How revenue sharing is affecting the schedule

[visitingcock]

Hard to not drift away from Div 1 sports these days. The sport and loyalty to programs seems diminished. Div 11 and 111 may take some of the shine off of the top college sports. It was recently announced that a second Div 1 program as gone Div 111 similar to the U of Hartford decision of several years ago.

I can think of several CONFERENCES that need to switch to DII.

 

[huskyd]

This is UConn women's basketball. Nothing outside of the Top 10 should be a challenging game.

There are outside factors like the JuJu injury, South Carolina (correctly) refusing a February matchup, ND falling off the face of the earth, and Tennessee continuing to not perform to their previous standards -- but there is not one marquee matchup on the UConn schedule to draw outside interest this season (Michigan is too new).

The UConn men aren't playing in the million dollar tournaments because they cannot afford the pay cut from the money they make off their one-off games at MSG and the TD Garden or big home-and-home arrangements.

The women need to try to find a way to generate similar income streams (again -- it would help big names like ND or Tennessee would return to a higher level of competitiveness, USC will return to health, South Carolina comes back in an event setting next season) -- but the OOC should be close to nothing but top teams. It should be a gauntlet if they want to generate revenue and interest that is.

The TV ratings on the men's side (in general) are apparently doing better this season than any year in this century. Teams are generating income and interest in their sport by having an increased level of top names playing each other instead of cupcakes.

It likely isn't there yet -- but I want to see the same on the women's side. Instead, I am pretty much bored with the team already as yet another blowout of an overmatched team has grown tiresome after 30 years of being spoiled by their level of play. And I am a fan already, how do they generate new interest under these conditions?

Many good thoughts here. What really appeals and what I wrote about a few days ago was for UConn to be playing more better teams. We have a great product, but it doesn't help to waste (entertainment) time playing weaker teams. There is probably less drop off in attendance when the Huskies go up against a predictably poor group; there, is, however, some drop off. UConn sells and so does competition.
I really sympathize with ec33's boredom. During today's fiasco with DePaul, I was screaming that I waited all week to see this ugliness.
Don't blame the Blue Devils; they're doing what they're supposed to be doing as are we. But why put everyone through this hideous charade? This was not a game; it was an execution.
We must escape from the Big Least if there's any way to do so. Is there? And the dreaded question: can we afford to?

 

[Dogdude]

Many good thoughts here. What really appeals and what I wrote about a few days ago was for UConn to be playing more better teams. We have a great product, but it doesn't help to waste (entertainment) time playing weaker teams. There is probably less drop off in attendance when the Huskies go up against a predictably poor group; there, is, however, some drop off. UConn sells and so does competition.
I really sympathize with ec33's boredom. During today's fiasco with DePaul, I was screaming that I waited all week to see this ugliness.
Don't blame the Blue Devils; they're doing what they're supposed to be doing as are we. But why put everyone through this hideous charade? This was not a game; it was an execution.
We must escape from the Big Least if there's any way to do so. Is there? And the dreaded question: can we afford to?

Spot on. And this is why all this is coming to a head...as Visitingcock said above, there are whole conferences that should be playing D3. Forget D2. Skip all the way down to no scholarships and mostly club sports, save the money spent on athletics and use it for actual educational purposes. This wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, and would allow niche sports the same status as the big sports. Smaller colleges, like Fort Lewis have a football team that's pretty lame, but cycling is a club sport and they're almost always collegiate champions at all levels. Our daughter, when in college, was at a big regional invitational track meet, and one girl from MIT was cleaning up against the big names.

D2 or D3 isn't a death knell for sports at these colleges, it simply allows the college to save the dough and quit pretending to being competitive. There's no shame in being realistic and allowing sports to be fun, which is really what 99% of the athletes should be using them for, and getting off the expense-filled roller coaster.

 

[Skeets]

Not sure if this was an invitation or a warning. UConn fans need to understand there will be more and more requests to donate in various ways.

You know the whole world is changing. A couple of decades ago (OK, maybe 3 or 4) if you had 2 beers the house would give you 1. When's the last time you got a beer on the house? Liability I suppose...

Forget first night. There will be no free autographs. Time keeps on moving into the future... (sounds like a song)