BCU Upset Alert????

[CL82]

Butch has always been overly optimistic on this subject, but he’s right. UConn really has a great market for good programs. It has a densely concentrated population/fan base located close to tons of major airports and it offers easy access to lots of people in NY and Boston that follow other major schools. We are in this situation for one reason only, failure to hire a great football coach. We’d have been in the ACC years ago. Our fate in future realignment continues to hinge on making the football program an exciting product. It is hard to imagine but if we had both our b-ball programs in the Top 10 (very likely) and football in the Top 25 or even Top 40, we’d be hard to resist—-just like we were when Edsall up and left in the middle of the night.

There are plenty of bad P5 teams who made bad coaching hires. If BCU didn’t blackball us so they could be “New England‘s team“ we would be in. Their former A.D. went out of his way to expressly admit that in the media. I could Google the article, but we’ve all seen it here.

 

[Hoophound]

There are plenty of bad P5 teams who made bad coaching hires. If BCU didn’t blackball us so they could be “New England‘s team“ we would be in. Their former A.D. went out of his way to expressly admit that in the media. I could Google the article, but we’ve all seen it here.

I totally agree on BC. However, they had the power to pull it off because we didn’t have support from Clemson and FSU. Being a northeastern basketball school killed us with them. They wanted football schools.

Most importantly, we just weren’t good enough at football. If we’d been better and trying harder, they would have viewed us differently. We were mediocre for too long and then rather than getting serious when Edsall left, we hired PP.

 

[billybud]

Just hate 'em all....BCU for not wanting UConn as competition, the ACC football school caucus who didn't want another basketball school when it was football that needed shoring up, the American sports fans who supported football on TV, ESPN for valuing football as high as 80% of the media contract...

It really was a confluence of factors...the rise of college football TV value...the desperate drive by the ACC to not be left outside when the P5 settled out, the prior history of some ACC programs with Louisville when they were together in the Metro Conference, the mutiny against the Tobacco Road Cartel who thought the ACC was their private basketball label....

 

[CL82]

I totally agree on BC. However, they had the power to pull it off because we didn’t have support from Clemson and FSU. Being a northeastern basketball school killed us with them. They wanted football schools.

Most importantly, we just weren’t good enough at football. If we’d been better and trying harder, they would have viewed us differently. We were mediocre for too long and then rather than getting serious when Edsall left, we hired PP.

Nope. You are conflating our two shots at ACC membership. The first was early in CR in which we were slotted to join with Syracuse. The second was to fill Maryland's slot.

In the first one BC killed our admission shot in committee because BCU "wanted to be the New England school." BC AD Gene Defilippo bragged about that in Boston Globe articel. This happened before Suzie and Warde were at the school so it is tough to make a case that it is their fault.

In the second one FSU flexed it's muscles threatening to go the B12 (with Clemson) if the ACC didn't add a (corrupt) football school. In this case Herbst was advised through her Tobacco Road contacts that UConn was a lock. We were, with the basketball powers, unfortunately the FSU power play didn't make them the decision and a last minute push by Louisville carried the day, as per Louisville AD Tom Jurich. One can argue that they should have have been pressing to get us in right to the end (and it was certainly bad optics that they were in the Bahamas watching the woman's team) but it may well have been that FSU's push back against tobacco road was unavoidable.

Our resident FSU troll knows these things having had them explained to him ad nauseum but this is one of his core troll routines and he consistently returns to it.

 

[UConnJim]

Gives things time. The rapid decline in cable subs and the rise of streaming services will change the college sports landscape. When ESPN could force cable systems to carry their channels and pay high fees, ESPN could afford to pay high prices for content and there were a number of colleges that were freeloaders. Those days are coming to an end. In my opinion, colleges will have to have audiences that want their content and are willing to pay for it. Look at the Boston area. Xfinity doesn't carry the ACC Network, and it appears few people care. That doesn't bode well for the demand for BC sports content. Imagine if a cable company decided not to air UConn athletics in Connecticut. You can't, and that should bode well for the future of UConn athletics.

 

[DoctorWho85]

I hated BC for awhile, but now I'm mostly over it. Especially now that they actually scheduled to play us in football.

 

[Caronimo]

The craziest thing about this game and score is that Clemson isn’t missing Trevor Lawrence at all. The backup QB is putting up huge numbers. BC is just solid.

It's extremely disappointing that BC is competing at a high level in football right now in a major conference and we don't even have a darn season.... Stinks that we have no season after some miserable seasons with a dwindling fan base and attendance.

 

[hardcorehusky]

I totally agree on BC. However, they had the power to pull it off because we didn’t have support from Clemson and FSU. Being a northeastern basketball school killed us with them. They wanted football schools.

Most importantly, we just weren’t good enough at football. If we’d been better and trying harder, they would have viewed us differently. We were mediocre for too long and then rather than getting serious when Edsall left, we hired PP.

It had nothing to do with football coaches. We beat Louisville at Louisville with PP as coach right before the vote. BC got in early and Louisville got in late ahead of us not because of football, but their commitment to all sports. BC blocked us and allowed Pitt and Syracuse to get iN- 2 more "basketball " schools.

 

[BlueandOG]

I hated BC for awhile, but now I'm mostly over it. Especially now that they actually scheduled to play us in football.

I totally agree with this.

 

[Steve UConn72]

To add on to your train of thought: One of my tailgate buddies works in the home building supply industry. Last night he said that the documented COVID flight of New Yorkers to the Connecticut suburbs is real. Fairfield County is already overshopped for affordable housing &, as a result, New York homebuyers are actively exploring buying options in New Haven, Litchfield & Hartford counties. The residual effect is escalation of home sale prices. It's a sellers market. As an example. My own home & the one next door were built 20 years ago by the same builder. My neighbor recently retired to move down South. His house sold for roughly double what he paid for it.

New Yorkers to Connecticut? Heck, they are buying up property here in Maine left and right. The NY license plates seen to be more plentiful than all the other NE states combined in places, especially anywhere near Portland and south. Getting a lot of Boston area people, too. Housing prices are going through the roof (no pun intended) here, too.

 

[Adios]

ACC Network creates an opportunity for expansion to 16

The ACC Network means expansion for the conference could be soon. But who would join?

www.keepingitheel.com

The ACC wanted us before Pitt and Louisville? Should that be a surprise? Really? Again, market. Some people in the US have no clue how sizeable the market is here.

 

[mike012]

I think that article was written when we still had a football team.

 

[billybud]

Discussed ad nauseum...but

Why Did the ACC add Louisville instead of UConn?

This blog is about ACC Football - past glory, what went wrong, and how to fix it and get back to the glory days again.

accfootballrx.blogspot.com

 

[Nostical]

Warde and Suzie are mostly responsible for the demise of UConn athletics.

Don’t forget Blumenthal.

 

[buddy]

Discussed ad nauseum...but

Why Did the ACC add Louisville instead of UConn?

This blog is about ACC Football - past glory, what went wrong, and how to fix it and get back to the glory days again.

accfootballrx.blogspot.com

Thank you for that clarification. So once again, academics and markets are meaningless. ESPN would have pushed UConn if they needed the market, but obviously they knew that they had CT by the .....s.

 

[UConnJim]

Thank you for that clarification. So once again, academics and markets are meaningless. ESPN would have pushed UConn if they needed the market, but obviously they knew that they had CT by the .....s.

Honestly, I think ESPN/Disney were blindsided by how rapidly the cable sub market would decline. And, I think they were surprised that BC would not bring at least the Boston market in New England for the ACC Network. Comcast doesn’t carry the ACC Network and not many people care. UConn would have brought Comcast on board for many markets. In Connecticut, Comcast would have been pressured to carry the ACC Network. ESPN/Disney just made some miscalculations.

 

[billybud]

ESPN isn't doing that badly...college football viewing boomed in 2019...

• ESPN's networks averaged 1,742,000 viewers during the telecasts of the 247 regular season games it produced in 2019, or a 6% increase above the 2018 season.
• ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU combined averaged 8.5 million viewers in prime time each week of the college football season, equivalent to having a top ten most-viewed game each week of the season.

2019-20 Report: Amazing College Football Popularity Highlighted by Impressive Ratings and Attendance Data - National Football Foundation

IRVING, Texas (May 27, 2020) – The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame highlighted today numerous powerful facts from the 2019-20 college football

footballfoundation.org

 

[UConnJim]

ESPN isn't doing that badly...college football viewing boomed in 2019...

• ESPN's networks averaged 1,742,000 viewers during the telecasts of the 247 regular season games it produced in 2019, or a 6% increase above the 2018 season.
• ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU combined averaged 8.5 million viewers in prime time each week of the college football season, equivalent to having a top ten most-viewed game each week of the season.

2019-20 Report: Amazing College Football Popularity Highlighted by Impressive Ratings and Attendance Data - National Football Foundation

IRVING, Texas (May 27, 2020) – The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame highlighted today numerous powerful facts from the 2019-20 college football

footballfoundation.org

ESPN subscribers are down about 20% in the past 7 years and the subscriber losses are continuing. It’s a very tough situation for ESPN.

 

[buddy]

ESPN is doing great on the CT taxpayers dime!

 

[Adios]

We're in between the two oldest megacities in the US. Going by post-Columbus standards. And we have fans who think we can't make it to the P5. Have you counted the old snobby old money colleges around here that used to dominate college athletics when college athletics were created? Have we forgotten that UConn was largely ignored because of those schools for around 90 years?

I'll never understand what our own fans who keep saying the P5 won't happen think. Are you even familiar with the history of Connecticut? We do still have Yale's football national titles. Powerful enough a school that could care less for national titles in football these years. They are content with Ivy League titles.

I personally don't care if I live to see it or not. But I know UConn will be in the stupid P5 one day. Better to live as a UConn alum now before the bandwagon gets overwhelming.

 

[billybud]

ESPN subscribers are down about 20% in the past 7 years and the subscriber losses are continuing. It’s a very tough situation for ESPN.

cable subscribers are down...yet football viewing is up...more viewers than ever...sports fans will have ESPN...

 

[UConnJim]

cable subscribers are down...yet football viewing is up...more viewers than ever...sports fans will have ESPN...

Subscriber numbers X monthly fees = subscriber revenues. ESPN’s subscriber revenues are under pressure which means less money for sports rights fees. And, 1.7 million average viewers in 2019 means less than 3% of paying subscribers are typically watching a game. If actual sports watchers were the only ones paying for ESPN, the monthly fees would probably have to go up 4x to 5x. As TV watching moves to streaming, ESPN will have problems.

 

[buddy]

I appreciate your optimism, but fact is UConn has been passed over in CR as least 3 times when things were going well for college athletics. That is why some UConn fans think that the current conditions is the new normal for UConn athletics.

 

[Adios]

What's the fastest any school has gone from FCS to P5? The fact we've been "passed over" 3 times speaks volumes. And still won championships.

Must have said it, but D1 collegiate athletics conferences generally have a similar mentality to pro leagues. The D3 NESCAC won't go beyond NY state. Has 3 CT colleges, last addition being Connecticut College. Kinda wish I tried to go there. Massachusetts and Maine also have 3 conference members, with Maine's most well reputed school being Bowdoin.

UMass can establish itself as a solid D1 school but it's going to take a lot more investing, sadly.

 

[Irishfan]

Subscriber numbers X monthly fees = subscriber revenues. ESPN’s subscriber revenues are under pressure which means less money for sports rights fees. And, 1.7 million average viewers in 2019 means less than 3% of paying subscribers are typically watching a game. If actual sports watchers were the only ones paying for ESPN, the monthly fees would probably have to go up 4x to 5x. As TV watching moves to streaming, ESPN will have problems.

what impact does the $2billion in advertising revenue have on this equation. I have to believe the major beer producers and car manufacturers would pay increased rates to keep a presence with that group of consumers.