Big 12

[Rico444]

Yes, the remaining P4 conferences are going to break away from the NCAA. And the two entities who pay for almost all their rights, Disney/ABC/ESPN and Fox, will pay handsomely to make sure the basketball tournament t featuring their properties is seen as the legitimate championship.

And most of America's attention and money will go to the tourney featuring UCLA, Kentucky, UNC, Duke,Kansas, Louisville, Indiana, Michigan, Mich St, Arizona, etc over a tournament featuring UConn, Nova and Gonzaga.

It's amazing that some find this debatable.

The immediate goal is to get any seat at the table. The worst seat at the adult table is better than the best seat at the kid's table.

The ratings won't be there if they cut out UConn, Gonzaga, Villanova, etc. and they certainly won't be there if there are no cinderellas.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Rutgers is about to have the number 1 class for 2024

 

[storrsroars]

The ratings won't be there if they cut out UConn, Gonzaga, Villanova, etc. and they certainly won't be there if there are no cinderellas.

Thing is, if there is a P4 tourney, they only have to do it once. After that, no top recruit will come to a non-P4 as there is no chance of playing for the NC. After that, coaches will leave, TV money will evaporate, and that will be that for competitive hoops in non-P4 conferences. You'll essentially have ~80 teams playing one game and everyone else playing basically Ivy League level hoops.

Personally, I don't think it happens. Or, if it does, the BE is still included.

 

[Tenspro2002]

The ratings won't be there if they cut out UConn, Gonzaga, Villanova, etc. and they certainly won't be there if there are no cinderellas.

The average fan doesn't care about the SEC Tournament, Big Ten Tournament, etc., and they're not going to care about a hypothetical P4 Tournament.

Maybe TV execs or the conference commissioners will think otherwise, or will plow ahead in spite of it, but some sterile, magic-free event like this is just not going to captivate casual or dedicated CBB fans the way the NCAA Tournament does now.

 

[Iluvsuebird]

UConn basketball will always have the budget to compete at the highest level. Every other sport will see a reduced budget well before basketball. Basketball is self supporting with the revenue they bring in anyways

The only problem there is Title IX. That's why the big football programs can't just create their own league.

 

[Rico444]

Thing is, if there is a P4 tourney, they only have to do it once. After that, no top recruit will come to a non-P4 as there is no chance of playing for the NC. After that, coaches will leave, TV money will evaporate, and that will be that for competitive hoops in non-P4 conferences. You'll essentially have ~80 teams playing one game and everyone else playing basically Ivy League level hoops.

Personally, I don't think it happens. Or, if it does, the BE is still included.

It would be minor league baseball at that point, or the G-League. What kind of ratings do either of those get?

 

[pj]

They aren't going to create a tournament and leave out the best basketball brands and they aren't going to leave out the Cinderellas.

I don't know. For decades basketball had two prestigious tourneys, the NCAA and NIT, and it wasn't a problem for either the best basketball brands or the Cinderellas. If the P4 split off to their own tourney it would just revive that situation - we would have the P4 Invitational Tourney (PIT) and a shrunken NCAA.

The question is more whether the PIT could successfully hog all the money and starve out the NCAA schools. Maybe, but far from certain, especially if they leave major brands like UConn, Villanova, Gonzaga in the NCAA grouping.

 

[TyroneShoo]

Typical Rutgers- Rutgers finally got good at recruiting HS kids when they are less valuable than ever. The real prize is current Freshmen or Sophs. They get one transfer

 

[JMick]

Maybe TV execs or the conference commissioners will think otherwise, or will plow ahead in spite of it,

This is exactly what's going to happen. It's not a good idea. Neither are these mega conferences. They do it anyway because they care about their next check, not the one 20 years from now.

 

[aburks41]

The only problem there is Title IX. That's why the big football programs can't just create their own league.

What does Title IX have to do with football programs breaking off into their own conferences?

 

[upstater]

UConn basketball will always have the budget to compete at the highest level. Every other sport will see a reduced budget well before basketball. Basketball is self supporting with the revenue they bring in anyways

But one wonders about the plans to include TV money in player NILs. All is lost at that point anyway.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I don't think you're suggesting it, but we should never join any conference for basketball only.

We are in one now. When the words "basketball only" are thrown out, they mean "everything but football". I know it's an inaccurate phrase, but that's what it means.

If either the ACC or Big XII offers a non-football membership that pays $10M+ (far more than Big East) and comes with a football scheduling deal, UConn needs to take it. Regular P5 games will improve our image and our football TV rights would increase significantly.

 

[aburks41]

But one wonders about the plans to include TV money in player NILs. All is lost at that point anyway.

That's the other looming issue. Once that happens, it might be game over for us. Or else we'd literally have to shutter every single sport except for mens and womens basketball so we could afford to pay the players

 

[AZHuskiePop]

UConn basketball will always have the budget to compete at the highest level. Every other sport will see a reduced budget well before basketball. Basketball is self supporting with the revenue they bring in anyways

Hypothetically Revenue from Basketball might be $10,000,000 expenses $8,000,000 so you make a profit on Men’s basketball of $2,000,000 . Nice but it’s no program carrier .Although it’s solvent. it’s only 10% of the Athletic budget which is losing $40-50 million a year an amount that is subsidized by state taxpayers .
You’re one economic downturn away from Draconian budget cut demands from the state legislature.
In that scenario half your sports are dropped and you adopt the financial structure of our Big East conference mates . for example Nova last budget was $39,000,000 and I suspect that’s on the high side for our conference mates
Getting into a league that pays significant money takes that pressure off . If you can keep the deficits in the $10-20million range and your football teams successful everyone is happy.
If you’re successful in a league where football is valued , those fans travel which increases tax revenue to the state . Coming to Connecticut in Autumn and staying a few days means millions to the state
I read somewhere that the State of Alabama makes an estimated $1billion. a year in additional revenue on college football. Even if the Connecticut’s is a fraction of that it’s enough to offset the subsidy. As a visitor to CT the car rental tax alone is mind boggling.

 

[superjohn]

That's the other looming issue. Once that happens, it might be game over for us. Or else we'd literally have to shutter every single sport except for mens and womens basketball so we could afford to pay the players

Maybe that's what should happen. If these schools completely stop funding women's sports/non-revenue sports it could finally wake people up as to what's going on and gov't and lawyers will step in.

 

[uconnfan68]

The only problem there is Title IX. That's why the big football programs can't just create their own league.

How hard would it be to get rid of that?

 

[August_West]

This is simply not true. The best players are going to go where the money is, and that will be to the power conferences. Those teams will be able to offer more NIL money, better facilities, they will be on tv more. It will be a gradual decline for the non Power conference schools, but it will happen.

How has that worked out for Syracuse or Pitt or BC?

 

[HooperScooper]

Although it’s solvent. it’s only 10% of the Athletic budget which is losing $40-50 million a year an amount that is subsidized by state taxpayers .

I don't believe that is where the money comes from, but someone tell us what the term "institutional support" means. That is the term they used in the articles when the budget deficit was revealed. I thought it meant from student tuitions and fees.

 

[CL82]

UConn basketball will always have the budget to compete at the highest level. Every other sport will see a reduced budget well before basketball. Basketball is self supporting with the revenue they bring in anyways

Actually I don't think there was a single Connecticut sport that was self supporting last year including men's and women's basketball. Everyone ran a deficit.

 

[CL82]

How has that worked out for Syracuse or Pitt or BC?

None of them had to endure the bucket of suck that was the American, so pretty good I guess.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I don’t think there’s any way they cut teams out of the tournament. It would defeat the whole purpose.

Football can get away with that kind of thing because it’s pretty much like that already anyways. It’s not built for cinderellas to win. So nobody would care.

If they did break off, they’d probably find a way to keep the tournament in tact I would assume.

 

[businesslawyer]

My worry about the NCAA Tournament is that the P4 (or whatever it is now) don't need to find a TV partner to pay the $1.1B that Turner pays right now. Conferences only get a small portion of that pie, like roughly ~30%. So around $330M split between all the conferences with tournament credits.

What happens if FOX and ESPN say hey wait a minute, we'll pay you guys $350M/year to broadcast our own tournament, with half the games on FOX and half on ESPN, and then a rotating Championship game like CBS/FOX/NBC do for the Super Bowl.

That is my biggest fear. Would the Big East be included in that? I think we will get our answer to that when the new CFP format comes out. If the P4 squeeze out the G5 conferences from getting auto-bids, we are in serious danger because that means the NCAA Tournament is likely where they turn their attention to next.

That is one of two realistic fears. The other is that as the financial gap between a P-4 school and the Big East continues to grow, eventually more of that money will filter into P-4 hoops in a manner that will make it impossible for Big East schools to keep up.

Neither of these harms will happen overnight. But are they realistic fears going forward? heck yes.

 

[August_West]

None of them had to endure the bucket of suck that was the American, so pretty good I guess.

Would you trade places with them for their decade plus of ACC money?

 

[CTBballfan243]

How has that worked out for Syracuse or Pitt or BC?

The NIL and paying players is just starting to come to fruition. Just wait, you will see

 

[CL82]

Would you trade places with them for their decade plus of ACC money?

Absolutely. Do you think Jim Calhoun couldn't win in the ACC? Do you think it Bazz and Boat somehow wouldn't dominate other guards if they were in the ACC? Would last year's team not have destroyed the field in the tournament if they had the letters ACC on their jersey? I think not. So would I rather have hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into the University of Connecticut while we were winning those championships? Yeah, I would.