B12 Commish: Openly states they will look at adding institutions

[Gurleyman]

Too few know when to walk away. It's very tough to be the guy who says "I/we f-d up."

You sound like the people who wanted us to walk away from the Big East in 1986.

 

[UCweCONN]

Except it's still not a mistake. We've had bad luck and bad timing and some bad decisions, but you can't have big-time college sports without football. It doesn't exist, and in the short-term, it's going to exist less and less. I'd love to live in a world where the money in college sports responded primarily to basketball, because basketball is awesome and football is terrible. That's not the way it is, and we need to salvage something from our football program before our basketball program pays the price.

$150 million plus an asleep at the wheel AD equals failure to me. If I had any confidence in Manuel and Herbst, I might agree with you.

 

[IMind]

This is going to sound rhetorical but it's not. Seriously because I have no idea; why has UConn not already been invited to the B1G? I guess I'm just thinking if they wanted UConn it would have happened already. What are they waiting on, if that's what's happening here.

No one's inviting UConn anywhere unless it will generate more money, or at least not reduce the amount of money that each conference member is taking home. It's pretty clear that no one has said to the ACC, B1G, or BIG XII.. if you add UConn we'll pony up another $20 mil/year.

 

[UCweCONN]

You sound like the people who wanted us to walk away from the Big East in 1986.

Really? We were coming from nowhere to the Big East then. The current situation is the exact opposite. We were somewhere and are now stuck in nowhere with no light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[tzznandrew]

This is going to sound rhetorical but it's not. Seriously because I have no idea; why has UConn not already been invited to the B1G? I guess I'm just thinking if they wanted UConn it would have happened already. What are they waiting on, if that's what's happening here.

There are a number of reasons, not all of which we are privy too. Certainly, one reason may be that they don't want UConn.

But people aren't added, and then are, all the time. Forever, we thought Rutgers to the B1G was a pipe-dream, and that, if the B1G really wanted them, they'd already be there. And then, one day they were. Were they more worthy one day than the next? What changed?

These things take time, and we try to take guesses from the dark.

 

[Gurleyman]

This is going to sound rhetorical but it's not. Seriously because I have no idea; why has UConn not already been invited to the B1G? I guess I'm just thinking if they wanted UConn it would have happened already. What are they waiting on, if that's what's happening here.

In our "cross our fingers" world, they'd be waiting to see how the first wave of Eastern expansion went with ratings/TV households, etc. before going in for another bite of the Northeast corridor - and they'd be waiting for us to get closer to AAU membership to where we'd be acceptable to their university presidents.

But who knows for sure.

 

[IMind]

No one's inviting UConn anywhere unless it will generate more money, or at least not reduce the amount of money that each conference member is taking home. It's pretty clear that no one has said to the ACC, B1G, or BIG XII.. if you add UConn we'll pony up another $20 mil/year.

Just wanted to add that future TV contracts, football play off scenarios, or revenue streams may change the $$$ so UConn makes more sense... but not right now.

 

[IMind]

Really? We were coming from nowhere to the Big East then. The current situation is the exact opposite. We were somewhere and are now stuck in nowhere with no light at the end of the tunnel.

Your revisionist history sure is interesting. One could argue that joining the Big East was killing the program at that point. We were a big fish in a small pond, made the NCAA regularly, and recruited pretty well. It took 6-7 years in the Big East for us to become a competitive program let alone dominant... but you want to bail in year 2 of this conference... not to mention where the hell would we go? The CAA? America East? The A-10? Christ that's depressing. I'd rather play Tulane.

 

[Gurleyman]

Really? We were coming from nowhere to the Big East then. The current situation is the exact opposite. We were somewhere and are now stuck in nowhere with no light at the end of the tunnel.

Yeah - you sound like the people who gave up then and said we can't compete and we should just cut our losses and stay where we belong.

A flagship state school with no football (or FCS football) doesn't have a significant place in the future athletics landscape, unless our future is hockey-centric.

 

[Stainmaster]

To all those clamoring for the NBE: hope you can find a bomb shelter for when the P5 completely nukes every single non-P5 athletic program.

 

[Dooley]

The only way to ensure survival of UCONN hoops is through a Power conference. The only way to gain access to a Power conference is through football. It is that simple.

The NBE is nothing more than a mid-major conference that nets its teams $5M/yr. That isn't even enough to pay our head coaches' salaries. No, if we want to continue to compete at a national level in hoops, we need P5 money. Unless of course, we are all happy with occasional Sweet 16 appearances until the eventual P5 conference tournament coming 10+ years from now once the big conferences grow tired of making over $1B per year for the NCAA.

 

[zls44]

I just don't think that the NBE is going to be a major conference 5 or 10 years down the road. Every measurement is against them- school size, alumni base, TV ratings, cost of attendance...everything.

 

[Stainmaster]

I just don't think that the NBE is going to be a major conference 5 or 10 years down the road. Every measurement is against them- school size, alumni base, TV ratings, cost of attendance...everything.

But...but...glory days...

 

[zls44]

But...but...glory days...

It is critical for them to get 4-6 NCAA teams every year, with at least 1 in the second weekend. Also critical to pack MSG. Both are very tough to do, especially when the conference is comprised of small colleges.

They have similar visions and mindsets, but that doesn't mean it will work on the big stage.

 

[Eskapeesto]

Brett McMurphy ‏@McMurphyESPN
At Big 12 function in NY: no one ever talked to Cincy, OU’s Joe C wasn't at UCF & SMU’s BOR report UM/Cincy getting invites wrong