Courant OpEd: UConn Men's Basketball Slide Bigger Than Sports

[huskymedic]

 

[WallStreetHusky]

A must read for the dolts who think the buyout for KO is prohibitive or want to give him one more year.

 

[8893]

There's five wasted minutes I'll never get back.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Maybe if they allows the student to have fun among other things it would be better off

 

[uconnphil2016]

There's an extent to which recent athletic success boosts a school, especially in applications, but only to a point. It's helpful when it's schools people haven't heard of (i.e. George Mason in the final four) gaining recognition and thus boosting applications, but it has minimal influence at this point--we already have name recognition. I don't think there's a strong correlation between athletic success and academic prestige...if so, wouldn't Alabama be a great school? Kentucky? Kansas? Wouldn't Rutgers going to the B1G come with a massive increase in their US News Rankings over the past several years? None of these things are the case.

Two of the top three public universities in the country have pretty pedestrian athletic departments--UVA and Cal Berkeley. University of Florida, who was once in our ballpark in US News rankings, is now the #9 public school in a time where their basketball and football programs are irrelevant compared to the Noah/Tebow years.

 

[Mano]

So who here wrote that?

 

[gwhuskyfan]

There's an extent to which recent athletic success boosts a school, especially in applications, but only to a point. It's helpful when it's schools people haven't heard of (i.e. George Mason in the final four) gaining recognition and thus boosting applications, but it has minimal influence at this point--we already have name recognition. I don't think there's a strong correlation between athletic success and academic prestige...if so, wouldn't Alabama be a great school? Kentucky? Kansas? Wouldn't Rutgers going to the B1G come with a massive increase in their US News Rankings over the past several years? None of these things are the case.

Two of the top three public universities in the country have pretty pedestrian athletic departments--UVA and Cal Berkeley. University of Florida, who was once in our ballpark in US News rankings, is now the #9 public school in a time where their basketball and football programs are irrelevant compared to the Noah/Tebow years.

Also with UConn basketball not seeing the success it has the past few years -- the university has seen record number of applications, and university says they've had the most geographically diverse class as well. Agree with to a point helping a school get a short term boost, athletics plays a role, but think UConn has already hit that level of recognition, and don't think lack of success of the BB team have much impact on applications

 

[uconnphil2016]

Also with UConn basketball not seeing the success it has the past few years -- the university has seen record number of applications, and university says they've had the most geographically diverse class as well. Agree with to a point helping a school get a short term boost, athletics plays a role, but think UConn has already hit that level of recognition, and don't think lack of success of the BB team have much impact on applications

Exactly lol, the data totally contradicts his point. He points towards willingness of the legislature to finance UConn's expansion, but that has much less to do with caring about basketball and much more to do with the state's respective health in the 1990s and in 2018.

 

[CTBballfan243]

A must read for the dolts who think the buyout for KO is prohibitive or want to give him one more year.

I guess us "dolts" didn't realize that we are all required to have the same opinion on KO as you.

 

[jibsey]

The university will continue to be desirable because private schools are charging $65,000 per year and as the flagship there is status, regardless of the sports programs. BTW, the mens basketball will be back from the wilderness, just not very soon IMO.

 

[huskyrob1]

I guess us "dolts" didn't realize that we are all required to have the same opinion on KO as you.

Fire him tomorrow!!!!

 

[huskiesNhoos]

Two of the top three public universities in the country have pretty pedestrian athletic departments--UVA and Cal Berkeley. University of Florida, who was once in our ballpark in US News rankings, is now the #9 public school in a time where their basketball and football programs are irrelevant compared to the Noah/Tebow years.

#2 UVA basketball says hi

also, this...UVA athletics make a lot of money

 

[CTBballfan243]

Fire him tomorrow!!!!

I’d give him another season.

 

[whaler11]

I can’t believe I spent 3 years of my life getting up at 5AM to deliver the Courant.

The rate these papers are going it will
be startling if any of them survive 5-10
years.

 

[8893]

I can’t believe I spent 3 years of my life getting up at 5AM to deliver the Courant.

The rate these papers are going it will
be startling if any of them survive 5-10
years.

It went from far and away the best CT paper to the worst. And that’s saying something because the bar is pretty low right now.

 

[whaler11]

It went from far and away the best CT paper to the worst. And that’s saying something because the bar is pretty low right now.

I wasn’t even going to read it based off your post. Then it was 5-3 at the half and I figured wow nothing could be worse than this.

I. Was. Wrong.

 

[uconnphil2016]

#2 UVA basketball says hi

also, this...UVA athletics make a lot of money

You're right, but UVA does not have the athletic cache of other basketball powers...haven't won and the success is recent

 

[Edward Sargent]

Gee why doesn't this story mention our powerhouse football team?

 

[Jaker]

I am sure Ollie can turn this thing around.

 

[Huskybass]

I’d give him another season.

Do you enjoy frequent blowouts?

 

[huskyrob1]

I am sure Ollie can turn this thing around.

If you mean turning around his shot off the ninth tee into the 1st fairway, yes absolutely.

 

[champs99and04]

There's an extent to which recent athletic success boosts a school, especially in applications, but only to a point. It's helpful when it's schools people haven't heard of (i.e. George Mason in the final four) gaining recognition and thus boosting applications, but it has minimal influence at this point--we already have name recognition. I don't think there's a strong correlation between athletic success and academic prestige...if so, wouldn't Alabama be a great school? Kentucky? Kansas? Wouldn't Rutgers going to the B1G come with a massive increase in their US News Rankings over the past several years? None of these things are the case.

Two of the top three public universities in the country have pretty pedestrian athletic departments--UVA and Cal Berkeley. University of Florida, who was once in our ballpark in US News rankings, is now the #9 public school in a time where their basketball and football programs are irrelevant compared to the Noah/Tebow years.

There is going to be a lag effect when it comes to athletic success and its impact on applications and academic prestige. I think some of your examples actually prove that point rather than the one you were making. You're right that after a certain point, a great program is going to stay a great program, but I think when a once in a generation athlete like Tebow comes to your school for four years, it has a lasting effect. Even simple things like uniforms/school colors have a massive effect on branding and maximizing the eyeballs on your school.

Where UConn is different from Florida is conference stability, geography, revenue, etc. When that stuff goes AND the product is bad, that's when you can lose something that you spent a quarter century building. As another poster mentioned, UVA and Cal are big time brands that jump off the screen. UConn isn't and as it turned out, that logo change could end up really hurting their ability to retain the visuals and nostalgia people have of the school in general. So it's obviously not a perfect correlation, but what these things ultimately boil down to is what people think of when they hear your name or see your colors. For a long time it was basketball for UConn, and that improved their reach with students. For other schools it is academics and it became self-perpetuating. There appears to be some question as to how much the current president understands this dynamic and even in 2011 and 2014 I'm not sure the school was as "hot" as it had been previous to that. Perhaps UConn's academic reputation right now is such that it can withstand the hit, but I don't get the impression that's the case. Damn good school, really good school, maybe not one that stands out comparatively.

 

[champs99and04]

I can’t believe I spent 3 years of my life getting up at 5AM to deliver the Courant.

The rate these papers are going it will
be startling if any of them survive 5-10
years.

This part was...yikes. Middle school science fair type research being put in.

3.) Student pride and alumni donations

Attend a game or watch one on television, and you'll see that the student section isn't packed like it used to be. Who could blame them? Top opponents would ostensibly be the biggest draws, but the team has gone 2-17 the past four seasons against top-25 ranked teams.

A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found a correlation between athletic success and alumni donations.

 

[BlueDogs]

There's an extent to which recent athletic success boosts a school, especially in applications, but only to a point. It's helpful when it's schools people haven't heard of (i.e. George Mason in the final four) gaining recognition and thus boosting applications, but it has minimal influence at this point--we already have name recognition. I don't think there's a strong correlation between athletic success and academic prestige...if so, wouldn't Alabama be a great school? Kentucky? Kansas? Wouldn't Rutgers going to the B1G come with a massive increase in their US News Rankings over the past several years? None of these things are the case.

Two of the top three public universities in the country have pretty pedestrian athletic departments--UVA and Cal Berkeley. University of Florida, who was once in our ballpark in US News rankings, is now the #9 public school in a time where their basketball and football programs are irrelevant compared to the Noah/Tebow years.

Florida is a huge state and the comparisons are not relevant. For a New England public university, it's incredibly valuable. That's why advertisers spend millions for 60 seconds to sell their products on national TV.

 

[whaler11]

This part was...yikes. Middle school science fair type research being put in.

3.) Student pride and alumni donations

Attend a game or watch one on television, and you'll see that the student section isn't packed like it used to be. Who could blame them? Top opponents would ostensibly be the biggest draws, but the team has gone 2-17 the past four seasons against top-25 ranked teams.

A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found a correlation between athletic success and alumni donations.

Point 1 is actually the worst.

When they switched to the application that can be submitted to many more schools everyone’s applications went up.

Also public school applications have gone up because they remain relative ‘bargains’.

Or... your student profile improves because of basketball by admitting students that don’t care about basketball. That makes sense.

You can tell how much the student body loves sports by the fact zero attend games.