Football Drags on UConn’s Power 5 Ambitions (NYT Nocera)

[huskymedic]

Nice timing...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/14/s...nns-power-5-ambitions.html?partner=IFTTT&_r=0

 

[uconnflyer88]

Can't trust anyone that puts N.C.A.A. in an official news article

 

[formerlurker]

I refuse to get my news from Joe Nocera.

http://dailycampus.com/stories/2016/3/9/fm9e0a3ydkpqh04gvmz1uihbkxq46h

 

[BlueandOG]

Why the negativity toward the author and article? I think he is spot-on. It sucks, but the past is the past. What is important now is what we do going forward. If HFCBD can get our football team winning again, we will be in a P5 conference soon.

 

[SubbaBub]

Rutgers
Syracuse
Pitt
Indiana
Minnesota
Kansas
Kentucky

And our FB program is a problem. Shut up Joe and get a clue.

 

[noeynox]

That was a good article that hit on many points. Nothing earth shattering for boneyarders, but for those that may not know enough about how UConn has been left out that was a good read.

 

[formerlurker]

As for the link I posted, I'm going to take my medicine and ban myself for a few days. I'm drunk and only read the article up to the part where he says Boat's Mom got some money. I stopped reading after that and didn't know Joe Nocera was her biggest advocate. My bad.

 

[rbny1]

I think the article was good for us. It reinforces the idea that UConn gets a lot of attention in the New York media, a key selling point in our bid to join a Power 5 conference. A week or so ago the Times had a lengthy, upbeat article about Breanna Stewart. I don't think any other athletic program in the country has received two major articles in the Times in the past week. The New York Post has also written about UConn recently. It doesn't matter whether the articles are positive or negative. They show that UConn has media clout in New York.

 

[UCFBfan]

Just another article to further divide this fan base between specific sports....I really get sick of this crap.....this is the path the school we support chose. Accept it and support all programs. There's no turning back now so stop harping on the past. I still don't buy the idea that we should go back to the Big East like the author suggested near the end of the article. Long term the Big East will not remain relevant in the large scheme of Collegiate sports.

 

[huskysupporter]

It's market that matters not how good a football program is. If that mattered, Boise State would be in P5 conference right now. Rutgers just got added to the Big 10. Rutgers. You think it was because of their football trophy room?

 

[BlueDogs]

"One solution — indeed, the most practical solution — would be for UConn to de-emphasize or drop football and rejoin the Big East, which has been reconstituted as a basketball league and includes old Huskies rivals like Georgetown and St. John’s. When it was reformulated, the Big East signed a 12-year, $500 million television contract with Fox. Without the expense of football, UConn athletics could well be back in the black."

....Schmuck. The "most practical" solution is get t the P5 which changes the entire revenue landscape for all sports. He states paragraphs earlier that the entire college sports landscape is about football; the rest is irrelevant. So, it would be practical to commit sports suicide? Our house is not divided.

 

[PWS]

You guys are slipping - how did this pass with no comment. No surprise Syr was one of them? WTF.

"then the A.C.C. invited two more universities, bringing its total to 14. It was no surprise that Syracuse was one of them. The shocker was that despite the A.C.C.’s storied basketball tradition, it picked Pitt over UConn.

 

[1999.2004.2011]

Rutgers
Syracuse
Pitt
Indiana
Minnesota
Kansas
Kentucky

And our FB program is a problem. Shut up Joe and get a clue.

I don't believe the point of the article was to state that our football program is bad, more or less we were relegated for reasons other than on the field performance (politics, namely)

 

[MonkeyJo]

We didn't go to back to back bowl games. We went to back to back to back to back bowl games! And we won two Big East Championships. Something that Rutgers has never done in any sport as far as I can tell. The decision to keep us out of a P5 conference is purely political.

It's funny how quickly people forget the excitement that was around UConn football in 2007 - 2010. The stadium was full, and the stands were rocking. Blizzards and driving rainstorms didn't keep the fans away. The atmosphere was electric.

We'll get it back and eventually end up in a P5. New England'ers should be used to weathering the storm. A P5 conference opportunity will open up and they'll want UConn - strong in athletics and strong in academics. Would be very foolish to give up football at this point!

 

[Woof 101]

Responded to a remark on the WBB side, thought it would be a fit here also.
stamfordhusky said: ↑
Yes, it's not happening - but it's too bad football was ever upgraded. UConn would be in better position if they were like Villanova. In the Big East for all sports except football, and having a strong FCS football team. Unfortunately with the investment in the new stadium, football is not going to be downgraded. But it is also very unlikely to ever be strong.
Click to expand...
No spitting match SH but your last sentence was EXACTLY what people were saying in the early 80's as we were consistent cellar dwellers in the old Big East. Many calling for the school to go back to The Yankee Conference.
Back then men & women often played double headers where if you had a ticket for the men's game you could watch the women who played first for free. Along comes Jim, awhile later along comes Geno. Neither got it done immediately. The football program was headed in the right direction and a hasty ill fated hire set it back to square one. In just his second season Bob has the team showing progress. It takes a bit more work to develop a program with 85 to 100 players involved than it does 14. If he continues to succeed and sticks around as Jim and Geno have we could be in for a good ride. Positivity my friend!

Woof 101, 6 minutes ago Edit Delete Report

 

[mainlinedave]

We didn't go to back to back bowl games. We went to back to back to back to back bowl games! And we won two Big East Championships. Something that Rutgers has never done in any sport as far as I can tell. The decision to keep us out of a P5 conference is purely political.

It's funny how quickly people forget the excitement that was around UConn football in 2007 - 2010. The stadium was full, and the stands were rocking. Blizzards and driving rainstorms didn't keep the fans away. The atmosphere was electric.

We'll get it back and eventually end up in a P5. New England'ers should be used to weathering the storm. A P5 conference opportunity will open up and they'll want UConn - strong in athletics and strong in academics. Would be very foolish to give up football at this point!

Rutgers was a Big East Co-Champion in football just like one of your two Big East football championships.

 

[mainlinedave]

Rutgers was a Big East Co-Champion in football just like one of your two Big East football championships.

And Rutgers went to Bowl games 5 years in a row, off one year, then another 4 years in a row.

9 out of 11 years between 2005-2014.

 

[SubbaBub]

It is the commitment to FB that will eventually land us in a P5 conference.

The question is how long can we maintain that comittment at the current revenue levels. Facilities need upgrades and maintenance.

 

[intlzncster]

Responded to a remark on the WBB side, thought it would be a fit here also.
stamfordhusky said: ↑
Yes, it's not happening - but it's too bad football was ever upgraded. UConn would be in better position if they were like Villanova. In the Big East for all sports except football, and having a strong FCS football team. Unfortunately with the investment in the new stadium, football is not going to be downgraded. But it is also very unlikely to ever be strong.
Click to expand...
No spitting match SH but your last sentence was EXACTLY what people were saying in the early 80's as we were consistent cellar dwellers in the old Big East. Many calling for the school to go back to The Yankee Conference.
Back then men & women often played double headers where if you had a ticket for the men's game you could watch the women who played first for free. Along comes Jim, awhile later along comes Geno. Neither got it done immediately. The football program was headed in the right direction and a hasty ill fated hire set it back to square one. In just his second season Bob has the team showing progress. It takes a bit more work to develop a program with 85 to 100 players involved than it does 14. If he continues to succeed and sticks around as Jim and Geno have we could be in for a good ride. Positivity my friend!

Woof 101, 6 minutes ago Edit Delete Report

Man, you showed great restraint in answering that lacking-thought (frankly idiotic) response. Building bridges, one fan at a time.

 

[freescooter]

And Rutgers went to Bowl games 5 years in a row, off one year, then another 4 years in a row.

9 out of 11 years between 2005-2014.

In the interest of fairness though Ruters had 2 winning seasons in the previous quarter century.

 

[FAIRTIDES]

I think the article was good for us. It reinforces the idea that UConn gets a lot of attention in the New York media, a key selling point in our bid to join a Power 5 conference. A week or so ago the Times had a lengthy, upbeat article about Breanna Stewart. I don't think any other athletic program in the country has received two major articles in the Times in the past week. The New York Post has also written about UConn recently. It doesn't matter whether the articles are positive or negative. They show that UConn has media clout in New York.

Nocera is an Economist and real live journalist who is also a sports fan. He was a weekly NYT Op Ed contributor for a number of years; mostly on finance related issues. Somewhere along the line, he became aware of goings-on at the clown college known as the NCAA and started hammering away. And I mean HAMMERING. He pointed out contradictory and inconsistent punishments, wrote logically about player insurance and compensation and, otherwise, made himself a pain in the NCAA's nether regions. It's one thing when a writer from the No-name Gazette complains. It's quite another when a respected journalist writing for "The Paper of Record" (regardless of what one thinks of editorial policy) latches on to your back-side. I used to have visions of our favorite NCAA President paging through EBay for Sniper Teams.

It actually got to the point where Joe had to explain himself to those of his followers who didn't appreciate a person of his gravitas moving away from more serious issues.

A few months ago, NYT announced Joe's new assignment as Sports Business Columnist. The column above is. as far as I can tell, is straight- down-the-line, Joe. Mentions good stuff ("athletic elite," academic status, network and NYC), and notes football as a possible negative. He also hits Rutgers with a huge broadside ("and Rutgers, which mainly competes for the title of America’s worst-run athletic program.").

What more can a UConn fan ask foe than fairness and a shot at NJU?

 

[freescooter]

I really don't get the love affair these guys have with the Big East. The BC guy says it too. Now maybe they are a fit but UConn just is not in the current version. We are not an urban Catholic school. And our rivalries were arguably more with the folks who aren't there any more than they are with the ones who remain.

 

[mainlinedave]

In the interest of fairness though Ruters had 2 winning seasons in the previous quarter century.

And sadly, STILL has a better lifetime football history than UCONN.

At lest RU is above .500 in its history.

 

[FDNY99]

And sadly, STILL has a better lifetime football history than UCONN.

At lest RU is above .500 in its history.

I see the SUPER TURD @mainlinedave is back...

 

[ktuck911]

Gotta love the way some of these "well known" writers/sports columnists/sports radio personalities write/talk so much trash about athletes, sports programs, franchises, as if they actually played a professional sport before.. I respect the ones that might've done that a little more than guys that clearly never did...