Independence?

[1999.2004.2011]

I know financially we don't have the television market nor the ability to generate more revenue without the conference affiliation, but what if the ACC isnt expanding, and the Big 12 nabs WVU, Cincy, UofL, and TCU, we are screwed. With that being said, and the news that the Big East is looking to add ECU, UCF, and the other CUSA schools, maybe it is time for us to look into this. You always need an exit strategy and maybe it isn't as bad to look into this, but then the question arises as to what should be done with basketball, soccer, football, etc...

Have football and both basketball programs go independent. A lack of conference affliation wouldnt keep the basketball teams out of the NCAA tournament as long as their RPI, quality wins, etc were still there.

Football could survive as an independent, sign a separate contract with ESPN, SNY, etc and play a national schedule. Sure there would be no direct bowl tie in but a team playing a national schedule who is bowl eligible would find a way into one of these bowl games (I don't care who we play, enough with the schedules where we are playing Buffalo, Western Michigan, and Baylor's of the world)

With respect to the other sports (mainly baseball) join the A-10 as an affiliate member for the rest of our non-revenue sports. In baseball, we play a good amount of these schools, and baseball can't get any worse than the teams we played in the big east the past couple of years (hold louisville and the johnies)

This situation would be very similar to what BYU has done, and I know we have nowhere near the following that BYU or ND have, but maybe this could put UConn in a better position moving forward, because we all know that remaining in the big east could destroy our athletic program (i.e. UMASS)

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I know financially we don't have the television market nor the ability to generate more revenue without the conference affiliation

Should have stopped right there.

 

[BlueMAB]

 

[FfldCntyFan]

If we had something, anything that could lure major football programs to visit us on at least a semi-regular basis, I would think that there could be some advantages to independence. Unfortunately we don't offer a long history, fertile recuiting grounds to visit or anything special as a venue. If we went indy (in an era wit fewer independents than any time in the past) we would be lucky to land one quality home game a year and we would need to be on the road for at least eight games just to have a schedule that would give us enough attention to benefit us.

 

[kelseypup]

I agree if we do not get into the ACC then I think we should be realistic that this is our best option. I know for a fact Big East would still accept our other sports especially basketball. I think we could get comparable Big East football money with independent contract from SNY, ESPN, WFSB, WTNH, or WTIC to get some competition going in the CT market. I think could get $3-5 million per year playing a mix of BCS teams, MAC, ACC, Big 12, SEC, Big Ten, and new Big East teams. I wouldn't consider this the worst option out there.

 

[Dann]

if uconn doesn't sniff acc/big by july then i think on july 4th we should go indy.

 

[uconNYC]

Football should go Independent and keep all other sports in the Big East. The Catholic Schools and Notre Dame will accept it in a heartbeat as they need our Basketball, Soccer, Field Hockey and Baseball programs.

 

[mets1090]

A team like UConn can't generate any sort of TV revenue without conference affiliation. We go independent, we lost all of our revenue not directly related to sales and donations. We probably lose some of that too as it will be harder to find 10+ quality teams that want to do home and homes with us.

 

[uconNYC]

A team like UConn can't generate any sort of TV revenue without conference affiliation. We go independent, we lost all of our revenue not directly related to sales and donations. We probably lose some of that too as it will be harder to find 10+ quality teams that want to do home and homes with us.

How much money will the new new Big East [sic] generate? Pennies.

 

[nadav]

we have trouble scheduling 4 OOC football games, 12 would be a nightmare.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

If we are stuck in the BE, I think we should at least see what kind of TV BE is able to get before we jump off the deep end. Indy might be an option if we can put together a nice national schedule. With Army, Navy and Air Force putting their football into the BE, we will have even less games we can schedule. ND is option and the best we can get out of them might be 2 for 4. We can play BYU every game I suppose. I don't think it is very attractive to be honest.

We have to start invest in getting more fans to our games. Build up our football stadium to 55K or so. We just need to establish a nice resume in case any conference wants to expand again. We can only do things within our own control.

 

[RS9999X]

Pass a state law that every cable subscriber must have the UConn station as part of a package and sell it for $20 a year ($1.60 a month) to the cable companies and give them all the add time they can eat

On paper that's over $20 million a year less production costs.

That's the only model I see working for CT. Or you let SNY absorb the costs of a build out and branding and creating a working model which would be far less revenue Tyler Phommachanh UConn and would feature other content. Even ND knows the value of a conference relationship in every other sport except for football. The rivalries, the February big game excitement, the conference tourney...

BYU has another agenda and that's pimping their religious network. Even that might take a backseat to a BCS conference paycheck. Army and Navy and Air Force are unique situtations. They get the Army Navy game, Notre Dame matchups and big name BCS matchups televised. Other than that you never see them on TV.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

9999, while short term an idea like that would benefit the program financially, long term I can see nothing worse for the UConn athletic programs than the citizens of the state having the product forced down their throats (by law no less) and charging them for it.

The goal is to get the entire state to be willing to demand that all cable/sattelite carriers provide this product and be willing to pay a premium for it (I can think of a couple of college programs where this is the sentiment) but we are far from there yet.