DePaul and the Big East

[The Yakk]

I think they need to be gone, they would struggle in the better mid-major leagues. I doubt there is a mechanism to kick them out, though. So just as schools and leagues negotiate to get out of leagues they don’t want to be in, the league ought to go to them with a plan to go away. DePaul is comparable to a bunch of the Mid-majors in the sense that at one time they were somebody. LaSalle won a championship and went to a couple of championship games, Dayton, San Francisco, Bradley, Providence, St John’s. Schools that at one time were national names but now have no intention of ever winning it all. They are thrilled to make the dance. Ecstatic if they win a game. I’d put DePaul in that category. There was a time but it is long past and they neither can nor want to return to those days.

During what time period was Providence a "national name"? They did have a couple final four appearances that came out of nowhere, and those were great teams. But so did dozens of other schools over the years.

 

[dennismenace]

They should just hire Will Wade. The guy can coach.

Ex-Bears QB Bill Wade passes away

Bill Wade, the starting quarterback on the Bears' 1963 NFL championship team, passed away Wednesday night at the age of 85.

www.chicagobears.com

 

[freescooter]

During what time period was Providence a "national name"? They did have a couple final four appearances that came out of nowhere, and those were great teams. But so did dozens of other schools over the years.

I just included Providence to tick of the PC guys who post here. Though arguably in the late 1950s-60s. They won the NIT when it was the more prestigious of the post season tournaments. Teams would turn down the NCAA to play in the NIT back in the day. So the did have status back then. Not as much as La Salle or St John’s but more than today.

 

[huskyinfl]

They’ve been in the Big East for two decades - they’ve have one winning season in-conference and that was in year two. They’ve won three or fewer conference games 11 times. They’re the worst power conference program and whoever is next-worst is several orbits above them.

Anyway, you were saying?

Are you insinuating that the Chicago market has no value? I did not see where you cited specific help given to them. Given our rise - I believe in other programs dreams to grow and achieve the impossible. Nothing has been as magical to experience as a fan than our run from the 80's to now.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Right! In fact they get OVERRATED in all the NET/RPI stuff because they play a major schedule and strength of schedule pushes thier ratings up. So in a sense he is correct. The NEWBIE does help them get better! Not on the court but in the computational models. In reality they are maybe a MAAC level program. No business being even considered a major program.

They're like the @freescooter of the Big East.

 

[Fishy]

Are you insinuating that the Chicago market has no value? I did not see where you cited specific help given to them. Given our rise - I believe in other programs dreams to grow and achieve the impossible. Nothing has been as magical to experience as a fan than our run from the 80's to now.

DePaul has no value.

The rest of your post is babble.

 

[87Xfer]

DePaul has no value.

The rest of your post is babble.

Can't really argue with this.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

That trend is slowing. There will be a bottom baseline. People watch sports. The people that watch sports generally have cable.

It is only slowing because so many people have cut the cord already so the universe of people available to cut the cord is shrinking.

The only way cable truly stops the bleeding is to unbundle and make it a la carte, which would be catastrophic to ESPN, at a level where they would be selling office furniture from their Bristol facility in a yard sale. ESPN's total cave in the ESPN/Spectrum showdown in the fall shows how terrified ESPN is of cable getting unbundled. ESPN knows it can die slowly with people cutting the cord, or die quickly with cable unbundling. Think of the BTN as a mini ESPN that is a lot easier to unbundle than ESPN is.

On the content side, ESPN's survival is dependent on the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, along with most college conferences, not going direct to consumer themselves. Who wants to make that bet?

ESPN's very existence is the result of the weird revenue model that came from cable bundling, and ESPN making a few smart deals early in the cable era. That revenue model is approaching its end, and the next act for ESPN is to become a production company, which will generate a lot less revenue at a lot lower margin for ESPN's owners.

If the ESPN fanboys were right, and ESPN had a glorious future ahead of it, there would have been a stampede to Disney's door by private equity and strategics to buy it as soon as Iger signaled it was for sale in July 2023. Instead, nothing happened. Even though Iger likely has ESPN priced to move, any interested buyer knows the price will go down if they just wait. So they wait.

I know I am not alone in the schadenfreude of the demise of a company that was instrumental in UConn being on its current conference island. Karma is a mofo.

 

[huskyinfl]

DePaul has no value.

The rest of your post is babble.

Pot meet kettle.

 

[Waquoit]

Despite being the first sports DTC streaming option with ESPN+, they have been lapped by other services in content quality.

They get 1 International NFL game per year, and weren’t strong enough to negotiate for all 5. Then they picked the NHL, which probably has more Canadian viewers than US viewers as their “hook” sport, while Apple TV gobbled up the MLS (which will pass NHL in viewership by end of decade), Amazon got TNF, YouTube got Sunday Ticket and Peacock got the Premiere League.

This is not true at all. ESPN+ towers above all other streamers on content quality and quantity. And the MLS is a dog rating-wise. They went to Apple because Apple massively overpaid.

 

[Kolumbo]

UConn has the largest enrollment at 33k students and then you have DePaul, Georgetown and St. John's all around 22k students in major markets. I get DePaul has been awful to the point it almost had to try to be this awful. The A-10 grabbed Loyola which made sense to be in Chicago. At some point DePaul has to do something drastic to turn it around.

 

[McLovin]

This is not true at all. ESPN+ towers above all other streamers on content quality and quantity. And the MLS is a dog rating-wise. They went to Apple because Apple massively overpaid.

Towers? In what way?

They have been passed by Peacock and Apple TV in subscribers, and 100 million+ subscribers behind Amazon Prime and Netflix.

Watching content on ESPN+ is like watching a budget broadcast in standard definition from 2007 - from the score-bug to the announcers to the video quality - lmao

 

[elmcityboy]

I hadn't checked in on him since the season started... Averaging 5/4/1 at Quinnipiac in 13mpg.

It's remarkable just how poorly he translated his game from HS to college. He was a 3* but had offers from the good guys, Creighton, Minnesota, and Illinois. Not a light list by any means. Always had a tweener game but there was plenty of potential.

Good to see him get some run and get his degree on a strong note though. Well-deserved for the champ.

i went to one QU game this year (versus yale, tough game) and springs had some moments, but he was also called for travelling on no fewer than four post-up attempts. and they were all extremely clear-cut travels. never seen that before, let alone from a high-major guy with 4+ years in the sport.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

When Northwestern gets booted from the Big 10, the Big East will write a check to bring them aboard.

Don’t hold your breathe .
They’re a founding member with heavyweight alumi . Remember its College Presidents & Trustees who make these decisions not AD’s.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Depaul may be the worst Big East team I've seen in my entire life.

Kick their asses out of the league.

 

[AdamaNation]

UConn has the largest enrollment at 33k students and then you have DePaul, Georgetown and St. John's all around 22k students in major markets. I get DePaul has been awful to the point it almost had to try to be this awful. The A-10 grabbed Loyola which made sense to be in Chicago. At some point DePaul has to do something drastic to turn it around.

Take Dayton or vcu. Drop DePaul.

 

[auror]

Depaul may be the worst Big East team I've seen in my entire life.

Kick their asses out of the league.

They're ranked in the 300s. They are the worst Big East team in our lifetime. They're ranked ~125 spots worse than the Georgetown team that went 0-19 a couple years back.

And they've been playing even worse than that since they fired their coach in January (#322).

 

[HooperScooper]

Can the Big East relegate them to a mid-major conference and then bring up that conference's top team?

 

[husky8273]

When Northwestern gets booted from the Big 10, the Big East will write a check to bring them aboard.N

Northwestern will never be booted by the Big 10

 

[ConnHuskBask]

They're ranked in the 300s. They are the worst Big East team in our lifetime. They're ranked ~125 spots worse than the Georgetown team that went 0-19 a couple years back.

And they've been playing even worse than that since they fired their coach in January (#322).

Hey my eye test wasn't half bad!

 

[uconnfan68]

It is only slowing because so many people have cut the cord already so the universe of people available to cut the cord is shrinking.

The only way cable truly stops the bleeding is to unbundle and make it a la carte, which would be catastrophic to ESPN, at a level where they would be selling office furniture from their Bristol facility in a yard sale. ESPN's total cave in the ESPN/Spectrum showdown in the fall shows how terrified ESPN is of cable getting unbundled. ESPN knows it can die slowly with people cutting the cord, or die quickly with cable unbundling. Think of the BTN as a mini ESPN that is a lot easier to unbundle than ESPN is.

On the content side, ESPN's survival is dependent on the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, along with most college conferences, not going direct to consumer themselves. Who wants to make that bet?

ESPN's very existence is the result of the weird revenue model that came from cable bundling, and ESPN making a few smart deals early in the cable era. That revenue model is approaching its end, and the next act for ESPN is to become a production company, which will generate a lot less revenue at a lot lower margin for ESPN's owners.

If the ESPN fanboys were right, and ESPN had a glorious future ahead of it, there would have been a stampede to Disney's door by private equity and strategics to buy it as soon as Iger signaled it was for sale in July 2023. Instead, nothing happened. Even though Iger likely has ESPN priced to move, any interested buyer knows the price will go down if they just wait. So they wait.

I know I am not alone in the schadenfreude of the demise of a company that was instrumental in UConn being on its current conference island. Karma is a mofo.

Yup, they just lucked into those billions.

 

[DFW HOYA]

This is not true at all. ESPN+ towers above all other streamers on content quality and quantity. And the MLS is a dog rating-wise. They went to Apple because Apple massively overpaid.

ESPN+ has 26 million subscribers, about a third of what Netflix has (72M) and fewer than even Peacock (30M).

 

[uconnfan68]

ESPN+ has 26 million subscribers, about a third of what Netflix has (72M) and fewer than even Peacock (30M).

And another 90(?) million on cable. If Disney decides it’s all streaming, you can add millions more to +, but undoubtedly some will not bother. They were lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

 

[Tiamat7]

And yet DePaul's saving grace this year is the victory over mighty Louisville.

 

[Huskyforlife]

Feel bad for them that Abass will likely leave in the off season. Wonder if he’s good enough to target for us?