Big 12 Speculation Will Hurt Recruiting

[HuskyHawk]

It could all be simplified if we kept the regional conferences for all the minor sports and just had football, men's and women's basketball and maybe baseball in the new B1G conference.

We already do something similar in hockey and it makes no sense to chase games against major opponents in sports that draw few fans and generate little to no revenue.

We might see something like this eventually. Aside from money, nobody likes this. Once the players get paid, the whole thing collapses financially. The most logical outcome is a football super-league with those schools willing to pay and compete at that level. That's not even all the P4 schools most likely. Then go back to 10-12 team leagues that are regional for every other sport. Reduces travel, helping studies etc. Easy sell for the Presidents if they are rational.

 

[JohnFSilver]

It won’t hurt recruiting. It should help it in football, baseball and softball. might hurt in soccer. Neutral in hoops.

Basketball is not the only sport that UConn plays .

 

[djct1999]

I literally just had drinks in the last month with a guy whose kid runs track and passed on several D1 scholarships and chose D2 because of travel.

It is not a remotely difficult decision for these STUDENT-athletes. They are there for school, and fly commercial and don't want to travel all over the country. Anyone who argues otherwise is arguing for the sake of arguing.

So make these Olympic, non revenue sports “club only”. I surely hope UConn doesn’t make any decision because the student athlete who runs the 400 doesn’t want to travel. Come on.

 

[temery]

So make these Olympic, non revenue sports “club only”. I surely hope UConn doesn’t make any decision because the student athlete who runs the 400 doesn’t want to travel. Come on.

Travel is a legit concern for most athletes. It takes a strange commitment to be interested in a dozen+ hours long bus trips in order to play a 90 min tennis match, swim or run for a minute or two, etc, then get on the bus home.

Put them up in a nice hotel, fly them vs a three hour bus trip, same as revenue teams, and maybe they'll change their minds.

I LOVE the comment someone made yesterday about most sports being aligned regionally like hockey is now. That is the only future of college sports. Call it "club level" if you want, but that is absolutely the only future for all but the top revue sports teams.

 

[John]

Have I successfully trolled people into arguing that Olympic sports athletes want more travel and to miss more class? I am better at this than I thought.

you've argued you want UConn to be more like Seton Hall and less like a flagship state university.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

So make these Olympic, non revenue sports “club only”. I surely hope UConn doesn’t make any decision because the student athlete who runs the 400 doesn’t want to travel. Come on.

The easier answer is to break off football. The big football schools can choose to do it, or a judge will do it for them after they get their butts kicked in court for the umpteenth time. It is a Title IX violation anyway.

 

[Kolumbo]

Stanford has one of the best, most successful athletic departments, 36 successful teams. Top notch education. Yet it has to be one of the most far-flung outliers travel-wise right now having joined the ACC. Of course it makes no sense. Maybe the opportunity for the education outweighs the additional travel for Stanford. Perhaps less so for Berkeley as a public U.

California has so many great schools that it would seem serious student-athletes might prefer to stay home and play more locally rather than travel. The PAC 12 was a great conference but having to go to the east coast all the time is going to be tough. In the big picture I don't think travel is a major issue but it might be for these Cali schools. At UConn, I could see the Big 12 being a selling point. More events in warmer and dryer climates, Orlando, Phoenix, Tucson, Houston. When I was at UConn the hockey team had trips to Alaska and they were pretty excited about that.

 

[DFW HOYA]

It is a Title IX violation anyway.

Nothing in Title IX says anything abut football. Schools that offer football can stay in compliance, and most do.

 

[temery]

Nothing in Title IX says anything abut football. Schools that offer football can stay in compliance, and most do.

Title IX has nothing to do with any specific sport. Football offers more scholarships than several other sports combined. Fully funding a Div I fb team absolutely affects compliance in other sports, unless those are the sports are just eliminated.

 

[Kowalski]

So make these Olympic, non revenue sports “club only”. I surely hope UConn doesn’t make any decision because the student athlete who runs the 400 doesn’t want to travel. Come on.

Since college athletics has turned into professional sports, where revenues from profitable sports are used to attract athletes playing that sport through a free agent market (& therefore not used to fund the broader athletic programs), why should sports with no potential for generating revenue be supported at all any longer? i.e., other than as required for title IX.

Is it just to pretend that the traditional amateur student athlete model still exists, and schools have to fund other ways to support olympic supports? The amatuer sports model now mainly only exists in at lower college divisions & high schools (for now).

 

[CL82]

Title IX has nothing to do with any specific sport. Football offers more scholarships than several other sports combined. Fully funding a Div I fb team absolutely affects compliance in other sports, unless those are the sports are just eliminated.

Or new woman's sports are added to offset the football scholarships.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Since college athletics has turned into professional sports, where revenues from profitable sports are used to attract athletes playing that sport through a free agent market (& therefore not used to fund the broader athletic programs), why should sports with no potential for generating revenue be supported at all any longer? i.e., other than as required for title IX.

Is it just to pretend that the traditional amateur student athlete model still exists, and schools have to fund other ways to support olympic supports? The amatuer sports model now mainly only exists in at lower college divisions & high schools (for now).

When we say professional sports, essentially the athletic departments are non-profits. There is no profit motive at these departments, they have a revenue motive but no earnings motive.

From what I have seen, the revenue these teams get all gets eaten up. There is no financial discipline because it's just more money to do more things. There is an ever growing need to grow the budget, not turn a profit per se.

That is what makes the PE play interesting. In one sense, it will cause fiscal discipline and eliminate waste...on the other hand it will be run more like a going concern and that means strict budgeting, meeting targets, producing an operating profit for distribution to shareholders. I wonder the tax implications of that would be?

 

[uconnyankee]

I literally just had drinks in the last month with a guy whose kid runs track and passed on several D1 scholarships and chose D2 because of travel.

It is not a remotely difficult decision for these STUDENT-athletes. They are there for school, and fly commercial and don't want to travel all over the country. Anyone who argues otherwise is arguing for the sake of arguing.

Don’t compare BB and FB athletes at the elite college level with track.
Few players are turning down UConn to play at Southern and citing travel. Especially one with a scholarship offer.

 

[uconnyankee]

It won’t hurt recruiting. It should help it in football, baseball and softball. might hurt in soccer. Neutral in hoops.

Basketball is not the only sport that UConn plays .

Big 12 doesn’t sponsor soccer. My guess is they stay in Big East for that sport

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Don’t compare BB and FB athletes at the elite college level with track.
Few players are turning down UConn to play at Southern and citing travel. Especially one with a scholarship offer.

You straw man my post (I never compared high level D1 football or basketball with track) and then make an extreme comparison (UConn vs Southern).

There are a lot of far flung D1 conferences, and a lot of D2 schools with decent academics. You are taking the absurd position that no one would ever pick academics over competing in an Olympic sport at a somewhat higher level. Why are you picking this hill to die on?

 

[John]

You straw man my post (I never compared high level D1 football or basketball with track) and then make an extreme comparison (UConn vs Southern).

There are a lot of far flung D1 conferences, and a lot of D2 schools with decent academics. You are taking the absurd position that no one would ever pick academics over competing in an Olympic sport at a somewhat higher level. Why are you picking this hill to die on?

You extrapolate the entire college athletic landscape from some single rando meeting you supposedly had (probably never happened) and then have the gall to complain about the way others argue. Wow man, crazy stuff here.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

You extrapolate the entire college athletic landscape from some single rando meeting you supposedly had (probably never happened) and then have the gall to complain about the way others argue. Wow man, crazy stuff here.

Why is it so hard for you to get your hands around the idea that most people go to college for an education, and not to entertain you in athletic events?

 

[John]

Why is it so hard for you to get your hands around the idea that most people go to college for an education, and not to entertain you in athletic events?

If all your dreams come true will your version of UConn have a branch campus in South Orange NJ?

 

[uconnyankee]

You straw man my post (I never compared high level D1 football or basketball with track) and then make an extreme comparison (UConn vs Southern).

There are a lot of far flung D1 conferences, and a lot of D2 schools with decent academics. You are taking the absurd position that no one would ever pick academics over competing in an Olympic sport at a somewhat higher level. Why are you picking this hill to die on?

A) You literally mentioned that you knew someone who gave up a D1 scholarship to go D2 for track citing travel. What’s your point?
B) the thread is about recruiting and whether that may hurt UConn if they go Big 12. So you bring up a story about a kid that runs track and chose D2 over D1 saying it happens all the time. That’s a straw man!
C) just because someone has a counter point, why do you act like a petulant child who had their ball taken away? Die on a hill, because I made one counterpoint? Because you STATED that disagreeing was simply for the sake of disagreeing?
Get over yourself.

 

[uconnyankee]

Why is it so hard for you to get your hands around the idea that most people go to college for an education, and not to entertain you in athletic events?

Know your audience…. For the record, you’re on a website largely dedicated to college athletes that ‘entertain in athletic events’. I’m quite certain that without those athletes, this board has 1% of the activity.
Sure, in the grand scheme of all kids applying to schools, there are for more non-athletes or athletes with little professional aspirations. We’ve all seen the NCAA commercials.
Do you really think that argument has any relevancy to this thread?
We’re talking about recruiting! And yes, I think it’s fair to assume recruiting is largely focused on BB and FB (to lesser extent).
So keep banging your chest about being right. Keep up the good fight!

 

[HuskyHawk]

Why is it so hard for you to get your hands around the idea that most people go to college for an education, and not to entertain you in athletic events?

Come on. In a more rational world our universities wouldn‘t have sports except intramural and club teams. Like Europe. But that’s not the world we inhabit. Even the Ivies play D1 basketball and hockey And FCS football.

You keep suggesting that’s the future. It’s possible that some schools like Rice, Tulane, and others embrace that model. It’s unlikely that the big public schools do, or the elite private schools who are in P4 conferences. Maybe 40 years from now. But I’ll be close to 100 then.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

A) You literally mentioned that you knew someone who gave up a D1 scholarship to go D2 for track citing travel. What’s your point?
B) the thread is about recruiting and whether that may hurt UConn if they go Big 12. So you bring up a story about a kid that runs track and chose D2 over D1 saying it happens all the time. That’s a straw man!
C) just because someone has a counter point, why do you act like a petulant child who had their ball taken away? Die on a hill, because I made one counterpoint? Because you STATED that disagreeing was simply for the sake of disagreeing?
Get over yourself.

Would someone run track at Trinity over going to Fairfield? Doesn’t seem so crazy, does it?

How about an Olympic sport at Fairfield over a Big12 bound UConn? Also not crazy.

While a lot of these Olympic sports athletes want to compete against top athletes, they also need to get a real job after college since there is no NBA equivalent for field hockey.

I provided 3 links with articles about athletes and coaches unhappy with realignment just for football. It is now your turn to provide articles that these athletes will gratefully fly anywhere on any day for the greater glory of football.

 

[John]

Would someone run track at Trinity over going to Fairfield? Doesn’t seem so crazy, does it?

How about an Olympic sport at Fairfield over a Big12 bound UConn? Also not crazy.

While a lot of these Olympic sports athletes want to compete against top athletes, they also need to get a real job after college since there is no NBA equivalent for field hockey.

I provided 3 links with articles about athletes and coaches unhappy with realignment just for football. It is now your turn to provide articles that these athletes will gratefully fly anywhere on any day for the greater glory of football.

At what point did you decide UConn's ceiling is a Seton Hall existence?

 

[CTpessimist]

Would someone run track at Trinity over going to Fairfield? Doesn’t seem so crazy, does it?

How about an Olympic sport at Fairfield over a Big12 bound UConn? Also not crazy.

While a lot of these Olympic sports athletes want to compete against top athletes, they also need to get a real job after college since there is no NBA equivalent for field hockey.

I provided 3 links with articles about athletes and coaches unhappy with realignment just for football. It is now your turn to provide articles that these athletes will gratefully fly anywhere on any day for the greater glory of football.

Not sure field hockey is making the argument you think it is. UConn wins national titles in that too. Those girls aren’t choosing Fairfield over UConn. If we can continue to add Olympic sport athletes into our Collective profile and give them NIL they are choosing UConn no matter the potential travel. Especially if our academic rankings remain as high as they are.

 

[bendm]

At what point did you decide UConn's ceiling is a Seton Hall existence?

Not sure field hockey is making the argument you think it is. UConn wins national titles in that too. Those girls aren’t choosing Fairfield over UConn. If we can continue to add Olympic sport athletes into our Collective profile and give them NIL they are choosing UConn no matter the potential travel. Especially if our academic rankings remain as high as they are.

if i were a non-football or bball athlete and didnt have Olympic dreams then i would 100% attend a D3 NESCAC school over most D1 schools, including UConn. hundreds of student athletes make this decision every year already and many more will if they dont think the added travel that D1 sports now requires is worth it.