Do this and get into a power 4!

[CL82]

Three major issues that stand in the way of an on campus stadium:

1. 195 is too small to carry the amount of traffic an on-campus stadium would draw. Think of how difficult it is to get out after a hoops game and multiply that by 3. The road could be improved to handle more traffic, but it would cost money and change the rustic nature of campus (point 2).
2. Mansfield does not want the noise or traffic of an on-campus football stadium, and they do not want to change the rural character of the area by improving 195.
3. The state built a stadium in East Hartford for UConn football. Why spend more money on an on-campus stadium to host FIU?

Regardless, if I played Powerball and won, I would buy the town of Mansfield, rename it BlueandOGville, and build an on-campus stadium.

For basketball games, everybody arrives pretty much at the same time and everybody leaves pretty much the same time. Football games are different. That's the whole reason tailgating happened, to allow people to feather their traffic over multiple hours, rather than all at the same time.

I doubt 195 would be the principal access route. At most it might pick up traffic heading south. Most people would exit out Discovery Drive onto Route 44. The on campus roads to and from the stadium could be changed to all lanes in at the start of the game and all lanes out at the end. As I'm fond of noting, virtually every other FBS program manages to get people in and out of their stadiums without a super highway leading to the front gate. We could as well.

If we built a stadium in the athletic campus, it requires no approvals from Mansfield residents. They can complain about the prospect of six games a year if they want, but in the absence of any Mansfield approvals, they'd be shouting into the wind.

Rentschler Field is now, what 25 years old. It's pretty much at the end of it to useful life absence significant investment. It's reasonable to ask whether that investment is better spent on the flagship state university's main campus. The promise of Rentschler Field acting as an economic engine for east Hartford has never really materialized. Building an on campus stadium in Storrs greatly enhances the prospect of the university joining a P4 conference, which would mean a revenue stream of roughly $50,000,000 a year (conference media rights plus CFP share). That's a debate worth having.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Three major issues that stand in the way of an on campus stadium:

1. 195 is too small to carry the amount of traffic an on-campus stadium would draw. Think of how difficult it is to get out after a hoops game and multiply that by 3. The road could be improved to handle more traffic, but it would cost money and change the rustic nature of campus (point 2).
2. Mansfield does not want the noise or traffic of an on-campus football stadium, and they do not want to change the rural character of the area by improving 195.
3. The state built a stadium in East Hartford for UConn football. Why spend more money on an on-campus stadium to host FIU?

Regardless, if I played Powerball and won, I would buy the town of Mansfield, rename it BlueandOGville, and build an on-campus stadium.

1. So improve and widen 195. And maybe 44 too.
2. Easy fix, remove the people of Mansfield from Mansfield so that they stop being an impediment. If they want to live in a Podunk nowhere, there's plenty in surrounding towns. State could step in and build whatever most annoys those people. A nuclear plant. A skyscraper. Whatever.
3. Because East Hartford is and has always been, ass. Connecticut is not exactly setting the world on fire. Huge development, nightlife district and innovation centers built around UConn would be a draw.

 

[Ha Who]

For basketball games, everybody arrives pretty much at the same time and everybody leaves pretty much the same time. Football games are different. That's the whole reason tailgating happened, to allow people to feather their traffic over multiple hours, rather than all at the same time.

I doubt 195 would be the principal access route. At most it might pick up traffic heading south. Most people would exit out Discovery Drive onto Route 44. The on campus roads to and from the stadium could be changed to all lanes in at the start of the game and all lanes out at the end. As I'm fond of noting, virtually every other FBS program manages to get people in and out of their stadiums without a super highway leading to the front gate. We could as well.

If we built a stadium in the athletic campus, it requires no approvals from Mansfield residents. They can complain about the prospect of six games a year if they want, but in the absence of any Mansfield approvals, they'd be shouting into the wind.

Rentschler Field is now, what 25 years old. It's pretty much at the end of it to useful life absence significant investment. It's reasonable to ask whether that investment is better spent on the flagship state university's main campus. The promise of Rentschler Field acting as an economic engine for east Hartford has never really materialized. Building an on campus stadium in Storrs greatly enhances the prospect of the university joining a P4 conference, which would mean a revenue stream of roughly $50,000,000 a year (conference media rights plus CFP share). That's a debate worth having.

 

[CL82]

Eh

Meh. I like to knock down this mythology whenever it crops up. It's it's fine to think that it's not worth building in Storrs, but another to manufacture reasons why it's impossible to build in Storrs and then state them as fact.

To paraphrase Daniel Patrick Monahan, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts."

 

[HuskyHawk]

Eh

Meh. I like to knock down the mythology whenever it crops up. It's it's fine to think that it's not worth building in Storrs, but another to manufacture reasons why it's impossible to build in Storrs and then state them as fact.

To paraphrase Daniel Patrick Monahan, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts."

Looking at the USF thread, and their new stadium and the whole complex adjacent to it, that's what we need. For the ACC or Big XII that signals a level of seriousness that UConn hasn't shown. Mora helps. Having people turn out for CCSU helps. Wins help. But until UConn has a legitimate campus culture that is excited about football, it will be easy for them to dismiss us.

I always thought the Rent was a mistake because while it made practical sense (free location, central to population centers) it seemed like a half measure. It sent the wrong message.

 

[Kolumbo]

Looking at the USF thread, and their new stadium and the whole complex adjacent to it, that's what we need. For the ACC or Big XII that signals a level of seriousness that UConn hasn't shown. Mora helps. Having people turn out for CCSU helps. Wins help. But until UConn has a legitimate campus culture that is excited about football, it will be easy for them to dismiss us.

I always thought the Rent was a mistake because while it made practical sense (free location, central to population centers) it seemed like a half measure. It sent the wrong message.

There is no question, an on-campus stadium would attract many more students to games. Game day would be an entire campus experience. Today game day does nothing but take away from the campus. Even FCS and Div III have games which liven up the campus. I've accepted the fact that we will not be seeing an on-campus stadium and that's a shame. The chickens will come home to roost sooner rather than later. IF we get invited to a conference, it will most likely be at a significant discount, and we'll need to continue to throw money at The Rent to keep it satisfactory.

Traffic, forgetaboutit. They could add at least one lane to I-195. Then on game day have all lanes but one go in one direction for an hour or so. Reverse it later for an hour or so. Problem solved.

 

[CL82]

Looking at the USF thread, and their new stadium and the whole complex adjacent to it, that's what we need. For the ACC or Big XII that signals a level of seriousness that UConn hasn't shown. Mora helps. Having people turn out for CCSU helps. Wins help. But until UConn has a legitimate campus culture that is excited about football, it will be easy for them to dismiss us.

I always thought the Rent was a mistake because while it made practical sense (free location, central to population centers) it seemed like a half measure. It sent the wrong message.

We already have Burton and Shenkman. We don't need to re-create them, especially if a stadium is built in the athletic campus. We are going to need game day locker rooms etc.

 

[Kolumbo]

half measures and crappy football. CR threads are meaningless. I might be interested if UConn decides to take football seriously, builds a real college campus football stadium like every other college football program, can compete with CUSA level programs. what a freaking disaster this program is. at least UMass got into the MAC. things will only get worse as an independent.

 

[FightOnCT]

I got some advice: let’s not lose to FBS rookies. I mean, Villanova had no issues beating them in the FCS.

 

[Kolumbo]

"Just win"

"Winning this game wasn't gonna get UConn into a power conference anyway"

"Losing this game isn't gonna hurt UConn's chances"

Does it even matter anymore? wins and losses? Can UConn Football hope to compete on such an uneven playing field? The goal here is to play in some random bowl game. I don't see how to continually build the program when UConn Football may as well be in the gulag (no, not the AAC gulag). Is the next Skyler Bell going to stay when we can't beat Delaware, or even choose UConn in the first place? If and when UConn gets another conference invitation, it will likely be a G6 or really bad terms. It has gotten to the point where every game feels like a must win game but also feels like it doesn't make a difference.

 

[cellocgg]

Winning Football games is correlated with Brand Value/TV viewership, but it does not directly influence CR. UConn will never be known for Football, and the Northeast will always be an outlier in CFB.

UVA and UNC will likely get into the B1G/SEC, and it surely ain't because of Football performance. It's because of their brands. UConn's basketball success gives us enough brand value to be considered by the P4. In Football, we could beat all the P4 teams we have this year and next and, unless we are getting a look for Basketball, still won't be added to the P4. The culture just isn't here. I truly don't think the reason UConn didn't get the nod by B12 presidents was because of Football performance

I don't really think we're as alone as BYers think. People constantly talk about how Syracuse and BC will be left behind in the next iteration of CR, and Rutgers and UMD are really outliers in the eyes of B1G fans. Stop worrying about how we lost to Cuse and UDel and don't overreact if we beak Duke and BC. It won't change anything

 

[billybud]

College Sports Revenue Gap Between Power Conference Schools & Everyone Else Increased Nearly 600% Since 2002, Commerce Committee Analysis Finds

Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, released a new analysis of college sports TV revenues showing how skyrocketing media rights payments have exacerbated a massive financial gap between traditional power...

www.commerce.senate.gov

 

[KryHavok]

College Sports Revenue Gap Between Power Conference Schools & Everyone Else Increased Nearly 600% Since 2002, Commerce Committee Analysis Finds

Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, released a new analysis of college sports TV revenues showing how skyrocketing media rights payments have exacerbated a massive financial gap between traditional power...

www.commerce.senate.gov

It helps to have a politician from outside CT detail what schools like UConn are facing. There was a graphic that was telling:

Looky looky...we have some former Big East brethren on the bottom, though I was surprised to see BCU ranked as a high middle. I wonder if those tuned in solely based on who BCU was playing rather than because it was BCU itself that was playing.

According to ChatGPT per that list above (of which there are 67 schools), only 16 schools have won the NCAA Division 1 championship in the last 50 years. Eleven of those 16 are in the BIGSEC with 4 being in the all cretins crew and 1 being in the Big12. Expand that to cover the last 100 years, and you have 28 schools in those listings as the D1 champs.

Would be wonderful if Sen. Cantwell's analysis does something, but barring the non-P2 (or G6) getting together to sue the P2 from creating a monopoly (which ain't happening), this nonsense will continue.

 

[Kolumbo]

It helps to have a politician from outside CT detail what schools like UConn are facing. There was a graphic that was telling:

View attachment 111696
Looky looky...we have some former Big East brethren on the bottom, though I was surprised to see BCU ranked as a high middle. I wonder if those tuned in solely based on who BCU was playing rather than because it was BCU itself that was playing.

According to ChatGPT per that list above (of which there are 67 schools), only 16 schools have won the NCAA Division 1 championship in the last 50 years. Eleven of those 16 are in the BIGSEC with 4 being in the all cretins crew and 1 being in the Big12. Expand that to cover the last 100 years, and you have 28 schools in those listings as the D1 champs.

Would be wonderful if Sen. Cantwell's analysis does something, but barring the non-P2 (or G6) getting together to sue the P2 from creating a monopoly (which ain't happening), this nonsense will continue.

bcu played #10 FSU in week 1 which was no doubt one of the highly viewed games
bcu played #14 smu in November which might have been one of the games
bcu also played #6 Mizzou, UNC, Louisville...

I just realized the graph refers to 2023 or 2024. bcu also played FSU in 2023 so there are 2 of the 3 games

 

[cellocgg]

Winning Football games is correlated with Brand Value/TV viewership, but it does not directly influence CR. UConn will never be known for Football, and the Northeast will always be an outlier in CFB.

UVA and UNC will likely get into the B1G/SEC, and it surely ain't because of Football performance. It's because of their brands. UConn's basketball success gives us enough brand value to be considered by the P4. In Football, we could beat all the P4 teams we have this year and next and, unless we are getting a look for Basketball, still won't be added to the P4. The culture just isn't here. I truly don't think the reason UConn didn't get the nod by B12 presidents was because of Football performance

I don't really think we're as alone as BYers think. People constantly talk about how Syracuse and BC will be left behind in the next iteration of CR, and Rutgers and UMD are really outliers in the eyes of B1G fans. Stop worrying about how we lost to Cuse and UDel and don't overreact if we beak Duke and BC. It won't change anything

Forgot to include at the end but UConn isn't P4, so stop parading the expectation that we should regularly be beating P4 teams. I don't think conference presidents are expecting us to either. We should currently be treated as G6

 

[Windham4th]

Build a stadium next to the Electric Blue.

 

[ScottVib]

Build a stadium next to the Electric Blue.

A different kind of tailgate scene

 

[Alum86]

They screwed up Gampel and low balled capacity when built and did not make it a multi purpose facility (hockey) - I’d expect nothing less if a football stadium was ever built in Storrs. 12,500 capacity, expandable to 15K. LOL.
Rentschler is fine.

 

[Kolumbo]

Winning Football games is correlated with Brand Value/TV viewership, but it does not directly influence CR. UConn will never be known for Football, and the Northeast will always be an outlier in CFB.

UVA and UNC will likely get into the B1G/SEC, and it surely ain't because of Football performance. It's because of their brands. UConn's basketball success gives us enough brand value to be considered by the P4. In Football, we could beat all the P4 teams we have this year and next and, unless we are getting a look for Basketball, still won't be added to the P4. The culture just isn't here. I truly don't think the reason UConn didn't get the nod by B12 presidents was because of Football performance

I don't really think we're as alone as BYers think. People constantly talk about how Syracuse and BC will be left behind in the next iteration of CR, and Rutgers and UMD are really outliers in the eyes of B1G fans. Stop worrying about how we lost to Cuse and UDel and don't overreact if we beak Duke and BC. It won't change anything

Forgot to include at the end but UConn isn't P4, so stop parading the expectation that we should regularly be beating P4 teams. I don't think conference presidents are expecting us to either. We should currently be treated as G6

Agree for the most part. The Northeast could be more of a success rather than an outlier in CFB but the programs are all taking the wrong approach. And we all know this. The programs should have been united and all would have benefited. rutgers and maryland will be outliers in the Big Ten, cuse and bcu and even pitt will be outliers in the acc, wvu and outlier in the Big XII, even temple and umass will likely be outliers. Divided they all fall. Granted, with more money in their pockets. A united Northeast would have been really cool to see and long term, may have even reaped rewards. But yes, the currently fragmented northeastern programs won't experience much success.

They should revisit the old Big East football line-up with or without Miami as a separate conference with a scheduling alliance with the Big East basketball alliance. A large Northeast ++ footprint with regional rivals. The region would be a draw for athletes and Power conferences. Big East United. Even better, Big East United + ACC. The ACC may eventually become something like that but rutgers and maryland, believe it or not, would be valuable key members of the conference. Penn State of course would be the gamechanger. The greatest success would be if the Big East United/ACC had all east coast members and all other conferences were locked out.

I don't have the expectation that we should beat P4 programs, yet we have somehow been in a position to beat them. But wilted.

 

[billybud]

From 1993-2012...

The Big East REp....Bowl Coalition, Alliance, BCS Bowl Representative

West Virginia....4X
Miami....4X
VA Tech....3X
Syracuse...3X
Cincinnati...2X
Louisville....1X
UConn......1X

A nice league...but Miami and VT leaving in 2004 hurt...then Pitt and WVU and it was done..I am not sure how much the BC and Cuse departures hurt, but they helped kick a few rocks into the landslide.

If the above teams had been kept and Penn State added...

 

[Jetskies]

I always thought the Rent was a mistake because while it made practical sense (free location, central to population centers) it seemed like a half measure. It sent the wrong message.

Hindsight is 20/20 - I've seen old videos of UConn games on "ESPN college football" where the commentators GUSH about the rent and its NFL-standard infrastructure and amenities. It was state of the art at the time. We are looking at a 90s/2000's decision with 2025 eyes, which is unfair.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Hindsight is 20/20 - I've seen old videos of UConn games on "ESPN college football" where the commentators GUSH about the rent and its NFL-standard infrastructure and amenities. It was state of the art at the time. We are looking at a 90s/2000's decision with 2025 eyes, which is unfair.

Except some of us, many of, predicted this back when they first said where the Rent would be located. It was not hard to see the impact.

 

[Jetskies]

Except some of us, many of, predicted this back when they first said where the Rent would be located. It was not hard to see the impact.

I believe that. Fair.
Then again, this wouldn’t be an issue if we’d made it into a P5 way back. By now the rent would be updated magnificently and would be a jewel of a stadium (or at least on par) to compete with the P2 stadiums.

I personally don’t believe in any conference realignment scenario, would UConn have built an on campus stadium by 2025. We’d have just kept improving the rent.

We are not homeless because of our stadium’s location.

 

[DFW HOYA]

The P3 cake is being baked right now, not in 2030. It may be more than coincidental that Northwestern and Vanderbilt moved their stadium plans up rather than stand pat with what they had in the wake of change ahead.

The Big 12 has their scenario plan after the P2 pick apart the ACC, and when Louisville, NC State, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Tech are in their discussion set, suddenly BC, Syracuse and Wake aren't as strong, and Rentschler Field becomes less of a deal-driver.

 

[CL82]

We are not homeless because of our stadium’s location.

True.

We also aren't homeless because Randy Edsall decided to cancel football during Covid, but neither decision makes us look particularly serious or committed about playing football.