Conference Thought Experiment

[Guapo]

I’m just trying to get a gauge on those of you who don’t want to drop football;

If the ACC or Big 10 offered partial membership for all sports IF we dropped football would you drop football?

Basically what I’m asking is; are you advocating keeping football because you think it’s important for the school to play football or are you advocating keeping football because you think it’s the key to getting the athletic department into a better conference?

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Would you rather poop your pants at the office everyday for a month or be constipated for a month?

That’s how you play this game right?

 

[polycom]

If acc & big 10 came calling we are doing whatever we are told, no questions asked.

 

[chalk1]

The reality here is without football you are not going anywhere upward.

 

[Guapo]

Would you rather poop your pants at the office everyday for a month or be constipated for a month?

That’s how you play this game right?

To be fair, the effects of watching Big 10 sports can feel very similar to constipation.

 

[Guapo]

The reality here is without football you are not going anywhere upward.

Maybe they are the exception, but Nova faced a choice between big time football and no big time football. It seems that, at the moment, things have worked out well for them.

Unfortuantly, I think the NBE and the AAC are ultimately headed for the same fate. But, I’d rather die with friends than some jokers from Tulsa or Tampa.

 

[Nebraskan18]

I'd die of happiness if we joined the B1G

 

[goskis2018]

If our basketball is in the ACC or the Big 10 I drop football in a second.

 

[Towney007]

Maybe they are the exception, but Nova faced a choice between big time football and no big time football. It seems that, at the moment, things have worked out well for them.

Unfortuantly, I think the NBE and the AAC are ultimately headed for the same fate. But, I’d rather die with friends than some jokers from Tulsa or Tampa.

I don't know that they are, really - more specifically to basketball.

In football, the AAC is just a reanimated corpse made up of body parts from the last batch of schools who got killed by realignment. No one wants to be in this conference except maybe Tulsa, Tulane and East Carolina. Everyone's #1 goal is to get out of it. I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see them go full blown island of misfit toys - bring in BYU, Boise St and everyone else who needs an island and shutting out the dregs of the conference. Whatever the American is now, it won't be for much longer.

The Big East just has zero external forces ripping it up and frankly without football, they're going to be the last group of semi-valuable brands that get poached.

The other dynamic is, too - that the NCAA tournament is really the money maker and 80% of its brand value depends on cinderella and the anticipation of upsets. Much more so than football.

 

[BuckleyNerd]

I am not even an AAC apologist/sycophant, but why doesn't anyone appreciate the fact that a conference is essentially a brand, and ours is still a very new brand. Brands need time to grow, and constantly crapping all over the brand and writing off the product just leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's just ironic to me how we are all "all-in" on our basketball rebuild but when it comes to building up a conference, and by extension our school, some people want nothing to do with it.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I’m just trying to get a gauge on those of you who don’t want to drop football;

If the ACC or Big 10 offered partial membership for all sports IF we dropped football would you drop football?

Basically what I’m asking is; are you advocating keeping football because you think it’s important for the school to play football or are you advocating keeping football because you think it’s the key to getting the athletic department into a better conference?

Why would they want us to drop it? If they offered all sports but football, we'd just take football independent. Yes, I'd take that deal in a heartbeat. Hopefully they'd help us by playing a few games against us each year as well. It's the same deal Notre Dame has more or less.

 

[SubInATub]

Order of priority. End thread.

1. ACC
2. Any P5 Conference
3. ACC/B1G with no football
4. Big East (I don't care what you do with football just get me out of the AAC deathbed)
5. AAC and hold on to the P6 dream!!

 

[FartMan69]

I'd die of happiness if we joined the B1G

For a B1G invite would you live with poop in your pants 24/7?

 

[JMick]

Why would they want us to drop it? If they offered all sports but football, we'd just take football independent. Yes, I'd take that deal in a heartbeat. Hopefully they'd help us by playing a few games against us each year as well. It's the same deal Notre Dame has more or less.

A scheduling alliance is the only way to make independence works. We would need a couple guaranteed games every year, and probably from multiple conferences

 

[Guapo]

I am not even an AAC apologist/sycophant, but why doesn't anyone appreciate the fact that a conference is essentially a brand, and ours is still a very new brand. Brands need time to grow, and constantly crapping all over the brand and writing off the product just leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's just ironic to me how we are all "all-in" on our basketball rebuild but when it comes to building up a conference, and by extension our school, some people want nothing to do with it.

Because the AAC brand has had a clear and detrimental impact on the UConn brand.

 

[Travelman6]

Order of priority. End thread.

1. ACC
2. Any P5 Conference
3. ACC/B1G with no football
4. Big East (I don't care what you do with football just get me out of the AAC deathbed)
5. AAC and hold on to the P6 dream!!

IMHO, ACC is 1, B10 is 2, any other P5 conference is 3, but that is maybe only B12, if that, because the P12 or SEC is not realistic at all (P12 isn't very appealing either) so #3 might as well be B12, but some people have been saying they have doubts about it long term.

 

[HanDurley]

If our basketball is in the ACC or the Big 10 I drop football in a second.

So would our win totals

 

[gtcam]

Like you Guapo but no P5 is going to take any new programs without football - these conferences are based on football - every other sport including MBB are a distant second - way distant second
Only the NBE and maybe the AAC (not even sure of this one) are MBB 1st conferences.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

For a B1G invite would you live with poop in your pants 24/7?

"Depends"?

 

[superjohn]

I am not even an AAC apologist/sycophant, but why doesn't anyone appreciate the fact that a conference is essentially a brand, and ours is still a very new brand. Brands need time to grow, and constantly crapping all over the brand and writing off the product just leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's just ironic to me how we are all "all-in" on our basketball rebuild but when it comes to building up a conference, and by extension our school, some people want nothing to do with it.

I don't know all the ins and outs of any of this but it seems as if the commissioner of our league just negotiated a TV deal with SMU, Houston, and Tulane with seats at the table and no UConn. These schools which are not used to making any money off of sports and never winning anything are all smiles along with Aresco while UConn is just supposed to eat a big plate of s^^t as we lose our SNY deal which costs us $$ and more importantly exposure to the NYC metro area hurting our recruiting. Also hurting our fans and prospective fans.

The commissioner and league at large clearly doesn't have our best interests and this situation is untenable.

 

[Towney007]

There’s no brand to be built in a conference made up of people who don’t want to be in it. To most - the point of the conference’s existence is to eliminate the need for the conference to exist.

 

[Guapo]

Like you Guapo but no P5 is going to take any new programs without football - these conferences are based on football - every other sport including MBB are a distant second - way distant second
Only the NBE and maybe the AAC (not even sure of this one) are MBB 1st conferences.

Lol that wasn’t the point of the thread! It was to try and measure if those wanting to keep football were doing so in order to help the AD overall or if they were simply football fans

 

[BuckleyNerd]

I don't know all the ins and outs of any of this but it seems as if the commissioner of our league just negotiated a TV deal with SMU, Houston, and Tulane with seats at the table and no UConn. These schools which are not used to making any money off of sports and never winning anything are all smiles along with Aresco while UConn is just supposed to eat a big plate of s^^t as we lose our SNY deal which costs us $$ and more importantly exposure to the NYC metro area hurting our recruiting. Also hurting our fans and prospective fans.

The commissioner and league at large clearly doesn't have our best interests and this situation is untenable.

It's a good point, and don't get me wrong the ESPN+ ordeal and the boxing out on negotiations totally ticks me off. Maybe it's because I'm likely on the younger side on this forum, but I'm just looking at Uconn and the AAC from a very long-term perspective. Like, on the scale of decades, not years. Just evaluating demographics, growth markets, things like that, there is still reason for optimism when you just increase the timescale.

 

[uconnell]

I am a fan of UConns 3 major sports ....fb,mbb,and wbb although I h e been to a hockey game on campus. I root for them all. I have been to their games although only a season ticket holder for fb. I’m happy when we win no matter the sport. I don’t want to drop football and/or go the Catholic 7.

 

[crewbear742]

The marginal value a school would have to bring to be included in the B1G is so high, only a few schools qualify as both viable candidates and possible options. Those schools are in the Big12.