Commentary Thread for Premium Top-Shelf Tweets

[UConnNick]

If UL or Cincy was located in Storrs CT they'd be on the outside looking in as well. It's really not hard to figure out. You can't win an Oscar if you don't get nominated because your movie sucked.

So Storrs, CT is our entire problem? It doesn't matter at all that we can deliver what is effectively the nation's 20th largest media market with zero competition from any other schools or pro sports? It doesn't matter that we are sandwiched in between NYC and Boston? It doesn't matter that we are already prominently featured on a NYC cable TV sports channel?

If your premise is correct, let's just start shoveling dirt on the coffin and join the America East while they'll still have us.

 

[sportsart]

So Storrs, CT is our entire problem?

It is not our entire problem, but it certainly is our biggest.

If we were located in NJ, and our athletic program was the same, and Rutger's athletic program was the same, we'd be in the B1G right now.

When you add the newness of our program, limited FB fanbase and limited recruiting prospects, we are up against a pretty big wall.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

So Storrs, CT is our entire problem? It doesn't matter at all that we can deliver what is effectively the nation's 20th largest media market with zero competition from any other schools or pro sports? It doesn't matter that we are sandwiched in between NYC and Boston? It doesn't matter that we are already prominently featured on a NYC cable TV sports channels?

None of that matters when a network is not in play, like in the case of the Big 12.

If you could plop Storrs down somewhere within 500 miles of the Big 12's existing footprint, well then we'd be in business. Our distance is an obstacle no other expansion candidate would be able to overcome.

 

[Excalibur]

Sorry, but Cincy's former president was out in front of everybody many months ago cheerleading very publicly for his Bearcats, and as recently as a few weeks ago, his successor was tweeting their fanbase regarding their efforts. That's about as public a campaign as anybody has engaged in.

And all of the blame for the Louisville ascendancy to lofty P5 status has to go to Suzy and Warde Manuel. They're the ones who were in charge of whatever efforts were made by UConn at that time. The buck stops with them. It sure looks like they got snookered by Tom Jurich and the rest of the administration at Northern Kentucky Community College.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. What you think are the causes are not the causes.

 

[UConnNick]

It is not our entire problem, but it certainly is our biggest.

If we were located in NJ, and our athletic program was the same, and Rutger's athletic program was the same, we'd be in the B1G right now.

When you add the newness of our program, limited FB fanbase and limited recruiting prospects, we are up against a pretty big wall.

There's no question that the overall perception of our football program sucks. There's no denying it. But in a survey conducted a few years back, our total football fanbase was found to be roughly equivalent to BYU's. That's certainly not a major accomplishment but they're reputedly a current front runner for a B12 spot. As for limited recruiting options, yes, New England pretty much sucks as a region for DIA talent, but we do recruit most of the country, we've done reasonably well in the Mid-Atlantic and Florida markets, and we are currently operating with the disadvantage of being a G5 school. Change us to a P5 school with a 71 million athletic budget and see just how well we might be able to recruit the entire country.

 

[ASweet3781]

Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News confirms McMurphy's report about 17 schools.

But notice the key difference. McMurphy stressed 14 losing ground, 2 at the most, with the option to stay at 10. Carlton says 14 remains an option and that it is more $$$ and bigger footprint, 12 an option, zero far less likely.

2 reporters reporting the same thing. One who works for ESPN pushing them to do nothing or add only 2 while the Dallas Morning News guy saying 14 is still the more beneficial solution for the league with the option to do nothing not possible at this point.

 

[UConnNick]

None of that matters when a network is not in play, like in the case of the Big 12.

If you could plop Storrs down somewhere within 500 miles of the Big 12's existing footprint, well then we'd be in business. Our distance is an obstacle no other expansion candidate would be able to overcome.

The ACC added the Beagles, didn't they? The premise of the poster was that geography alone kept us out of the ACC, which is nonsense. As for the Big 12, they claim it's not being considered as a factor. You can choose to believe that or not, but they're supposedly high on BYU, which presents them with similar travel problems. In this day and age, how much further is it when you already have to travel to Morgantown, WV? An hour further plane flight and an hour further going back.

And just because the B12 doesn't currently have a league wide network doesn't necessarily mean they don't aspire to have one sometime in the future. They may be using conference expansion as a tool to eventually achieve that goal.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News confirms McMurphy's report about 17 schools.

But notice the key difference. McMurphy stressed 14 losing ground, 2 at the most, with the option to stay at 10. Carlton says 14 remains an option and that it is more $$$ and bigger footprint, 12 an option, zero far less likely.

2 reporters reporting the same thing. One who works for ESPN pushing them to do nothing or add only 2 while the Dallas Morning News guy saying 14 is still the more beneficial solution for the league with the option to do nothing not possible at this point.

It is quite interesting. Basically confirms what we already know: ESPN is trying to kill us.

 

[buddy]

The ship they were steering had already hit the iceberg. Saying that they sit back and did nothing is also ridiculous. That doesn't mean they could overcome the significant problems they inherited. But, whatever. Not my job to correct your ignorance.

UConn was apparently "penciled" in for the ACC at that time. They did not hit the iceberg until Louisville was announced. To go away on a vacation without getting a contract signed, in my ignorant opinion, is negligence. I hope that you can give me some concrete evidence that they did all that they could possibly do at that time. I frankly don't think so.

 

[don356]

17 schools?

There's just no way.

Either that's wrong or these guys aren't serious.

Where's UTEP?

 

[CL82]

If UL or Cincy was located in Storrs CT they'd be on the outside looking in as well. It's really not hard to figure out. You can't win an Oscar if you don't get nominated because your movie sucked.

So we suck?

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

UConn was apparently "penciled" in for the ACC at that time. They did not hit the iceberg until Louisville was announced. To go away on a vacation without getting a contract signed, in my ignorant opinion, is negligence. I hope that you can give me some concrete evidence that they did all that they could possibly do at that time. I frankly don't think so.

Based on what Jurich says. And, you know, if you can trust someone to give you an unbiased view of the job they did, it's definitely the guy who did the job.

Clemson and FSU never had us penciled in and did not want another basketball school after the additions of Pitt and Syracuse, period. They wanted a football school. Louisville was the closest thing to that. Maybe you know some magic combination of words which would convince the ACC that they've entered some sort of alternate dimension where we're a better football school than Louisville, in which case, you should definitely be an AD somewhere.

But it sounds a lot more like you're just someone who repeats things they hear on the Internet at face value and believes Jurich when he says he "out-maneuvered" us" when in reality he was just the AD of a better football school when the ACC needed a better football school.

 

[CTMike]

UConn was apparently "penciled" in for the ACC at that time. They did not hit the iceberg until Louisville was announced. To go away on a vacation without getting a contract signed, in my ignorant opinion, is negligence. I hope that you can give me some concrete evidence that they did all that they could possibly do at that time. I frankly don't think so.

- rehashing this is boring
-Louisville would have already been vetted and approved long before they were announced. It doesn't just suddenly happen while someone is "on vacation".
-Previous admin was more than complacent enough to f things up on their own.
-He wasn't "on vacation". Let me guess he was eating donuts too?
-I wasn't there, neither were you. Not going to give you "concrete evidence", just like you haven't given any "concrete evidence" that they were sitting on their rears.

 

[HuskyHawk]

So Storrs, CT is our entire problem? It doesn't matter at all that we can deliver what is effectively the nation's 20th largest media market with zero competition from any other schools or pro sports? It doesn't matter that we are sandwiched in between NYC and Boston? It doesn't matter that we are already prominently featured on a NYC cable TV sports channel?

If your premise is correct, let's just start shoveling dirt on the coffin and join the America East while they'll still have us.

You guys do realize that when people in Big 12 country think of New York, they don't really have positive associations with it? Purely from a media perspective, TV rights etc., our DMA and proximity to NY and Boston is a positive. As for perceptions of cultural fit? It's a huge negative. Add in the distance and it is certainly a mixed bag.

Cinci is helped by being in Ohio. It has lots of people, but they aren't seen as fancy rich folks eating caviar and drinking martinis, they wear jeans, baseball caps, drink beer and eat ribs. Memphis the same, although maybe too low class. Even the Florida schools probably fit well culturally. BYU is different because they are a bit too wholesome, but they love them some football and the girls are pretty. UConn isn't what it's perceived to be. It's very much a pizza, wings and beer place in the sticks, but they don't know that.

It's out biggest negative in my opinion. I think it affected the Louisville decision. You can say...but they took BC! Yeah, exactly, and FSU and Clemson knew they didn't want to repeat that. They wanted some good ole boys, and they sure got them.

 

[sportsart]

So we suck?

If you think about it, UConn is the actor in a movie (CT location being the movie) so basically CT sucks but UConn is a great actor.

 

[CL82]

- rehashing this is boring
-.
-He wasn't "on vacation". Let me guess he was eating donuts too?
-.

I believe that piña coladas were also involved.

 

[CL82]

If you think about it, UConn is the actor in a movie (CT location being the movie) so basically CT sucks but UConn is a great actor.

Incrementally better, but still...

 

[UConnNick]

You guys do realize that when people in Big 12 country think of New York, they don't really have positive associations with it? Purely from a media perspective, TV rights etc., our DMA and proximity to NY and Boston is a positive. As for perceptions of cultural fit? It's a huge negative. Add in the distance and it is certainly a mixed bag.

Cinci is helped by being in Ohio. It has lots of people, but they aren't seen as fancy rich folks eating caviar and drinking martinis, they wear jeans, baseball caps, drink beer and eat ribs. Memphis the same, although maybe too low class. Even the Florida schools probably fit well culturally. BYU is different because they are a bit too wholesome, but they love them some football and the girls are pretty. UConn isn't what it's perceived to be. It's very much a pizza, wings and beer place in the sticks, but they don't know that.

It's out biggest negative in my opinion. I think it affected the Louisville decision. You can say...but they took BC! Yeah, exactly, and FSU and Clemson knew they didn't want to repeat that. They wanted some good ole boys, and they sure got them.

If we were perceived by eight of ten B12 presidents as one of the most valuable additions, I'm sure cultural differences would be the least of their considerations by far. They already seem to favor BYU from most of the info out there, and they have significantly less in common with Mormon culture than they would with us.

We are a big flagship state university, which is already what the B12 largely consists of. There's no cultural problem. If they leave us out, it will be due to lousy football, not cultural differences.

 

[HuskyHawk]

If we were perceived by eight of ten B12 presidents as one of the most valuable additions, I'm sure cultural differences would be the least of their considerations by far. They already seem to favor BYU from most of the info out there, and they have significantly less in common with Mormon culture than they would with us.

We are a big flagship state university, which is already what the B12 largely consists of. There's no cultural problem. If they leave us out, it will be due to lousy football, not cultural differences.

I am not talking about the Presidents, who are likely the liberal elite and conform to the perceived northeast culture anyway.

I'm talking about fans and local media. They see UConn the way I see San Francisco 49er fans, as people who tie sweaters around their shoulders and eat marinated mushrooms at football games while sipping a chardonnay (and yes the people in front of me at my one 49er game in Candlestick did just that).

The reality of UConn is different and it's a closer fit than they realize.

 

[CTMike]

This is just a guess, but I think the B12 is trying to give the public impression that this is "open tryout" so that no one can say afterwards it wasn't rigged. (Some will)

 

[buddy]

Based on what Jurich says. And, you know, if you can trust someone to give you an unbiased view of the job they did, it's definitely the guy who did the job.

Clemson and FSU never had us penciled in and did not want another basketball school after the additions of Pitt and Syracuse, period. They wanted a football school. Louisville was the closest thing to that. Maybe you know some magic combination of words which would convince the ACC that they've entered some sort of alternate dimension where we're a better football school than Louisville, in which case, you should definitely be an AD somewhere.

But it sounds a lot more like you're just someone who repeats things they hear on the Internet at face value and believes Jurich when he says he "out-maneuvered" us" when in reality he was just the AD of a better football school when the ACC needed a better football school.

I only have news sources and internet to provide such info. I have never heard an explanation of what happened come out of UConn to this day. Many here seem to think that they know much more, but never without any documentation. I do believe that spot was set for UConn, given that UConn was previously desired until blocked by BC, giving Pitt UConn's spot earlier on. Most people here were shocked when it was announced that Louisville was chosen over UConn and I do give credit to Jurich for selling his school to the ACC. The only statement we received out of Warde was "I'm done with conference realignment."

 

[buddy]

- rehashing this is boring
-Louisville would have already been vetted and approved long before they were announced. It doesn't just suddenly happen while someone is "on vacation".
-Previous admin was more than complacent enough to f things up on their own.
-He wasn't "on vacation". Let me guess he was eating donuts too?
-I wasn't there, neither were you. Not going to give you "concrete evidence", just like you haven't given any "concrete evidence" that they were sitting on their rears.

Let's agree to disagree. I don't want to argue with you and as I like most of your posts. But I do believe that UConn was overconfident on that final round with the ACC.

 

[sportsart]

These pictures of the video conferencing has been leaked. Not sure which one is real.

Rumor has it this one took place at a FedEx office.

 

[BlueandOG]

I'm torn on this. I think UConn is doing this the right way. Sadly, I confess that our modern world is so polluted by graft and corruption at every turn, that maybe it is expected in this situation. I'll hold out hope that our leaders know what they are doing, I trust them. I also know that their approach is the proper one. I hope that it is also the effective one, but I'm less sure of that. If it again fails, I will lose a little more faith in our institutions and the quality of people running them...and there's not much left to lose.

I do not think we were outplayed by Louisville. Louisville was a better fit for the ACC at the time than we were. The football schools wanted a football school. We were not a football school. Plus, we had BC working against us. No amount of Willington pizza and 2 Roads would have helped. To imply that the president and AD aren't working their tails off to get us into the B12 is laughable. They know that getting us to a P5 conference is the best thing for their own paychecks. They are hustling. Coffee is for closers, and they want a pair of large regulars from Dunks.

 

[CTMike]

Let's agree to disagree. I don't want to argue with you and as I like most of your posts. But I do believe that UConn was overconfident on that final round with the ACC.

Agree on the overconfidence... Disagree who is to blame for that.

 

[CL82]

I do not think we were outplayed by Louisville. Louisville was a better fit for the ACC at the time than we were. The football schools wanted a football school. We were not a football school. Plus, we had BC working against us. No amount of Willington pizza and 2 Roads would have helped.

You are probably right. We should have gone right for the Frank Pepe's. Rookie mistake by two newcomers to the state.

 

[uc1974]

Don't be too hard on us who eat marinated mushrooms and drink Chardonnay. That was often on the menu for me as a UCFB season ticket holder before I primarily located to The Republic of the Union of Myannmar. Now it's more beer because of the weather and the fact that wine is relatively more expensive than other choices in this part of the world.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I do not think we were outplayed by Louisville. Louisville was a better fit for the ACC at the time than we were. The football schools wanted a football school. We were not a football school. Plus, we had BC working against us. No amount of Willington pizza and 2 Roads would have helped. To imply that the president and AD aren't working their tails off to get us into the B12 is laughable. They know that getting us to a P5 conference is the best thing for their own paychecks. They are hustling. Coffee is for closers, and they want a pair of large regulars from Dunks.

You've never heard me say otherwise and won't. I'm not talking about the decisions by presidents, I'm talking about why, when you see fan or local media polls who who they want, UConn is near the bottom. I do think the ACC made a mistake, but I understand why they took Louisville at the time they did. The Big 12 would make a similar mistake by not taking UConn now.

 

[Marty Jackson]

This pretty much says all you need to know about Big 12 expansion.

Either the decision makers are a bunch of idiots, or they're bluffing and trying to get ESPN/Fox to panic at some of the schools they're "talking with" and pay them more money.

The latter is much more likely.

But if they are bluffing, they're overselling it. 17 teams? Are you freakin kidding me? I couldn't name 17 possible candidates if I threw in literally every school we've heard:

UConn, Cincy, Memphis, UH, BYU, Tulane, UCF, USF, ECU, Temple, CSU, New Mexico, SMU...uhh....Navy? Air Force?? I'm still 2 short

Is it too obvious to think 10 are the existing schools?

 

[Stainmaster]

We still have people arguing that our lack of "Twitter cheerleading" is putting us at a disadvantage? You folks honestly believe that university presidents are looking at "Twitter cheerleading" as their main indicator of who they should select?

 

[Excalibur]

UConn was apparently "penciled" in for the ACC at that time. They did not hit the iceberg until Louisville was announced. To go away on a vacation without getting a contract signed, in my ignorant opinion, is negligence. I hope that you can give me some concrete evidence that they did all that they could possibly do at that time. I frankly don't think so.

This is a made up narrative. There was a knee-jerk assumption by some in the media, but we were never "penciled-in", regardless of the self-serving declaration by Louisville's AD.