Most tax payers think enough is enough. Maybe don't scrap the program but go down a rung and become relevant if no power conf invites within 5 years.
Going to say this here…. Every loss is not some validation to kill the program.
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You dont speak for most taxpayers. Do you have a source for this?
No programs “down a rung” are relevant*
*Excepting certain Big Sky programs (Montana, the Dakotas, where there is absolutely no other professional or major collegiate programs within hundreds of miles)
Boy, the football bashers who feign football fandom, really do come out of the woodwork when you talk money for the program.
So UConn should go back to FCS, like Montana and the Dakotas?
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Gregory is a Syracuse fan living in CT. His like came from a perpetually angry Ct taxpayer
We should never go back to FCS…I think it was the president of uconn that once said… sports is the front porch of our university
You mean "become irrelevant"
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Here's the reality:
1) UConn is not going to drop to FCS, period. Stop suggesting it as an option - it isn't happening, period.
2) There will not be an increase in PUBLIC funds for football. The well is dry and the ROI and public perception of dumping more CT tax/education money to compete with a Texas, Alabama, hell even a Maryland is just not there. There is no political or public interest in dumping more money in a football program. The state and university gets all the exposure it needs from basketball. That is the golden goose.
3) Unless UConn finds an T. Boon Pickens, or even an Harold Alfond, you are stuck with what you have. If you can't sell tickets for football, it is simply because there is no demand for the product. The demand that does exists is not insignificant, but you can't just wish for widespread support from on a scale big enough to compete. Starting a major program just 20 years ago, was too late. There are just too many factors you can't control, so try to accept what you have and you'll have a lot less stress about it
1) UConn is not going to drop to FCS, period. Stop suggesting it as an option - it isn't happening, period.
2) There will not be an increase in PUBLIC funds for football. The well is dry and the ROI and public perception of dumping more CT tax/education money to compete with a Texas, Alabama, hell even a Maryland is just not there. There is no political or public interest in dumping more money in a football program. The state and university gets all the exposure it needs from basketball. That is the golden goose.
3) Unless UConn finds an T. Boon Pickens, or even an Harold Alfond, you are stuck with what you have. If you can't sell tickets for football, it is simply because there is no demand for the product. The demand that does exists is not insignificant, but you can't just wish for widespread support from on a scale big enough to compete. Starting a major program just 20 years ago, was too late. There are just too many factors you can't control, so try to accept what you have and you'll have a lot less stress about it
Of course not. I was responding to and quoted someone who said UConn should go down a level to regain relevancy. As I said FCS schools are not relevant.
The schools in the asterisk section being the exception to that rule in their local region.
the problem for UConn is in the big picture of being academically important it is still a new school so you're not going to have that bevy of millionaires. Give it another 20 years though and I think some of that will be different.
edit: Alfond... just the name alone and that unholy rink named after him....
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'Bevy of millionaires'? UCONN's been around for over a century. If we don't have a sufficient stock of megawealthy donors by now it's not gonna happen.
And a million ain't enough anymore. If your sandbox is anything less than 100MM you're pretty much on the outs. And I'm only half kidding.
State needs to concern itself with becoming economically competitive first and that starts by dramatically slashing income and sales taxes and considering a cap on property taxes. IMO it's the only way. Yes, public services will suffer. But it's a lesser of two evils argument at this point.
I was driving by all that unused old factory space next to 95 outside Bridgeport yesterday and thought to myself, 'Gee what a logical place for an EV production line.' And then I remembered.
Just my personal feeling. The program is an abysmal money pit. I think five more years is a very fair time frame for the school to fix the problem. Frankly, I don't think most tax payers care about the program.
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The Rent attendance the rest of the way will say a lot. The program just couldn't afford a start to the season like this. Needed to go 2-1.
Oh rich. UConn has only been relevant academically for about the last 30-40 of those years. I'm sorry that it true. They're basically UDelaware otherwise. In terms of seriousness they've only been a thing since UConn 2000.
What I'm saying is we likely won't have megadonor money for NIL and the rest for another 20 years or so. I'm sorry that this is the case.
I know what UConn is. I had to consider that when I applied to graduate programs because program prestige and institutional prestige matter as is being relevant in the long term. Even those idiots at Rutgers have decades on us
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PREACH.