Does the ACC's now stated desire to have a New York presence prompt Delany to seal the deal?

[pj]

Its over. Big 10 is not coming for us unless we are so successful we don't need them.

This is wrong. First, because we will always need a conference partner for scheduling purposes; so we'll never be in a situation where we don't need a conference. Second, we need to be in a top conference to maximize revenue because UConn vs top team is a better revenue producer than UConn vs East Carolina or Tulane or SMU. So the true statement would be, "Big 10 is not coming for us unless we are so successful that we can produce in the AAC one-third the revenue that B1G teams generate in the B1G."

Insofar as your statement approximates the truth, you could say the same thing about the ACC or Big 12 or even the AAC; the AAC wouldn't come for us unless we could generate on our own nearly as much revenue as we're getting from the AAC. But why would you say those things, unless you were a wet blanket who wants to rain on everybody's day?

 

[B1GALUM]

Negatives:

1. AAU hurts Uconn
2. Not a fertile recruiting territory for football
3. B1G has a football perception problem that UConn can't help with (Nebraska helps), and Rutgers and Maryland don't help either (though they have good recruiting territories).

Positives:

1. TV--I continue to believe Uconn's market would help the B1G a lot
2. The B1G is about to have a basketball perception problem soon, because the ACC is going to start sucking a lot of talent southward. They'll look to bone up the bball side within the next 10 years because of the loss of perception. Plus, the style of play has been atrocious in that conference.

I think this is a great summary.

The B1G does have a football perception problem that is not going to be solved through addition of other schools. The B1G already has the football brands. Yes Oklahoma and Florida State (two schools I have heard mentioned to the B1G when realignment is discussed) are football brands but would not solve the issue. Both of these teams have struggled as well. The football perception problem will only be solved when my Ohio State Buckeyes can quit getting blown out in big games, especially by the SEC, and win them. It will be important for Michigan to get back to big games and win them as well.

The B1G does or will have a basketball perception problem and this is where UConn would be of value as an addition to the B1G. This is one reason that I hope UConn will be invited to the B1G and why I have spoken in support of UConn. However, the B1G presidents will first and foremost look at academics and AAU membership in particular. It is vital that UConn get AAU membership and then all these other positives, market and basketball brands, will prove to be an additional incentive.

The additional challenge for UConn though is the issue of who would be the #16 team. I do not think Missouri is leaving the SEC and still think the B1G will look east for additional members. The question is who else from the east will be an option as a #16 to UConn as #15?

 

[pj]

The additional challenge for UConn though is the issue of who would be the #16 team. I do not think Missouri is leaving the SEC and still think the B1G will look east for additional members. The question is who else from the east will be an option as a #16 to UConn as #15?

Great summary. There is no good #16. The only logical contiguous targets are in the ACC (UVa, UNC) or Big12 (WVU, Kansas) or Pac (Colorado) or SEC (Missouri, Vanderbilt). WVU would jump but this is a state that only has 1.8 million people and the university is not AAU, and it only adds a small bit in nearby markets DC and Pittsburgh. Pac is a friendly conference they wouldn't want to raid. The others are tied to their historic rivals and conference mates so it would take a major upheaval. We've discussed potential up-and-comers like Buffalo and Colorado State but Buffalo has a long way to go and Colorado State doesn't help the conference in the East and moves it to a new region / time zone. Notre Dame isn't moving. Vanderbilt and Missouri aren't moving.

So I guess my question is, is 15 really terrible? The B1G got by with 11 for a while.

 

[FAIRTIDES]

Connecticut is a state that is a waypoint between major cities, that no one cares about except people that couldn't make it in NYC and moved to CT.

Damn, I've had it wrong/backwards all this time. It always seemed to me that my father, most of our neighbors and I "made it" in NYC so that we could live in, and commute from, CT. You do realize that CT is the wealthiest State, per capita, in the U.S. We pass it back and forth, with NJ.

 

[Adios]

If we continue to play and develop at the highest levels as we have been, we'll become an undeniably good addition to the B1G. Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma are stories that will last in the minds of many forever. Our football history will very likely be one we can sell. Hockey program has been catapulted from Division III to the elite in Division I with a not-so-successful head coach. We may have hired a hockey genius in the new one.

UConn's admission standards have become ridiculously high now. I am glad I was born when I was born.

 

[frankthetank]

Great summary. There is no good #16. The only logical contiguous targets are in the ACC (UVa, UNC) or Big12 (WVU, Kansas) or Pac (Colorado) or SEC (Missouri, Vanderbilt). WVU would jump but this is a state that only has 1.8 million people and the university is not AAU, and it only adds a small bit in nearby markets DC and Pittsburgh. Pac is a friendly conference they wouldn't want to raid. The others are tied to their historic rivals and conference mates so it would take a major upheaval. We've discussed potential up-and-comers like Buffalo and Colorado State but Buffalo has a long way to go and Colorado State doesn't help the conference in the East and moves it to a new region / time zone. Notre Dame isn't moving. Vanderbilt and Missouri aren't moving.

So I guess my question is, is 15 really terrible? The B1G got by with 11 for a while.

There HAS to be a Noah's Ark approach (pairs of schools) of expansion in the Big Ten (or any other power conference besides maybe the Big 12 who could theoretically go to 11 and stop there) going forward. There's a massive difference between adding Penn State and sitting at 11 when you don't have divisions or a conference championship game versus what the Big Ten has now. The MAC might be OK with an unequal number of schools in each division because they have little choice (and they're technically not in compliance with NCAA rules with their uneven division schedules, but they have been getting waivers), but that's just an untenable situation for the power conferences. The Big Ten wouldn't even add Notre Dame and sit at 15 at this point - expansion has to be either 2 (or some other even number) or none. 15 members is OK for every sport except for the one that matters: football. That's why the ACC's situation with Notre Dame is perfectly fine with 15 basketball members, but 15 football members is unworkable.

 

[Adios]

How the heck did Stony Brook get into the AAU?

 

[upstater]

How the heck did Stony Brook get into the AAU?

What exactly are you asking?

The hiring of many top researchers that Herbst has lately proposed was done by Stony Brook and the other centers in the 1960s, but many times over. They brought a lot of talent in, and a lot of research dollars. The stated goal at the time was for SUNY to become the east coast version of the Cal. system.