I hate this S___

[Pudge]

Channeling my inner Chris Rock.

I wanted this Conference Realignment to be done. I could not be more wrong. Now, I can see that egos & money made the most farflung dream of the Rutgers fans true. Maryland to the B1G has been posted 1000 times by internet board wahoos; and here we are. This is a nightmare. Combined with Paul Pasqualoni's simpleminded deconstruction of a finely structured UConn Football Program, I think ... (thank God for Kevin Ollie) ... this is a dark period.

Will I feel better if the ACC takes us today?

I'll feel relieved. But, as some have said (and unlike the miscreants that are on the Cuse board), I will feel awkward & sad for the Louisville's or the USF's or the Cincinnati's that get trashed. And, I also cannot stand the board members who regularly trash Memphis ... or others. A 35,000 attendance & heavy investment in a Program combined with a decent market should get an opportunity. I don't feel my school, UConn, should be entitled to anything. But ... I bet we have a far more solid future as an Athletic Department - with Championships - than a Maryland or a Rutgers. I hate that some megomaniacal look at expanding the B1G dollars can crush us or others.

 

[uconnfan68]

Channeling my inner Chris Rock.

I wanted this Conference Realignment to be done. I could not be more wrong. Now, I can see that egos & money made the most farflung dream of the Rutgers fans true. Maryland to the B1G has been posted 1000 times by internet board wahoos; and here we are. This is a nightmare. Combined with Paul Pasqualoni's simpleminded deconstruction of a finely structured UConn Football Program, I think ... (thank God for Kevin Ollie) ... this is a dark period.

Will I feel better if the ACC takes us today?

I'll feel relieved. But, as some have said (and unlike the miscreants that are on the Cuse board), I will feel awkward & sad for the Louisville's or the USF's or the Cincinnati's that get trashed. And, I also cannot stand the board members who regularly trash Memphis ... or others. A 35,000 attendance & heavy investment in a Program combined with a decent market should get an opportunity. I don't feel my school, UConn, should be entitled to anything. But ... I bet we have a far more solid future as an Athletic Department - with Championships - than a Maryland or a Rutgers. I hate that some megalomaniacal look at expanding the B1G dollars can crush us or others.

^this

 

[cohenzone]

There is a good reason to hate this. An even better reason to hate all of "BIG TIME COLLEGE SPORTS", right? There are still some conferences like the old Yankee Conference, where local rivalries are fun and an occasional super player shows up on your door step. Old rivalries seem not to matter, new rivalries are mostly manufactured. So each game might be interesting, but the level of enthusiasm about the opponent isn't the same. Obviously, some rivalries can develop in a new setting as happened between UConn and a few others like BC and SU. But those had a geographic sense. I don't think there would ever be the same feeling about UConn-USF. Would UConn playing Duke and UNC home and home be great? Yeah, but we will never be their main foe. Us and BC, yes, even accounting for the present state of BC sports. The Big whatever would maybe bring a rivalry with Rutgers if that comes to pass, although in hoops there isn't much of a rivalry. The rest of that conference would bring no feelings of rivalry, even though in my family with a few old Big 10 connections, we could have family fun, but not the fan base as a whole. Fans, rivalries - some might call it the human element - are out the window. I thought we already had pro sports in this country.

 

[upstater]

Maryland and Rutgers are losing tens of millions a year, cancelling academic programs, falling like rocks in the rankings. The Big10 is helping them. And the Big10 might rue the day when cable TV subscriptions are ala carte (I hear that day may be coming) because when it happens, the BTN will turn into pixie dust outside of the midwest.

 

[businesslawyer]

Channeling my inner Chris Rock.

I wanted this Conference Realignment to be done. I could not be more wrong. Now, I can see that egos & money made the most farflung dream of the Rutgers fans true. Maryland to the B1G has been posted 1000 times by internet board wahoos; and here we are. This is a nightmare. Combined with Paul Pasqualoni's simpleminded deconstruction of a finely structured UConn Football Program, I think ... (thank God for Kevin Ollie) ... this is a dark period.

Will I feel better if the ACC takes us today?

I'll feel relieved. But, as some have said (and unlike the miscreants that are on the Cuse board), I will feel awkward & sad for the Louisville's or the USF's or the Cincinnati's that get trashed. And, I also cannot stand the board members who regularly trash Memphis ... or others. A 35,000 attendance & heavy investment in a Program combined with a decent market should get an opportunity. I don't feel my school, UConn, should be entitled to anything. But ... I bet we have a far more solid future as an Athletic Department - with Championships - than a Maryland or a Rutgers. I hate that some megomaniacal look at expanding the B1G dollars can crush us or others.

Very, very well said my friend. Even if UConn comes out of this unscathed, I don't know that I will continue to love college sports the way I have.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Very, very well said my friend. Even if UConn comes out of this unscathed, I don't know that I will continue to love college sports the way I have.

Sometimes I wonder the same thing but then I'm tailgating and I forget all about the Delaneys of the world and remember I'm eating meat and drinking beer with my fellow alumni and rooting for our mediocre football team and everything feels right in the world.

 

[HuskyHawk]

If we could put the genie back in the bottle, and bring VT, BC, Miami, Pitt and Cuse back to the Big East, and forget about the absurd westward expansion, I would have been happy to stand pat. But everything about the proposed NBE is wrong. It was built as a money grab by far flung schools who have nothing in common. I hate it. At least if we land in the ACC, we will be in conference that is a perfectly sensible fit for UConn. Mix of private and public schools, mostly not huge, all on the east coast. Old rivalries rekindled. This particular move is a good thing for college athletics.

 

[amory]

You know what people seem not to get these days? That "hate" for a rival team is what makes it fun, but you're not actually supposed to wish the worst for their program. For example, I "hate" Duke. I "hate" Syracuse. I want UConn to beat their a$$es every time we play. I find their fans obnoxious. But I don't want a damn conference to collapse around them and for them to be trapped in irrelevance! Where's the fun in that?? Even if Connecticut does get to the ACC, I'll feel bad for teams like Louisville that are gonna have a rough time.

I'm going around to Louisville and Syracuse boards and seeing a ton of people saying "oh, screw U-Connvict, let them rot in the BIG LEAST LOL, ACC high fives all around!". And it's like, wait. Isn't the whole point that we get to play each other?

Guess that's what happens when you basically make it every school for themselves to find a viable conference to play in.

 

[cohenzone]

You know what people seem not to get these days? That "hate" for a rival team is what makes it fun, but you're not actually supposed to wish the worst for their program. For example, I "hate" Duke. I "hate" Syracuse. I want UConn to beat their a$$es every time we play. I find their fans obnoxious. But I don't want a damn conference to collapse around them and for them to be trapped in irrelevance! Where's the fun in that?? Even if Connecticut does get to the ACC, I'll feel bad for teams like Louisville that are gonna have a rough time.

I'm going around to Louisville and Syracuse boards and seeing a ton of people saying "oh, screw U-Connvict, let them rot in the BIG LEAST LOL, ACC high fives all around!". And it's like, wait. Isn't the whole point that we get to play each other?

Guess that's what happens when you basically make it every school for themselves to find a viable conference to play in.

Given that such a small % of "fans" actually post on these boards, who know how that reflects among the larger group. I know that when BC left the BE, just about everyone I know who was connected to BC hated the move, thought it made no sense in terms of sport. But TV revenue is driving all of this and the "fans" are not part of the deal.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Channeling my inner Chris Rock.

I wanted this Conference Realignment to be done. I could not be more wrong. Now, I can see that egos & money made the most farflung dream of the Rutgers fans true. Maryland to the B1G has been posted 1000 times by internet board wahoos; and here we are. This is a nightmare. Combined with Paul Pasqualoni's simpleminded deconstruction of a finely structured UConn Football Program, I think ... (thank God for Kevin Ollie) ... this is a dark period.

Will I feel better if the ACC takes us today?

I'll feel relieved. But, as some have said (and unlike the miscreants that are on the Cuse board), I will feel awkward & sad for the Louisville's or the USF's or the Cincinnati's that get trashed. And, I also cannot stand the board members who regularly trash Memphis ... or others. A 35,000 attendance & heavy investment in a Program combined with a decent market should get an opportunity. I don't feel my school, UConn, should be entitled to anything. But ... I bet we have a far more solid future as an Athletic Department - with Championships - than a Maryland or a Rutgers. I hate that some megomaniacal look at expanding the B1G dollars can crush us or others.

Pudge - there are only two ways it will ever end. #1. A true college football postseason playoff is established for the highest level of competition, such that every program in 1-A football has the same path to a national title. Win your conference, and get seeded in the playoff.

Notre Dame University, and the corporate profit makers around the current college football post season, will fight that to the bitter end, and much of what we are seeing right now IMO, is the conference commissioners of the most profitable conferences in the college football post season, struggling to maintain their hold on that HUGE amount of cash flow, and they're doing it well.

#2. THe government gets involved and stops it.

THe problem here, is the antitrust suit that was filed by Oklahoma Board of Regents v. NCAA in the early 1980s and eventually ruled on, against the NCAA, by the Supreme Court in 1984. I'm not a lawyer, so I have no idea what kinds of courses of action can be taken by government, but there is difficulty there because of that case - which is the root of what opened up the world of chaos we live in now, regarding intercollegiate athletics, and what is destroying the integrity of intercollegiate athletics.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of large state universities, don't have the luxury of multibillion dollar endowments like the Ivy league, so a sport like football, that generates HUGE revenue and cash flow around the competition is very important, and the vast majority of large state schools simply don't have the luxury, of sitting on the sidelines in all of this mess that was opened up in 1984 by the Supreme Court, and maintain the integrity of competition over the business of seeking out larger revenue streams through athletics.

So, until one of those two things happen, ideally both at the same time.......it never stops, and conferences will continue to feed on each other, for purely increased revenue streams - and that's important, it's not more money, because money is just spent, it's higher revenue streams - more cash flow.

What our university leadership needs to do, is refresh on their fractal geometry to handle things. UConn, is no stranger to this mess of changing conferences. We've been in multiple conferences for sports since 1979.

What I"m focuse on, for UConn, I want payback from Louisville from the 26-0 game in Kentucky two years ago.

I hope our guys are focused and have a great week of practice. Once again, in this crazy season, we are NOT overmatched on the playing field.

 

[Dann]

pudge, me and u have seen eye to eye on some thing in the CR world over time. the we deserve vs we earn stuff for sure. but i live for this. i live for uconn to become something from nothing faster than any other ever in colege sports. thats my fan hood. i will continue to beat the drum, build, spend expand. its not over until its over and we are far far far from that point. if we can't get the b10 invite, we can go to the acc and build more, get better, bigger etc and then once again strive for the promise land. its a struggle but one worth fighting for.

for over a year i have been to some on here a wacky mofo talking about nbe teams and potential. nevada schools and smiss etc. why? its not becuase i want uconn to play those schools for ever, its becuase w/e uconns current situation is i want the best for uconn so if thats a west division where we have the same name conf wise as sdsu then so be it. its all about surrounding yourself with the best u can and then aiming higher until u reach that golden spot. rutgers this week reached that spot and now i'm more hungry than ever for us to do the same. i hate the acc as much if not 2 times more than the next guy. u will never catch me defending the acc in any way or wearing a tshirt with its logo on it. i'll sharpie it out or make my own uconn shirt before that point. but if we can't get the b1o incvite then i'm 100% in on going to the acc. beacuse its the next step, its the next best thing. the teams we play the money we get etc are a step up. but i will in no way fall aslepp at the wheel and i hope susan and warde are thinking the exact dam thing. we are ucoon, we do things better than most and we will continue to so that we can reach the promise land and when we do, middle fingers to every one that got in our way during that climb.

 

[uconndogs]

Remember when you were a kid in the school yard and instead of picking sides fairly, each captain alternating choices, a group of the most athletic kids get together and announce they are a team. Then they gloat about how good they are. That's what college football feels like to me and there are fanbases out their that really seem to embody this - Syracuse certainly comes to mind. Pudge is dead on imho, this should be a level playing field and it is so far from that it is sad and takes away from the fan looking for true and fair competition.

I was usually on the losing team btw.......

 

[Carl Spackler]

The four team super-conference concept, is over two decades old, and is the antithesis of a true 1-A playoff for a national championship.

It's no surprise who the leaders are, working toward such a thing as the four conference 'superconference' model, as opposed to those who would actually just like to play the sport and find out who the winners are on the field.

120 years of a corrupt college football post season is a major contributor, (not the only one) but a MAJOR contributor to the chaos in intercollegiate athletics for the past three and half decades.

It's a socioeconomic and political battle, that will be interesting to see who wins, and it's going to happen faster than anybody could have imagined I think. The facts are that there are a lot more intercollegiate programs that would favor a true playoff for the highest level of collegiate football vs. the bowl system, superconference model.

What all of those programs lack, is leadership, and what those four conferences that would oppose it have, is all the money and power and experienced leadership.