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Message: [QUOTE="Sea Goat, post: 5072834, member: 3716"] Sadly, I think you're whistling through the graveyard... Utter failure in football will eventually lead to serious problems for all sports - most importantly BB! I think you fail to see how the P-2 can use the tons of money that they get from FB to dominate other sports - notably BB. If BB (MM) gets monetized ala CFP, UConn would be in a better place in a full service conference. This is also true for the BB powers in the lesser P-4 conferences - ACC, Big 12. (As far as FB is concerned, there are the P-2 conferences and then everyone else. Let's face it, the P-2 controls CFP.) We should be at least working with Duke, UNC, Kansas etc to insure that the P-2 doesn't use their ridiculous FB riches to "buy" BB. I think people are naive if they think that the P-2 only has designs on FB. The P-2 wants to control BB too. I think their vision is of a super dominant P-2 consortium of about 40 schools (they are at 34 (36?) now.) The P-2 will have all the money (NIL) to become the most attractive option for recruits in the money sports and enough left over to fund any other sports that tickle their fancy. For us, the BE is a serious loser. A much bigger payout from a full service, nationwide conferences is needed. We make chicken guano in the BE Our athletic budget was in the red $36mm last year. How long can we sustain that? (Does Senator Murphy has a plan to cover that deficit?) In sum, this is far more than the issue of marginalization of Big 12 or the ACC by the P-2 in FB. It really comes down to whether the lesser conferences (ACC and Big 12) become proactive about preserving BB. BB is next target for the P-2. UConn is valuable to any conference looking to find a seat at the table when BB is monetized. That the Big 12 doesn't recognize that gives me doubts about the future prospects of that conference. (IMO, the Big 12 jockeying for FB riches [I][B]only[/B][/I] is being short sighted. BB will also loom large if and when the MM money starts to flow to the schools ala CFP as I think it will.) The potential riches that would come from a CFP type takeover of MM might not match CFP but it could come damn close! (The NCAA grosses over $1.1b on MM alone!) That's where we need to be. FB may always play second fiddle to BB at UConn, but we need it to get a real conference home. We need a respectable home for FB. BTW, being in a conference that has decent FB doesn't mean that BB loses it primacy - see eg. Duke, UNC, Kansas. Does Duke and UNC FB outshine their BB? Does Kansas, Kentucky or Purdue FB outshine their BB? I think not. BE lovers - quit clutching your pearls... You can be in a full service conference and still have BB as your premier sport! IMO, that would be UConn's sweet spot. What we have learned, though, is that the Big 12 is still dreaming of P-2 FB status and, thus, because our FB currently sucks we are not attractive enough. But in BB, we are second to none. Let's be honest, generally FB is going to be dominated by the P-2. (If a 10-2 team is picked for the CFP this year, what conference do you think it will be from?) While there will be exceptions, the Big 12 just won't match up with the P-2's "axis of evil" in FB. But the Big 12 could have become premier in BB and it has lost its opportunity to do so. We not only have to think outside the box - we need the Big 12 (and the ACC) to do so also. (There is a lot of money to be had in BB and the Big 12 and the ACC should also focus on that!) Then FB in the Big 12 and the ACC will still be very important, but BB will be a significant countervailing force to P-2 hegemony in FB. We can't let the P-2 dominate both FB and BB! If they do, we'll all become supplicants... In closing, UConn used to have a nascent, but improving FB program under Lew Perkins and RE 1.0. We packed the Rent - tailgating was a blast! Our performance steadily improved. (Six wins in a row over Syracuse!) But, in 2011 we suffered a fatal double whammy - the Pasqualoni hire (Hathaway) and the first conference screw job (see my 100 or so posts on this topic over the last dozen years...). We can do it again in FB, but not as an independent. [/QUOTE]

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