mostly out of the loop and didn't take up our banner until the dual championships.

 

[freescooter]

I think this was pretty much on target. I'd argue that the league was better than anyone really expected, but it is still a dumpster fire. And can we please stop with the Horde. the Horde ceased to exist many years ago. Back in the old days, a bunch of the local papers who covered UConn had their own reporters. Now a bunch of them are owned by the same parent. The New haven Register reporter covers for 3-4 local papers (Middletown, Torrington for example) Hearst Group owns a bunch with 1 reporter. The days of there being reporters from each of the state's newspapers are long gone. Several others only cover local high schools and such with reporters. UConn stuff is strictly picked up off the wire services.

 

[jostar1]

The Horde, which covers UConn sports, harped on it so much that it has infected UConn fans, who now collectively want nothing to do with the AAC. Is it really so bad? The team won dual national titles in the Big East and the AAC. It seems to be working out, right?
I wish The Horde, and by proxy UConn fans, would focus on the program and not the confusing world of realignment.

Don't appreciate the trashing of the fans. Yes, the AAC "is really so bad." I wish The Horde did MORE analysis of conference realignment. Possibly get some info by FOI requests and do some research.

 

[Sea Goat]

That was a fair read I would say. The only part I had an issue with was your characterization of the influence of The Horde on the fan base. Using the BY as my point of reference, which by itself may not be fair, the fans wanted out before the AAC ever commenced. Why we want out has to do with financials and playing schools that we have very little in common with. It's hard to get too excited about a conference game versus a team from Texas or some other distant state. I feel this way moreso in football, and maybe that's because none of the AAC schools left have a great football pedigree. At least with Memphis in hoops it's a ranked school with great history (and some not so great history).
I actually think The Horde has under-reported conference realignment. They are mostly out of the loop and didn't take up our banner until the dual championships.

Count me as one who wanted out of the AAC before it ever started. I also think the "horde" and the administration "walk on eggs" with the CR issue. It's up to us, who apparently "bay at the moon", to continually point out the BS and hypocrisy extant in the whole process of CR.

 

[CL82]

I hate it when writers can't do math. If ESPN had to increase multiple conference TV contracts to take the Big East apart, it didn't save itself a billion dollars. It actually cost ESPN about $1.5 billion MORE than they were offering the Big East, for a lot less content

Of course it reached that number incrementally. I suspect that they may not have instituted the disembowelment plan if they knew the eventually cost, unless they thought the investment was worth it to keep control of the content.

 

[Dooley]

If you look at all of the "B1G mistake" articles written over UCONN/RU and the B1G, most of them came from the Midwest. Other than Geno, everyone in CT (including the media) is very mum on the CR issue.