I think UCONN's biggest problem regarding ACC is being upside down. Great basketball, bad football. ACC needs good football, but it does not need great basketball. In fact, having a great basketball program may hurt UCONN because the likes of Syracuse, BC, Pitt, L-ville, and perhaps even the NC and VA schools only see us as a roadblock to their own championships. I never hear this argument but I bet it holds water.
.
Jacobs: Big 12 Is Out In The Cold, So UConn Officials Should Strike While Iron Is Hot
- Thread starter jostar1
- Start date
- Status
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 30,103
- Reaction Score
- 50,018
The desperation of prospective candidates in any interview situation is ALWAYS held against them.
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 30,103
- Reaction Score
- 50,018
But what are their choices? Cincy or UConn. Cincy's football is what makes them automatically better? It's a little underwhelming, no, to imagine Cincy is going to have that much impact football-wise. If the ACC could move in a B12 team like, say, Texas or Oklahoma, that would make a huge difference football-wise, but nothing else really works. Maybe steal West Virginia from B12?
I still say that the ACC should be worried about the B1G's dominance in the northeast. Penn State and Maryland and Rutgers are state schools with a lot of traction in this heavily populated area. The ACC has chosen to go with second choices in this region with Pitt, Syracuse and BC, all great school, but none of them dominate hearts and minds and population and media markets. In fact, Syracuse and Pitt are on the periphery of the megalopolis.
Is the ACC concerned at all that a potential ACC network would never get traction in the northeast because of where its schools are located? Does the B1G think it can lock up the region and damage the ACC by adding UConn?
I would only disagree with your comment about Syracuse. Although private, it really does have the following of a large state school.
Can we also end the Boise State discussions? $83 million endowment. 22k students. I don't see any grant or academic affiliations listed. They have a blue field and they beat Oklahoma. Anything else? At all?
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 30,103
- Reaction Score
- 50,018
I disagree about Syracuse but we've had that discussion here 1000 times. Having lived upstate for many many years, and having lived in Albany, Rochester and now Buffalo, I have a pretty good sense of Syracuse's popularity here. It doesn't really measure as formidable in NYC in the same way that UConn's NYC presence isn't that formidable either. In Buffalo, there's very little Syracuse interest here. In fact, UB's Bobby Hurley has an NBC TV show on Saturday mornings, and 550 AM sports radio talks about UB all the time, rarely if ever about Syracuse. The really weird thing about this region is that fans have a big tie to St. Bonaventure rather than Syracuse, but now UB is taking over that old interest in the Bonnies.
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2011
- Messages
- 3,881
- Reaction Score
- 3,749
I am pretty sure that ND could schedule UConn for one of their home games in NYC anytime. They could have UConn on their home schedule for the next ten years. I'm guessing too that UConn would probably be will to host some of their home games with ND in NYC. But the Irish would need also to come to Rentschler, because that's UConn's home field and they need those kinds of games to legitimize that they intend to be big time.
I'd have to say then that Syracuse is just a very unique school. A friend of mine graduated and it seemed his entire social circle moved to NYC for jobs. I wouldn't say it has a national following, but being a large wealthy private school, it has more of a national following than other state schools. Reminds me a little of USC and Miami. And I would still bet it has a larger following in the state of NY than any other school in the state. Of course, I could be wrong.
And yes, Syracuse does have that PR branch known as espn.
And yes, Syracuse does have that PR branch known as espn.
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2013
- Messages
- 9,072
- Reaction Score
- 8,762
The problem is that UConn doesn't tweak the national radar in football....In basketball, Uconn leaves a huge blip.
If CR turns so that basketball becomes more of a driver, it could only help.
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 30,103
- Reaction Score
- 50,018
No schools on your candidate list do that. NONE.
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 30,103
- Reaction Score
- 50,018
I agree on your first point, disagree on the second.
NY is so fragmented for sports. WNY is U Buffalo. Central NY and Capital Region are Syracuse.
There have been studies over the years that show Notre Dame and PSU are most popular in NYC for football. Then there was that dumb google search metric by 538 that showed Rutgers. Tranghese said it's UConn and Syracuse for basketball.
In other words, NYC is an absolute wash with many many schools competing and none rising above 20% in market share in a city that doesn't care a whole lot about college sports.
As for social circles, academics, and NYC for jobs, it's such a big state with so many great schools, most of them private, like Cornell, Columbia, NYU, etc., that it's hard to make the case that Syracuse is dominant in the mindset. It's not.
The mindset of most kids in this state targets the SUNY centers and Geneseo for affordability, and then NYU as a feasible school if they can afford it. The lure of leaving either NYC or anyplace upstate and west for Syracuse (and private tuition) is not that appealing. Given the choice, schools like NYU or even U Rochester win that debate.
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2011
- Messages
- 7,184
- Reaction Score
- 8,757
Have you ever seen the job market in Syracuse? That's why their alumni network is in NYC.
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2011
- Messages
- 7,184
- Reaction Score
- 8,757
Plus, there are even small pockets of anti-Syracuse in upstate New York. Best example is Cornell, partially due to their growing rivalry in Lacrosse.
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2013
- Messages
- 543
- Reaction Score
- 929
No, you are a basketball school (LOL)_...UConn needs to get into football in a big way... Yes UConn plays in the FBS...so what, UConn needs fans but we need wins even more! With winning I suspect the fans will come and with winning, the "We are a basketball school mantra" will disappear. Not saying fans will forget basketball but I am saying fans will support football. AND as for UCONN last I checked, they are making it ALL about football. Don't like it...its the truth. If it wasn't they would have given up on football right after the lawsuit and stuck with basketball in the Big East! The administration has moved on, many of the fans have too, not sure why you don't get it???
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2013
- Messages
- 642
- Reaction Score
- 1,217
Uconn is not a Big 12 school. West Virginia is not really a B12 school. And we are not a SEC school. There are people here who have lost their mind. Will someone tell me what we have in common with any of those schools. I wish people would stop prostituting Us.
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 30,103
- Reaction Score
- 50,018
What do we have in common with Tulsa, SMU, Houston and Tulane?
UConn Dan
Not HuskyFanDan; I lurk & I like
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2012
- Messages
- 3,136
- Reaction Score
- 12,798
We are not going to the big 12 (or the SEC) but it's not for lack of willing to accept. You better be damn sure that we are taking an invite from the first P5 conference that offers us, including the PAC 12, regardless if you think we don't belong with those schools. Sounds like you haven't been paying attention. It's do or die. I'm yahoo frucking serious right now.
UConn has been passed over in realignment. And you think we can afford to be on a high horse?
Fishy
Elite Premium Poster
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2011
- Messages
- 18,994
- Reaction Score
- 140,606
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 21,351
- Reaction Score
- 49,359
Only a troll or a fool would post something like that. In the P5 world you're either in or your out. Currently we are out, and every prostituting i mean effort should go into trying to get in. Period.
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2012
- Messages
- 8,903
- Reaction Score
- 26,523
We play high-level athletics.
Strictly speaking, that's all the commonality an athletic conference needs.
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2013
- Messages
- 9,072
- Reaction Score
- 8,762
The most likely expansion scenarios that I see...in order.
1...Big 12...all it would take is a second year of having a team not make the play offs....the rumblings would be deafening. I could see adding two to four teams...if they can get paid for it. I could see an eastern pod with WVU, Uconn, ECU, and UCF.
2...The B1G....if anyone would be the first to go to 16, it would be the Big Ten (would they still hold out against all hope for the Irish?).
3...The ACC...only expand if the Irish become number fifteen and a sixteenth is needed.
1...Big 12...all it would take is a second year of having a team not make the play offs....the rumblings would be deafening. I could see adding two to four teams...if they can get paid for it. I could see an eastern pod with WVU, Uconn, ECU, and UCF.
2...The B1G....if anyone would be the first to go to 16, it would be the Big Ten (would they still hold out against all hope for the Irish?).
3...The ACC...only expand if the Irish become number fifteen and a sixteenth is needed.
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2011
- Messages
- 7,184
- Reaction Score
- 8,757
First, I can't see the XII taking ECU over Cincinnati as they are almost a draw when it comes to football quality with the Bearcats getting an edge in basketball, a Cincinnati is needed to keep WVU happy.
Second, ND will be the 20th and last team add to either the B1G or ACC. ND will only join a conference if it is clear that conference affiliation is the only way to get into the football playoffs and will go to the ACC unless 1) the ACC is the conference that falls apart on the way to the P4 or 2) the B1G lands Texas and Oklahoma and ND decides that a conference with Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Ohio St, etc. makes the best sense for ND.
UConn should try to do something innovative to gain interest from other conferences. For example, what about a UCONN - B1G Challenge? It could work like the B1G-ACC Challenge, only UConn would play multiple nonconference games vs. the B1G --- some - if not all - could be at Madison Square Garden. You could do this for men's and women's basketball. Attendance at these games could be compared to attendance at the B1G Tournament in MSG in 2018. You could pick a number of games - lets say 5 - and then the B1G picks its 5 men's and 5 women's teams that will play UConn at MSG each year for the Challenge. Or even 7 games - so the 7 men's teams in the B1G who play would not be the 7 women's teams in the B1G that play in that particular year. That way, every B1G team would have 1 men's or 1 women's basketball game at MSG vs. Connecticut every year. The minus for UConn would be a loss of home games in Storrs, but if you eliminated a neutral site tournament or two, you really don't lose anything in terms of home games.
That is probably the best way to show what kind of pull you might have for the B1G in NYC ----- you need to actually play the B1G in NYC first to show everyone what it can do.
And even if that still doesn't lead to an offer to join the B1G, it can at least give UConn some big name nonconference games to help with strength of schedule and media attention that you won't get playing Tulsa and Tulane.
That is probably the best way to show what kind of pull you might have for the B1G in NYC ----- you need to actually play the B1G in NYC first to show everyone what it can do.
And even if that still doesn't lead to an offer to join the B1G, it can at least give UConn some big name nonconference games to help with strength of schedule and media attention that you won't get playing Tulsa and Tulane.
- Status