B1G

[GopherHawk]

YES, it IS that bad. I cannot emphasize that enough. The fact that the Big Ten had 11 schools for many years is irrelevant because there weren't divisions or a conference championship game. That is obviously the case now, which means that there HAS to be a "Noah's Ark" approach to football expansion going forward - it's either expanding by two (or some other even number) or zero. Odd numbers can work perfectly fie for basketball (hence, there's no need at all for the ACC to expand with Notre Dame as a 15th non-football member), but they are dealbreaker for any power conference that has divisions and a championship game. (The MAC has been an exception because they have no choice and are near the bottom of the totem pole, as Temple got poached by the Big East/AAC right when they finally got back to an even number of schools with UMass.)

The ACC doesn't have 15 schools for football. The deal with ND is just for 5 games. It will be like 5 teams just happen to have an OOC game with the same school. The only thing the ACC has to do is make sure the leagues football schools have the flexibility to schedule ND throughout the season. The ACC is a 14 team football conference.

 

[frankthetank]

The ACC doesn't have 15 schools for football. The deal with ND is just for 5 games. It will be like 5 teams just happen to have an OOC game with the same school. The only thing the ACC has to do is make sure the leagues football schools have the flexibility to schedule ND throughout the season. The ACC is a 14 team football conference.

Yes, that's my point. It's perfectly fine for the ACC to have 15 basketball teams (with ND being that 15th team), but 15 football teams simply doesn't work.

 

[upstater]

Maryland, Ohio St and University of Johannesburg have just been invited. Does that make it Universitas 24 or will it stay as Unversitas 21?

21 refers to 21st century, no?

 

[The Funster]

21 refers to 21st century, no?

LOL, I am a knucklehead.

 

[NEforceUConn]

YES, it IS that bad......t there HAS to be a "Noah's Ark" approach to football expansion going forward - it's either expanding by two (or some other even number) or zero. Odd numbers can work perfectly fie for basketball (hence, there's no need at all for the ACC to expand with Notre Dame as a 15th non-football member), but they are dealbreaker for any power conference that has divisions and a championship game. .)

Tank I believe you, and the Noah's Ark approach is a nice way of framing it. However if the B1G loves UConn but there is no other do they just do nothing? The B1G (if they want to screw the ACC) could invite UConn (contingent on AAU status) and a hybrid of Georgetown all sports sans FB and Navy FB only (0r FB and LAX if Navy plays it). That combo would scew the ACC, give the B1G the NYC market and the Philly/Balt/DC cooridor. I know its a reach but this CR comes out of the blue and there is a risk (25% I estimate) that Big 12, ACC, or SEC take UConn off the market. Hell the ACC could invite UConn right now and tap Navy as a FB only for as long as ND stays independent. That would severely upset any B1G expansion plans into NYC/mid Atlantic.

15 is bad but inviting UConn with a 2016 start date locks down NYC and eliminates the risk that UConn goes somewhere else.

 

[pj]

This was news for those of us at OSU. I couldn't help but think UConn and University of Virginia would have made (and still would be) a good #15 and #16 combo for the B1G. UConn is not AAU, the entry hurdle, but clearly has a commitment to advancing as a research university. For a conference that wants a presence in the East especially New York City and Washington DC, the B1G certainly would accomplish that with Penn State, Rutgers, UConn, Maryland and Virginia. Wishful thinking on my part.

Ohio State joins prestigious Universitas 21
Ohio State has joined Universitas 21, the leading global network of research universities, spanning 16 countries. Together, the universities foster global citizenship and institutional innovation through research-inspired teaching and learning, wider advocacy for internationalization, student mobility and connecting students and staff. Ohio State is one of four institutions representing the United States in this network, joining the University of Connecticut, University of Virginia and University of Maryland.

Hopefully these expanded connections between students and staff lead to fellow feeling of the universities and a desire to affiliate in other contexts. Maybe in time Universitas 21 will become as significant internationally as the AAU is domestically ... and as important for B1G membership.

I do think UVa + UConn + UMd + Rutgers + Penn State would be the top names in the northeast and a terrific eastern representation for the B1G. Hard to cleave Virginia from their historic connections with the south and with UNC, however.

 

[pj]

YES, it IS that bad. I cannot emphasize that enough. The fact that the Big Ten had 11 schools for many years is irrelevant because there weren't divisions or a conference championship game. That is obviously the case now, which means that there HAS to be a "Noah's Ark" approach to football expansion going forward - it's either expanding by two (or some other even number) or zero. Odd numbers can work perfectly fie for basketball (hence, there's no need at all for the ACC to expand with Notre Dame as a 15th non-football member), but they are dealbreaker for any power conference that has divisions and a championship game. (The MAC has been an exception because they have no choice and are near the bottom of the totem pole, as Temple got poached by the Big East/AAC right when they finally got back to an even number of schools with UMass.)

How about this: We'll enter the B1G as a full member in all sports except football, and in football have a special scheduling arrangement: 4 games with the eastern division and 4 games with the western division, ineligible for conference championship game. We provide the B1G with the same number of games we would if we were a full member, and games count in the standings, and our content is assigned to the B1G under the GoR, so payout can be similar to the full member payout. When the B1G finds #16, scheduling reverts to a normal arrangement.

UConn would accept this slightly junior membership, and it would pose none of the division/championship scheduling problems you are worried about.

 

[bingethinker]

Or maybe UConn just sucks and the nation doesn't give one damn bit. But they cared about BCU, Cuse, Pitt, Maryland, TCU. Its a reach but if the SEC did invite UConn I guarantee the ACC and B1G would be pissed, big time.

I'd never known UConn fans never had a reputation for being arrogant before CR, but comments like these made since the most recent round are making me start to put some Huskies fans up there with the Duke, Yankee, and Notre Dame fans. Some of these scenarios are just absurd. "If the SEC invited UConn, then the ACC and Big Ten would be pissed." Tuh! If either the ACC or the Big Ten wanted Connecticut, then Connecticut wouldn't be in a conference called The American.

I'm sure this will ruffle feathers, but please know I'm being as polite (non-trolly) as possible. UConn is a decent (not great, not awful) school academically with two really tremendous basketball programs. But UConn has only won one non-basketball national title in the last 27 years.

I get it. There's a limited number of seats at the table and currently your alma mater doesn't have one. I'd be frustrated as well.

It may be a shocker, but each of those schools offered (or at least were perceived to offer) more than UConn does. Doesn't mean that other schools deserve to be trashed. Just means that for whatever reason, the decision-makers don't believe UConn brings enough to the table. If they thought otherwise, you guys would have a seat. I'm not here to down your brand or your school, but some of your guys are talking like UConn is Texas, Florida, UCLA, and Cal combined.

 

[Adios]

I'd never known UConn fans never had a reputation for being arrogant before CR, but comments like these made since the most recent round are making me start to put some Huskies fans up there with the Duke, Yankee, and Notre Dame fans. Some of these scenarios are just absurd. "If the SEC invited UConn, then the ACC and Big Ten would be pissed." Tuh! If either the ACC or the Big Ten wanted Connecticut, then Connecticut wouldn't be in a conference called The American.

I'm sure this will ruffle feathers, but please know I'm being as polite (non-trolly) as possible. UConn is a decent (not great, not awful) school academically with two really tremendous basketball programs. But UConn has only won one non-basketball national title in the last 27 years.

I get it. There's a limited number of seats at the table and currently your alma mater doesn't have one. I'd be frustrated as well.

It may be a shocker, but each of those schools offered (or at least were perceived to offer) more than UConn does. Doesn't mean that other schools deserve to be trashed. Just means that for whatever reason, the decision-makers don't believe UConn brings enough to the table. If they thought otherwise, you guys would have a seat. I'm not here to down your brand or your school, but some of your guys are talking like UConn is Texas, Florida, UCLA, and Cal combined.

The public schools outside of the northeast were created with forevision. Look what they are doing now, academically and athletically.

Very powerful private schools were huge here a while ago in sports and actually almost totally nurtured the college athletics scene to allow it to become what it has become. It is inevitable UConn will join the ranks of those outside of the northeast, including Penn State. Lafayette and Lehigh were huge way before Penn State.

 

[specialisthusky]

I'd never known UConn fans never had a reputation for being arrogant before CR, but comments like these made since the most recent round are making me start to put some Huskies fans up there with the Duke, Yankee, and Notre Dame fans. Some of these scenarios are just absurd. "If the SEC invited UConn, then the ACC and Big Ten would be pissed." Tuh! If either the ACC or the Big Ten wanted Connecticut, then Connecticut wouldn't be in a conference called The American.

I'm sure this will ruffle feathers, but please know I'm being as polite (non-trolly) as possible. UConn is a decent (not great, not awful) school academically with two really tremendous basketball programs. But UConn has only won one non-basketball national title in the last 27 years.

I get it. There's a limited number of seats at the table and currently your alma mater doesn't have one. I'd be frustrated as well.

It may be a shocker, but each of those schools offered (or at least were perceived to offer) more than UConn does. Doesn't mean that other schools deserve to be trashed. Just means that for whatever reason, the decision-makers don't believe UConn brings enough to the table. If they thought otherwise, you guys would have a seat. I'm not here to down your brand or your school, but some of your guys are talking like UConn is Texas, Florida, UCLA, and Cal combined.

Honestly, is this the week every fanbase is going to send a representative to our board to tell us to shut up and take it. You are not trolling, and I am intending to respond as polite as possible, but come on man. What is with the 27 year period?

Here is how many of the schools picked from the Big East faired in national championships since 86.

UConn - 12 (8 women bball, 3 men bball, 1 soccer)
Cuse - 10 (9 lax, 1 bball)
Rutgers - 0
WVU - (had trouble finding how many "Rifle" championships but that is it)
Pitt - 0
Louisville - 33 (2 basketball, 21 "cheerleading")
TCU - 3 (1 "equestrian", 2 "rifle")

When you stack us up against anyone else in that had a lifeline our AD holds its own in sports that are considered sports by the majority of people in the world.

 

[Husky25]

I'm sure this will ruffle feathers, but please know I'm being as polite (non-trolly) as possible. UConn is a decent (not great, not awful) school academically with two really tremendous basketball programs. But UConn has only won one non-basketball national title in the last 27 years.

Football and Basketball are where Athletic departments' bread is buttered. Every other sport fall into line behind them. I don't know if you are aware but there can be only one national champion. That means the Champion is in the top 0.833% in Div 1A football and the top 0.33% (roughly) in basketball.

 

[bingethinker]

Honestly, is this the week every fanbase is going to send a representative to our board to tell us to shut up and take it. You are not trolling, and I am intending to respond as polite as possible, but come on man. What is with the 27 year period?

Here is how many of the schools picked from the Big East faired in national championships since 86.

UConn - 12 (8 women bball, 3 men bball, 1 soccer)
Cuse - 10 (9 lax, 1 bball)
Rutgers - 0
WVU - (had trouble finding how many "Rifle" championships but that is it)
Pitt - 0
Louisville - 33 (2 basketball, 21 "cheerleading")
TCU - 3 (1 "equestrian", 2 "rifle")

When you stack us up against anyone else in that had a lifeline our AD holds its own in sports that are considered sports by the majority of people in the world.

Thanks for indulging me and not being all like " this is our house." The 27-year thing is how long it's been since you guys' men's soccer title and the year before your last Field Hockey title. Kinda random, but most effective way to articulate the point I was making.

I don't think you'll find anyone out there who'll say Connecticut is the absolute worst choice for conference realignment. And if you do, they shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion. You guys were one of the stronger programs from the old Big East. The problem with that comparison is that Big East schools were never known to be among the nation's strong, robust overall athletic programs.

Not saying you guys suck. I just don't understand the guy I quoted and his arrogant quote.

 

[bingethinker]

I don't know if you are aware but there can be only one national champion.

There's really no need for snark. Save that for the people who come here to pick fights. I'm not one of those people.

 

[NEforceUConn]

I'd never known UConn fans never had a reputation for being arrogant before CR, but comments like these made since the most recent round are making me start to put some Huskies fans up there with the Duke, Yankee, and Notre Dame fans. Some of these scenarios are just absurd. "If the SEC invited UConn, then the ACC and Big Ten would be pissed." Tuh! If either the ACC or the Big Ten wanted Connecticut, then Connecticut wouldn't be in a conference called The American.

wow you are comparing me in that company? What I was saying, not with arrogance is that if (and it won't happen, but if it did) the SEC invited UConn I think people would agree that BCU, Cuse, Pitt FB would slide noticibly compared with a UConn team that hosted Alabama, Florida, LSU. Even Penn St would feel the effects. So the statement I was making was the ACC would experience a pronounced dropoff for their 3 northern teams, thus being pissed. I think its hard to meaningfully argue against that.

In regards to the B!G where does there NYC or mid Atlantic State expansion strategy go once UConn is gone? I obviously assume that thee ACC stays whole.

I know we are young and our fan support is sub-par but if we gave as many tickets away that RU does then our attendance would be 40k every game. I think its the belief that we will always be available is the bogy we have. I also am quite confident that Swafford was easily influenced to lean towards UL because it kept the Big 12 away.

 

[UConn Dan]

How about this: We'll enter the B1G as a full member in all sports except football, and in football have a special scheduling arrangement: 4 games with the eastern division and 4 games with the western division, ineligible for conference championship game. We provide the B1G with the same number of games we would if we were a full member, and games count in the standings, and our content is assigned to the B1G under the GoR, so payout can be similar to the full member payout. When the B1G finds #16, scheduling reverts to a normal arrangement.

UConn would accept this slightly junior membership, and it would pose none of the division/championship scheduling problems you are worried about.

Any partial membership would require some kind of bowl tie in. No one is giving us that... we're not ND.

 

[specialisthusky]

Thanks for indulging me and not being all like " this is our house." The 27-year thing is how long it's been since you guys' men's soccer title and the year before your last Field Hockey title. Kinda random, but most effective way to articulate the point I was making.

I don't think you'll find anyone out there who'll say Connecticut is the absolute worst choice for conference realignment. And if you do, they shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion. You guys were one of the stronger programs from the old Big East. The problem with that comparison is that Big East schools were never known to be among the nation's strong, robust overall athletic programs.

Not saying you guys suck. I just don't understand the guy I quoted and his arrogant quote.

"Its a reach but if the SEC did invite UConn I guarantee the ACC and B1G would be pissed, big time."

I don't find that quote out of line if we are entertaining the possibility that the SEC takes UConn. We are talking about a flagship school located near NY with parts of the state within the NYC DMA playing teams like Alabama, Florida, Tenn and UGA among others. If the goal of the B1G and ACC is to lay claim to this demographic with their recent moves, then I think they would be pissed as the SEC would just become not only the best football conference, but also have the ability to showcase its teams in and around NYC DMA against a winning program.

I didn't write the quote the first time, but I do not think the poster was out of line for the above reasons.

 

[Husky25]

There's really no need for snark. Save that for the people who come here to pick fights. I'm not one of those people.

Relax, Friend, and thank you for contributing. It's fun...but it's also message board...

Rightly or wrongly, non-football and/or basketball championships are viewed, in my opinion, as a fraction of the championship earned in those two sports. The reason being 2 fold: College football and basketball are feeders directly to the highest level of their respective sports (Soccer on a limited basis, but it is not as popular in the US). That can't be said for hockey, baseball, or virtually any other sport, where 18 year olds get drafted or are eligible right out of high school or earlier. The other reason is just how darned entertaining these two sports are.

At the end of the day, it does no good to arbitrarily compare National Championships. Either count them all or count none of them... It's like saying the only National Championship Boston College has, besides hockey, is in women sailing. Where's the value in that statement?

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

But UConn has only won one non-basketball national title in the last 27 years.

I understand you come in peace, but the problem with this statement is you're skewing the facts to fit your argument. You can make this same "won only one non-[INSERT BIG SPORT HERE] national title in the last X years" argument about many powerhouse programs.

The problem is, you're removing that school's bread and butter program from the evaluation, and largely considering irrelevant (with respect to realignment) Olympic sports. OU has won three national championships EVER in non-football Big 4 sports, INCLUDING the women's equivalent of said sport. Syracuse hasn't won a national championship in something other than lacrosse in 10 years, and something other than LAX or basketball since 1978. Let's not even get started on Rutgers.

You can't just pick and choose which stats to evaluate to make your point. And if you're going to go the route of the "won only one non-[INSERT BIG SPORT HERE] national title in the last X years" argument, it hols the most weight when the sport that's being excluded is an irrelevant one, such as lacrosse, wrestling, gymnastics, etc., not a Big 4 sport, and much less one of the only two that have any sort of weight in realignment.

 

[upstater]

I'd never known UConn fans never had a reputation for being arrogant before CR, but comments like these made since the most recent round are making me start to put some Huskies fans up there with the Duke, Yankee, and Notre Dame fans. Some of these scenarios are just absurd. "If the SEC invited UConn, then the ACC and Big Ten would be pissed." Tuh! If either the ACC or the Big Ten wanted Connecticut, then Connecticut wouldn't be in a conference called The American.

I'm sure this will ruffle feathers, but please know I'm being as polite (non-trolly) as possible. UConn is a decent (not great, not awful) school academically with two really tremendous basketball programs. But UConn has only won one non-basketball national title in the last 27 years.

I get it. There's a limited number of seats at the table and currently your alma mater doesn't have one. I'd be frustrated as well.

It may be a shocker, but each of those schools offered (or at least were perceived to offer) more than UConn does. Doesn't mean that other schools deserve to be trashed. Just means that for whatever reason, the decision-makers don't believe UConn brings enough to the table. If they thought otherwise, you guys would have a seat. I'm not here to down your brand or your school, but some of your guys are talking like UConn is Texas, Florida, UCLA, and Cal combined.

It's as though you came on this board and never imagined we've had conversations about the schools relative value compared to those that have found slots.

It sounds like you don't even know the history of how BC got in, what happened, how BC obstructed UConn. It sounds like you weren't paying attention to how Louisville got selected ahead of UConn. I'm not trying to be snarky at all either but it's the only conclusion I can reach when your statement, says, boldy, that every realignment decision by the conferences was correct. That UConn wasn't offered because it didn't have as much to offer.

This is what you wrote: EACH of those schools... From that statement, you seem to think Swofford is infallible. And it totally wipes away the history and the wrangling, which we all know so well.

Furthermore, UConn is ranked academically pretty high, and if you believe that its ranking is simply mediocre, you also believe that 80% of the BCS conference schools are either mediocre or suck.

 

[pj]

Any partial membership would require some kind of bowl tie in. No one is giving us that... we're not ND.

Why wouldn't the B1G give us access to bowl tie-ins, just not the conference champion privileges? The lesser bowl tie-ins don't depend on the divisional-champ-conference-championship route that Frank was complaining is disrupted when you have 15 teams. I was saying that we can be in and of the conference, but not disrupt the divisions and championship. We can still go 7-5 or 9-3, and a bowl with B1G ties can decide we're the B1G team they want.

Even if we somehow lost bowl ties, which we wouldn't, $20-30 mn/year, B1G affiliation in all sports, 8 B1G football games per year, and a guarantee of full football membership at the next expansion, would make this far superior to the AAC.

If the B1G plans to invite UConn as #16, why wouldn't they accept this arrangement as #15 without a #16? They get all of our value and none of the disruption to scheduling of a full-fledged 15th football team. They secure us and their plan of making inroads into NYC/New England is underway. For UConn fans, there would only be disappointment when we became one of the best football teams in the B1G, which probably isn't imminent.

 

[UConn Dan]

Why wouldn't the B1G give us access to bowl tie-ins, just not the conference champion privileges? The lesser bowl tie-ins don't depend on the divisional-champ-conference-championship route that Frank was complaining is disrupted when you have 15 teams. I was saying that we can be in and of the conference, but not disrupt the divisions and championship. We can still go 7-5 or 9-3, and a bowl with B1G ties can decide we're the B1G team they want.

Even if we somehow lost bowl ties, which we wouldn't, $20-30 mn/year, B1G affiliation in all sports, 8 B1G football games per year, and a guarantee of full football membership at the next expansion, would make this far superior to the AAC.

If the B1G plans to invite UConn as #16, why wouldn't they accept this arrangement as #15 without a #16? They get all of our value and none of the disruption to scheduling of a full-fledged 15th football team. They secure us and their plan of making inroads into NYC/New England is underway. For UConn fans, there would only be disappointment when we became one of the best football teams in the B1G, which probably isn't imminent.

I guess anything is possible, but our membership has to be all or none.

 

[pj]

I guess anything is possible, but our membership has to be all or none.

It would be all as soon as there was a partner for 16. The negotiation could also set a time limit where we become a full member in a set number of years.

 

[bingethinker]

It's as though you came on this board and never imagined we've had conversations about the schools relative value compared to those that have found slots.

It sounds like you don't even know the history of how BC got in, what happened, how BC obstructed UConn. It sounds like you weren't paying attention to how Louisville got selected ahead of UConn. I'm not trying to be snarky at all either but it's the only conclusion I can reach when your statement, says, boldy, that every realignment decision by the conferences was correct. That UConn wasn't offered because it didn't have as much to offer.

This is what you wrote: EACH of those schools... From that statement, you seem to think Swofford is infallible. And it totally wipes away the history and the wrangling, which we all know so well.

Furthermore, UConn is ranked academically pretty high, and if you believe that its ranking is simply mediocre, you also believe that 80% of the BCS conference schools are either mediocre or suck.

Let's dispel some myths.

a) I never once said every CR decision was correct.

b) You're right. I shouldn't have said, "...but each of those schools offered (or at least were perceived to offer) more than UConn does." That was poor wording on my part. I *should* have said that some of those schools offered more than UConn does and that all were perceived by Presidents, Commissioners, and TV execs as offering more than UConn does. The former is subjective, whereas the latter is just logic. Either way, I should've been more careful with my word choice. The point I was making is that some (certainly not all) posters here suggest that UConn is in its current predicament because conferences did favors for all these other crap schools that no one in their right mind would pick over UConn. That's really what I was responding to.

c) I never said Swafford was infallible. In fact, I never once mentioned John Swofford. I happen to think Swofford is a second-rate commish who makes basketball-centric decisions and as such, he's relegated the ACC to a second class status among the Big 5.

d) Re: academics -- It's all relative. But to be very clear, I never once said or suggested that Connecticut was anything close to a bad school academically.

 

[B1GALUM]

Alright folks. Time to press your case for UConn to the B1G on the BTN website. I led it off for you in the reply section. Tom Dienhart, BTN senior writer, made a number of statements indicative of the B1G's desire to grow into the NYC area. A few passages from his article for your reading pleasure. I would think the last one in which he asks about the basketball presence of the B1G in New York is begging for a UConn perspective.

http://btn.com/2013/06/03/dienhart-pinstripe-bowl-deal-helps-grow-big-ten-brand/#comment-191766

The agreement with the Pinstripe Bowl pushes the Big Ten deeper into the massive New York metropolitan area, the world’s biggest media market. And that’s a big deal in the Big Ten’s quest to grow its brand, revenue and reach across an ever-competitive conference landscape. This toehold in the mega New York area sets the Big Ten apart from every other major conference. And, in the end, that eventually could help the league from a competitive standpoint—particularly in recruiting.

The league took its first step toward penetrating the New York market by adding near-by Rutgers, which will join in 2014. (Maryland also will join that year). The Big Ten also announced earlier that it will open an office in New York to further enhance its presence in Gotham.

Big Ten schools could take turns playing early-season games–maybe even conference games; maybe even a double-header–in Yankee Stadium, as the league takes a metaphorical spot along Madison Avenue and Broadway to become “the” conference of “the greatest city in America.”

Now, what type of basketball presence will the Big Ten have in New York? Just wondering.

 

[The Funster]

b) You're right. I shouldn't have said, "...but each of those schools offered (or at least were perceived to offer) more than UConn does." That was poor wording on my part. I *should* have said that some of those schools offered more than UConn does and that all were perceived by Presidents, Commissioners, and TV execs as offering more than UConn does. The former is subjective, whereas the latter is just logic. Either way, I should've been more careful with my word choice. The point I was making is that some (certainly not all) posters here suggest that UConn is in its current predicament because conferences did favors for all these other crap schools that no one in their right mind would pick over UConn. That's really what I was responding to.

With respect to b) try to understand our angst. We were slotted to join the ACC with Syracuse. But the story is that BC didn't want competition from UConn in the Northeast so the ACC capitulated and took Pitt instead. Then, when MD left, we were told that we were penned in as the replacement but wait, while WVU was passed over by the ACC suddenly Louisville's academics were good enough to beat us out of that spot because they are, evidently, a football power. If you look at the short history of CR and our general profile (FB successful but young, BB impressive, academically improving, 30th market, not including Fairfield County which is part of the NYC DMA but still in CT) and you'll see that we were first passed over because of a weak regional rival. When we're told that academics are important, a weaker academic school gets the call. When we're told markets are important a smaller market school gets more interest. We do everything better athletically than one school but hey, they're AAU and supposedly they'll deliver more eyeballs in their market. It just seems that every time the CR wheel has stopped, some other school is picked because the metric they might be good at just happens to be more important to the conference that selected them.

Seriously, right now take UConn, BC, Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville and Rutgers and if you were going to pick one team to start a conference, who would you pick? If you could add one team to a conference, who would you pick? Which one of those schools has the most potential in the next five, ten or twenty five years? Maybe you would pick Rutgers because of its market and HS football talent but that might be the only school that I've listed that has a decided advantage over UConn and Rutgers has been an embarrasment athletically for ever.