Is the American good for uconn

[huskeynut]

Here we go again. We are in the American for a while. There is no P5 movement at this time. I seriously doubt the athletic department is going to split off football to get into another conference. The ACC said no thanks to BC and a few others in that conference. The Big10 is not expanding and the Big12 is disfunctional.

UConn has to play the hand it has been dealt.

 

[DEpup]

I took that as a rhetorical question.....

 

[dogged1]

There is another Board on the Boneyard dedicated to Conference Realignment. The posters on that board have debated every aspect of realignment in all it's permutations ad nauseum. That board is slowly dying as most of the posters there have realized that there is no way out of the AAC to a P5 conference in the near term.

Uconn as an institution is not giving up on it's aspiration to join a P5 conference, but they know that it is a long term goal not a near term.

Uconn has many of the qualities needed for P5 acceptance, including a great Athletic Department, a world class WCBB team, a nationally recognized MCBB (most NCAA champs in a 20 year period), outstanding record in NC for Olympic sports, First Class Academics (#52 USNR), First Class media and marketing metrics and on and on and on.

But the negatives are there too. BC, Miami and Syracuse all seek to block us from the ACC. While our athletic accomplishments are really good we are not "old school", blue blood, we have little national history. Our football team was rising under Edsal but fell into an abyss when he left, at the worst possible moment in realignment. And while KO started strong, the men's team is at a low. All of this is being corrected, but even so, it will take a shift in the dynamics (media money, media contracts & media outlets shifting, broadcast- cable- streaming) to create another wave of realignment. And that's not happening right now.

If your interested in an in depth analysis of this check out the Realignment Board, it was once vibrant. And especially CL82 posts. He is very knowledgeable on this subject.

 

[Adios]

Who in the AAC gives UConn competition? Depaul is as good or better than any team(besides UConn) in the AAC!

And? USF has been trying to be the second best program but it is possible that another school might become that. Jose Fernandez is not the best coach. But obviously the AAC remains the better option overall.

Why don't we get ODU into the AAC and rebuild their women's bball program so you'd feel better?

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I refuse to read this thread. The nonexistent geographic rationality of the American is enough to condemn it. But for WCBB in particular it is a resounding tragedy! A joke. A travesty. A BIG FAT NO.

 

[Sifaka]

The AAC is good for WCBB. Yes, it is good for the totality of women's college basketball.

"Why is that so?" you ask. Because...

1. The meagre competition most of the conference offers UConn leads GA & Co.
to invite other top teams to schedule UConn, thus providing

2. topnotch, often competitive games among the best teams, attracting fan interest above and beyond most conference—AAC and other—schedules, and

3. revealing which coaches usually do (McGraw, Staley, Van derVeer, Walz,) and often don't (Mulkey) choose to engage with the best available competition.

Is the AAC good for UConn? If you haven't yet figured out the answer to that one,
perhaps you advocate a much higher rim, unlimited fouls, and a square ball.

Also, in the spirit of something like mercy killing, it gives a few of the more rabid Lady Vols fans something to talk about on their glorious (!) board when they grow tired of Holly hagiography and fahr Holly screaming matches.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

The AAC is good for WCBB. Yes, it is good for the totality of women's college basketball.

"Why is that so?" you ask. Because...

1. The meagre competition most of the conference offers UConn leads GA & Co.
to invite other top teams to schedule UConn, thus providing

2. topnotch, often competitive games among the best teams, attracting fan interest above and beyond most conference—AAC and other—schedules, and

3. revealing which coaches usually do (McGraw, Staley, Van derVeer, Walz,) and often don't (Mulkey) choose to engage with the best available competition.

Is the AAC good for UConn? If you haven't yet figured out the answer to that one,
perhaps you advocate a much higher rim, unlimited fouls, and a square ball.

Also, in the spirit of something like mercy killing, it gives a few of the more rabid Lady Vols fans something to talk about on their glorious (!) board when they grow tired of Holly hagiography and fahr Holly screaming matches.

Really good, inventive and total just fun. Am I buying it? Nope. Except the Hollyland part. Right on there.

 

[Fightin Choke]

I refuse to read this thread. The nonexistent geographic rationality of the American is enough to condemn it. But for WCBB in particular it is a resounding tragedy! A joke. A travesty. A BIG FAT NO.

One advantage of the crazy AAC geography is that is gets you playing games in Texas, Carolina, Tennessee, etc that have a lot of HS basketball talent. But I agree you need to get into the B1G or even better, the ACC. Then just schedule Baylor and/or Texas every year OOC to get more exposure in Texas.

 

[Woof 101]

I refuse to read this thread. The nonexistent geographic rationality of the American is enough to condemn it. But for WCBB in particular it is a resounding tragedy! A joke. A travesty. A BIG FAT NO.

Rocky have you fallen down the mountain??? You refuse to read a thread and then comment 34 posts in???
Then again after another, something tells me your reading this thread and refuse has a different meaning in Montana...

I get your point though. As a football fan I actually miss the opponents fans at the games. Of course I miss ours more but it was always healthy to see Rutgers, Syracuse, West Virginia (they travel well) and teams within a reasonable proximity in the house.

 

[Sifaka]

Really good, inventive and total just fun. Am I buying it? Nope. Except the Hollyland part. Right on there.

Glad somebody got a chuckle from this early draft of a picaresque novel I've been working on since around 1957. For some reasons, the publishers don't show as much interest as they ought to. I take solace from the memory of E.E. Cummings's dedication to his book of poetry, No Thanks:

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Rocky have you fallen down the mountain??? You refuse to read a thread and then comment 34 posts in???
Then again after another, something tells me your reading this thread and refuse has a different meaning in Montana...

I get your point though. As a football fan I actually miss the opponents fans at the games. Of course I miss ours more but it was always healthy to see Rutgers, Syracuse, West Virginia (they travel well) and teams within a reasonable proximity in the house.

I haven't read it and I said what I feel. I'm very sorry that the best basketball conference in history went poof. It was a seminal moment in the disintegration of college sports. I can hardly wait until so called college athletics among the P5 become official farm teams and the charade of college athletics dies. Yeah, I know, the screaming, beer besotted will hardly notice.

 

[UConnNick]

Who in the AAC gives UConn competition? Depaul is as good or better than any team(besides UConn) in the AAC!

When is the last time DePaul managed to stay within 20 points of UCONN? I'm sure its happened, but how often and how long ago? They don't provide any better competition than USF does. As for the rest of the new Big East, let's not forget that Rutgers, Louisville, ND, WVU and Syracuse are all gone. The former Big East has been gutted. There's nobody left to give UCONN much of a game. Every once in a while maybe DePaul, Marquette or Villanova might stay within 20. Big whoop. That's no reason to join the NBE. The season before last we came close to losing at Tulane. That's likely a far closer game than any NBE team would have given us in the past several seasons.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

The AAC football got a big boost this year from UCF who was the only undefeated D1 team. They also beat both teams that played for the NC. Of course the head coach was poached by Nebraska (his alma mater). But it's a step in the right direction for football.

Central Florida beat Alabama and Georgia? When?

 

[MSSportsGuy]

For what it's worth since I'm bored on a Thursday night (good grief I dislike the NBA playoffs)

We all know football drives all of this and UConn is still very new to the football game. What strikes me about the AAC is that it's just a collection of random schools who have almost zero history together and whose geographic differences will make it challenging to create any sort of rivalries. UCF and USF are no doubt "peer" institutions but it's sort of a hodgepodge from there. I just don't see there ever being much excitement for ECU vs UConn in football, or men's or women's basketball no matter how competitive the teams may be. Conference musical chairs was done for money and that's about it. There was little regard given for geographic locations of schools and I recall thinking when I first learned that West Virginia was joining the Big 12 "hmm, wonder about their travel for sports other than football?". UConn would be a natural fit in what is now the ACC given that Syracuse, Pitt, BC are at least close in proximity, plus the rest of the conference at least has logical rationale to its membership with the exception of Louisville.

Football and the corresponding TV deal is 99% of the reason things are the way they are with current conferences with academic reasons being 1% at best. College football may be the goose that lays the golden egg in the sense that while the growth has been exponential I wonder at what point it evens out. SEC football is truly a religion in the deep south and the games and entertainment aspect seems to get bigger each season. My personal opinion is to just stop pretending college football is anything but amateur and either pay the players or don't make them get an education if they don't want one and just let them focus on football.

 

[Adios]

One advantage of the crazy AAC geography is that is gets you playing games in Texas, Carolina, Tennessee, etc that have a lot of HS basketball talent. But I agree you need to get into the B1G or even better, the ACC. Then just schedule Baylor and/or Texas every year OOC to get more exposure in Texas.

Sorry to even bump this, but the ACC better than the Big Ten as a conference? C'mon. Any ND fans knows that is not true. The ACC chooses Louisville over UConn. While the Big Ten makes smart moves. ND shuns the Big Ten out of claimed animosity and fear (but they did join the Big Ten for ice hockey anyway). UMD left the ACC for the Big Ten, if I am recalling correctly. It's almost like saying Cornell should be in the Patriot Conference instead of the Ivy League.

UConn most definitely is hoping and aiming for the Big Ten. We'd fit in very well and they know it.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Sorry to even bump this, but the ACC better than the Big Ten as a conference? C'mon. Any ND fans knows that is not true. The ACC chooses Louisville over UConn. While the Big Ten makes smart moves. ND shuns the Big Ten out of claimed animosity and fear (but they did join the Big Ten for ice hockey anyway). UMD left the ACC for the Big Ten, if I am recalling correctly. It's almost like saying Cornell should be in the Patriot Conference instead of the Ivy League.

UConn most definitely is hoping and aiming for the Big Ten. We'd fit in very well and they know it.

It depends on things (as to "better conference"). I'm not sure that - at first glance - the ACC isn't the better conference. But I do think that the B1G is the better UConn fit.

 

[veryolddog]

This whole conversation is a day late and a dollar short. This all started in the 1950's and 60's. The State of Connecticut has consistently underfunded UConn sports for over 50 years and did not give it a second thought until the men's basketball team began to win the old Big East. Even when they had the stadium in East Hartford, they only funded 40,000 seats. Everything with football is second class. When the politicians got involved it even aggravated a delicate situation. Basketball is king at UConn. Football is second class. Unless some other league wants a consistent door mat, UConn is destined for the American.

 

[SportsPageMike]

Eventually the two big big boy conferences, the SEC and the BIG 10, are going to expand to 16 teams with two divisions of eight teams. This will start and ripple effect that will change the landscape of college sports. The question is which one of them strikes first. I think that it will be the SEC once again. They started this many years by grabbing Arkansas from the SWC. They followed up by asking Texas A&M and Missouri to join. We all have opinions and so do I. Even with Florida bitching I think that Florida State will get nabbed from the ACC. And, the other team is possibly West Virginia from the Big 12 or both Oklahoma schools.

The Big 10 will not sit and watch what took place without making a move. They will grab and add as well. Virginia would be a perfect fit for them. The other team added would be a hard choice. Even though Iowa State would bring nothing to the table it is properly located within geographic territory not to add them. Plus, it gives Iowa a rivalry in all sports that should be played annually.

There you go. Now, the ACC has holes to fill. UConn and UCF get asked to join their conference no matter what Boston College has to say. The big loser at some point is going to big the Big 12. They stand to loose anywhere from one to four teams when conference realignment takes place. Possibly, even more if the Pac 12 jumps in and steals four of their schools.

 

[HuskylnSC]

Central Florida beat Alabama and Georgia? When?

I misspoke (mis-typed). They beat Auburn who beat both teams. They also finished first in one poll that the NCAA accepts so they are claiming a national championship. Most folks around here think its great fun. They gave all the players rings and hung a permanent sign in the stadium.

 

[ivrytontusker]

Sorry to even bump this, but the ACC better than the Big Ten as a conference? C'mon. Any ND fans knows that is not true. The ACC chooses Louisville over UConn. While the Big Ten makes smart moves. ND shuns the Big Ten out of claimed animosity and fear (but they did join the Big Ten for ice hockey anyway). UMD left the ACC for the Big Ten, if I am recalling correctly. It's almost like saying Cornell should be in the Patriot Conference instead of the Ivy League.

UConn most definitely is hoping and aiming for the Big Ten. We'd fit in very well and they know it.

ND isn't interested in joining the Big Ten over the ACC because, frankly, the Big Ten doesn't bring much to the table for ND as compared to the ACC. And the same is true for UConn.

Just focusing on the sports UConn is good at and/or are nationally "important," I would say that the ACC is stronger than the Big Ten in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, and baseball. The ACC is at worst equal to the Big Ten in football and in field hockey. And for ice hockey, Hockey East is an ideal fit for UConn as is; moving to the Big Ten will not help the ice hockey program.

 

[Longtime fan]

So, what’s your solution to the problem?

Right on point, Husky N. It is almost as though this poster just signed on. Because the pathetic state of AAC women's basketball has been a known weakness since day one. And, unless there are outside forces working to change women BB conference alignments ( and I don't think there are any ), or UCONN football soars to the national championship ( still laughing ), the only hope for change is that the AAC conference members " up their games." They have to get better coaches and players so that inter conference contests are worth watching. The frustrating thing is; other than South Florida, not a single university in the conference has made meaningful progress in women's basketball since the conference was formed. How does a wealthy, sports-oriented university, like SMU remain so awful? Texas is a hot bed ( sorry ) for great women BB players. They can't get any of them? UCONN does the best it can to treat their conference games as though they were important learning experiences, and to keep their focus on fine-tuning their system. But we all know UCONN's practices are more challenging than any of these games. It is embarrassing and non-productive, for sure. But, as you say, what to do?

As an extreme, I think UCONN should play some of these games with bench players only. Use the starters only at critical moments, if there are any. At least they would be " fresh" for the Big Dance. Just dreaming.

 

[j66kicker]

As an extreme, I think UCONN should play some of these [AAC] games with bench players only. Use the starters only at critical moments, if there are any. At least they would be " fresh" for the Big Dance. Just dreaming.

I agree - don't even have the starters make the trip. Time to forget about the conference political correctness if most of the conference schools will not put resources into improving their WBB programs. Geno should make a statement - basically, "If your athletic department doesn't take WBB seriously, then we don't take you seriously and we'll make a mockery of you."

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I agree - don't even have the starters make the trip. Time to forget about the conference political correctness if most of the conference schools will not put resources into improving their WBB programs. Geno should make a statement - basically, "If your athletic department doesn't take WBB seriously, then we don't take you seriously and we'll make a mockery of you."

The elephant in the room being that very few schools (out of 350ish D1) take WBB particularly seriously. Any number of the P5 schools make the appearance of caring (a few don't even do that), but if you get right down to it, they are mostly tossing (some) money at the coach and "hoping" they can generate a bit of success, while other improvements, like facilities, are byproducts of improved men's facilities. And they do that much just to remain respectable among their peers.

Unfortunately, since WBB is a money loser and not "overly" popular in most places, I don't expect that to change. And since non of the American teams have a ghost of a chance of competing with UConn (I mean, the number of teams in D1 that have a chance of competing is pretty minimal) they can upgrade without being competitive.

Think about the oBE - who was really competitive with UConn? Rutgers and Notre Dame (in some years, on and off); a few other individual games could be "tough", but it wasn't really most of them. Most of the oBE teams were better than the American teams, for sure, but lets not over-romanticize how they compared, game in and game out, with UConn.

 

[Kevin G]

No. But unfortunately Uconn is stuck in it. The OOC schedule speaks for itself. Either way no excuses

 

[UConnNick]

Right on point, Husky N. It is almost as though this poster just signed on. Because the pathetic state of AAC women's basketball has been a known weakness since day one. And, unless there are outside forces working to change women BB conference alignments ( and I don't think there are any ), or UCONN football soars to the national championship ( still laughing ), the only hope for change is that the AAC conference members " up their games." They have to get better coaches and players so that inter conference contests are worth watching. The frustrating thing is; other than South Florida, not a single university in the conference has made meaningful progress in women's basketball since the conference was formed. How does a wealthy, sports-oriented university, like SMU remain so awful? Texas is a hot bed ( sorry ) for great women BB players. They can't get any of them? UCONN does the best it can to treat their conference games as though they were important learning experiences, and to keep their focus on fine-tuning their system. But we all know UCONN's practices are more challenging than any of these games. It is embarrassing and non-productive, for sure. But, as you say, what to do?

As an extreme, I think UCONN should play some of these games with bench players only. Use the starters only at critical moments, if there are any. At least they would be " fresh" for the Big Dance. Just dreaming.

SMU is just one example of the entire AAC. It consists of primarily southern, football oriented schools, all of which having the same limited resources due to their conference affiliation. When it comes down to spending limited resources on athletics, they're all going to invest in football and men's BB. You don't throw money at money losing sports when you don't have the money to throw around.

As for Geno deliberately using second teamers just to keep AAC conference games closer, that's LOL funny. You don't deliberately take your foot off the gas in the first half of conference games just to make the game some kind of learning experience. Most AAC teams are so bad your players aren't going to learn much of anything no matter how you play the games.

 

[j66kicker]

Think about the oBE - who was really competitive with UConn? Rutgers and Notre Dame (in some years, on and off); a few other individual games could be "tough", but it wasn't really most of them. Most of the oBE teams were better than the American teams, for sure, but lets not over-romanticize how they compared, game in and game out, with UConn.

I think at least most of the OBE schools tried. Villanova, BC (back then), Miami, even Seton Hall tried, I think. WBB in the AAC isn't getting any better, and isn't going to get any better, because there's not even any try.

 

[TitleTown]

When is the last time DePaul managed to stay within 20 points of UCONN? I'm sure its happened, but how often and how long ago? They don't provide any better competition than USF does. As for the rest of the new Big East, let's not forget that Rutgers, Louisville, ND, WVU and Syracuse are all gone. The former Big East has been gutted. There's nobody left to give UCONN much of a game. Every once in a while maybe DePaul, Marquette or Villanova might stay within 20. Big whoop. That's no reason to join the NBE. The season before last we came close to losing at Tulane. That's likely a far closer game than any NBE team would have given us in the past several seasons.

That's my point, Depaul is just as good as USF!

 

[mbr33ct]

The AAC has just completed 5 years. Rome wasn't built overnight. Comments to the effect, the oBE teams were better than current AAC teams...really? True statement considering most of current teams came from A-10, C-USA, MVC (Wichita State...whatever conf that is). So yes, the oBE teams were better than this current batch of teams but seems to me these teams have to work "double time" to catch up to the oBE teams first and then try to compete with UConn.

 

[river rat]

None of the conferences would give UConn a lot of "good challenging games" with a quick look I see NotreDame won 7 games by 10, 3 by 15, 6 by 20, 8 by 30(including a 50 point win). they did have 5 games they one in single digits, including an overtime win... they also were beaten twice by louisville and once by Uconn.. Is that a big difference in preparation? The big 10 is much worse than the ACC, much like the AAC. The big east was only slightly better than what they have now... memories fade about the many blowouts. The ACC would be slightly better. the rest are much the same. I do not think ND was better prepared... they had a better game that night, and needed overtime to do it. It could have gone the other way just as easily.

We played ND, we played Louisville, we played SC... we beat them all, just not in the right order

 

[Fightin Choke]

Sorry to even bump this, but the ACC better than the Big Ten as a conference? C'mon. Any ND fans knows that is not true. The ACC chooses Louisville over UConn. While the Big Ten makes smart moves. ND shuns the Big Ten out of claimed animosity and fear (but they did join the Big Ten for ice hockey anyway). UMD left the ACC for the Big Ten, if I am recalling correctly. It's almost like saying Cornell should be in the Patriot Conference instead of the Ivy League.

UConn most definitely is hoping and aiming for the Big Ten. We'd fit in very well and they know it.

I was talking about the ACC being better than the B1G as a women's BB conference, as we are on a women's BB forum. Obviously, the B1G has a bigger payout because of football, but where would the majority of UConn WBB fans prefer UConn go? The B1G is probably the weakest WBB in the P5.

Why would Notre Dame fear the B1G? Their football schedule is typically among the hardest in the nation already. Check out their SOS compared to any member of the B1G.