Bilas on Uconn left out of expansion | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Bilas on Uconn left out of expansion

ecasadoSBU said:
Man... If there is one thing that annoys me of the boneyard is the inferiority complex in constant display by so many UConn fans. Its like half of the fan base here internalizes the need to always be catching up to someone else.

Enjoy the darn championship damn it. Can we just cut the b.s ACC/B1G/B12 talk for a few days?
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You saw the title it's not like you're obligated to read the thread.
 
Fishy said:
Where are Clemson and Miami going?

Big Ten - UNC, UVa, GT and ND, eventually.

SEC - Ahhh…they might not want any of these schools. No one needs a second team in South Carolina. Maybe they take FSU?
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The SEC would also want UNC and UVa, although they'd probably prefer the academic connections in the Big Ten.

The SEC has gotten a lot of mileage out of rivalries in two-school states (Alabama-Auburn, Ole Miss - Miss State, now Texas - Texas A&M) and might not mind Florida-FSU or even South Carolina-Clemson. It's not only about TV money, there's something to be said for traditions and rivalries too.

On the other hand, with the Big Ten extending out to California, if the SEC really wants new markets and doesn't want overlap, the SEC should consider UConn for a footprint in the northeast.
 
Skiblets said:
They keep moving the goalposts on the reasons why. Thought it was the football schools
Who wanted better programs. Then it was BC who blocked us. Now it’s program sustainability after JC. Such a joke
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Different things at different times.
 
I'm happy with where we are. We're a basketball school, yet our football program is in a good place. Our scheduling is fine and Mora has us in a good place

I love the Big East. If we have to move because of crazy money, I wouldn't mind the Big Ten, they are top two financially and they need a real basketball powerhouse. The ACC is not the B10 or SEC. They're going to be victims too. Oh the irony
 
willie99 said:
I'm happy with where we are. We're a basketball school, yet our football program is in a good place. Our scheduling is fine and Mora has us in a good place

I love the Big East. If we have to move because of crazy money, I wouldn't mind the Big Ten, they are top two financially and they need a real basketball powerhouse. The ACC is not the B10 or SEC. They're going to be victims too. Oh the irony
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The timing of all this is bad for the northeast. BC and Cuse have as little value as ever. I really hope we don’t end up in reconstituted league of old rivals. It will not be a high paying league.
 
Spaceman213J said:
I liked Bilas's comments on blue bloods. He baseically compared Kansas, Kentucky, Duke as being blue bloods in the sense that they are old money. He said UConn is the new blueblood like Gates or Musk.
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That’s kind of how I defined the phrase “blue blood” before Duke joined the club for many people. The “blue bloods” were the schools that were good in the 50s. It is such an odd term because it seems to mean different things to different people at different times. We’ve defined ourselves through our play on the court as the best program of the last 25 years. Literally, and it’s not close.
 
CL82 said:
That’s kind of how I defined the phrase “blue blood” before Duke joined the club for many people. The “blue bloods” were the schools that were good in the 50s. It is such an odd term because it seems to mean different things to different people at different times. We’ve defined ourselves through our play on the court as the best program of the last 25 years. Literally, and it’s not close.
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I’ve saw an article stating that UConn has now joined the blue bloods and Villanova was among the group UConn was joining. Probably a Nova fan. However, to your point, it depends who you are talking to.
 
UconnFanDC said:
Lol. Guys com'on. We know if the ACC asked us, we'd join in a heart beat. It's all about the mighty football dollars. The ACC will not fade just like the Big 12 found a way.
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No doubt. The same is true for the big 12. P5 money is a key to remaining relevant.

I am less certain of the ACC’s future survival. It seems like the major media outlets are determined to consolidate big time athletics. Some of the P5 will be on the outside looking in when that process is completed.
 
There was a time when conference realignment "what ifs" bothered me, but it passed a long time ago. Our situation is what it is. We're winning games in all the big sports. That's more than enough for me after the wasteland we just exited.
 
amory said:
There was a time when conference realignment "what ifs" bothered me, but it passed a long time ago. Our situation is what it is. We're winning games in all the big sports. That's more than enough for me after the wasteland we just exited.
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Agree, but I worry about the future, and how we will keep up in the ever escalating, arms, race of facilities and coaches salaries.
 
Honestly, I'm not optimistic about conference re-alignment for UCONN and most of college sports. I don't think we've seen anywhere near the impact that NIL will eventually have on college sports. Athletic departments with the most access to resources will have an enormous advantage and from where we sit today, those athletic departments reside in the SEC and BiG. Many schools will need to make the decision if they even want to compete in that world. Thinking that the world we are in today is going to be anything like the world 5 to 10 years from now is flawed in my opinion. I see a world of professional sport franchises associated with universities and vying for talent much the way free agency works.
 
This is an impossible question. We can (and should) mock the ACC teams for being terrible, but we absolutely would've gone if asked. If we had, would we have avoided the 2017-19 disaster? Would we have a fifth title? No way to know.
Happy to be where we are now, but there's no guarantee the next decision will be any easier.
 
Spaceman213J said:
I liked Bilas's comments on blue bloods. He baseically compared Kansas, Kentucky, Duke as being blue bloods in the sense that they are old money. He said UConn is the new blueblood like Gates or Musk.
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Yes to some extent. But if Kansas, Duke and Kentucky are old money what is UCLA ?
 
CL82 said:
Agree, but I worry about the future, and how we will keep up in the ever escalating, arms, race of facilities and coaches salaries.
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It's always a concern. But at least we already have world class facilities, a MBB coach who appears dedicated to UConn and the Big East conference specifically rather than just for the money (although he's paid a lot too). Plus the Big East TV deal is due for renewal at the perfect time to get a nice bump.

There's so much more reason for optimism now than there was even a year or two ago.
 
uconndogs said:
Honestly, I'm not optimistic about conference re-alignment for UCONN and most of college sports. I don't think we've seen anywhere near the impact that NIL will eventually have on college sports. Athletic departments with the most access to resources will have an enormous advantage and from where we sit today, those athletic departments reside in the SEC and BiG. Many schools will need to make the decision if they even want to compete in that world. Thinking that the world we are in today is going to be anything like the world 5 to 10 years from now is flawed in my opinion. I see a world of professional sport franchises associated with universities and vying for talent much the way free agency works.
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I only thought of this recently, but there's a bit of a split now. The arms race for facilities will continue to advantage the P5 (or 4, 3, 2) with football money. But the schools can't use that money for NIL. So, a school like Memphis can get decent facilities and probably pay a lot more NIL (judging from FedEx money and assumed past impermissible payments) than many of the P5. Again, as long as your facilities are decent, I can see non-P5 schools keeping up or even surpassing P5 schools (especially in basketball). The schools that will disappear will be those without big benefactors and without P5 money.
 
upstater said:
Eh they took Oklahoma. They have so much money they don't even care.
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Oklahoma is a bigger brand with more history than any team in the ACC. It's not comparable. It's also a state where the SEC had nothing.

The Big 8 merged with the SWC. The SEC has now poached: Arkansas, Texas A&M, Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma. The SEC already has SC, GA and FL. They don't need Clemson, GT or FSU. They'd probably dump Vandy and Miss State if they could.
 
amory said:
It's always a concern. But at least we already have world class facilities, a MBB coach who appears dedicated to UConn and the Big East conference specifically rather than just for the money (although he's paid a lot too). Plus the Big East TV deal is due for renewal at the perfect time to get a nice bump.

There's so much more reason for optimism now than there was even a year or two ago.
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I agree we’ve given Ackerman all the ammunition she needs to negotiate the best deal possible. In addition to the national championship, Connecticut games have increased the ratings that the Big East receives. I’m just not sure how much value is there. What do you anticipate the next big east deal being? If we ended up making 10 million a school, it would be an extraordinary deal. Realistically, 8 million is probably a more likely number. Wow that doubles our current distribution, it doesn’t allow us to stay connected in competitive with the P5 schools.
 
CL82 said:
No doubt. The same is true for the big 12. P5 money is a key to remaining relevant.

I am less certain of the ACC’s future survival. It seems like the major media outlets are determined to consolidate big time athletics. Some of the P5 will be on the outside looking in when that process is completed.
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While I agree - UConn made a move for football once and it backfired horribly. However the football money is insane. The ACC isn't going anywhere.

UConn football generated 4.7M in revenue last year against $18.4M in expenses.

While you have to probably double that investment at a minimum to be competitive in the ACC, every program made money or stayed neutral in that conference. If you could go from -$13M to positive or even close to even - that's a lot of nice shiny things for all the athletics programs and staff. But could UConn afford to make that investment up front? Media deals aside - do people in CT care about football?

That said - I think Hurley loves the Big East brand. And I'm pretty sure the millions earned from this last title run would stay with the Big East.

However - the ACC does bring back some old Big East games - Pitt, Louisville, BC, ND, and cute little Orange program. And you get Duke/UNC/Virginia on your schedule twice a year. It wouldn't be like what happened in the AAC. There's still some traditional rivalries, and you still get the Northeast recruiting hotbed with UConn/BC, you get the DMV with Virginia.

You also lose MSG for a tournament. But road travel to Miami in the winter doesn't sound as as Providence.
 
CL82 said:
I agree we’ve given Ackerman all the ammunition she needs to negotiate the best deal possible. In addition to the national championship, Connecticut games have increased the ratings that the Big East receives. I’m just not sure how much value is there. What do you anticipate the next big east deal being? If we ended up making 10 million a school, it would be an extraordinary deal. Realistically, 8 million is probably a more likely number. Wow that doubles our current distribution, it doesn’t allow us to stay connected in competitive with the P5 schools.
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That all depends on how much the schools allow basketball to access the big bucks at the expense of football. I am not saying that what you fear might not happen. It very well might. But we don’t know that it will happen either.,
 
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