story time as warde nears his deadline:
back in the summer of 2011 susan herbst started here at uconn. she was already familiar with the acc and what was going on. so when she took charge she knew that the acc had its eyes on 2 to 4 teams to expand with soon. she knew that a internal study done by acc ppl(which was later leaked by fsu becuase they wern't happy) showed that wvu, uconn/ruty, lville, cuse and pitt were the most valueable in order from the big east. back then swofford was on a high horse becuase he thought he was going to detroy the big east and its bball by using fball and espn as a home for the big boys. swofford passed on wvu becuase he knew they wouldn't get in on academics. tobacco road and north wouldn't view them as worthy and vt didn't want wvu a powerhouse potential and great history in the same league so close to them. remember vt was still riding that streak of great years then burning in bcs games. one of the first things susan did was go to bc and smooth things over with the govener. she knew a good amount of the acc already and aso knew that she needed to start north on a good footing. she did one hell of a job. but we also were at the time developing a major relationship with rutgers in everything possible. thats where we started our b10 talks. we filled out the application just like ruty had done a full year in advance like that and soon after started talking to them. thats why we quietly invested in figuring out the hockey situation back then. the b10 was starting a puck league and looking at new england. among all the reasons in new england to look for chools, down the list a few bullets was the puck league and how could they penetrate hockey east and potenital use its big names and tv brand to trump it long term. there is inverntory and $ to be made at the high levels of puck if done right and the b10 owns puck land about everywhere acept new england. susan saw this as a major flaw in uconn.
the rent was expandable, and research could be upped in time but puck needed action. so thats why it was decided on so quickly. it made us have that extra positive. tis is why her vision is what it is and why she hired warde. so back to late summer 2011. the acc has its study and now knowing wvu is off the board, wvu starts to look around. the acc wanted ruty and uconn. together the 2 came to the conclusion of what the future was holding in CR that it was better to stay put in the short term and see what happens before making moves later. they asumed slots would be there later for them and that they could keep the fball league together for a couple more years in doing so. what they didn't plan on was this. cuse and pitt were then invited and the acc was pissed about being denied. cuse and pitt are private and half private schools who grew up as fball powers that now are a bit washed up and dream bball like the dukes of the world. the acc is the perfect conf for them and they took bait asap.
this was the first time ruty and uconn realized how bad espn wanted to shrink its holdings by 1 league and was willing pr wise to damage them. they not to say misplayed, but miscounted for how agressive espn would get. i still to this day agree with the moves. anyway wvu was searching and begging the sec. there was even rumors of pitt going with them before they pulled the acc trigger. remember those? 2 teams from the same market lol. wvu found a great filler slot in the b12 and left imediately. the reason? becuase of academics once they found out that 2 of the 3 confs were not possible, u might as well fill your slot and not hang around so that u dont get passed. sounds familiar(cough lville cough). so that was the first go around in which uconn and ruty passed on acc invites.
fast forward. uconn is aiming incredibly high research and faculty wise. why? for fun? anyway, the b10 has been sniffing around for a long time and they got md and ruty. i have already given my position on this whole CR move the past month on the CR board so i'm not going thru it again. we were invited and decided to wait again. in order for lville to be taken by the acc it shows whats going on. it shows that enough slots will be open that academics now dont matter(cough wvu pass up last year), it shows that those schools voting ok who have academics high are seeing other possibilities and it shows schools are being nasty. fsu is going to stick the acc with bull crap on puepose and pull the b12 trigger when it feels time to do so. it wants nothing more than duke and lville and cincy to hang out. thats revenge for not getting wvu fball into the league. thats the rift.
why did uconn pass up a 2nd time? becuase the b10 is still the gaol and the acc will always have slots open if we dont get to the b10. the difference is this, susan is be strategic in this. shes willing to fly the big east flag until it cant be flown any more(getting close) and then move to the b10. small exit fee and no pr hit for it. if she went to the acc and then the b10 its a car crash pr wise as espn can then assult u and the $ is a lot worse. just imagine aafter all the years, espn gets u into the acc and then u bail. can u imagine the pr from that?!?!?!!? and your telling me we dont already gave pr issues from a old lawsuit to the arp thing? jesus christ she is making a GREAT strategic decision and everyone one of u old bball hacks (sorry thats not right of me ut emphasis..) doesn't see it becuase your blind to the situation and grew up on the acc being a quality league. its not any more and its future is not bringht.
we passed on the acc twice and are going b10. if we dont make the b10 cut, then the acc will always have a slot for us. the minute then rushed and took lville for pr reasons so that espn doesn't lose everything to fox told u that. sit down, relax and get coach p and d the hell out of here. i beg all of u to help get this done thru media pressure. we need to hit the b10 in 2014 with a new coach in year 2 of a rebuild and not year 1. that would be the year whitmer-davis-phillips-lyle-frank would all be seniors if u get my drift. potential is great if ppl here would sstop letting espn and the pr control there lives. do u believe everything u see on tv and the internet? then how come 99% of u all follow the uconn is in CR all the time? why becuase the bc ad was pissed he got played and decided to shoot his mouht off and try to look like he won instead? why do u think the other acc ppl and espn just told him to sshhh right away and we said nothing back? becuase we knew he went out of his way and was going to look bad to bc fans who hated uconn, so when we played him the cold war was taken to a new level. let him have his fun becuase we were in the process of passing him. so bet it ...
bc ad retires, jc retires and several other interesting things the past half year. why? bcuase each one of them had lives there lives by saying things. jc wasn't coaching anywhere but the big east and the bc ad would never let uconn in. little did the bc ad know we would turn down a invite a 2nd time. what we didn't know is that the acc would fall apart so quickly. we didn't know md was so high on the b10s list. we thought ruty and uconn were the move together.
so here we are, still have b10 eyes and a foot going that way but we are in the big east with cincy, temple and cusa. we passed the acc again and lville now went in a desperate measure by espn/acc to fill slots and show strenght to fox. what we didn't account for was unc/gtech types also having b10 eyes and getting them before us so we are stuck in a tough slot. i have faith in susan but either way we will be ok. as u read all this in time slots in your head think back to what espn wa spumping each time and what happened, then think post each move what espn pumped. yea, its funny now when u relaize it...
its 12, good luck to u warde beucase i will wage a war that will make nam look like 2 kids playing at mcdonalds. fire coach p and gdl!
