Donny Marshall, stfu

[Jaker]

We are a basketball school. We play for NC's in basketball. WE WILL NEVER PLAY FOR AN NC IN FOOTBALL. Football ball should be second fiddle to everything hoops related.

 

[shizzle787]

We are a basketball school. We play for NC's in basketball. WE WILL NEVER PLAY FOR AN NC IN FOOTBALL. Football ball should be second fiddle to everything hoops related.

Hence my newest proposal that we go Mountain West for football-only and New Big East for everything else. Football schedule difficulty wise would be comparable and basketball would be better, and we wouldn't have to downgrade football.

 

[Jaker]

At this juncture, I can't imagine the football program brings in more money than the men's and women's bball program.

 

[shizzle787]

At this juncture, I can't imagine the football program brings in more money than the men's and women's bball program.

The TV contract for the American (all sports) is less than the NBE contract (basketball/w basketball). Think about that. Leaving the AAC would cost us $10 million. Between the money from the MW, getting our Tier 3 rights back, and the pay increase due to joining the American, we would break even on that deal within 3 years. From that point point forward, we would be making about $4 million/year more than we do now.

 

[whaler11]

Being a fan of this school's programs is painful at times.

 

[August_West]

Being a fan of this school's programs is painful at times.

At what point do we give up?

 

[TyroneShoo]

I happen to think Marshall is absolutely right. UConn didn't get screwed in CR. Its place got revealed. There is no network coming to bail them out and spearhead their entry to power 5. UConn just rehired a football coach who was miserable at his last job and prior to that had a mediocre run at a UConn (W/out looking it up again, I'd say a handful of games over .500) in a a very shallow conference. Uconn just signed back up for mediocrity. Maybe Marshall is wrong but it sure seems to me that he is right. But, them again, CR is a bouncing ball with a with a path that is not easy to predict.

 

[David 76]

All of the BE fantasies are based on the assumption the the NBE is salivating to take us back.
I have not heard that. Why do you all think so?
Not the usual we would pack the Garden stuff, but interest from the new BE

 

[chiller99.5]

Keeping it short and sweet, Im a drive away from Pats, Giants and Jets , college football low on my totem pole with family priority. We are constantly ragged on the AAC boards by even ECU fans about crappy attendance at football games but to be honest in their area there isnt much else to do.AAC football may have some decent home attendance at some school but away they dont draw flies.

 

[Chin Diesel]

There's something known as deflection. He has a national audience. Nothing required Donnie to talk about UConn's conference affiliation malaise.
Turn it to a different focus.

Simar to what AD David Benedict said with football coach. He wanted a coach who focused on what UConn represents and can achieve, not someone focusing on what UConn doesn't have to offer.

 

[whaler11]

At what point do we give up?

As long as it takes. While I respect the quality of the basketball in the Big East - it's not nearly the savior some think it is.

 

[dwalks93]

I respect Donny Marshall and never doubt his loyalty to UConn but he is living in a different time. His comments reflect a frustration that is not easily remedied.

The Big East that UConn was a part of is over. There is no going back. As UConn fans we may hate our conference situation and our lack of traditional rivalries but we can't recreate what we once had. Big money and football destroyed the Big East. For now the P5 is happy to monopolize the football money but eventually they will turn their attention to the basketball money. When that happens...goodbye new Big East.

By the next contract negotiations the AAC will likely be making more money than the new Big East. I miss the old Big East but UConn is not a peer program to Villanova, Georgetown and Providence. Sure I'd love to play them but we are a lot more similar to WVU, Rutgers and Syracuse. UConn is a P5 caliber university, it needs to stay on that path.

The GOR of several major P5 conferences expire around 2024 which will likely trigger a new wave of conference realignment. Till then UConn needs to survive, improve its football program and position itself for P5 inclusion. The constant complaining and public begging to go back to basketball only conference comprised of small private catholic schools does not help that positioning.

If after 2025 UConn is still outside the P5 then perhaps it is time to consider splitting our programs but not until then.

 

[Excalibur]

Moving would just slow the bleeding. It would not stop it. We're talking about extending the inevitable.

 

[David 76]

The GOR of several major P5 conferences expire around 2024 which will likely trigger a new wave of conference realignment. Till then UConn needs to survive, improve its football program and position itself for P5 inclusion. The constant complaining and public begging to go back to basketball only conference comprised of small private catholic schools does not help that positioning.

If after 2025 UConn is still outside the P5 then perhaps it is time to consider splitting our programs but not until then.

That is such a long time to wait

 

[John]

I respect Donny Marshall and never doubt his loyalty to UConn but he is living in a different time. His comments reflect a frustration that is not easily remedied.

The Big East that UConn was a part of is over. There is no going back. As UConn fans we may hate our conference situation and our lack of traditional rivalries but we can't recreate what we once had. Big money and football destroyed the Big East. For now the P5 is happy to monopolize the football money but eventually they will turn their attention to the basketball money. When that happens...goodbye new Big East.

By the next contract negotiations the AAC will likely be making more money than the new Big East. I miss the old Big East but UConn is not a peer program to Villanova, Georgetown and Providence. Sure I'd love to play them but we are a lot more similar to WVU, Rutgers and Syracuse. UConn is a P5 caliber university, it needs to stay on that path.

The GOR of several major P5 conferences expire around 2024 which will likely trigger a new wave of conference realignment. Till then UConn needs to survive, improve its football program and position itself for P5 inclusion. The constant complaining and public begging to go back to basketball only conference comprised of small private catholic schools does not help that positioning.

If after 2025 UConn is still outside the P5 then perhaps it is time to consider splitting our programs but not until then.

Yes, the Big East that we knew is dead and buried. There's no Big East to even go back to. The collection calling itself Big East now is an imposter, a pretender, a charlatan.

 

[MexicoHusky]

Tough to argue with Donny, but can we drop football?

 

[CTBasketball]

Good ole' Donny Marshall exercising his first amendment right. Kudos.

 

[August_West]

Moving would just slow the bleeding. It would not stop it. We're talking about extending the inevitable.

This is 100 percent true.
But the flip side is that in 15 years it's just as possible our athletic department is in the toilet for good due to never getting the lifeline than it is that D1 football saved us. In which case as a hoops fan I would've signed up for the slower bleeding and had more respectable hoops program against other northeast schools.

When we missed the ACC nobody and I mean nobody here thought we would be looking at 2025. Worst case that was being spouted here was 2017. If you said 2025 people would've killed themselves. And the sad thing is that when GORs come up in 2025, it guarantees us nothing. And the most natural fit for us doesn't come up until 20 thirty something.

It's the ultimate self inflicted slow suicide string along


Our big east separation dollars run dry soon.


This was a very big gamble and in my opinion in hindsight we are going to wish we Went to the nbe from the get go instead of these football caviar dreams ( which doesn't work in northeast anyway, but that's a different topic) torpedoing the hoops program

 

[Tenspro2002]

Being a fan of this school's programs is painful at times.

Not WBB!

 

[whaler11]

Not WBB!

Being a fan of a school where people respond with this is painful in its own way.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Being a fan of a school where people respond with this is painful in its own way.

I mean, would you prefer that the WBB program be mediocre as well?

At least we have something to hang our hats on at the moment. They draw more eyeballs than a lot of men's programs.

I understand what you're feeling though.

 

[Robertelamin]

I think he said what a lot of people think. Its unfortunate that UConn didn't take football seriously until 20 years ago. Lew Perkins got it but it was too late and some turd programs like Rutgers are in the Big 10 now.

 

[whaler11]

I mean, would you prefer that the WBB program be mediocre as well?

At least we have something to hang our hats on at the moment. They draw more eyeballs than a lot of men's programs.

I understand what you're feeling though.

I'm not sure that you do based on your post .

 

[Tenspro2002]

I'm not sure that you do based on your post .

I said I understand it. I didn't say anything about being empathetic.

I mean, I get it. For fans of the men's sports, both of which have been on the spectrum of mediocre to embarrassing for much of the last 3 years (or 6 in the case of football), it's embarrassing to hear people proclaim "women's sports!", since it suggests a certain tone-deafness about what actually moves the needle in the national college sports landscape.

That said, there has never been a better time to be a UConn WBB fan (despite there having never been a worse time, potentially, over the last few decades, to be a UConn MBB or FB fan).

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The only thing we can do is to continue onward in the AAC. Invest in our football and men's basketball programs and in the event there is another change in the CR landscape, hopefully we can get a life boat in a fractured Big 12 or fractured ACC. I think that is the best case scenario at this point.

I hate to call to cut sports, but that seems inevitable. It's very odd that UConn seems content to continue to pay the subsidy that it does right now, but I have to imagine that will be curtailed in the future.

If it comes to 2025 and the P5 is only stronger and says they are having their own tournament, solely with the P5 and say Big East and maybe the A10, then that's the time when you have to consider dropping football.

Make no mistake, there is no Independent, MAC, or FCS option. It's AAC, P5 or Big East and no football.