Cincy, Houston, UCF and BYU

[BlueDogs]

Look like they get the B12 golden tickets. Big 12 expansion: League wants four teams with focus on BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, per report

Cincy kept investing in and building their football program, showed patience, made great hires and didn’t jump to a Catholic schoolgirls’ basketball conference to relive prom nights long since past. Doing things right matters. Sad. But hey, Let’s go whip some FCS butt this week and get all giddy.

 

[Vowelguy]

Look like they get the B12 golden tickets. Big 12 expansion: League wants four teams with focus on BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, per report

Cincy kept investing in and building their football program, showed patience, made great hires and didn’t jump to a Catholic schoolgirls’ basketball conference to relive prom nights long since past. Doing things right matters. Sad. But hey, Let’s go whip some FCS butt this week and get all giddy.

If UConn had “showed patience” and stayed in the AAC, it would be in the same position as USF, Tulane, and SMU — members of a G5 conference that is imploding. There’s nothing UConn could’ve done in the past 2 years to change that.

 

[ASweet3781]

Yeah, there's just nothing UConn could have done. They had a top 20 national athletics program in 2011. Pasquaoloni, Diaco, Edsall 2.0. An entire decade down the drain. Respectable football to historically bad.

There's just nothing we could have done differently.

 

[The Viking]

Big 12 is going into football recruiting hotbeds Florida, Texas, and Ohio and taking a big BYU fanbase. Even if we were a respectable football program, I doubt we get an invite.

And besides, this is a Big 12 without Oklahoma and Texas. Don't lose sleep over it.

 

[huskysupporter]

Thanks Dave Benedict for putting us in such a great position to join a P5 conference! Oh wait.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

Look like they get the B12 golden tickets. Big 12 expansion: League wants four teams with focus on BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, per report

Cincy kept investing in and building their football program, showed patience, made great hires and didn’t jump to a Catholic schoolgirls’ basketball conference to relive prom nights long since past. Doing things right matters. Sad. But hey, Let’s go whip some FCS butt this week and get all giddy.

Blue Dogs is 100 percent right on this one. UConn failed to keep its eyes on the prize. Instead, there were dreams about a long-gone Big East conference. We have to move from football independence and the so-called New Big East to a P5 or P4 conference in the near future.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Blue Dogs is 100 percent right on this one. UConn failed to keep its eyes on the prize. Instead, there were dreams about a long-gone Big East conference. We have to move from football independence and the so-called New Big East to a P5 or P4 conference in the near future.

Just curious. Have you supported the football program in any fashion?

 

[freescooter]

Thanks Dave Benedict for putting us in such a great position to join a P5 conference! Oh wait.

This isn’t on Benedict. It’s 100% on Susan and Warde. Susan didn’t care and Warde was too busy lobbying for the Michigan job to be bothered with UConn. Or too clueless. He lacked the guts to stand up to Calhoun, he hired both coaches who drove the program into a ditch, then he left others with a huge mess. I disagree with Benedict on the NEWBIE, but I get why he did it.

 

[don356]

The real result will play out in the next Big East reconfigurations tv contract. If it slips, then it will likely be the end of football which may have been inevitable anyway. Product has to get better regardless of affiliation.

 

[UConnJim]

People seem to forget that UConn applied to the Big 12 last go round so Benedict knew what the Big 12 thought about adding UConn, a total geographical outlier. Apparently, the Big 12 did not rank UConn’s application high last go round.

I think most college administrators that follow realignment closely thought Texas and probably Oklahoma were not committed to the Big 12 long term and there could be openings in the Big 12 in the future and UConn wasn’t on the short list of candidates.

Imagine if UConn was still in the AAC today and Cinci, UCF, and Houston left? The new AAC would be a total dumpster fire. Is independent football and Big East basketball ideal LT? No, but it sure beats ending up in a new AAC conference.

 

[JMick]

These takes are so bad. How do you people never learn?

 

[coachcap]

The last decade has been the perfect storm for the destruction of the football program. HCRE 1.0 fleeing in the dead of night, ACC raid along with WVU & TCU fleeing to the XII, bad hire after bad hire, stoppage of play due to COVID-19. It feels like the gridiron program is being sucked down a black hole.
As an alum, I follow all UCONN sports teams, but football has always been my favorite sport. My kids cut their teeth on this program at Memorial Stadium watching Wilbur Guilliard chew up yardage. They are fellow alums partly because of my passion for this program.
Those who advocate for demotion to FCS status or complete abolition of the program just don't see the whole picture. A successful FBS program vying for conference championships was a source of pride during my kids tenure at UCONN. Marketing the University was much easier because of it. There was constant banter on this board of how soon the RENT would be expanded to its full 55,000 original blueprint & queries of if said expansion could ultimately go to 60k. (to think that the temporary seating added for the Michigan home game was the seating highpoint & may never again be revisited is just nauseating).
It is critical that the 2021 edition of the Football Huskies show true progress on the field in the win-loss column. The fact that the Huskies aren't even under consideration for XII expansion should be a rude wake up call to the powers that be. A reuniting with former conference mates WVU & Cinci to go along with UCONN's marketability in NYC would have been a no-brainer a decade ago. That it's not even an afterthought is both humbling & tragic.

 

[shizzle787]

Thanks Dave Benedict for putting us in such a great position to join a P5 conference! Oh wait.

The Big 12 without TX and OU is not a power conference.

 

[uchusky32]

The Big 12 without TX and OU is not a power conference.

Yep, and we a do far away geographically. We just don't fit that profile.

 

[coachcap]

People seem to forget that UConn applied to the Big 12 last go round so Benedict knew what the Big 12 thought about adding UConn, a total geographical outlier. Apparently, the Big 12 did not rank UConn’s application high last go round.

I think most college administrators that follow realignment closely thought Texas and probably Oklahoma were not committed to the Big 12 long term and there could be openings in the Big 12 in the future and UConn wasn’t on the short list of candidates.

Imagine if UConn was still in the AAC today and Cinci, UCF, and Houston left? The new AAC would be a total dumpster fire. Is independent football and Big East basketball ideal LT? No, but it sure beats ending up in a new AAC conference.

Jim , I have a different point of view: When it was apparent that Pitt & the Fruit were headed to the ACC & the Big East was on life support, the administrations of UCONN & WVU acted totally differently. The leadership in Storrs was trying to shore up the Big East, whereas the Mountaineer leadership actively campaigned for addition to the XII along with TCU who said thanks but no thanks to the Big East.
The true outlier in the XII is WVU. They actually campaigned for more Eastern
representation in the XII at the time of their admittance. THAT time period was the lost opportunity for UCONN. That HUSKY leadership did not originally apply to the XII at the same time as WVU & TCU because of lack of foresight is the true tragedy of this saga,

 

[Duncan Idaho]

We upgraded to play Big East football as others were getting out. Even had an early entry because of it. UConn was down in the bilge pumping out the boat when all the other football schools were above board filling up the life boats.

 

[uconndogs]

Getting out of the AAC when we did was the right move. Being stuck in that conference without those programs would have been the death nail for our hoops programs. Rehash the debacle that our football program has been over the last decade all you want, but to what end?

It's unlikely the B12 comes out of this with a media deal anything like the deal currently in place. The P5 could easily be moving to the P4. The more and more I see of this, the more I am convinced that conference realignment and NIL are going to bifurcate athletic programs with a group breaking away from the NCAA. It will be all about the money and programs like Wake Forest, etc. aren't going to be on that bus. I think it's 40 to 60 programs. Pro sports under a college banner with 18 year-olds making big money. Holds little interest for me, but I guess the powers that be think that market is what they want.

 

[coachcap]

We upgraded to play Big East football as others were getting out. Even had an early entry because of it. UConn was down in the bilge pumping out the boat when all the other football schools were above board filling up the life boats.

The seeds of today were planted even further back. When BC, Syracuse & Pitt originally wanted the Big East to form a football conference multiple mistakes were made by conference leadership.
-Idiotic that Penn State wasn't added
-The conference was late to the party by adding Miami AFTER Florida State had already been scooped up by the ACC. If it had acted earlier & invited BOTH schools together, much of the current lunacy would have been avoided.

 

[Waquoit]

We started FB because all the know-it-alls said we needed to go D1 to protect our basketball program.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Lew Perkins left before his child was born.

 

[coachcap]

Getting out of the AAC when we did was the right move. Being stuck in that conference without those programs would have been the death nail for our hoops programs. Rehash the debacle that our football program has been over the last decade all you want, but to what end?

It's unlikely the B12 comes out of this with a media deal anything like the deal currently in place. The P5 could easily be moving to the P4. The more and more I see of this, the more I am convinced that conference realignment and NIL are going to bifurcate athletic programs with a group breaking away from the NCAA. It will be all about the money and programs like Wake Forest, etc. aren't going to be on that bus. I think it's 40 to 60 programs. Pro sports under a college banner with 18 year-olds making big money. Holds little interest for me, but I guess the powers that be think that market is what they want.

And MOST of it is driven by ESPN. Is it a coincidence that they have a campus in Charlotte? NO, it's so they can actively oversee their SEC & ACC properties.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

The seeds of today were planted even further back. When BC, Syracuse & Pitt originally wanted the Big East to form a football conference multiple mistakes were made by conference leadership.
-Idiotic that Penn State wasn't added
-The conference was late to the party by adding Miami AFTER Florida State had already been scooped up by the ACC. If it had acted earlier & invited BOTH schools together, much of the current lunacy would have been avoided.

Yep the eastern indies.

 

[noeynox]

The last decade has been the perfect storm for the destruction of the football program. HCRE 1.0 fleeing in the dead of night, ACC raid along with WVU & TCU fleeing to the XII, bad hire after bad hire, stoppage of play due to COVID-19. It feels like the gridiron program is being sucked down a black hole.
As an alum, I follow all UCONN sports teams, but football has always been my favorite sport. My kids cut their teeth on this program at Memorial Stadium watching Wilbur Guilliard chew up yardage. They are fellow alums partly because of my passion for this program.
Those who advocate for demotion to FCS status or complete abolition of the program just don't see the whole picture. A successful FBS program vying for conference championships was a source of pride during my kids tenure at UCONN. Marketing the University was much easier because of it. There was constant banter on this board of how soon the RENT would be expanded to its full 55,000 original blueprint & queries of if said expansion could ultimately go to 60k. (to think that the temporary seating added for the Michigan home game was the seating highpoint & may never again be revisited is just nauseating).
It is critical that the 2021 edition of the Football Huskies show true progress on the field in the win-loss column. The fact that the Huskies aren't even under consideration for XII expansion should be a rude wake up call to the powers that be. A reuniting with former conference mates WVU & Cinci to go along with UCONN's marketability in NYC would have been a no-brainer a decade ago. That it's not even an afterthought is both humbling & tragic.

Add to this that in Randy's 1st year back they took Cincinnati down to the final snap (Hergy Mayala) celebration penalty, and its beyond baffling how terrible our hires have been.

Its why its infuriating to hear Randy talk about how doesn't give a if its "sexy" he is going to do what he believes gives the team the best chance to win. That is great when you win, not when you are getting curb stomped in route to 107 yards of offense.

Its painful to watch our struggles. People cannot believe i waste Saturdays watching either on TV or in person this program. That is how far we have fallen in such a short period of time.

 

[hardcorehusky]

Since this is about money- subtract Texas and Oklahoma- add in BYU, Cinnci, Houston and UCF- and you get an AAV of $15M a year- Cinnci, Houston and UCF are ecstatic, BYU forces a whole conference into a scheduling nightmare in all other sports because they don't play on Sunday and Iowa St and Kansas, etc are taking a giant loss. You have the left behinds who will pull rank on Houston because they hate them, and Cinnci and UCF can be on their own island with WVU. Sounds like a great plan. But they are 12 schools again.

 

[BlueandOG]

Look like they get the B12 golden tickets. Big 12 expansion: League wants four teams with focus on BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, per report

Cincy kept investing in and building their football program, showed patience, made great hires and didn’t jump to a Catholic schoolgirls’ basketball conference to relive prom nights long since past. Doing things right matters. Sad. But hey, Let’s go whip some FCS butt this week and get all giddy.

If they thought we were a good fit, they would ask us now. This is more evidence that AD Dave did the right thing by moving to the NBE/Independence. If we were in the AAC still, we would be in G5 conference that is in a death spiral.