"If you monitor, you get passed by.

[ZooCougar]

This is message board debate. It's hard to think you are a serious person when you drift into the pejorative ding of "NPR" and "the Beach".

In this thread, there were some crucial points: the "Game" changed. I don't think lots of noise & public PR campaigns were appropriate for UConn in this last ACC go-around. (and I am a bombthrowing Let's-get-Blumenthal/Malloy-involved thinker) But ... it strikes me that, given our past, that we correctly played some cards. Unfortunately, FSU-Clemson-NCState-GeorgiaTech cabal forced the hand to Louisville. I don't think WE are the Football Program to combat that swing. No amount of lobbying (or even a Tom Jurich behind-the-scenes performance) changes where the ACC was headed. Academics? Sure ... Louisville (in my mind) is slightly beyond WVU & not near what I believe UConn is ... or will be. But, that was not a key criteria.

We are a stark contrast to Jurich's construct of the Louisville Football Program (a 15 year build). We have serious problems in PR & Marketing whereby we have a great Brand; but Hathaway let it flutter in the wind. And, I really don't see that Warde Manual has shown the capacity to lead us to a new era. I am more confident in Herbst. She is far beyond the President model that I see across academia (and I am in the SUNY system).

I am really not seeing where you are disagreeing with me.

I think Herbst is on the money in building the school the right way. But she is getting owned in the Athletic part. She really needs someone who is as skilled as her on athletic side of things. Warde doesn't seem to fit that model.

The NPR comment is spot on. It shows their tone deafness. They don't know their audience. It was an awful way to cast their message.

Not only did we not have a PR campaign, but we lacked the ways and means to stick up for ourselves. We came out of it looking worse than we did going into it.

The Beach. That's not even flippant. And you need to get over yourself here. It was also tone deaf.

GM's don't go on vacation the week of the NFL Draft. Generals don't go on leave at the beginning of a campaign and ADs AND PRESIDENTS shouldn't make themselves indisposed when they are trying to secure their school's athletic future.

It may not have made a difference, but everyone will always wonder. While Jurich was setting more favorable conditions, Warde was in the Virgin Islands being ruled by them. Great leaders don't accept inherited conditions when they are unfavorable. They set new ones.

 

[ZooCougar]

The only thing that is consistent, in this second great migration of universities, (the first migration was in 1990-1991) and what drives all of this conference shifting, for two decades now, is pursuing the best media rights deals you can get for your intercollegiate athletics product, whether it be individually (BYU Notre Dame Texas) or as a group in a conference.

The power players are the conference commissioners and the university ceo's / presidents. THere is no regulation from a point of authority. There is no end goal.

(There could be an end goal, and regulation from point of authority, but there isn't yet - one or the other, or both ideally - the end goal to stop it all, is a true playoff format for a national champion in 1-A football so that every 1-A program has the same path to a championship)

Football rights are the primary economic force, with two strata related to conference affiliation, the first being direct revenue for sporting events through the regular season schedule, and the second, larger strata - that being the revenue around the football post season, which has created a major divide in the intercollegiate athletics world among different conferences in the past 20 years, with the evolution of the BCS since the first great migration of universities in 1990-1991.

Basketball is a long distance second to everything revenue wise with the primary value in the month of March, and only has significant value really at this point in time because of the changes in the reality television market and the explosion of value of live sports programming, but even still is a distant second.

There is no end goal. It looks completely Darwinian at this point. Except for the fact that slugs like Purdue, WSU and Iowa State are immune.

 

[Carl Spackler]

What's Darwinian about it, is the college football postseason, and it's 130+ year history of being ruled by media and public perception to determine a champion, rather than play on the field, and specifically the last 20 years of that 130 years, in which the BCS evolved out of a simple bowl coalition among a handful of conferences separate from other conferences, and has now reached a pseudo playoff of 4 teams to determine a national champion. Things dramatically changed a little after a century of almost no change, back in 1990. It's accelerated from there.

Way back then, it was foreseen by many, including leadership at UConn, that a break from the NCAA by a large group of collegiate institutions was highly likely in the future, and it's as real now of possibility, as it was then.

The revenue gaps between the coferences around the college football post season, are the driving factor.

Put it this way. 4 teams - a playoff. Right now, if you put 80 teams, in 4 conferences, of 20 teams each, and divide each of those conferences into two 10 program divisions, you've got the format set up naturally for a true 8 team playoff 3 round, competition for a national champion among those 80 that would fall well within the normal academic calendar.

Regular season division winners play each other for the conference title. Round 1. The four conference winners match up for the semis. Round 2. The championship game round 3.

Those 80 programs don't have to split up the 500 million dollar contract, with the other colleges in teh country.

If that happens, we need to be part of it.

 

[ctchamps]

Fleud, you and I often see the world the same way, but I disagree that UConn's actions or inaction were irrelevant in the most recent ACC offer.

We needed to get our ahead of 'ville on this and tout our development in football. From I-AA to a BCS bowl in less than 10 years is huge. We needed to present our case that that is exactly what we do at UConn, push for excellence in every sport. We needed to talk about our head to head records vs. Ville, Cuse and Pitt. We needed to address the perception that we are somewhow a weak sister to those schools in football. We aren't Ville's great run this year notwithstanding. We needed to talk about the fact that our football facilities (excluding the Rent) are second to none and note that the Rent is expansion ready. That is our push to the football schools.

To the hoops schools well our pitch is obvious but needed to be articulated. # NCs since 1999? Who tops that? Duke? Well our head to heads speak for themselves.

We needed to speak very publically about our academics and hammer hard that the ACC tradition is (was) successful sports without compromising academics. We've got a great narrative about the development of the school and the money we've invested in it. We should have made a very stark comparision to Louisville that locked down the our schools so that they wouldn't accept Louisville.

We needed (and still do) to revamp our athletic revenues so that they are consistent with the way other schools report them. We needed to tout the fact that our even woman's basketball team has better coverage than Louisville's men's teams with a deal that emphasizes coverage in the NYC metro area.

Perception is reality. We allowed our university to be painted as a school in decline. We allowed another institution to paint itself as an up and comer with only the thinest of veneers to support that premise. You and I could debate whether or not would succeed (and I believe that we could have) but you have to be in the game to win. Standing on the sidelines doesn't get it done.

We usually do see eye to eye. So where did you go wrong?

We can debate this till the end of time and the reality is is we don't really know the answer. All we're doing is basing reality on our individual perceptions. Now that's a twist on your statement "perception is reality".

If I could go back in time and get into the minds of the individuals who decided on the outcome beginning with the inception of the event that precipitated all these moves, I would have the real answer. I think we look for answers after the fact! There was silence with Maryland and Rutgers. So when they were accepted everyone postulated their ideas of how Delany based his decision. But that is second guessing. And even if Delany spoke publicly about his decision, can any of us really be sure we are getting the complete picture? I doubt it.

Same thing happened with UConn getting passed over by Ville. We presume things went along a certain pathway. But again that is a presumption and not fact. All the points you propose wouldn't do much damage. But I'm not sure they would offer much to change the events that played out in CR. If there is debate amongst the likes of us about it's value then that probably plays out amongst all the players who are the decision makers. In other words, the reality is we have diverse perceptions of values and ideas.

If it makes you feel better, my wife agrees with your point of view. But before you take this statement to support your contention about Jurich vs. Warde I must warn you that she felt KO would not be given a decent contract. I felt, and if I'm correct, you did as well, it was only a matter of time before he was given the multiple years. She did feel he would end up being considered a great coach. On that all three of us are in agreement.

 

[CL82]

Where did I go wrong? Perhaps my wayward youth... but I digress.

I think your comparison to the Rutgers and Maryland's situation is flawed. The B1G's courtship Maryland and Rutgers was a stealth affair replete with non-disclosure agreements. Louisville and UConn was an open, if one-sided competition. In the former silence was a contractual prerequisite. In the latter silence allowed one protagonist to set backstory in the media. I recently had a discussion with a print and broadcast reporter in which they both opined that once that story is established it is very difficult to change. I agree that we can't know for sure whether being proactive would have changed anything. However, I've always beleived that the only way to be sure of failure is not to try. Would action have saved us? Who knows? But inactivity dooned us.

So where does that leave us? Well, you should listen more to wife. Be sure to tell her I said so!

 

[Pudge]

I think it's silly to knock the two of them for an NPR interview. (and as some said ... that Interviewer seems to have an excellent reputation for putting forth a intelligenet program). More than anything, I am just pleased that Herbst saw a problem in this regard & hired a highly paid staff person to work on PR. We need something.

 

[CL82]

I think it's silly to knock the two of them for an NPR interview. (and as some said ... that Interviewer seems to have an excellent reputation for putting forth a intelligenet program). More than anything, I am just pleased that Herbst saw a problem in this regard & hired a highly paid staff person to work on PR. We need something.

The interview is fine. The fact that it is the only one, isn't.

 

[TRest]

The interview is fine. The fact that it is the only one, isn't.

One of the reasons NPR was used, I believe, is a total lack of other media venues in CT to present this type of discussion.

 

[TRest]

Where did I go wrong? Perhaps my wayward youth... but I digress.

I think your comparison to the Rutgers and Maryland's situation is flawed. The B1G's courtship Maryland and Rutgers was a stealth affair replete with non-disclosure agreements. Louisville and UConn was an open, if one-sided competition. In the former silence was a contractual prerequisite. In the latter silence allowed one protagonist to set backstory in the media. I recently had a discussion with a print and broadcast reporter in which they both opined that once that story is established it is very difficult to change. I agree that we can't know for sure whether being proactive would have changed anything. However, I've always beleived that the only way to be sure of failure is not to try. Would action have saved us? Who knows? But inactivity dooned us.

So where does that leave us? Well, you should listen more to wife. Be sure to tell her I said so!

Listening to the media, Jurich and the ACC trumpet Louisville's athletic accomplishments told me everything I need to know. One final 4 appearance be each basketball team in the last 20 years was touted. Numerous BE conference championships in minor sports like swimming and track were used to pump up the resume. Louisville was playing football in an old minor league baseball park before 1998, that's their proud tradition no one seems to mention.

 

[hneffjr]

It is time for UConn to replace the people in charge, President and Athletic Director and bring in real professionals to promote this school to a solid conference. Being left behind over and over is a testament to the inability of the present administration.

 

[Greenback]

I agree the past administration was incompetent and the lawsuit by Blumenthal may still be affecting our conference affiliation, however, what is the current administration doing? I hear a lot of people talk about things going on behind the scene but from a fans perspective there has been no change. At least try something new. I would give them a base on balls if I saw some effort, but keeping the status quo ,“Monitoring the situation” is a sure recipe for failure.
They should send out a survey to season ticket holders to gauge were we are, come up with a game plan for change and execute the plan. I have read many complaints on this board about some of the same issues I have so I know I’m not alone. I have a lot invested in this program, both financial and emotional, so yes I’m angry but a little perceived effort would go a long way.

 

[ZooCougar]

I think it's silly to knock the two of them for an NPR interview. (and as some said ... that Interviewer seems to have an excellent reputation for putting forth a intelligenet program). More than anything, I am just pleased that Herbst saw a problem in this regard & hired a highly paid staff person to work on PR. We need something.

UConn's PR is invisible.

That's great that its an intelligent program, but if it doesn't reach the target audience then it's like a tree falling in the woods with nobody to hear it.

 

[ZooCougar]

Listening to the media, Jurich and the ACC trumpet Louisville's athletic accomplishments told me everything I need to know. One final 4 appearance be each basketball team in the last 20 years was touted. Numerous BE conference championships in minor sports like swimming and track were used to pump up the resume. Louisville was playing football in an old minor league baseball park before 1998, that's their proud tradition no one seems to mention.

Reading this, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Some people say that the strategy was not to lobby out in the public, but this was a poor choice if so. We still looked terrible in the wake of this, even when we choose to let others take control of UConn's achievements and narrative.

 

[noeynox]

Listening to the media, Jurich and the ACC trumpet Louisville's athletic accomplishments told me everything I need to know. One final 4 appearance be each basketball team in the last 20 years was touted. Numerous BE conference championships in minor sports like swimming and track were used to pump up the resume. Louisville was playing football in an old minor league baseball park before 1998, that's their proud tradition no one seems to mention.

We were slaughtered in the field of public perception because Louisville launched an all out propaganda campaign. How anyone can think this didn't matter is beyond me. If it didn't matter, Louisville wouln't have bothered with it and simply waited to get picked, like we did. Ugh! I'm done with this topic. Lets just hope Herbst and Manual learned their lesson here.

 

[ZooCougar]

We were slaughtered in the field of public perception because Louisville launched an all out propaganda campaign. How anyone can think this didn't matter is beyond me. If it didn't matter, Louisville wouln't have bothered with it and simply waited to get picked, like we did. Ugh! I'm done with this topic. Lets just hope Herbst and Manual learned their lesson here.

Bingo. If Louisville was a foregone conclusion them Jurich would have done nothing. This fatalist song and dance apologia from the usual suspects is just nonsense.

Note: these are the same people who made excuses for Mike Tranghese.