Conf USA in Talks with UConn, Liberty, NMSU

[Yup!]

“The AAU thing is more important than anybody thinks. The Big 10s TV deal ends in 2023. UConns football TV deal ends in 2023. The Big 10 payout will easily offset the Big East buyout and more. next 2 years are statement years for UConn, both basketball and football. Win and in.”

This is a comment to the tweet by a guy named Nate and I agree 1000% we may not get the invite, but we should at least align ourselves for the opportunity.

 

[Griggs]

It appears that you may not realize that you are reinforcing his point.

I remember being at a men's hoops game at the civic center (I believe early January 1985) when we had just gotten our backsides handed to us at Georgetown (lost by ~ 45 points), listening to other fans tell me that Perno wasn't the problem, that no coach could win here against schools like Georgetown, St John's, Syracuse, Nova, BC, how we needed to accept that playing at level similar to the Yankee conference, with the other New England schools was where we belonged and that we were lucky to have someone who was as important to the school's history as Perno coaching the team.

Those people thought I was wrong when I said that the right coach could have us competing with the better schools in the conference and accomplishing close to what they could accomplish. The truth is I was wrong. After bringing in the right coach we were able to accomplish far more than the better schools in the conference could dream of.

I don't know if the right coach in football can have us doing what Fickell (after a succession of good hires) has Cincinnati doing but I am very confident that we can find a coach who can take us further than RE v1.0 took us.

Can't compare football and basketball together. 2 or 3 basketball players can change a program. For football you need a lot more.

 

[Alum86]

AD Dave is kind of a shadowy dude. We need him to pounce and tell CUSA to go pound sand.

 

[Woof 101]

@coachcap What you got against dairy schools?

That said, I'm on the fence. No, but if not us, could they invite UMass?

No attack just my opinion, let them, good for UMass!

I love it when people talk about their sports teams in the terms of we - Really?
And what field position or management position do these folks have on the team

People use the term we when they have been life long fans, supporters, season ticket holders or alumni of a team.
More commonly known as the 12th man.
The 12th man or 12th player is a collective term for fans of sports teams in many eleven-a-side games, in particular association football or American football. ... Namely, the home team fans would vocally support and urge on their team to win the game.
I hope this helps.

Tommy miss the hang in section 241,but man i’m drained from all these beat downs it’s so old

Problem is the horizon is 3 galaxies away

With all the stress and anxiety you express on this forum maybe you should take a break from UConn sports. No MD but as a fellow fan worried about your mental health.

 

[Jimdish255]

Can't compare football and basketball together. 2 or 3 basketball players can change a program. For football you need a lot more.

Except for the fact that Perno had good players but the team would get worse instead of better.

 

[Uconnalliance]

@coachcap What you got against dairy schools?

No attack just my opinion, let them, good for UMass!

People use the term we when they have been life long fans, supporters, season ticket holders or alumni of a team.
More commonly known as the 12th man.
The 12th man or 12th player is a collective term for fans of sports teams in many eleven-a-side games, in particular association football or American football. ... Namely, the home team fans would vocally support and urge on their team to win the game.
I hope this helps.


With all the stress and anxiety you express on this forum maybe you should take a break from UConn sports. No MD but as a fellow fan worried about your mental health.

Good idea you just made up my mind .. enjoy your winless future lol

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Can't compare football and basketball together. 2 or 3 basketball players can change a program. For football you need a lot more.

I don't believe that anyone who wants to see improvement in the football program thinks that adding one or two top players will have us competing with Georgia and Alabama by their sophomore seasons. I may well be wrong but I don't believe that we cannot bring in a head coach capable of being better than RE was during his first run here. I heard all of the excuses before (players will always pick a private school over UConn, they will always pick a city campus over Storrs, we can never compete in the Big East because of these disadvantages). The thing about excuses is, once you start believing that you cannot succeed it becomes the truth. One thing I will never understand is why people within our (collective) fan base seem to get offended when the idea of success in football arises. Please explain this to me.

 

[Eastwood]

There is a very strong chance UConn will get a P5 or P4 invite. It might even come this decade. FB just has to rebound to top 30 status and Mens BB has to return to Final 4 greatness. I think both can happen. UConn might even be able to get AAU membership once the research volume increases significantly.

Crazy talk.

 

[HuskyDogArt]

So then why keep a FB program at this point? So that we can keep paying for a stadium NO ONE and i mean NO ONE outside of like 50 boneyarders will go to for games? Fold this so we can focus on Bball. Football is an epic joke now.

Fold the program, HELL NO!!! I don't think DB went to CUSA and ask to join, I think CUSA came to him. They lost the schools that is any good, so they want to find someone desperate enough to join them.

We might be a joke, but in 2 years, WITH THE RIGHT COACH, we will be in the top 50 and 4 years..Top 25...

 

[John]

Good idea you just made up my mind .. enjoy your winless future lol

BTW what university do you root for?

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Except for the fact that Perno had good players but the team would get worse instead of better.

I’d disagree strongly with that, when Perno recruited Corny, Mike McKay, and Bruce Kuzencski. Year before Corny’s freshman year, UConn was 11-15, they were really bad. When Corny and McKay came on board the next year Uconn went 20-8, made the NCAA tournament losing a very close and winnable game to 10th ranked Syracuse in the first round. IIRC Corny’s last two years Uconn joined the Big East and finished 4th and 5th in one of the top basketball conferences in the nation. After Corny, McKay, and Kuzencski graduated they unfortunately reverted to their losing ways. Corny’s junior year Uconn added Norman Bailey to the team, which gave Perno even more options, at least until Bailey unfortunately flunked out. Perno wasn’t the best game coach or teaching coach, but he could recruit good local kids with Toner’s help, what’s really unfortunate is Calhoun never got the chance to coach these kids. What might have been.

 

[Bubba1957]

I’d disagree strongly with that, when Perno recruited Corny, Mike McKay, and Bruce Kuzencski. Year before Corny’s freshman year, UConn was 11-15, they were really bad. When Corny and McKay came on board the next year Uconn went 20-8, made the NCAA tournament losing a very close and winnable game to 10th ranked Syracuse in the first round. IIRC Corny’s last two years Uconn joined the Big East and finished 4th and 5th in one of the top basketball conferences in the nation. After Corny, McKay, and Kuzencski graduated they unfortunately reverted to their losing ways. Corny’s junior year Uconn added Norman Bailey to the team, which gave Perno even more options, at least until Bailey unfortunately flunked out.

Thank you for posting this. Brings back a lot of great memories. It was right around the time of Bobby Dulan, Carl Hobbs and Vern Giscome too. All good players. I have distinct memories of Kuzencski going up against Pat Ewing on a Saturday noon game in Hartford. He played him tough and could get shot off but couldn't get it to drop that day.

 

[coachcap]

It seems that in Every generation, there are factions within the fanbase who want to push their own agenda & not look at the athletic department as a whole. When I was an undergrad in the '70s, & Joe Marrone had the men's soccer team on the upswing toward their 1st National Championship in the '80s, UConn hosted then national soccer power St. Louis U. Billekins at Memorial Stadium. UConn football was mediocre then & the soccer first horde called for abolition of football & turning over Memorial to the Soccer teams permanently.
When UConn made the decision to move up to 1-A football, & the RENT was being built, again the soccer first crowd was decrying building facilities for football & ignoring infrastructure for soccer & other sports.
Fast forward to today: The University has built an improved Marrone Stadium, Men's & Women's basketball practice facilities, a baseball stadium, softball park, & in process on the new hockey facility. And STILL, there are factions that want to demote the football team to FCS or abolish it entirely. Why? Because, it their Utopian minds the record of UConn Football tarnishes the credibility of the Athletic Department in terms of winning championships. It this philosophy is to be embraced, then we might as well close the athletic department. Hockey mired in ,500 seasons? Can it! Basketball doesn't qualify for post-season play? The horror, & you gotta go! Soccer season less than spectacular? Bye-Bye!
My point is, that after the unparalleled success during the FHCRE-I era that culminated with the trip to the Fiesta Bowl, UConn football fell down the rabbit hole due to A.D. mismanagement. I trust A.D. Dave to right the ship with this next coaching hire. The naysayers & their agendas be damned!

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Thank you for posting this. Brings back a lot of great memories. It was right around the time of Bobby Dulan, Carl Hobbs and Vern Giscome too. All good players. I have distinct memories of Kuzencski going up against Pat Ewing on a Saturday noon game in Hartford. He played him tough and could get shot off but couldn't get it to drop that day.

UConn split with Georgetown in Kuzencski’s sophomore year. Both games were close, decided by 1 or 2 points IIRC.

 

[noeynox]

It seems that in Every generation, there are factions within the fanbase who want to push their own agenda & not look at the athletic department as a whole. When I was an undergrad in the '70s, & Joe Marrone had the men's soccer team on the upswing toward their 1st National Championship in the '80s, UConn hosted then national soccer power St. Louis U. Billekins at Memorial Stadium. UConn football was mediocre then & the soccer first horde called for abolition of football & turning over Memorial to the Soccer teams permanently.
When UConn made the decision to move up to 1-A football, & the RENT was being built, again the soccer first crowd was decrying building facilities for football & ignoring infrastructure for soccer & other sports.
Fast forward to today: The University has built an improved Marrone Stadium, Men's & Women's basketball practice facilities, a baseball stadium, softball park, & in process on the new hockey facility. And STILL, there are factions that want to demote the football team to FCS or abolish it entirely. Why? Because, it their Utopian minds the record of UConn Football tarnishes the credibility of the Athletic Department in terms of winning championships. It this philosophy is to be embraced, then we might as well close the athletic department. Hockey mired in ,500 seasons? Can it! Basketball doesn't qualify for post-season play? The horror, & you gotta go! Soccer season less than spectacular? Bye-Bye!
My point is, that after the unparalleled success during the FHCRE-I era that culminated with the trip to the Fiesta Bowl, UConn football fell down the rabbit hole due to A.D. mismanagement. I trust A.D. Dave to right the ship with this next coaching hire. The naysayers & their agendas be damned!

I wanted to like this post, but I don't trust AD Dave until he proves us wrong. This entire university has to show that they can make good decisions when it comes to football. The only one that qualifies so far was going independent and locking in the CBS sports deal, but we all know that was more a byproduct of getting BB into the Big East. This next hire is everything.

 

[itgoeslike]

What appears to have prompted this exploration is the potential of 2 of the remaining independents coming off the board. In addition, the behind the scenes discussions of P5 conferences potentially limiting their schedule to other P5 conferences may be a contributing factor. The AD has done a good job to date building an independent schedule, but he needs to ensure he can get to 12 games after 2026. CUSA is a distressed property and there may be an opportunity to craft access to some of those teams (limited conference schedule) to build future schedules and have access to post season opportunities (like Notre Dame worked out with ACC). Not saying this is going to happen (I hope it doesn’t), but it does require at least a look at what could be pieced together on UConn’s terms. Ultimately, I think I would prefer to have CUSA implode and have additional teams added to the independent pool that could help round out a 12 game schedule in the future.

 

[huskymedic]

UMass Bamford looking for a conference that will take UMass as a football only member and has reached out to CUSA recently:

 

[RSTuthill]

UMass Bamford looking for a conference that will take UMass as a football only member and has reached out to CUSA recently:

Sure, bound to happen. That will not stop them from playing UConn even if they were invited and accepted.

 

[ZooCougar]

Can we please have a moderator change the title of the thread to: “UConn not in talks to join CUSA”.

 

[ZooCougar]

It seems that in Every generation, there are factions within the fanbase who want to push their own agenda & not look at the athletic department as a whole. When I was an undergrad in the '70s, & Joe Marrone had the men's soccer team on the upswing toward their 1st National Championship in the '80s, UConn hosted then national soccer power St. Louis U. Billekins at Memorial Stadium. UConn football was mediocre then & the soccer first horde called for abolition of football & turning over Memorial to the Soccer teams permanently.
When UConn made the decision to move up to 1-A football, & the RENT was being built, again the soccer first crowd was decrying building facilities for football & ignoring infrastructure for soccer & other sports.
Fast forward to today: The University has built an improved Marrone Stadium, Men's & Women's basketball practice facilities, a baseball stadium, softball park, & in process on the new hockey facility. And STILL, there are factions that want to demote the football team to FCS or abolish it entirely. Why? Because, it their Utopian minds the record of UConn Football tarnishes the credibility of the Athletic Department in terms of winning championships. It this philosophy is to be embraced, then we might as well close the athletic department. Hockey mired in ,500 seasons? Can it! Basketball doesn't qualify for post-season play? The horror, & you gotta go! Soccer season less than spectacular? Bye-Bye!
My point is, that after the unparalleled success during the FHCRE-I era that culminated with the trip to the Fiesta Bowl, UConn football fell down the rabbit hole due to A.D. mismanagement. I trust A.D. Dave to right the ship with this next coaching hire. The naysayers & their agendas be damned!

As a big soccer fan. College Men’s Soccer is for the birds. It’s a dead end of the sport and not fun to watch. It shouldn’t even be considered soccer because the clock counts in the wrong direction and the ridiculous amount of subs.

Any money spent on Soccer is charity. It will do nothing for UConn.

UConn got a huge boost in applications when it moved to FBS. People actually care about crap like that, even if it is irrational.

 

[Waquoit]

I’d disagree strongly with that, when Perno recruited Corny, Mike McKay, and Bruce Kuzencski....After Corny, McKay, and Kuzencski graduated they unfortunately reverted to their losing ways.

With Perno at the helm, they reverted to their losing ways before those guys left the team. That team gave the Georgetown team that lost to Jordan in the Finals their biggest loss of the season. Yet, they ended up losing 7 out of their last 8 games. They should of made the Dance. A real AD cuts Perno loose after that disaster.

 

[Zissou]

C-USA isn’t very attractive, but I’m stretching here to make the best look for a fit and a viable conf.

west- UTEP, New Mex State (add), LA Tech, MITSU, W Kentucky, FIU. (all full members in the west)

east- (all new members in the east). Delaware (full), liberty (full), Army (football only), UConn (football only), UMass (football only), Nova (football only)

That’s 8 full members, meeting ncaa FBS rules.

East only meets West in the title game, so no crazy footprint or schedule for the east teams.

Only 5 conference games, so a nice compromise to schedule like a hybrid independent.

The conf membership allows for bowl alignments and CFP money. When CFP goes to 12, members have a path to CFP.

 

[HuskiesFan1014]

C-USA isn’t very attractive, but I’m stretching here to make the best look for a fit and a viable conf.

west- UTEP, New Mex State (add), LA Tech, MITSU, W Kentucky, FIU. (all full members in the west)

east- (all new members in the east). Delaware (full), liberty (full), Army (football only), UConn (football only), UMass (football only), Nova (football only)

That’s 8 full members, meeting ncaa FBS rules.

East only meets West in the title game, so no crazy footprint or schedule for the east teams.

Only 5 conference games, so a nice compromise to schedule like a hybrid independent.

The conf membership allows for bowl alignments and CFP money. When CFP goes to 12, members have a path to CFP.

You can put a tuxedo on a pig, but it's still a pig.
No thanks. Still not okay.

 

[metsfan2323]

C-USA isn’t very attractive, but I’m stretching here to make the best look for a fit and a viable conf.

west- UTEP, New Mex State (add), LA Tech, MITSU, W Kentucky, FIU. (all full members in the west)

east- (all new members in the east). Delaware (full), liberty (full), Army (football only), UConn (football only), UMass (football only), Nova (football only)

That’s 8 full members, meeting ncaa FBS rules.

East only meets West in the title game, so no crazy footprint or schedule for the east teams.

Only 5 conference games, so a nice compromise to schedule like a hybrid independent.

The conf membership allows for bowl alignments and CFP money. When CFP goes to 12, members have a path to CFP.

I would actually sign up for that even at 7 conference games. Independence stinks, this board just hasn't figured it out yet.

You keep talking about Villanova like they are FBS, is this something they are on record as considering in the near future or are you dreaming?

 

[Rumrunner]

It's been said a million times by a million other people, but if UConn left the AAC for football to end up in a weakened CUSA, then just pull the plug and beg the Patriot League or CAA for membership.