Geno on Uconn football - come on fans, support the team. | The Boneyard

Geno on Uconn football - come on fans, support the team.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Good for Geno. I think he knows football is our ticket out of the AAC.
 
Other than the B1G, the ACC and staying in the AAC, do you guys have any other options?
 
.-.
cockhrnleghrn said:
Other than the B1G, the ACC and staying in the AAC, do you guys have any other options?
Expand ...

Well that's 2 out of the Power 5. There's not that many places to go.
 
There was one point a few years ago where there was a short-lived rumor that the SEC was looking at UConn. Can you imagine the UConn women in the SEC, lol?
 
First off, that was pretty cool of coach Auriemma to show the love to the football program. But he is right, folks should attend the football games NOW. Build that base NOW.

Secondly, I want us to stay in the American. Let's (and the rest of the conference members) make the American Athletic Conference the next BIG thing. Sure the other conferences are sexy but sexy ain't everything. I want to see the AAC develop into something special.
 
.-.
doggydaddy said:
My gut says football 2015 will be played in the B1G.
Expand ...

I hope your gut gives an accurate prediction, but I still think we have to get into
the AAU before we can get into the Big 10. Every member of the Big 10 is in the
AAU except Nebraska (which was in the AAU when they joined the conference
but was subsequently voted out - with two of the negative votes coming from
Big 10 presidents!) This (academic excellence) is evidently something the Big 10
takes seriously.

Consider the invitation to Rutgers to join the conference. Is their football program
consistently better than UConn's? No. Last year our team was pretty bad, but we
still beat Rutgers. I won't even mention basketball. In terms of overall athletic
excellence, I think you have to give the nod to UConn. Is Rutgers somehow able
to have a stronger grip on the New York TV market than UConn? I'm not sure
that you could make a convincing case for that proposition.

So what's left? Rutgers is a member of the AAU, and UConn isn't.
 
Last edited:
ed4ourgirls said:
I hope your gut gives an accurate prediction, but I still think we have to get into
the AAU before we can get into the Big 10. Every member of the Big 10 is in the
AAU except Nebraska (which was in the AAU when they joined the conference
but was subsequently voted out - with two of the negative votes coming from
Big 10 presidents!) This (academic excellence) is evidently something the Big 10
takes seriously.

Consider the invitation to Rutgers to join the conference. Is their football program
consistently better than UConn's? No. Last year our team was pretty bad, but we
still beat Rutgers. I won't even mention basketball. In terms of overall athletic
excellence, I think you have to give the nod to UConn. Is Rutgers somehow able
to have a stronger grip on the New York TV market than UConn? I'm not sure
that you could make a convincing case for that proposition.

So what's left? Rutgers is a member of the AAU, and UConn isn't.
Expand ...
Notre Dame was invited to the B1G; it is not a member of the AAU.
 
HuskyNan said:
Notre Dame was invited to the B1G; it is not a member of the AAU.
Expand ...

Yes, but they are NOTRE DAME, not UConn. When you have that kind of cachet you
often are judged by a different set of rules. (which is why everyone hates Notre Dame).

In the end, you still have to ask yourself why the Big 10 chose Rutgers instead of UConn.
The AAU is the only plausible reason I can think of.

Upon reflection, there may exist a bit of a cachet to Rutgers as well. They are an old
institution whose origins go back to the mid-18th century, and they famously played
in the first intercollegiate football game (1869 v. Princeton). By comparison UConn
is a jumped-up cow college - a relative parvenu both athletically and academically.
 
Last edited:
doggydaddy said:
My gut says football 2015 will be played in the B1G.
Expand ...

I hope your gut is right, but I'm not holding my breath. We're in the AAC now, and all we can do is make the university so blatantly obviously out of place, with this conference, that those that actually vote on these matters have the easy decision next time. The big 10 is up for television broadcasting negotiations in 2016 if I'm not mistaken, which would make your time frame - possible? Not holding my breath though.

Connecticut culture is the only place in this country where the women's basketball coach can, will, and has taken the field at a football game, talked over the PA and rallied the entire crowd. It's a fantastic thing that we have in Connecticut around UCONN athletics. Geno is a huge, huge contributor to it and is the patriarch right now.

It's foolish to think that buying up tickets, selling out the stadium regularly, etc. is going to directly correlate and relate to getting an invite to the big 10. If things like that mattered, there is no way that Rutgers and Maryland are invited.

What Geno's message I think, is more important, is that the few hundred dollars a year that would go into a season ticket package for 2 or 3 people, is very important to the entire athletic department.

It's rare that I venture out of writing other than the football board. Last time I got into an in depth discussion around here, it had to do with all the PSU football stuff. I recall writing about the Ohio U (not OSU) Ohio U potentially getting a home game from PSU. Long story short - the fans I encountered online at that time, around here, had absolutely no idea how much money revolves around the sport of football. A single home football game, generates millions of dollars. Plural.

We are on the wrong side of the fence right now when it comes to revenue streams in intercollegiate athletics, and it's about intercollegiate football revenue through TELEVISION money. What the P5 make through football TV contracts exceeds what the others will make by tens of millions of dollars.

Here's the bottom line. Connecticut culture is unique in the entire country. Connecticut is typically a very blue state on social policy, yet we in CT are very conservative and tend to be fiscally responsible. (i.e. Unless the university is completely snowballing the entire alumni base and state legislature, we tend to run a tight ship in the athletic department that is not seeping money and having to shut down programs.) For those that may not know, prior to joining the Big10 and planning ahead to tap into their television revenue streams around football - Maryland shut down 7 varsity sports in their AD that they could no longer afford to sponsor - UCONN is in no such position, and hasn't been - even on the prior Big East revenue streams)

SO - we are going to making less money than before and have a big bridge as an athletic department in revenue streams, from the P5 conferences, and I think - that since we've been able to do as well as we have so far, ond what we had - IF.....IF...

we can bridge the fan bases, and actually start selling out Rentschler regularly, the core season ticket base is about 17-20k. Stadium seats 40k. (the seats are not priced more than baskteball I think - $30 per seat?)

IF we can do that, We will have more than enough money to remain competitive and continue to recruit with best facilities in the country. The thing about having money, lots of it, if you spend it stupidly it doesn't matter, but if you have less money and are smart?

Disclaimer (football seats in chairback sections, club and preferred sections require a matching seat 'donation' to the ticket face price.)


Last thing - football games, and the tailgating experience, is actually quite enjoyable. All first timers should plan to come to games early, and walk through the lots up and down the rows on the way in to the stadium, and approach people - everyone is friendly and will share their experience, food, drink and fun.

THe football team - they need to start kicking ass again, and it may take a while (hopefully sooner than later) but they seem to be on track again.

We get BYU at home on Friday evening Aug. 29. Hope to see UCONN army of fans in force!!
 
Carl Spackler said:
I hope your gut is right, but I'm not holding my breath. We're in the AAC now, and all we can do is make the university so blatantly obviously out of place, with this conference, that those that actually vote on these matters have the easy decision next time. The big 10 is up for television broadcasting negotiations in 2016 if I'm not mistaken, which would make your time frame - possible? Not holding my breath though.

Connecticut culture is the only place in this country where the women's basketball coach can, will, and has taken the field at a football game, talked over the PA and rallied the entire crowd. It's a fantastic thing that we have in Connecticut around UCONN athletics. Geno is a huge, huge contributor to it and is the patriarch right now.

It's foolish to think that buying up tickets, selling out the stadium regularly, etc. is going to directly correlate and relate to getting an invite to the big 10. If things like that mattered, there is no way that Rutgers and Maryland are invited.

What Geno's message I think, is more important, is that the few hundred dollars a year that would go into a season ticket package for 2 or 3 people, is very important to the entire athletic department.

It's rare that I venture out of writing other than the football board. Last time I got into an in depth discussion around here, it had to do with all the PSU football stuff. I recall writing about the Ohio U (not OSU) Ohio U potentially getting a home game from PSU. Long story short - the fans I encountered online at that time, around here, had absolutely no idea how much money revolves around the sport of football. A single home football game, generates millions of dollars. Plural.

We are on the wrong side of the fence right now when it comes to revenue streams in intercollegiate athletics, and it's about intercollegiate football revenue through TELEVISION money. What the P5 make through football TV contracts exceeds what the others will make by tens of millions of dollars.

Here's the bottom line. Connecticut culture is unique in the entire country. Connecticut is typically a very blue state on social policy, yet we in CT are very conservative and tend to be fiscally responsible. (i.e. Unless the university is completely snowballing the entire alumni base and state legislature, we tend to run a tight ship in the athletic department that is not seeping money and having to shut down programs.) For those that may not know, prior to joining the Big10 and planning ahead to tap into their television revenue streams around football - Maryland shut down 7 varsity sports in their AD that they could no longer afford to sponsor - UCONN is in no such position, and hasn't been - even on the prior Big East revenue streams)

SO - we are going to making less money than before and have a big bridge as an athletic department in revenue streams, from the P5 conferences, and I think - that since we've been able to do as well as we have so far, ond what we had - IF.....IF...

we can bridge the fan bases, and actually start selling out Rentschler regularly, the core season ticket base is about 17-20k. Stadium seats 40k. (the seats are not priced more than baskteball I think - $30 per seat?)

IF we can do that, We will have more than enough money to remain competitive and continue to recruit with best facilities in the country. The thing about having money, lots of it, if you spend it stupidly it doesn't matter, but if you have less money and are smart?

Disclaimer (football seats in chairback sections, club and preferred sections require a matching seat 'donation' to the ticket face price.)


Last thing - football games, and the tailgating experience, is actually quite enjoyable. All first timers should plan to come to games early, and walk through the lots up and down the rows on the way in to the stadium, and approach people - everyone is friendly and will share their experience, food, drink and fun.

THe football team - they need to start kicking ass again, and it may take a while (hopefully sooner than later) but they seem to be on track again.

We get BYU at home on Friday evening Aug. 29. Hope to see UCONN army of fans in force!!
Expand ...
Thank god they only show part of the post when you quote it.

I still have the ticket from the first rent game and a teeshirt they were selling in the parking lot.

Been to maybe 30 games, great tailgates. I agree, it's a great experience.

If the B1G expands, I can't imagine them not taking Uconn.
 
doggydaddy said:
Thank god they only show part of the post when you quote it.

I still have the ticket from the first rent game and a teeshirt they were selling in the parking lot.

Been to maybe 30 games, great tailgates. I agree, it's a great experience.

If the B1G expands, I can't imagine them not taking Uconn.
Expand ...

Ha! Yes - I write a lot.

I agree, that if the Big10 plans to expand it's footprint in the northeast corridor, and actually acts upon it, then bringing UCONN into the mix is a no-brainer. Big If-then statment there though.

What's real is what we can control, and I think that a vibrant football program with a 40k seat venue selling out, we can not just survive, but can continue to thrive, on the side of the money divide we find ourselves on now in division 1A. We've been a 1A athletic department since 2000 if I'm not mistaken, and of those 14 years, only 8 of them we were part of the BCS revenue streams.

THe football program on the field obviously needs to do their part. They weren't pulling their weight the past 3 seasons, and the program has cleaned house.

What I also know is real, as that the coaches and players put in so much time and effort and work throughout the year....and I hope, that when they take the field on Aug. 29 for the season opener at home - they do it in front of packed sold out house cheering them on. Our UCONN family deserves that. I think.

When a team goes 5-7 back to back seasons, adn then starts out 0-9 - the guys on the field that are bleeding and pouring everythign they've got into the love the game, understand why they're playing in front of only 17,000+ on a freezing rain cold day in December in the last game of a season, with no post season meaning. They deserve better on opening night. I'll be there with my crew.

BUT - Geno's point. UCONN basketball in the early 80s - WAS a draw - even when they weren't so good and hadn't won much.

UCONN still drew 17,000 to the stadium in the cold and wet on the first saturday of December, for the closing game of the 2013 season against Memphis when both teams were 2-9, in a quote/unquote meaningless game.

A winning UCONN team, that can crack the top 25 - I agree whole-hearedly with GEno - would be incredible in what kind of waves of people and support it would generate.

I won't belabor this point any longer - I just hope that we can fill that stadium up on August 29 for the game against BYU with 40,000 true blue UCONN fans to honor all the work and effort the guys have put in over the course of the year. How it ends up in December? We'll see each week that goes by.

I also promise, that I will do a hell of a lot more than I ever did, in following the women's hoops program!! :-)

Have a good night.
 
.-.
Who among the women's board regular posters has season tickets for football? I do, have had them since before UConn went D1. Nearly opted not to renew this year. But the Diaco hire has gotten me excited again for football. I don't expect miracles. But the last three years were painful. This year can't be much worse.
 
HuskyNan said:
Maybe we'll have to organize an all-board tailgate to one of the games. Will think about this.
Expand ...

We open up the season on Friday night Aug. 29 on national TV against BYU. Have I mentioned that? ;-) Seems like a good way to start the season.

We have two more home games in short order after that in September against Stony Brook and Boise State.

The football parents have been organizing their own tailgates for several years in the blue lot. The football alumni tend to set up their camps across Silver Lane in the cash fee baseball field lots. Maybe the boneyard can get organized too and plant a flag somewhere around the stadium. :-)
 
I know football drives the bus and everything that entails, but I do find one thing interesting. The NCAA has a publication of a revenue of athletic departments across various divisions for the years 2004 - 2012. Huge report with lost of interesting breakdowns - no school specific breakdowns because confidentiality was guaranteed through the data collection process, but it does break out revenue and expenses by sport, gender, and sources of revenue and expenses, etc. You can download from:
https://www.ncaapublications.com/p-...ntercollegiate-athletics-programs-report.aspx

So - the table I found interesting was the median profit/loss by division for all ADs based on 'Generated Income' and Expenses (this drops out any state or institutional subsidies.) The numbers for 2012 (which are relationally pretty consistent through the whole time frame):
FBS: -12,272,000
FCS: -10,219,000
D1-non-football: -9,809,000

So ... while being a FBS school generally means higher revenues, it also requires higher subsidies. In a 5 year study 2005-2009 a total of 8 programs did not require subsidies SEC (2), Big10 (3.5) and Big12 (2.5) (Nebraska being the .5) I realize revenues have increased dramatically based on TV contracts since 2009, but so have expenses.
In 2012 USA reported 23 out of 228 athletic departments at public schools were in the black without subsidies (though 16 of those schools ADs still received subsidies.)
I know we are all fans of athletics here and all, but it does begin to raise questions when Uconn general student population and the state are subsidizing athletics to the tune of a reported $17M per year.
I know Geno is the best WBB coach in the world, Ollie is great, and we all have high hopes for Diaco - but to put it a little in perspective 'the most powerful person in the world' the US president earns $569K in salary and benefits, the CT Governor earns $150K. Puts Ollie being underpaid at $1M+ a little more in perspective.
 
there are plenty of number gymnastics and accounting magic that can happen in how numbers are reported. I don't put much weight into that. There are not many things that pass the 'eye test' accurately and precisely reproduceably, but how an athletic department is functioning with it's facilities and programs is an eye test. Division 1A football is high volume cash flow business. Look at the value of football this way.

I don't have an explanation / theory for the following observations: It's just observation - let the scientific method flow from there.


In the modern era intercollegiate athletics business after the Supreme Court decision in 1984 around intercollegiate football and the NCAA - there have been 30 NCAA men's basketball championship tournaments. Only one school has won a men's basketball national championship since 1985 that did not also field a division 1A football program - UCONN in 1999. UCONN at the time was in process of upgrading to 1A.

Prior to that, Marquette in 1977, and Georgetown and Villanova in 84, and 85 are the only programs that did not have division 1 football programs and win a title going all the way back to early 1960s and pre-John Wooden at UCLA.

Something is happening there.
 
I confess I had to go look up some info on women's basketball. I'm smarter now though. It seems that the NCAA started women's basketball championship events in 1981-1982 season. Since then, there has been only one school earn a title that did not also field a division 1A athletic department (football). ODU in 1985 . ODU is currently upgrading football.

Prior to that there was something called the AIAW tournament from 1972-1982 - a prior association geared specifically to women's athletics. Until a few minutes ago I did not know that colleges existed by the name of Immaculata and Delta State - but they won in the early 70s. I do recognize Louisana Tech and Rutgers though - and they both have football programs and they won in 80s.
 
.-.
Carl Spackler said:
I confess I had to go look up some info on women's basketball. I'm smarter now though. It seems that the NCAA started women's basketball championship events in 1981-1982 season. Since then, there has been only one school earn a title that did not also field a division 1A athletic department (football). ODU in 1985 . ODU is currently upgrading football.

Prior to that there was something called the AIAW tournament from 1972-1982 - a prior association geared specifically to women's athletics. Until a few minutes ago I did not know that colleges existed by the name of Immaculata and Delta State - but they won in the early 70s. I do recognize Louisana Tech and Rutgers though - and they both have football programs and they won in 80s.
Expand ...
Ummm - Uconn WCBB 1995!!! 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 I believe were all before the upgrade

On the expenses and income - agree that they are difficult to pin down, but just some numbers to remember in 2014 dollars: Football stadium - $117M and it would need probably 50% more to upgrade to B1G minimum standards, Burton and Shenkman facilities $48M, Basketball practice facility $32M, Gampel $50M. And if it were a for profit business you would probably be using a 20-25 year amortization on the buildings (Gampel needs either a 25-30M upgrade or tear down/rebuild), and a 5-10 year on all the equipment. The initial infrastructure costs are huge for an athletic department and the maintenance on those structures/equipment is a yearly drain. And that is before you get into the human capital - $10M is salaries?, $10M in scholarships?, insurance, medical insurance, travel, recruiting, etc. That $30M +/- share out of bowl/tournament/TV money for big conferences gets eaten up pretty quickly.

Listen - I am not arguing for Uconn to drop football and I desperately want Uconn in a big conference, but like the Olympics transition to a professional sporting competition, I think we have lost some or all the innocence of college athletics being an 'amateur' competition amongst student athletes. And I wax a little nostalgic for those days. Athlete unionization is just one manifestation of that. When the coach of your college women's basketball team is making 4 times what your college president is making and 20 times what your average faculty member is making, maybe the priorities of the universities have gotten out of whack.
 
LOL - open mouth insert foot on 1995. Sorry all. Rebecca Lobo's team kicked butt.

The point is that for some reason, it seems that for the past 35 years, other than 1990s UCONN - which was in transition from 1-AA to 1A , if a university athletic department wants to win a national title in basktball - schools that don't play football at the top level don't seem to win. Is it coincidence? maybe. Is there a reasoning directly? Maybe. I don't know - just pointing out the observation.

As for UCONN football - to keep it as brief as possible for me. John Toner was involved in placing UCONN football into the 1-AA classification in 1978. As soon as Lew Perkins took over he started laying the ground work for upgrading. It wasn't until 1997 that the UCONN BOT approved the upgrade. In 2000 it finally happened. We played football in the Yankee Conference 1-AA for 20 years until 1998. We transitioned from 1-AA to 1-A from 1999-2000 playign in the A-10 conference briefly after the Yankee conference folded up. Then went 1-A independant in 2000 to 2003, then joined the Big East conference in 2004. We've been officially a 1-A football program and a 1A athletic department (there are specific requirements for each) (they use different letters these days for the classification systems) but we've been where we're at for 14 seasons and counting as an athletic department and football program.

The difference between 2000-2003 and 2012-2013, having to do with conferences is two fold: #1 is in the structure of television revenue sharing and bowl invitation systems of the college football post season, and #2 is the regular season television broadcasting revenue. When we were independnat, and now - we were on the wrong side of the revenue fence - when we were in teh Big East - we were part of what the P5 have now.

Everything you note about the degradation of the system - right up to the current 'unionization' of football players traces back to a landmark anti-trust lawsuit filed by the Oklahoma University and University of Georgia vs. the NCAA around the regulation of television revenue around intercollegiate football in the early 1980s. The U.S. supreme court ruling went against the NCAA, and revenue sharing in the NCAA was deregulated around football......Notre Dame signed their independant television contract, conferences starting forming and reforming around television contracts and the rest is history. The NCAA has essentially been hands off with television revenue sharing around football ever since - unlike every other sport.
 
FWIW for perspective sake: The contract that was just signed recently for the new college football post season format that has replaced the BCS was for $500 million dollars annually - for I think 6 years. That's $500 million for 6 games a year. The other 30 or so bowl games have their own individual payout systems. THat money does not get dispersed fairly or evenly among the NCAA, or even based on merit really - because of the anti-trust suit in 1984 - and we are not among the group of schools in the country that get the big pieces of the pie each year. You just need to be in the right conferences to get the big money - and we're not anymore.

THat's just the post season revenue stream - regular season contracts add lots more - for the schools on the side of the divide that is now the P5.

I think UCONN can continue to thrive, because we are so unique, and we've essentially gottent to where we've gotten, without ever really being part of the big time money for any significnat period of time, but we will need to get back to where we were in the late oughts....2007-2010 or so, and selling out our home football stadium regularly again. It sure would be easier, to simply have the right conference affiliation. BUt that's not really under our control. We can influence it, but until such time as another vote happens among the P5 conferences, to change, and that vote involves UCONN - all we can do - is build and maintain a profile that makes us attractive, and build and maintain the personal relationships at the highest levels among the administrators that actually vote on such matters, such that we're included in the future.

THanks for your time in reading and responding.
 
Carl - have enjoyed your perspective and more detailed knowledge of the football scene
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Forum statistics

Threads
167,965
Messages
4,547,115
Members
10,430
Latest member
TeganK


Top Bottom