If you could travel back in time and give one piece of advice to a UConn AD regarding Conference Realignment, when and what? | Page 2 | The Boneyard

If you could travel back in time and give one piece of advice to a UConn AD regarding Conference Realignment, when and what?

Zerostatic said:
Interesting responses. As a UConn alum I shudder at all the moving campus suggestions. Hartford, Stamford, Yuck! I made too many memories in Storrs to ever entertain that idea.

I like the suggestions about traveling back to the 1950's and suggesting that we invest heavily in football. At that time it would've been so affordable and we would've definitely had become a football power. However the butterfly effect that this would have had worries me. I feel like something would have gone differently in the basketball realm where our dominance in women's and men's basketball would not have played out.

I think simply going back to the 2007 season when we first tasted football success under Randy Edsall and were making bowl games and getting ranked and tell the AD what was going to happen down the road to the Big East and about the whole P2 and P4 dynamic could have changed things big time. I would've suggested approaching the big 10 with some crazy multi-year 0 share offer that was too good to refuse to get membership. If that didn't work, I would've gotten out ahead of the Big East exodus and offered another absurdly generous reduced share pitch to the ACC.
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The big brained play would have been to buy the entire of Rentschler airfield and rebuild UConn right there sometime around 1995. Reality is UConn still has a bit of a UMass problem is that its an inconvenient place. Granted both problems is that their early histories were spent being 2nd and 3rd bananas to elite private schools. Granted UMass's location is far more inconvenient in terms of state politics but UConn would have been far more favored were it between Hartford and NYC whereas CT basically dies after you get out of Manchester. There is basically nothing between there and worcester and even worcester is a minor blip since i-90 is so far south of the city. Granted interstates are a 1960s to 1980s invention

The ultimate question of UConn will always be whether or not the state wants to build a world class institution or are they going to be continue to be status quo. That's independent of football.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
I would go back in time to the 1980s, and implement a plan to move the entire Storrs campus to Hartford by 2010. Investing billions over the last few decades into a campus in the woods of eastern Connecticut that the locals do not even want there while also investing billions into a small city like Hartford was wasted investment dollars. If UConn was in the state capital, 1) it would be higher ranked academically, 2) it would be a more desirable conference partner, 3) Hartford would be a much nicer city, and 4) the state of Connecticut would have saved billions over the last 35 years.

I have been told that this was actually discussed in the late 80's and early 90's among state legislators, but after some rough budget cycles, the will to make a big change never developed.
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In the 80’s we had bridges collapse How could they get their collective act together to do football. Lol
 
RedRabbit84 said:
If you don't understand the difference, it's no wonder folks think UConn doesn't care about football
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yes, Notre Dame is the only program that's ever existed. Notre Dame is football incarnate. That's the type of lack of self-belief I talk about. If you want to start off as a failure go for it. I thought this was the "Connecticut Husky" form and not the "Northern Illinois Husky" forum. Or are you going to tell me that ND is 40x the program that Michigan is, because that's what I think I'm hearing from the fanbase. The genuflecting to Notre Dame is disgusting. I'd expect it from a 1970s oriented guy from Walpole. I don't expect it from knowledgeable sports fans.

I want us to be our own men. You want to be a tool for somebody else. We are not the same.
 
Considering where your football program is, I would think you'd jump at the opportunity to rewrite the trajectory. That starts by playing national programs like Notre Dame on national television. One school played for a national title recently. The other is on the outside looking in. I'm not sure trying to big league Notre Dame was the best idea for UConn...
 
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Zerostatic said:
If you could travel back in time and give one piece of advice to a UConn AD regarding Conference Realignment, what year would you travel to and what would you tell them to do?
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I would go back to 1912 and tell then to start a DI football team.
 
RedRabbit84 said:
Considering where your football program is, I would think you'd jump at the opportunity to rewrite the trajectory. That starts by playing national programs like Notre Dame on national television. One school played for a national title recently. The other is on the outside looking in. I'm not sure trying to big league Notre Dame was the best idea for UConn...
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Thank you for your interest in and stunning ignorance of Connecticut football.
 
Patman said:
Thank you for your interest in and stunning ignorance of Connecticut football.
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You are wrong. Playing Notre Dame would have helped with visibility for the program. It might have vaulted UConn into the ACC at the time. Too many people like our lousy politicians have sold UConn short with comments and lawsuits.
 
Patman said:
Thank you for your interest in and stunning ignorance of Connecticut football.
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Let me shine a little outside perspective for you:

UConn's biggest football moment was a Fiesta Bowl that most folks outside of Connecticut felt you guys had stumbled into. Outside of Connecticut, the consensus was the other major players in the league were really down and UConn shouldn't be there. Then once the game rolled around, you had tens of fans in the stands, got the brakes beat off of you, and proved the neysayers right. THEN you follow it up by never coming close again. I'm not saying all of that to troll, I'm telling you the outside perspective of your crowning achievement in football to date ultimately did you no favors outside your fanbase.

Whether right, wrong, or indifferent, Notre Dame is viewed as one of the most storied and significant programs in college football even today. You passed the opportunity to play on one of the most hallowed grounds in college football history, perchance even win there........ Why, exactly? I understand having Notre Dame come into your house would've been huge, but UConn wasn't seen as there yet. You had a bird in the hand for a great opportunity and you let it get away. And outside of Connecticut, it looked too folks like you weren't taking football seriously at a time you should've REALLY been taking football seriously.
 
UConn was Division I prior to 1978. I do not know why UConn went D1AA in 1978 when college football split.
 
RedRabbit84 said:
Let me shine a little outside perspective for you:

UConn's biggest football moment was a Fiesta Bowl that most folks outside of Connecticut felt you guys had stumbled into. Outside of Connecticut, the consensus was the other major players in the league were really down and UConn shouldn't be there. Then once the game rolled around, you had tens of fans in the stands, got the brakes beat off of you, and proved the neysayers right. THEN you follow it up by never coming close again. I'm not saying all of that to troll, I'm telling you the outside perspective of your crowning achievement in football to date ultimately did you no favors outside your fanbase.

Whether right, wrong, or indifferent, Notre Dame is viewed as one of the most storied and significant programs in college football even today. You passed the opportunity to play on one of the most hallowed grounds in college football history, perchance even win there........ Why, exactly? I understand having Notre Dame come into your house would've been huge, but UConn wasn't seen as there yet. You had a bird in the hand for a great opportunity and you let it get away. And outside of Connecticut, it looked too folks like you weren't taking football seriously at a time you should've REALLY been taking football seriously.
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There were tons of UConn fans there. We just bought our tickets on the secondary market for pennies on the dollar. The school then had to eat the tickets they had on hand. This is nothing that doesn’t happen all the time., but UConn just got coverage of it. However, the idea we were poorly represented in the stands is a complete lie made up by the usual suspects. As far as backing into the Fiesta Bowl, fair enough. We were solid but not a great bowl team. The Big East wasn’t strong that year, but we won the spot. Other big bowl games were similar or bigger blowouts (48-20). Nobody says a word about those.
 
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I think there is a perception that UConn doesn’t care about football because of the investment and success in the BB programs. If the BB programs weren’t successful then they’d be UMass and people wouldn’t bother talking negatively.
 
RedRabbit84 said:
Let me shine a little outside perspective for you:

UConn's biggest football moment was a Fiesta Bowl that most folks outside of Connecticut felt you guys had stumbled into. Outside of Connecticut, the consensus was the other major players in the league were really down and UConn shouldn't be there. Then once the game rolled around, you had tens of fans in the stands, got the brakes beat off of you, and proved the neysayers right. THEN you follow it up by never coming close again. I'm not saying all of that to troll, I'm telling you the outside perspective of your crowning achievement in football to date ultimately did you no favors outside your fanbase.

Whether right, wrong, or indifferent, Notre Dame is viewed as one of the most storied and significant programs in college football even today. You passed the opportunity to play on one of the most hallowed grounds in college football history, perchance even win there........ Why, exactly? I understand having Notre Dame come into your house would've been huge, but UConn wasn't seen as there yet. You had a bird in the hand for a great opportunity and you let it get away. And outside of Connecticut, it looked too folks like you weren't taking football seriously at a time you should've REALLY been taking football seriously.
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I thought this was UConn’s biggest moment.

www.espn.com

Connecticut 33-30 Notre Dame (Nov 21, 2009) Game Recap - ESPN

Expert recap and game analysis of the Connecticut Huskies vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish NCAAF game from November 21, 2009 on ESPN.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
Hoophound said:
There were tons of UConn fans there. We just bought our tickets on the secondary market for pennies on the dollar. The school then had to eat the tickets they had on hand. This is nothing that doesn’t happen all the time., but UConn just got coverage of it. However, the idea we were poorly represented in the stands is a complete lie made up by the usual suspects. As far as backing into the Fiesta Bowl, fair enough. We were solid but not a great bowl team. The Big East wasn’t strong that year, but we won the spot. Other big bowl games were similar or bigger blowouts (48-20). Nobody says a word about those.
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Oh I can definitely grant you the argument that UConn didn't get the benefit of the doubt on a lot of those issues, but part of that comes from you guys being so new to the football scene in everyone's eyes. It's not UConn's fault the Big East was down that year. You played and won the games in front of you needed to get to the bowl. I'm not sitting here saying it's necessarily right that that's the perception, but outside of Connecticut, that's the perception and any time you guys had the opportunity to flip the script, change the narrative, and show you're serious about football.... You didn't. The Notre Dame agreement could've helped change that.
 
RedRabbit84 said:
Oh I can definitely grant you the argument that UConn didn't get the benefit of the doubt on a lot of those issues, but part of that comes from you guys being so new to the football scene in everyone's eyes. It's not UConn's fault the Big East was down that year. You played and won the games in front of you needed to get to the bowl. I'm not sitting here saying it's necessarily right that that's the perception, but outside of Connecticut, that's the perception and any time you guys had the opportunity to flip the script, change the narrative, and show you're serious about football.... You didn't. The Notre Dame agreement could've helped change that.
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What bowl game did your team play in?
 
While I think having UConns main campus in Hartford or Stamford would greatly help...Storrs has become special for anyone who attended and is a unique place.

Therefore, my advice would be to have built 4 lane highways directly through Storrs for way easier access, along with having an area where a large football stadium can be built and expanded upon. This may be more advice for state than AD but I rest my case.
 
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CL82 said:
Not correct. UConn was the preferred choice to join with Syracuse until BCU black balled us.
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The first ACC expansion was in 2003. UConn had played 3 years of FBS football and had an FBS record of 11-23 and they were not on the ACC's radar. During the second ACC expansion, UConn had a shot. UConn never had a shot at getting a Big 10 invite.
 
RedRabbit84 said:
Let me shine a little outside perspective for you:

UConn's biggest football moment was a Fiesta Bowl that most folks outside of Connecticut felt you guys had stumbled into. Outside of Connecticut, the consensus was the other major players in the league were really down and UConn shouldn't be there. Then once the game rolled around, you had tens of fans in the stands, got the brakes beat off of you, and proved the neysayers right. THEN you follow it up by never coming close again. I'm not saying all of that to troll, I'm telling you the outside perspective of your crowning achievement in football to date ultimately did you no favors outside your fanbase.

Whether right, wrong, or indifferent, Notre Dame is viewed as one of the most storied and significant programs in college football even today. You passed the opportunity to play on one of the most hallowed grounds in college football history, perchance even win there........ Why, exactly? I understand having Notre Dame come into your house would've been huge, but UConn wasn't seen as there yet. You had a bird in the hand for a great opportunity and you let it get away. And outside of Connecticut, it looked too folks like you weren't taking football seriously at a time you should've REALLY been taking football seriously.
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Uhhh, yes, you are, and an ignorant troll at that. Back in 2010 you would've been like 26 or so, the ignorance is self-inflicted.

We had 10s of fans, really!? As @Hoophound said, we had plenty there, or do you think that the 67,000 that were in attendance were all Oklahoma fans? Our fandom probably stops at anything south and west of Madison Square Garden, right?

Got the brakes beat off, well we faced the #9 team in the country (while we were #25), scored 20 points and lost by 28...yeah, it would've been better had we been higher ranked team playing a lower ranked team and lost by 60 points like FSU did last year (I don't care about their QB being hurt, it's a major bowl, you show up to play). Granted we didn't win, and it didn't help that our coach had a mental foot out the door then cowardly bolted immediately after the game for Maryland...maybe we play better had he been committed to us. But in the annals of pathetic bowl losses, our loss isn't even close, but don't believe me:
The 12 biggest blowouts in bowl game history
The biggest blowouts in college football bowl history

As for the chance to beat ND at ND, well, @HuskyNan schooled you on that. It wasn't hard to miss as it was nationally televised on NBC unless someone was catatonic, but you were around 25 and probably living it up, right?

Our problems are well known to us, our wounds self-inflicted. If we didn't hire a burned out Pasqualoni who couldn't recapture his Syracuse magic, or hire out a whacked Diaco who's fiery spirit was only reflected by his selection of pants rather than Wins/Losses, or REhire (see what I did there?) a traitor who just gave up on us again (SURPRISE!!), maybe our fate in the AAC would have gone differently and we could have joined the call-up to the Big12. The hiring decisions for the 2010s did us absolutely no favors.

But yeah, you're not here to troll us.:rolleyes:
 
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UConnJim said:
The first ACC expansion was in 2003. UConn had played 3 years of FBS football and had an FBS record of 11-23 and they were not on the ACC's radar. During the second ACC expansion, UConn had a shot. UConn never had a shot at getting a Big 10 invite.
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That's the biggest ticket, right there. Go back in time and start in the FBS much much sooner.
 
UConnJim said:
The first ACC expansion was in 2003. UConn had played 3 years of FBS football and had an FBS record of 11-23 and they were not on the ACC's radar. During the second ACC expansion, UConn had a shot. UConn never had a shot at getting a Big 10 invite.
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There is no way in a million years Rutgers would be added now. There is no way Rutgers would have been added if the Big 10 waited even 5 years, because by then it would see that streaming was going to make all those New Jersey cable boxes a lot less prevalent.
 
The University of Connecticut (UConn) football program moved to NCAA Division I-AA (now known as the Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS) in 1978 as part of a larger realignment within college football initiated by the NCAA. Here’s why this change occurred:

1. NCAA Division Realignment (1978)​

  • In 1978, the NCAA reorganized its divisions, splitting Division I football into two subdivisions:
    • Division I-A (now Football Bowl Subdivision, or FBS): Designed for programs with larger budgets, bigger stadiums, and more competitive programs.
    • Division I-AA (now FCS): Intended for programs with smaller budgets, fewer resources, and less emphasis on football revenue.
  • UConn opted for Division I-AA because it better matched their financial resources, facilities, and program goals at the time.

2. Program Size and Resources​

  • UConn's football program in the 1970s was not on the same scale as larger Division I-A programs in terms of attendance, revenue generation, or investment in facilities.
  • Competing in Division I-AA allowed UConn to align with programs of similar stature and avoid the financial strain of competing against much larger and better-funded schools.

3. Focus on Basketball​

  • UConn was already well-known for its basketball programs, particularly men’s and women’s basketball. Football was not the university’s primary athletic focus, and the move to Division I-AA allowed them to maintain a competitive football program without overextending resources.

4. Regional Competition​

  • Competing in Division I-AA positioned UConn to play against regional rivals with comparable programs. This helped foster local interest and rivalries without the overwhelming challenge of competing against national powerhouses.

5. Long-Term Strategy​

  • The move to Division I-AA allowed UConn to stabilize and grow its football program incrementally. This groundwork eventually set the stage for the university to upgrade its facilities and elevate the program to Division I-A (FBS) in 2000.
The decision to go Division I-AA in 1978 was a practical one, reflecting UConn’s resources and priorities at the time. Over the subsequent decades, UConn invested in its football program, culminating in its transition to Division I-A in 2000 and eventually competing at the highest level of college football.

4o
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That is what ChatGPT said about it.
 
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Not playing Notre Dame in a game (when we had already beaten them at their house on national tv), getting beaten by Oklahoma by 28 (when we've seen so many worse losses by the "blue bloods of football), having the stadium on campus (when we drew over 35k while we were playing well in East Hartford), etc. These aren't the reasons.

You are all coming up with the wrong reasons why we aren't in the ACC. We aren't in the ACC for 2 major reasons:

1) We weren't better than BC in 2003 (we had just come up from 1-AA and they got in first to allow them to block us)

2) ESPN didn't try to help the state school where their main campus resides; the school that actually helped them become who they are (along with the Hartford Whalers) when they started off and needed content to air.

If you want to change history, then I suggest you start by changing one of those two things...
 
UConnDan97 said:
Not playing Notre Dame in a game (when we had already beaten them at their house on national tv), getting beaten by Oklahoma by 28 (when we've seen so many worse losses by the "blue bloods of football), having the stadium on campus (when we drew over 35k while we were playing well in East Hartford), etc. These aren't the reasons.

You are all coming up with the wrong reasons why we aren't in the ACC. We aren't in the ACC for 2 major reasons:

1) We weren't better than BC in 2003 (we had just come up from 1-AA and they got in first to allow them to block us)

2) ESPN didn't try to help the state school where their main campus resides; the school that actually helped them become who they are (along with the Hartford Whalers) when they started off and needed content to air.

If you want to change history, then I suggest you start by changing one of those two things...
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35k isn't really a flex, but you're partially right. There's no one, real silver bullet that would have fixed everything except playing major football sooner.
 
UConnDan97 said:
Not playing Notre Dame in a game (when we had already beaten them at their house on national tv), getting beaten by Oklahoma by 28 (when we've seen so many worse losses by the "blue bloods of football), having the stadium on campus (when we drew over 35k while we were playing well in East Hartford), etc. These aren't the reasons.

You are all coming up with the wrong reasons why we aren't in the ACC. We aren't in the ACC for 2 major reasons:

1) We weren't better than BC in 2003 (we had just come up from 1-AA and they got in first to allow them to block us)

2) ESPN didn't try to help the state school where their main campus resides; the school that actually helped them become who they are (along with the Hartford Whalers) when they started off and needed content to air.

If you want to change history, then I suggest you start by changing one of those two things...
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History of ESPN for those new to the board. I remember watching Husky baseball games

History of ESPN - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
This whole discussion has been beaten down for years it seems to recycle itself every two years. Time to move forward and forget what did and didn’t happen, who’s at fault, what schools did to other schools, blah blah blah . We need to focus on today. Forget yesterday and regret they are twin thieves of your time and energy
 
RedRabbit84 said:
35k isn't really a flex, but you're partially right. There's no one, real silver bullet that would have fixed everything except playing major football sooner.
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It's larger than 4 current schools in the ACC and equal to 3 others in the ACC. That puts us almost smack dab in the middle, and noticeably better than their current additions of SMU and Stanford. But enjoy your time rooting for BC...
 
Since you guys are traveling in Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine, let me as a question. :) Were UConn fans happy and following the team when it was in the Yankee Conference? What would have happened to your athletic department if you had stayed there? Would the fans have continued to support it when all the football moves took place. I think your basketball program would still become the outstanding success it is, but what about football?
 
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