BCU Upset Alert???? | Page 2 | The Boneyard

BCU Upset Alert????

I hated BC for awhile, but now I'm mostly over it. Especially now that they actually scheduled to play us in football.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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I think that article was written when we still had a football team.
 
Discussed ad nauseum...but

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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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.
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.
 
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. :rolleyes: 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.
 
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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...
 
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.
 
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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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.
Sure, advertising is important, but subscriber revenues are substantially higher than advertising revenues.

83 million subscribers x $9/month = $750 million per month in subscriber fees or $9 billion per year. The estimate is that ESPN's subscriber count is down 25% from the peak, but much of the decline has been offset by price increases. Consumers are moving to streaming and the cable companies are pushing back on pricing, which is the reason Xfinity doesn't carry the ACC Network.
 
Disney/ABC/ESPN get paid by Hulu, Roku, et al....

Good explanation of ESPN strategy...cable and streaming...and money breakdown:

You do understand the numbers I quoted INCLUDED Hulu, Roku, etc. They are losing a significant number of subs. Investors are optimistic on Disney+, but somewhat cautious on ESPN+. Why do you think Disney is thinking about spinning off ESPN?
 
I do understand...and I read the strategy article which does a fairly good job of explaining the values and strategies....of Disney..ESPN and why they are slow playing streaming....ESPN subscriber numbers have been decreasing with revenue loss offset by higher affiliate charges and ad charges...

At some point, that strategy becomes unsustainable...I suspect in any customer chosen ala carte type bundle, costs for some channels will increase or the channel will die....Of the 100's of channels that I receive, I only watch less than a double handful...and I am probably representative.

The content value that folks will pay for in sufficient numbers will drive....thinned out if not bundled? Cooking shows, religious channels, sales channels, and many more...or you will pay for them. ESPN will be in demand for content...the question remains if the public will pony up the money...

"When Disney decides the time is right, a bundle of Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN is a compelling replacement product for traditional pay-TV. Hulu with ads is $6 per month. Disney+ is $6 or $7 per month. If Disney were to make a standalone ESPN service at $10 per month, it would earn $22-$23 a month from consumers. That’s more than the $16.10 it takes in today."
 
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Discussed ad nauseum...but

Yep, this quote from the article you linked sums up the narrative for the replacement of Maryland:

Rumor has it that Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest and Virginia wanted UConn at first, but were "persuaded" by a group of schools let by Clemson and Florida State, along with Virginia Tech.

As long as we are linking articles, regarding the first expansion opportunity when Cuse joined and BCU "blackballed" UConn:

DeFilippo does not deny that BC opposed the inclusion of UConn. “We didn’t want them in,’’ he said. “It was a matter of turf. We wanted to be the New England team.’’
 
Semi-related topic, but when did BC become BCU? I had never heard that before until figuring it out on the BY. (Took me a while, but I'm old.)
Media outlet error.

On a side note, maybe UMass should build a 30-40k seat stadium in Springfield.
 
Semi-related topic, but when did BC become BCU? I had never heard that before until figuring it out on the BY. (Took me a while, but I'm old.)
When they joined the ACC they were announced as Boston College University.
 
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