Future of the athletic department.

[shizzle787]

So most of the people on this website are hardcore fans. I want to find out the numbers behind the varying arguments people have made here about our future.

 

[uconnfan68]

None of the above.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Sadly I don't think it matters. The athletic department is pretty much finished. I've become so apathetic that if they put the toe tag on football I'm not sure I'd disagree with the decision.

Chasing this P5 dream is a huge folly at this point.

 

[tiger8mush]

What should Shizzle787 do?
- become a BC fan
- cancel his BY membership
- poke himself in the eye with a pencil
- not overreact to a loss by creating dumb polls with only sh!tty options

 

[shizzle787]

What should Shizzle787 do?
- become a BC fan
- cancel his BY membership
- poke himself in the eye with a pencil
- not overreact to a loss by creating dumb polls with only sh!tty options

We only have bad options...

 

[CL82]

Sadly I don't think it matters. The athletic department is pretty much finished. I've become so apathetic that if they put the toe tag on football I'm not sure I'd disagree with the decision.

Chasing this P5 dream is a huge folly at this point.

Wow say it ain't so Jimmy. You've given up?

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Wow say it ain't so Jimmy. You've given up?

It's not up to me. We're not going to get into the P5. Without that the football program will not survive. It's simple economics.

Last year I thought if people bailed they could say they went down with the ship. I came back because they got rid of the clowns and brought in a competent staff. It's obvious the issues went much deeper than coaching. Recruiting has been at an FCS level. CT fans have shown they are fickle. If Edsall turns the program around what's the ceiling? Answer that question and then tell me if the fans who left will buy back in.

 

[CL82]

It's not up to me. We're not going to get into the P5. Without that the football program will not survive. It's simple economics.

Last year I thought if people bailed they could say they went down with the ship. I came back because they got rid of the clowns and brought in a competent staff. It's obvious the issues went much deeper than coaching. Recruiting has been at an FCS level. CT fans have shown they are fickle. If Edsall turns the program around what's the ceiling? Answer that question and then tell me if the fans who left will buy back in.

Fair points. If Edsall can turn around the program we're still looking a maybe 8 or 9 win ceiling. Will people buy back in? A lot will, but we'd need a conference change to to re-energize the program back to point that we're playing in a full stadium.

 

[noeynox]

Sadly I don't think it matters. The athletic department is pretty much finished. I've become so apathetic that if they put the toe tag on football I'm not sure I'd disagree with the decision.

Chasing this P5 dream is a huge folly at this point.

Sadly, I'm just slightly less pessimistic than this. As long as there is an FBS program I will support it by going to select games. I'm not buying any more season tix. I just don't believe we will ever be P5. Without that designation it's incredibly uphill for this program. When we were BCS we had that it recruit against non bcs schools. Now we're just trying to sell academics?

It's gone over 5 years since we last got snubbed.

 

[ASweet3781]

UConn's main sports before conference realignment were Men's hoop, women's hoop, men's and women's soccer, and field hockey with an aggressive upgrade from trailers to the Fiesta bowl in football and solid regional baseball.

In 2017, Geno and Nancy Stevens are still performing with the same standard of excellence (women's hoop and field hockey not the deepest sports). But the main recruiting pitches for men's hoop and football were destroyed and no football money means the championship level soccer teams are in big trouble. Men's hoop sold recruits on Come play in MSG and on Big Monday. Football sold kids on a BCS league and to play against regional rivals. Without that to sell it's big trouble. A vicious cycle with no solution in sight.

 

[whaler11]

I think Ollie has at least got his hands back on the steering wheel and is going to avoid the iceberg.

Attendance is dropping quickly everywhere - just follow EmptySeatsGalore on Twitter.

I think the P5 is in for a rude awakening when their deals renew. They aren’t going to grow or remain the same without some kind of change in approach.

As the media world continues to fragment I can’t see who is going to invest the type of money the P5 has begun to grow accustomed to.

I also don’t see a world where a league can go over the top independently and generate the dollars they need.

There are only so many OTA options and windows.

The cable bundle created this monster - without it I don’t see anyway it gets fed the way it has been.

 

[uconnric]

It's not up to me. We're not going to get into the P5. Without that the football program will not survive. It's simple economics.

Last year I thought if people bailed they could say they went down with the ship. I came back because they got rid of the clowns and brought in a competent staff. It's obvious the issues went much deeper than coaching. Recruiting has been at an FCS level. CT fans have shown they are fickle. If Edsall turns the program around what's the ceiling? Answer that question and then tell me if the fans who left will buy back in.

Fickle? That’s bs. This fan base has more loyalty than any other In our predicament by far. Right now we’re at a disadvantage due to conference affiliation. Things change. If you can’t hang in, then you are a fickle fan. See ya.

 

[Drew]

I am beyond tired of these threads

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Fickle? That’s bs. This fan base has more loyalty than any other In our predicament by far. Right now we’re at a disadvantage due to conference affiliation. Things change. If you can’t hang in, then you are a fickle fan. See ya.

Hahaha you are the king of wrong.

 

[uconndogs]

UConn will stay the course with the football program.

Folks need to go to the games and have a good time. Yesterday was a lot of fun.

 

[EJHarrington]

Fickle? That’s bs. This fan base has more loyalty than any other In our predicament by far. Right now we’re at a disadvantage due to conference affiliation. Things change. If you can’t hang in, then you are a fickle fan. See ya.

Agreed. The fact that we draw 20000-25000 per game after 7 years of what we have witnessed is pretty amazing, considering watching the product on the field has been as fun as poking needles in your eyes. That's a hardcore fan base when you get right down to it.

 

[BugsyCT]

We stay in the AAC until further notice. People start talking about tanking the football program and it defeats the purpose of why we ever upgraded in the first place. The hoop teams will survive as long as we have good coaches & players producing wins. Geno's teams haven't missed a beat so far.

We knew this season would be another rough one for football. Let's see what Randy can do once he gets his recruits in here.

I hate this thread. Depressing .

 

[Pudge]

There ain't gonna be a P5


A Premier League. Massive dollars for 18-25 Programs. But March Madness remains a fairly wide open affair. Football drives the bus. By 2025.

 

[Hamms30]

Fickle? That’s bs. This fan base has more loyalty than any other In our predicament by far. Right now we’re at a disadvantage due to conference affiliation. Things change. If you can’t hang in, then you are a fickle fan. See ya.

I don't think you can use the BY as a representation of the entire fan base. The people that post here are going to be there year in year out and to your point have remained faithfully loyal. But you can't fill the stadium with just BY'ers. That's the rest of the fan base the school needs to bring back plus the students.

Whaler makes a good point with how TV deals will be reworked and broadcast in the future. I really wonder what the long term effects of CTE awareness are going to be going forward on football's popularity. My town has had trouble fielding a JV team lately and Pop Warner numbers have been scary low the last few years and for pop warner anyways parents have told me it's because they are terrified of it. I don't know the answer, but I feel like other sports may start closing the popularity gap in the future. I think that would play to UConn's advantage. If football becomes competitive, all the better.

 

[uconnfan68]

There ain't gonna be a P5


A Premier League. Massive dollars for 18-25 Programs. But March Madness remains a fairly wide open affair. Football drives the bus. By 2025.

Never a nickel from me without UConn.

 

[Woof 101]

So most of the people on this website are hardcore fans. I want to find out the numbers behind the varying arguments people have made here about our future.

No attack shizzle, but one has to question why there would be a thread and a poll listing only ONE viable option at this point on the topic?

 

[UConnDan97]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; we are one successful football season away from changing the entire perspective. And by successful, I'm talking 8-4 or 9-3.

Fans come back when they feel they have a good chance to see a win. The crowds will slowly grow back through a winning season and the good feelings will grow back with it.

Yale grabbed 50k in their stadium for an FCS game which was essentially an Ivy League championship game against their rival, a single year after they went 3-7 and didn't get more than 10k for any home game. Once they started winning this year, their attendance went up and they drew over 15k to see friggin Columbia!

We're one good season away, folks. Hang in there...

 

[pick6s]

Stay in the AAC for now and do everything we can to get into a power conference in the next round of realignment, likely in 2025. If we don't get in then, it will be time to seriously consider dropping down to FCS or even cutting the football program altogether.

 

[Dizzy21]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; we are one successful football season away from changing the entire perspective. And by successful, I'm talking 8-4 or 9-3.

Fans come back when they feel they have a good chance to see a win. The crowds will slowly grow back through a winning season and the good feelings will grow back with it.

Yale grabbed 50k in their stadium for an FCS game which was essentially an Ivy League championship game against their rival, a single year after they went 3-7 and didn't get more than 10k for any home game. Once they started winning this year, their attendance went up and they drew over 15k to see friggin Columbia!

We're one good season away, folks. Hang in there...

Are you really comparing any game we play the "The Game", basically one of the oldest, strongest rivalry games in football? Of course they get 50k for that, the series is something like 150 years old. Our oldest rivalry is 5 years or something.

 

[FartMan69]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; we are one successful football season away from changing the entire perspective. And by successful, I'm talking 8-4 or 9-3.

Fans come back when they feel they have a good chance to see a win. The crowds will slowly grow back through a winning season and the good feelings will grow back with it.

Yale grabbed 50k in their stadium for an FCS game which was essentially an Ivy League championship game against their rival, a single year after they went 3-7 and didn't get more than 10k for any home game. Once they started winning this year, their attendance went up and they drew over 15k to see friggin Columbia!

We're one good season away, folks. Hang in there...

How does anything actually change if we have a winning season? What are we one good season away from? What did Temple get when they had their good season?