Blauds wants more clicks...

[HuskyHawk]

1) Most would say you're wrong about the Big East being no better today.
2) Take Cinci away and you're on an island making the argument the AAC is still better.

The sum of UConn, Temple, SMU (without Larry Brown) and Memphis is not a better conference than Villanova, Georgetown, Providence, Creighton, Butler, Marquette, and Xavier.

And that's with UConn in it. Pull us out and add us to either slate and do the math over. The difference is more dramatic. I still think this is posturing or it wouldn't have been leaked to Blauds.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Lets keep banging that drum about getting the Big East band back together! That train has left the station.

It's not about getting the band back together, it's about finding a place where our bread and butter programs could at least tread water in the hopes of a future hail mary P5 invite, whereas an AAC minus one or more of UC, UH, and Memphis would be an abject disaster in basketball, and ruin our biggest argument for a P5 invite. Not to mention ticket sales would markedly increase for conference games against the bottom of the conference teams - Tulane/ECU/Tulsa becomes St. Johns/Seton Hall/Marquette - name recognition alone would be better. Not to mention the top of the Big East in Nova, Xavier, GT would easily outsell whatever the "top" of new AAC bb would be - Temple, maybe Memphis, and.... ???

 

[JeepCSC]

Decoupling your football from the rest of your programs feels like the first step to shutting it down.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Decoupling your football from the rest of your programs feels like the first step to shutting it down.

I get that sentiment and whaler felt the same way as well, but I guess I don't see it that way.

Keep football and basketball in the best possible places available.

 

[NYUConn]

Decoupling your football from the rest of your programs feels like the first step to shutting it down.

Notre Dame agrees.

 

[Hoophound]

Decoupling your football from the rest of your programs feels like the first step to shutting it down.

It does, but basketball is our life blood. Everyone knows UConn because of basketball and it must be preserved. Staying in the AAC without Cincy is like shutting basketball down. Larry Brown is gone and SMU is going to slide. That leaves UConn, Temple and a shaky Memphis.

 

[upstater]

Would be interesting to see how you would factor Football into this since the BE does not sponsor football. UConn in the American under a new TV deal for FB might be able to shop their T3 Football rights to SNY and pick up some additional cash.

If the AAC is going to give up 3rd tier rights, then UConn isn't moving.

The problem here is that both conferences gave 3rd tier rights away

 

[JeepCSC]

It does, but basketball is our life blood. Everyone knows UConn because of basketball and it must be preserved. Staying in the AAC without Cincy is like shutting basketball down. Larry Brown is gone and SMU is going to slide. That leaves UConn, Temple and a shaky Memphis.

I agree it is better to help the basketball program because it is the main card you all have. I just wish the madness would end soon, Texas and Ok go wherever they go, and the ACC feels secure enough to take UConn as #15.

 

[The Funster]

Why would the Big East take UConn for everything except football? As long as we have G5 football the BE is going to say no. And they'll be consistent by doing so. Why take us if we'll be gone as soon as another conference might invite us? If we devalue football yes but I hope we don't do that anytime soon.

 

[Waquoit]

The never ending issue is that the UConn athletic department to this day has many basketball people who think football was a mistake.

Yeah, well them. They are probably a big reason we're in this predicament, kept us from getting out in front of this thing.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Why would the Big East take UConn for everything except football? As long as we have G5 football the BE is going to say no. And they'll be consistent by doing so. Why take us if we'll be gone as soon as another conference might invite us? If we devalue football yes but I hope we don't do that anytime soon.

The Big East would take us in a heartbeat to renegotiate their TV deal.

 

[The Funster]

The Big East would take us in a heartbeat to renegotiate their TV deal.

I'm not buying that for a minute.

 

[upstater]

Why would the Big East take UConn for everything except football? As long as we have G5 football the BE is going to say no. And they'll be consistent by doing so. Why take us if we'll be gone as soon as another conference might invite us? If we devalue football yes but I hope we don't do that anytime soon.

Nervousness about low ratings on Fox?

 

[UConnNick]

Forget the new Big East...not happening.

 

[JMick]

Forget the new Big East...not happening.

Hopefully we get into the Big XII or it doesn't expand and we don't have to worry about it.

That being said: ESPN’s Andy Katz Throws A Big East Wrinkle Into The Big 12’s Expansion Discussion

And you know Fox would be in our corner. Their ratings are terrible and would love to up the value of the league. It'd be harder to find a football conference than it would be to bring all other sports to the Big East.

 

[The Funster]

Nervousness about low ratings on Fox?

It's not happening. A few years after breaking away from UConn, Louisville and Cincy, they are going to do an about face and take us back?

 

[Hoophound]

It's not happening. A few years after breaking away from UConn, Louisville and Cincy, they are going to do an about face and take us back?

I think they would. They aren't getting the viewers they need. If UConn came back and helped viewership, they'd be happy. If it had no effect, then the Big East schools can look at Fox and say, "It isn't us, it's you. Promote us better."

Right now, it's about a ratings disaster.

 

[Fishy]

It's not happening. A few years after breaking away from UConn, Louisville and Cincy, they are going to do an about face and take us back?

In a flat heartbeat.

 

[Samoo]

I think they would. They aren't getting the viewers they need. If UConn came back and helped viewership, they'd be happy. If it had no effect, then the Big East schools can look at Fox and say, "It isn't us, it's you. Promote us better."

Right now, it's about a ratings disaster.

They'd also get better tournament attendance at MSG, since we own the place.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Hopefully we get into the Big XII or it doesn't expand and we don't have to worry about it.

That being said: ESPN’s Andy Katz Throws A Big East Wrinkle Into The Big 12’s Expansion Discussion

And you know Fox would be in our corner. Their ratings are terrible and would love to up the value of the league. It'd be harder to find a football conference than it would be to bring all other sports to the Big East.

This is from one month ago. Might as well been written in 2014.

 

[Kolumbo]

Why did the big east invite Creighton U all the way out in Nebraska?

 

[Sea Goat]

Hopefully we get into the Big XII or it doesn't expand and we don't have to worry about it.

That being said: ESPN’s Andy Katz Throws A Big East Wrinkle Into The Big 12’s Expansion Discussion

And you know Fox would be in our corner. Their ratings are terrible and would love to up the value of the league. It'd be harder to find a football conference than it would be to bring all other sports to the Big East.

I hate ESPN

 

[Kolumbo]

If the Big 12 were at all interested in football only programs, which I am sure it is not, why not invite BYU and Navy. What a double-tap crotch-shot that would be. Cincy, Houston, and then BYU and Navy football.

 

[BlueDogs]

Isn't the AAC contract up in 2018? I think it wouldn't be too much trouble to play hardball with ESPN.

The message is the important thing. We hired Mike T. Blauds is tight with Mike T. If UConn wanted to leak something in a way that was immune to FOIA, it might very well take this approach. Why would we leak it? ESPN wants UConn hoops...cheap if possible. If they are working against us as a Big 12 addition, on the assumption that they can lock us up in the American for peanuts, we'd want to disabuse them of that notion. They might decide they're better off with 1/2 of our content, rather than none. Do they really want the flagship school in their home state, a school that launched them as a network, to be 100% Fox?

It's my opinion that ESPN has never considered itself as having any ethical responsibility to support its community by advancing UConn. They appear to be good at being takers. It was great that UConn along with other BE teams made them who they are, but that's ancient news. Where is the ESPN Sport Media Center at UConn? Where is the ESPN broadcast studio at UConn for aspiring broadcast and production and media kids? How we gave them hundreds of millions without negotiating more soft benefits is beyond me. The DECD is uncreative and has political appointees instead of professionals structuring business deals with taxpayer money. There is a total lack of cohesive strategic thinking and leveraging of resources. In any deal the State should have demanded investment in UConn to bolster its sports management and media programs, negotiated College Football Gameday hosting at the Rent, and entry into P5 as part of any future TV package and if not achieved a repayment penalty.

 

[SubbaBub]

"Clicks" can be a funny word depending on which font is used. In the context of this thread, that's the only profound thing I can add.