Big 12 Pausing Expansion

[Bonamassa]

From the podcasts that I've watched and the stories that I've read over the last few days this is not totally unexpected. This is not over, just on pause. Apparently there are a number of factors that are still developing including All-State, ESPN, FOX, revenue sharing, and more. The New York/New England markets are also a major part of the equation including UCONN. To be clear, this is not my prediction, just what I've been hearing/reading.

 

[Sea Goat]

I care about UConn football but if it meant getting rid of it to save UConn basketball and keeping UConn basketball at the top I would cut it in the next 5 minutes.

I understand your sentiment, but I submit that it's short sighted. Now we make bubkis in the BE. Unless BB is monetized akin to the CFP, the payouts for the BE will always suck. Ultimately, the the P-2 will dominate in BB because of the spin off financial benefits made possible by CFP. Already, Greg Sankey, SEC Commissioner, is eying dominance in hoops fueled by the SEC's huge $$ advantage driven by CFP.

We made $6.5mm from the BE in 2023. This was the same as Creighton. The lowest of the low in P-2 make 10x that amount. Are we are going to keep funding $38mm shortfalls in our athletic budget each year? We need a full service conference. Failure to find one will eventually destroy UConn sports as we know it...

(Notwithstanding Murphy 's uninformed comments to the contrary...)

 

[UConnJim]

Don’t want any part of a P3 bball tourney whether we’re part of it or not. Sham tournament crowning a sham champion.

But I’m also not worried about it. The tourney is going to grow not contract.

I don't think you understand where this could be going. There could be a P4 of 80+ schools of football and basketball playing members that breaks away from the NCAA. So, there could be more spots coming up, but you have to grab one of those spots. SMU understood this and do what they could to get onto the other side of the potential divide. Oregon St., Washington St., Boise St., SD State, Memphis, Tulane, USF, ECU,.... are all begging to be let into the P4.

And, revenue sharing is a major risk for basketball as the P4, certainly the P2, could be in a significant advantaged position for paying players. There is talk of eliminating NIL collectives and only using media contract revenues for paying players. UConn does not have enough media revenues to share to compete. Why don't UConn fans understand this?

If UConn had manhandled Maryland, there would have been a Big 12 invite as some of the movers and shakers of the Big 12 are worried about UConn football's ability to compete and it was in their face on Saturday. But, we didn't invest in football over the past 10 years and here we are.

 

[ScottVib]

You actually think all those programs went into this with an open mind? I'd bet most would have advised him to not push for this again.

I think he knew there were enough nos to kill it, he was counting on the time to try to sell it without having to every skeptic in the midwest/Great Plains media calling their already skeptical presidents and ADs to ask them "why?" or without having Connecticut based media and politicians jumping in to express concern or point out that it might "erode it's identity."

The leak was designed to eliminate the chances of Yormark's sales pitch finding enough buyers and it worked.

 

[bendm]

80+ schools

I understand where you think it’s going and I disagree. A division of 80 schools and they all get into the tournament. That’s a sham. The richest European soccer clubs just tried this and the entire continent revolted. I wouldnt want any part of it either.

 

[jdb50]

The best college basketball conference in the NCAA according to the basketball only crowd got 3 teams in the NCAA Tourney last season. Our Commissioner was roundly criticized by fans for not raising enough of a stink. She admitted she had no power to change things and yelling was pointless. You all are delusional. We need to get into a power 3 or 4 conference ASAP. It is 2024 and we get an invite or fade away.

 

[Bongo Fury]

I understand your sentiment, but I submit that it's short sighted. Now we make bubkis in the BE. Unless BB is monetized akin to the CFP, the payouts for the BE will always suck. Ultimately, the the P-2 will dominate in BB because of the spin off financial benefits made possible by CFP. Already, Greg Sankey, SEC Commissioner, is eying dominance in hoops fueled by the SEC's huge $$ advantage driven by CFP.

We made $6.5mm from the BE in 2023. This was the same as Creighton. The lowest of the low in P-2 make 10x that amount. Are we are going to keep funding $38mm shortfalls in our athletic budget each year? We need a full service conference. Failure to find one will eventually destroy UConn sports as we know it...

(Notwithstanding Murphy 's uninformed comments to the contrary...)

I don’t follow WBB but seams like SC and LSU do pretty well.

 

[Sea Goat]

I don’t follow WBB but seams like SC and LSU do pretty well.

A non sequitur?

 

[Jaydumo20]

I bet I do grasp what you think is going to happen. I don't believe you. Because you (and everyone else) actually have zero idea of what it will be.

This is true. Nobody expected any of the wildness that has occurred so far and nobody knows what will happen in college athletics. It's the most unstable landscape maybe in the entire history of all sports.

 

[cellocgg]

I love the sentiment B12 fans have about UConn, like "we don't need to grab them now, they're not going anywhere anytime soon," like this is such a pathetic take. There are people who's livelihoods are affected by the repeated blue balls your conference has given our school but eh who cares, not like they can do anything about it or go anywhere. let's just keep them on a chain to tease when we're feeling bored

 

[Scrutineer]

I love the sentiment B12 fans have about UConn, like "we don't need to grab them now, they're not going anywhere anytime soon," like this is such a pathetic take. There are people who's livelihoods are affected by the repeated blue balls your conference has given our school but eh who cares, not like they can do anything about it or go anywhere. let's just keep them on a chain to tease when we're feeling bored

Why should they worry about anyone's livelihood other than those of the current Big12 membership and those at the conference?
Good things happen for you when you make them happen. If we had built on 2010 we wouldn't be here today, but we failed to keep the upward trajectory. Lou Perkins was a crook but he saw where we needed to go and had us on the right path but his successor couldn't handle the job or wanted to sabotage the school because he was being forced out. So here we are....

 

[Patman]

I love the sentiment B12 fans have about UConn, like "we don't need to grab them now, they're not going anywhere anytime soon," like this is such a pathetic take. There are people who's livelihoods are affected by the repeated blue balls your conference has given our school but eh who cares, not like they can do anything about it or go anywhere. let's just keep them on a chain to tease when we're feeling bored

and what are you going to do about it?

 

[superjohn]

Silly me, I actually thought the Big 12 would not be in these talks at this point
without having the votes. To me this never should have happened without the
votes FIRST! There is no excuse.

By the way, I care much more about football than basketball. Because the football programs will have all the money and will buy off all of the top basketball players.

Why can't people understand that? The Big East will not be the same in a few
years.

Because it doesn't work that way. The fear is it will work that way in the future but Duke, UConn, UNC, Kentucky, Nova, Louisville, Zags etc. aren't going anywhere. There's too much built in history there old and new. Sure, the money is different and all this realignment sucks but Bama, Oklahoma, Texas, Clemson etc. aren't all of a sudden just going to be winning all the championships. Football is their thing, it's their culture. They'll have some really good basketball seasons when they have great coaches but I don't believe the basketball schools are going anywhere.

We've been screwed over every way possible unlike any other school throughout all of this but we're not Mississippi. The state and the school know the importance of UConn basketball. We're not going to let it all die on the vine. It's our pro team and we know it's value.

 

[superjohn]

I understand your sentiment, but I submit that it's short sighted. Now we make bubkis in the BE. Unless BB is monetized akin to the CFP, the payouts for the BE will always suck. Ultimately, the the P-2 will dominate in BB because of the spin off financial benefits made possible by CFP. Already, Greg Sankey, SEC Commissioner, is eying dominance in hoops fueled by the SEC's huge $$ advantage driven by CFP.

We made $6.5mm from the BE in 2023. This was the same as Creighton. The lowest of the low in P-2 make 10x that amount. Are we are going to keep funding $38mm shortfalls in our athletic budget each year? We need a full service conference. Failure to find one will eventually destroy UConn sports as we know it...

(Notwithstanding Murphy 's uninformed comments to the contrary...)

I don't think you know the financials other than the TV contracts we all have access to. You don't know what the state and school are willing to spend. We don't know where this ends. We don't know if the gov't ever gets involved. We don't know if this spins off into individual sports/entities. We don't know if the viewing appetite is there for a condensed group of 42 schools or so playing only with which maybe 30 of them are somewhat marquee names. We don't know if schools like Vandy and Northwester check out of this.

We know we're in a uniquely bad situation but there's so many variables on how this all shakes out. One thing I'm pretty confident about is that the state of CT isn't going to let UConn basketball die off.

 

[cellocgg]

Why should they worry about anyone's livelihood other than those of the current Big12 membership and those at the conference?
Good things happen for you when you make them happen. If we had built on 2010 we wouldn't be here today, but we failed to keep the upward trajectory. Lou Perkins was a crook but he saw where we needed to go and had us on the right path but his successor couldn't handle the job or wanted to sabotage the school because he was being forced out. So here we are....

I'm not saying they should care, I just want Yormark to stop pulling our chain. How many times will this happen before some of our staff is fired

 

[CTBasketball]

The University will not die or be left behind, especially the basketball programs. Football program? Could die.

Stop drinking the kool-aid and seek mental help, all of you. It’s honestly sad and embarrassing how each and every one of you line up to be played over and over. Learn and move on.

 

[KryHavok]

The University will not die or be left behind, especially the basketball programs. Football program? Could die.

Stop drinking the kool-aid and seek mental help, all of you. It’s honestly sad and embarrassing how each and every one of you line up to be played over and over. Learn and move on.

I think it's disingenuous and frankly insulting to keep saying "seek mental health". We're passionate fans for our school. I didn't believe Yormark last year or this year. If it happened great, but being burned by the ACC the first time was all I needed to be skeptical of any other CR rumor. You seem so sure that basketball won't be left behind, and this is based on what, clarvoyance that our media and revenues will assuredly keep us afloat and able to compete in terms of coaching and players? Many of us don't share that confidence, and it naturally has us worried. There's no kool-aid to be had. We are fighting to stay associated with other big time unis that field competitive sports, and we're seemingly seeing the train is leaving the station. Moving on, in turn, means accepting our defeat and possible relegation to 2nd tier status.

 

[John]

Because it doesn't work that way. The fear is it will work that way in the future but Duke, UConn, UNC, Kentucky, Nova, Louisville, Zags etc. aren't going anywhere. There's too much built in history there old and new. Sure, the money is different and all this realignment sucks but Bama, Oklahoma, Texas, Clemson etc. aren't all of a sudden just going to be winning all the championships. Football is their thing, it's their culture. They'll have some really good basketball seasons when they have great coaches but I don't believe the basketball schools are going anywhere.

We've been screwed over every way possible unlike any other school throughout all of this but we're not Mississippi. The state and the school know the importance of UConn basketball. We're not going to let it all die on the vine. It's our pro team and we know it's value.

Zags don't belong in that list, zero rings. Duke UNC Kentucky and Louisville aren't going anywhere because they're already at the adult's table. That leaves Nova and us, but Nova has already accepted their fate at the kid's table. That leaves just us.

 

[August_West]

And basketball will still be frozen out of the future national championships. It has nothing to do with money. The P4 are going to create their own tourney and UConn won't be invited.
And the rest of the country won't care.
The northeast is a dy8ng section of the country compared to the rest of the regions, the NYC media no longer drives national narratives and the decision makers are all in different parts of the country.
It's P4 or die for UConn.

Cool the National Championship in that scenario will mean absolutely nothing in the moment or historically. Let them have it, its over anyway.

LOL the northeast dying. You mean the section of the country that has the greatest wealth concentration in the world, right? Those people will have no say?

 

[JMick]

The University will not die or be left behind, especially the basketball programs. Football program? Could die.

Stop drinking the kool-aid and seek mental help, all of you. It’s honestly sad and embarrassing how each and every one of you line up to be played over and over. Learn and move on.

How are we going to keep up with revenue sharing in basketball?

 

[August_West]

I love the sentiment B12 fans have about UConn, like "we don't need to grab them now, they're not going anywhere anytime soon," like this is such a pathetic take. There are people who's livelihoods are affected by the repeated blue balls your conference has given our school but eh who cares, not like they can do anything about it or go anywhere. let's just keep them on a chain to tease when we're feeling bored

This is why if we had even a speck of self respect we tell them all to go pound sand. Enough is Enough.

 

[bendm]

How are we going to keep up with revenue sharing in basketball?

how much of the $22mill in revenue is going to be left over for each of the p4 bball programs? a couple mill? football programs are going to eat up practically all of it.

UConn men's bball earned over ~$10mill in revenue in 2023. the school will need to let the program keep a couple mill of that to pay players rather than cover its operating expenses. in turn, the school will have to cover the increased net loss with direct institutional support, as they have for decades.

the men's team only lost a total of ~$3mill in 2023. the BE deal is going up by ~$2mill/year. Hurley's contact is going up by ~$3mill/year, the men's program will need to keep ~$2mill/year in revenue. that's equals an increased net loss of only ~$6mill/year for the best bball program in the country. easily covered by institutional support and worth all the intangible benefits it brings to the school/state. plus...once football and the 6 corresponding title ix women's sports get cut that's a savings of ~$20mill/year.

just because football has to die doesnt mean all the football fans should be rooting for bball to die.