Irrefutable, Undeniable ...

[HuskyHawk]

That is exactly the kind of thinking, that has gotten us where we're at kid.

My increasingly white hair doesn't really resemble that remark.

 

[gars44]

BTW: You forgot URI and that pathetic looking sheep with horns.

The Big East conference, and basketball, and the decision to forget rivalry and tradition in favor of broadcasting dollars - for basketball, not football......and jumping off the ship back then, has given us the opportunity to be among the largest and finest state flagship universities in the country. That's the ultimate irony in all of this, that very few around here will probably have the same understanding that I do of this.

Long before large scale universities were dumping on athletic rivalry traditions around football for broadcasting dollars, we did the exact same thing because of basketball. We owe everything we are in 2012, to the Big East conference - good and bad. And I believe we have paid that bitch, karma, back 10 fold and are now due to move forward even/steven.

I'm not arguing with you. [I don't agree with anything you say, but I'm not arguing with you. Just kidding]. I'm more arguing with the "cultural fit" commentators, who mourn the loss of our so-called rivalries with Pitt, Syracuse and others, that, fact is, don't want to be in the rivalry. Syracuse and Pitt are like, "count me out," so I don't know how this can be considered a rivalry. That is a non-rivalry in my book.

 

[ZooCougar]

You've got this all wrong. The nice stable conference we came from has gone from the Yankee Conference, the A-10, and now CAA. Northeastern and Hofstra both dumped football. Isn't URI leaving because the cant keep up? Stable my ass.

We have the same interests as Memphis? Really? Really? The place is a High School with ashtrays.

Yeah, but that all didn't happen overnight. Yes they are stable, but we didn't join back then. The stable conference we were in, where we had the rich rivalries and traditions, was the Yankee Conference. We quit that, yes? So, we didn't treasure our wonderful, decades old rivalries all that much when we had the chance to. We instead jumped off the ship, and contributed to the demise of those storied rivalries with Umass, Maine and New Hampshire. Those are our traditions.

And as to your point that we don't have a common interest with our new conference partners, that's just not true. Basketball has taken such a seat in the back that it has become as important as the lacrosse or hockey programs in the order of things. We have a lot in common with our new mates: football, football, football. That's all it is anymore. The rest is filler material.

 

[whaler11]

You've got this all wrong. The nice stable conference we came from has gone from the Yankee Conference, the A-10, and now CAA. Northeastern and Hofstra both dumped football. Isn't URI leaving because the cant keep up? Stable my ass.

We have the same interests as Memphis? Really? Really? The place is a High School with ashtrays.

Vermont, Northeastern, Boston U, URI, UMass and Hofstra all left. They added Towson State after Towson dropped football and added it again. They added Georgia State. This is exclusive of when they added the Mid-Atlantic arm of the league (W&M, Richmond, Delaware, etc.).

Without looking the only two Yankee Conference teams that are still in the league the Yankee Conference has become are New Hampshire and Maine. That happened in less than 20 years.

 

[ZooCougar]

That place is oozing stability. UMass even dumped it to play in the glory of the MAC.

Vermont, Northeastern, Boston U, URI, UMass and Hofstra all left. They added Towson State after Towson dropped football and added it again. They added Georgia State. This is exclusive of when they added the Mid-Atlantic arm of the league (W&M, Richmond, Delaware, etc.).

Without looking the only two Yankee Conference teams that are still in the league the Yankee Conference has become are New Hampshire and Maine. That happened in less than 20 years.

 

[Carl Spackler]

That place is oozing stability. UMass even dumped it to play in the glory of the MAC.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...81,2944585&dq=yankee+conference+disband&hl=en

The yankee disbanded, because of basketball. The conference became unstable, because of the changes around football in the 1970s brought on by the creation of divisions 1,2 & 3 levels of competition from university athletic departments based on the numbers of scholarships that were being awarded for football, and at the same time, the process of implementing title 9 regulations into intercollegiate athletic departments, and the total number of mens and women's sports that a university sponsored and funded.

The yankee conference was perfectly stable from 1947 until 1974, and the yankee conference in name, was an extension of a previous conference among the new england state institutions dating back to the 1920s.

We (UConn), dumped the Yankee Conference in everything but football, for basketball interests in the Big EAst. Since joining te Big East for football, we've seen ourselves get dumped multiple times in return.

But we've managed to get ourselves into the top level of competition in all sports, whch was the key. Can't play, if you don't have a seat at the table.

What a long strange trip it's been.

 

[Adios]

Perhaps we should communicate to our AD that we want to or should play UMass every year. UMass football might even have a brighter future than BCU football and UMass is the second best public school in New England, if I am correct. Going forward with UMass would be GREAT for both schools. They are one of our biggest historical rivals and both schools are located in the Knowledge Corridor. We are the only FBS programs in the Knowledge Corridor.

By the way, Carl, you sure know your stuff. However, it is debatable that the NFL began to stabilize in the 1950s rather than the start of the Super Bowl era.

 

[ZooCougar]

Only if Pixies agrees to play at halftime.

Perhaps we should communicate to our AD that we want to or should play UMass every year. UMass football might even have a brighter future than BCU football and UMass is the second best public school in New England, if I am correct. Going forward with UMass would be GREAT for both schools. They are one of our biggest historical rivals and both schools are located in the Knowledge Corridor. We are the only FBS programs in the Knowledge Corridor.

By the way, Carl, you sure know your stuff. However, it is debatable that the NFL began to stabilize in the 1950s rather than the start of the Super Bowl era.

 

[junglehusky]

Only if Pixies agrees to play at halftime.

And Moby. (He dropped out of UConn)

 

[Jericho]

I look forward to the hopeful re-alignment of all teams into geographic footprints. I don't know if this will ever happen but one can hope. The Northeast isn't huge on college football but imagine if all the major teams were in the same division? BC, Syracuse, Penn St, Pitt, RU, UConn, MD? Think of the great rivalries! However, this is all probably a pipe dream. However, I don't see why it couldn't happen. There's no long standing ties to any of these teams current conferences. The longest tenured team is Penn St in the B1G (it might actually be Maryland....not sure on that). Even that tenure is as early as 1994. I really wish a Northeast conference would be formed (not the current one!). It could be great in basketball and football and maybe make the Northeast care about college football again!

Your math is a little off. Penn State joined the Big 10 in 1993. Maryland is a charter member of the ACC dating back to 1953. So getting Maryland to leave would not be easy. However, your dream conference is not that far off either. only Uconn, Rutgers, and Penn State are not in the ACC. You can pretty much write off Penn State, but its popssible 1 or 2 of UConn/RU will eventually join the ACC. That's pretty darn close.

 

[BlueDogs]

The new BE is an abomination. Too many are convincing themselves that the cr*p sandwich is roast beef on a roll. There are no natural regional rivalries to be built upon, and UConn is heads and shoulders above the glorified community colleges it is associating with. For all those praising Herbst, I find myself scratching my head. I don't see many recruits salivating to play mighty Memphis, UCF, Houston, etc..when the real action is in the big boy conferences. As a premier state university and one with an elite national basketball program, you'd think somebody could have levered UConn a whole lot more effectively.

 

[UConnDan97]

There are no natural regional rivalries to be built upon

I don't think that's true. In fact, whether by serendipity or actual planning (probably serendipity), it seems like the Big East has essentially paired everyone off. UConn will have Rutgers as their regional rival. USF gets UCF, Louisville and Cincy will continue their long standing rivalry, and SMU will battle Houston. The Big East wants the Boise / SDSU thing to become a rivalry (their western "travel partner") although that isn't really regional, and I guess Memphis and Navy are stuck with each other....until Temple or another branch of the Armed Forces joins up.

Some might not like the New Big East (clearly, it isn't ideal!), but I think it could develop into something pretty good. After all of the turmoil that's occurred over the last 5 months or so, it's a good place to end up in, even if it ends up being a temporary thing (like all of college realignment).

 

[freescooter]

I tend to agree with you, Dan, that there actually is some potential for rivalries/bragging rights games in the new Big East. To a degree those games don't automatically become rivalries in the strictest sense, but they can and some have indicated that they have real long-term potential. Cincinatti-Louisville is probably the closest thign to a true rivalry we have. Long standing with a real trophy, not some made up thing liek BC-Clemson for example. I don't know enough about the game to really know if the hate factor is there, though. UCONN-Rutgers, given its limited history, is I think really heading down the path that could become one of the better rivalry games. The fans don't particularly like each other, there have been close games, huge upsets, crazy finishes, not sure there has been that controvertial finish yet, where the game changes on an official's call or non-call. But it seems to me that's the only thing missing other than length of the series.

I guess I wouldn't have a problem making UMass a regular non-conference game, either.

 

[Waquoit]

We get nothing out of playing UMass. Nothing.

 

[uconndogs]

We get nothing out of playing UMass. Nothing.

On the one hand I agree with this. On the other, it presents the opportunity to establish absolute supremacy in New England over an opponent. As I posted before. Every opportunity to beat that program into submission should be taken.

 

[businesslawyer]

On the one hand I agree with this. On the other, it presents the opportunity to establish absolute supremacy in New England over an opponent. As I posted before. Every opportunity to beat that program into submission should be taken.

I think the issue is not whether it makes sense if you assume we beat them into submission twenty straight games. The issue is whether if we win 9 of 10 do we do ourselves more harm than good.

 

[pepband99]

We get nothing out of playing UMass. Nothing.

Untrue. They replace an even worse-fitting MAC opponent (cough Buffalo cough), in hopefully all cases.

 

[zls44]

On the other, it presents the opportunity to establish absolute supremacy in New England over an opponent. As I posted before. Every opportunity to beat that program into submission should be taken.

If UConn doesn't already hold supremacy over UMass, then they are duckked beyond belief.

There is no benefit to playing UMass. Zero. Zilch. Nada. None. Pointless.

 

[uconndogs]

If UConn doesn't already hold supremacy over UMass, then they are duckked beyond belief.

There is no benefit to playing UMass. Zero. Zilch. Nada. None. Pointless.

Just like BC does with us..............?

Play'em and crush'em. They are next door.

 

[freescooter]

I think you can make reasonable arguments on both sides of the UMass question. On the one hand it is little different from Cincy-Miami, or LSU-Tulane...oh occassionally we'll lose and it will be horrible, but most of the time we'll win, and it would be a much more interesting game than Buffalo or Western Michigan or Temple or the other MACs. And it does revise on eof the longer running rivalries in New England at 70+ games. On the down side, there isn't anything huge to be gained by UCONN. A win is expected. A loss is a disaster.

 

[Waquoit]

Screw UMass. All we get from that clown college is the constant badmouth, going on 20 years now. Never one ounce of anything approaching respect. Who needs 'em? Why should we do them any favors, bad enough we are lowering ourselves once.

 

[zls44]

UConn-BC and UConn-UMass have virtually nothing in common.

 

[freescooter]

l guess I would favor it under the condition that we get it at the Rent most of the time, and that it gets scheduled when BC has a home game against one of its vaunted ACC opponents, maybe opposite the big Clemson-BC matchup.