Drop football

[whaler11]

We are in an excellent football league. Possibly the best league we ever played in.
Every other G5 school and many independents would love to be in our conference in football. I believe the next contract will be suptantially better than the current one.
Forget P5 ,football at this level is the only sport with the potential to create enough revenue.
to sustain our somewhat bloated athletic department.
Yes we support too many teams that generate zero revenue.
I know you guys don’t like to hear that ,but that’s the truth.
The conference also has made moves to generate additional basketball revenue.
Moves they should have done years ago.
Our problems in football and basketball are self inflicted ,to blame the conference borders on insanity.
Our conference mate ,UCF a team we beat a couple of years ago , won a major bowl this year. Why couldn’t that be us?
If you never win how could you possibly know what the revenue potential is.
Have we even won a dozen league games in 6 years.
Even in basketball if you have a mediocre basketball record why do you suppose more people will come out.
Nova of course
PC because of their location
But Even Georgetown isn’t the draw it once was
How exciting are matchups with these team
Hall?
St John’s
DePaul
Marquette

Butler
Xavier

Many independents: UMass and New Mexico State.

Every other G5 - except those that were in the league and left!

 

[Mokum]

Maybe you should have quit when you thought you were relevant
you are already getting old - do yourself a favor - join Super John's team

Real class man. Take a jab at someone because of their age. What is super johns team?

 

[Rocktheworld]

Real class man. Take a jab at someone because of their age. What is super johns team?

Is that your tattoo in your avatar?

 

[UConnNick]

I agree we need a new coach. But I keep seeing on here that the state can not afford to buy out Ollies contract. With a losing football team with no chance of making the big time, loosing tons of money, that was the connection I was implying.

The state has nothing to do with buying out coaches' contracts. That has to come from money the AD generates or raises through donations or sponsors.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Move all sports to the Big East and then move UConn football to the NFL.

Gotta brand it as "New York's Team"

 

[upstater]

When we say football participation is plummeting, we are talking 50%? Or 5-10%?

 

[Huskymagic]

I am going out on a limb with this, and just speculating. I will probably get called names by some of the arrogant posters, but I don't care. I am starting to think that dropping Football may not be a bad idea, and just be a basketball school. All those big east catholic schools played bigtime football when I was a kid in the '50's & '60's. They could not compete, could not afford it, and eventually dropped it. Big time FB is a closed club. Uconn will never get in. They will just flounder around on the periphery and loose tons of money. There are only so many quality players coming out of HS each year, and if they are 5 stars they are going to go to one of the long established programs, not Uconn. Furthermore, and here is were I could be dead wrong, but I see football possibly going the way of Roman Gladiator fights by the end of this century. We are all aware of all the talk about brain injuries in football, as well as other life long debilitating injuries. ( I tore my cartilidge in my knee playing HS FB, and still suffer from it. Just had another knee operation a few years ago, and I am almost 70). Football starts in high school. You need your parents permission to play as far as I know. You see where I am going with this? As more brain injury crap comes out, more parents say no, the player pool dwindles, and it is all down hill for the sport of football. Keep in mind I said by the end of the century, not over the next few years. Vermont dropped football, and while they are no BB powerhouse, they manage to put some pretty good teams on the court in BB for a small school from a tiny state. Would like to know what you all think about the future of football for Uconn and the sport in general. Maybe I am dead wrong, I am like I said just speculating.

I'm an advocate of UCONN basketball in the Big East, but my estimations is that the administration is waiting to see what the new AAC tv deal will look like. UCONN is playing the attrition game.

The goal is to get more than the Big East currently gets which is about $5 million per school. The AAC is looking for 8 to 10 million. If we don't get that kind of money then, UCONN will look to move to Big East and put football anywhere that will have them, go independent, or drop it altogether.

PS: They are also hoping something happens with Notre Dame and the ACC hoping that means UCONN will be the 16th member:

College Football Realignment Moves That Need to Happen

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

a) The reason Wichita St dropped football was due to losing much of its team and staff in a plan crash many years ago.

b) the school has been considering restoring its football program for a few years now. What some posters on this board view as sunk costs, others can view as existing infrastructure. It is the lack of existing infrastructure (stadium, practice facility) and the costs to build those that is holding them back. As we already have those in place, the effective cost of the program is far less than many want to imply.

Wichita St is not a good example to illustrate the point of your initial post. If anything, they are an example of a school with current, high level success in men's basketball who saw the AAC as an opportunity to bring their program to a higher level and a school that would throw their hat in the ring for football if they had the existing infrastructure. Dropping football would just make us more similar to all other New England state flagships.

Some no doubt will grouse about the shipping costs, but couldn't the Rent and Burton Center be sold to Wichita State, and basketball goes back to Big East? Gotta think outside the box sometimes when going for a win-win.

 

[Whtdmd]

Kinda like UConn basketball...

believe it or not, the only 4 yr student athlete who did not graduate under Ollie was Ryan Boatright. The basketball team has been doing their homework and staying out of trouble. It does not deserve to be compare with a SEC football program in academics

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

That's nothing compared to some who have 17,000 posts who wants to get rid of the mens team and concentrate on the ladies
Some people just talk to hear themselves talk and/or say absolutely stupid things to get some likes from other dolts

And some do it irrespective of Likes.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Some no doubt will grouse about the shipping costs, but couldn't the Rent and Burton Center be sold to Wichita State, and basketball goes back to Big East? Gotta think outside the box sometimes when going for a win-win.

Perhaps, but it may serve us better to give them a long term lease. I'd offer a lease with a lease to own option, the option however having a balloon payment built in. That could be a win-win for us.

 

[John]

I am going out on a limb with this, and just speculating. I will probably get called names by some of the arrogant posters, but I don't care. I am starting to think that dropping Football may not be a bad idea, and just be a basketball school. All those big east catholic schools played bigtime football when I was a kid in the '50's & '60's. They could not compete, could not afford it, and eventually dropped it. Big time FB is a closed club. Uconn will never get in. They will just flounder around on the periphery and loose tons of money. There are only so many quality players coming out of HS each year, and if they are 5 stars they are going to go to one of the long established programs, not Uconn. Furthermore, and here is were I could be dead wrong, but I see football possibly going the way of Roman Gladiator fights by the end of this century. We are all aware of all the talk about brain injuries in football, as well as other life long debilitating injuries. ( I tore my cartilidge in my knee playing HS FB, and still suffer from it. Just had another knee operation a few years ago, and I am almost 70). Football starts in high school. You need your parents permission to play as far as I know. You see where I am going with this? As more brain injury crap comes out, more parents say no, the player pool dwindles, and it is all down hill for the sport of football. Keep in mind I said by the end of the century, not over the next few years. Vermont dropped football, and while they are no BB powerhouse, they manage to put some pretty good teams on the court in BB for a small school from a tiny state. Would like to know what you all think about the future of football for Uconn and the sport in general. Maybe I am dead wrong, I am like I said just speculating.

Let's drop men's basketball too. Same poor results and steadily declining attendance.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Perhaps, but it may serve us better to give them a long term lease. I'd offer a lease with a lease to own option, the option however having a balloon payment built in. That could be a win-win for us.

Get Koch brothers lobbyists involved and the possibilities are endless. Recapture sunk costs, bundle them together, and externalize them to underfunded red state schoolteacher pensions via some new-fangled financial instruments to be named at a later date.

 

[uconnfan68]

The way the basketball team is going, drop men's basketball and put the money into the women's team.

Cue Deepster...

 

[Banta55]

So ridiculous they are not going to drop football nor should they....So tired of people thinking the Big East is the savior ...The problem is the basketball program not the league , the AAC has become a pretty good conference yes not ideal , but Uconn certainly isn't doing anything to help..The AAC will get around 10 mil per school i would think, then with the tier 3 rights they could be around 20 per, not to bad.... Instead of on the FB program, why not support it RE has it going in the right direction...

 

[FartMan69]

That's nothing compared to some who have 17,000 posts who wants to get rid of the mens team and concentrate on the ladies
Some people just talk to hear themselves talk and/or say absolutely stupid things to get some likes from other dolts

zero people have said this.

 

[UCweCONN]

Curious that this thread was created on the Men's Basketball Forum instead of the Football one. Those guys over there would tear the OP up. A lot of those posters hate basketball.

For the record, I support returning all sports to the Big East except football which should go independent. As for waiting for a better deal from the ACC, that ship has sailed. Our product is declining greatly and we are much less attractive then we were 5 years ago. We've been usurped by a number of other schools if the ACC ever expands.

 

[krinklecut]

This is, by miles, the absolute stupidest thread I have ever seen on The Boneyard. Good lord.

 

[Pudge]

Sure. Count several hundred million dollar investment as sunk cost.

I guess I’m an arrogant poster. But thus ... this is the ridiculous side of our Fanbase. Really. Go watch the Women. You’ll feel warm and cuddly.

 

[HuskyHawk]

This is, by miles, the absolute stupidest thread I have ever seen on The Boneyard. Good lord.

And the stupidity is only enhanced by the atrocious grammar.

I do not understand why people keep blaming football for the demise of basketball. We have won three national championships since moving to D1/FBS football. I don’t think there is a correlation there.

 

[Austin316]

No... not when the block C is returning!

 

[champs99and04]

We're not in this conference because of basketball or football. We're in this conference because of the fan base. That's the number one reason. Most of the basketball fans couldn't care less about any of the other programs, a significant chunk of the football base doesn't like basketball, and the women's base is their own bread entirely. Sure every school has their own dynamics as far as which sports are popular, but UConn feels unique because of the northeast sports landscape. This isn't Wisconsin where everybody who is an alum of the school or grew up in the state goes to football, basketball, and hockey games without asking questions. It's a saturated market and by extension you have to build a base purely on entertainment/winning rather than culture, tradition, etc. That leads to an environment where you're picking up smatterings of people for a particular sport depending on which ones are good at the time. Nobody would care about women's basketball if they weren't the greatest program ever. I think that's obvious.

Now, do I think the basketball program would benefit from joining the Big East in the short term? Yes. There is an unavoidable conflict of interest that is likely going to end with somebody being unhappy. You can grill Ollie all you want for his coaching, and it has been bad, but there are a lot of guys who are less than perfect as coaches who win games because they get great players. New England is a rich recruiting market and I cannot imagine playing in the AAC helps us. Does that mean we should drop football? Obviously not. Conference is a factor but only a single factor and it's certainly not worth ditching a titanic investment to help win a recruit every couple years. If Ollie was falling just short against the blue bloods I could see the OP's argument, since he's not it is obvious that he's been the primary limiting factor.

 

[huskysupporter]

How about this? We drop basketball. It’s a bigger dumpster fire than the football team.

Football drives the ship. Not basketball. So get on board.

 

[Adios]

I am going out on a limb with this, and just speculating. I will probably get called names by some of the arrogant posters, but I don't care. I am starting to think that dropping Football may not be a bad idea, and just be a basketball school. All those big east catholic schools played bigtime football when I was a kid in the '50's & '60's. They could not compete, could not afford it, and eventually dropped it. Big time FB is a closed club. Uconn will never get in. They will just flounder around on the periphery and loose tons of money. There are only so many quality players coming out of HS each year, and if they are 5 stars they are going to go to one of the long established programs, not Uconn. Furthermore, and here is were I could be dead wrong, but I see football possibly going the way of Roman Gladiator fights by the end of this century. We are all aware of all the talk about brain injuries in football, as well as other life long debilitating injuries. ( I tore my cartilidge in my knee playing HS FB, and still suffer from it. Just had another knee operation a few years ago, and I am almost 70). Football starts in high school. You need your parents permission to play as far as I know. You see where I am going with this? As more brain injury crap comes out, more parents say no, the player pool dwindles, and it is all down hill for the sport of football. Keep in mind I said by the end of the century, not over the next few years. Vermont dropped football, and while they are no BB powerhouse, they manage to put some pretty good teams on the court in BB for a small school from a tiny state. Would like to know what you all think about the future of football for Uconn and the sport in general. Maybe I am dead wrong, I am like I said just speculating.

People join the military for very low wages and you think football is going to die when they are paid millions? The market is large enough for gladiatorial sports, obviously. Hello, MMA.

 

[jazyj]

How about this? We drop basketball. It’s a bigger dumpster fire than the football team.

Football drives the ship. Not basketball. So get on board.

Football has 0 national championships and the attendance is steadily dropping. Uconn is known as a basketball school, but with all that we shouldn’t drop football.