Jeff Jacobs: The Truth Is, UConn Isn't In BC's League

[EJHarrington]

I disagree with his assessment the we are being "slowly, slowly slowly, strangled" by CR. We strangled ourselves by hiring bad ADs who hired bad coaches. The seeds of our demise date back to Hathaway when we were still in a major conference. CR has been a factor too but we primarily blew it with bad personnel decisions IMO.

Agree 100%. I don't see UCF / USF / Boise State / etc. being strangled. Our inept administration did it via bad decisions. It will take at least 2 more years to clean up the mess.

 

[shizzle787]

Agree 100%. I don't see UCF / USF / Boise State / etc. being strangled. Our inept administration did it via bad decisions. It will take at least 2 more years to clean up the mess.

UCF and USF can get FL recruits. We for the most part can't. Boise State was strangled before and is still strangled so that's not news.

 

[EJHarrington]

UCF and USF can get FL recruits. We for the most part can't. Boise State was strangled before and is still strangled so that's not news.

Maybe we have different definitions of being strangled. Boise State wins at least 8 games every year, always is in the hunt for a conference championship, has a great brand, is televised nationally every week, and frequently makes and wins major bowl games.

 

[UCFBfan]

Jacobs on the $/P5 cartel roll... from yesterday. Wonder if he’s been “prompted/encouraged”:

Jeff Jacobs: Protect UConn Women's Sports From Erosion

The interesting part of that article was his though that a P5 conference should take our field hockey and women’s basketball team like HE took the hockey team. There’s no shot that ever happens.

The reality is, we are witnessing the decline of our athletic department. It is a real concern about what will happen with the women’s team once Geno hangs it up. Being in a G5 conference will make it that much harder to maintain success.

I don’t foresee things really changing, even when all the deals are up. If anything the major programs will boot out the lesser ones and there’s really no reason they’d add UConn when we are already on the outside looking in.

It is depressing but it’s the likely future of this university and many others that have once experienced success at the highest level and have since been relegated to G5 status.

 

[shizzle787]

Maybe we have different definitions of being strangled. Boise State wins at least 8 games every year, always is in the hunt for a conference championship, has a great brand, is televised nationally every week, and frequently makes and wins major bowl games.

Strangled financially. They are on all the time because they are on the west coast and there are only 2 conferences out there.

 

[EJHarrington]

Strangled financially. They are on all the time because they are on the west coast and there are only 2 conferences out there.

Boise turns a profit. If they can do it, we should be able to do it.

Figures show Boise State as the king of the Mountain West revenue race - FootballScoop

 

[UCFBfan]

Boise turns a profit. If they can do it, we should be able to do it.

Figures show Boise State as the king of the Mountain West revenue race - FootballScoop

Doesn’t Boise have a sweetheart deal with the MWC. I remember them getting more TV revenue as a result of the MW not wanting them to bolt when they and SDSU were originally going to join up. Don’t they get double then other members?

 

[SubZero]

Probably but it will probably still be higher than AAC, and that is without football.

The Big East has historic basketball teams and plays at an elite level on par with many of the P5 conferences.

 

[SubZero]

Boise turns a profit. If they can do it, we should be able to do it.

Figures show Boise State as the king of the Mountain West revenue race - FootballScoop

Boise doesn't waste money on women's sports and sports that don't matter.

 

[UCFBfan]

Boise doesn't waste money on women's sports and sports that don't matter.

Can we finally get rid of this tool?

You’re seriously going to make a comment about how it’s a “waste” of money to use any on women’s sports when we have one of the most successful Women’s programs (b-ball) in the country and a large part of UConn’s fan base are fans of the women’s team? Why, again, do you post here?

 

[noeynox]

I’d disagree in that it isn’t slowly. It has happened pretty much overnight.

I never understood the calm After we lost out to Louisville. That was the beginning of the end. Regardless of what Sue or Warde said.

 

[Pudge]

The next AAC TV deal is going to look almost exactly like this one.

Just not true. The CONTENT is worth more than the short window that was contracted. Will it be near P5? Heck no. There will be a 4-5:1 ratio to the lowest P5; and that makes little sense given Wake, BC, Texas Tech, Wazzou positionally; the real question in my mind is what happens to the long long contracts ESPN signed for big dollars as the ESPN platform vaporizes. But we will get more than the current Per University payout.

Will that be enough for our woeful AD problems? We need more disruption in the marketplace.

 

[Pudge]

I disagree with his assessment the we are being "slowly, slowly slowly, strangled" by CR. We strangled ourselves by hiring bad ADs who hired bad coaches. The seeds of our demise date back to Hathaway when we were still in a major conference. CR has been a factor too but we primarily blew it with bad personnel decisions IMO.

I think we all grind out teeth on this.

Swofford valued Syracuse, Pitt, BC ... NAMES from the 1950s to 1980s. Long run, I do not see them as VALUES in acquisition; they just are placeholders. BC and Syracuse have structural problems that UConn doesn't. (Central New York?)
Delany valued MARKETS - and that led to Rutgers and Maryland positioned over us. That makes sense (except Rutgers has never seemed to be able to build a winning Program in most anything). Nebraska was an easy take for the B1G.
Then Louisville. Needless to say Jurich at UConn would have used our Calhoun and State U platform to real great leverage versus the Hathaway/Manuel eras. Perkins was a similar animal. But as we see with YUM and the Pitino/Petrino game, the curmudgeon New England governmental overlords would not have put up with his crap.

The Net? We just lost out in CR. The BEST of leadership - with coaches and NC - we just never got a seat at the table; yet, that structure allows for silly anomalies.

2025? I think the contracts that the P5 are living on are based on a business model that has changed overnight. OUR upward view of revenues is not great; but, the collapse will be in the bigger money deals. And might lead to a further National Consolidation - like a Premier League. Why should the BIGs in Football share?

 

[whaler11]

Just not true. The CONTENT is worth more than the short window that was contracted. Will it be near P5? Heck no. There will be a 4-5:1 ratio to the lowest P5; and that makes little sense given Wake, BC, Texas Tech, Wazzou positionally; the real question in my mind is what happens to the long long contracts ESPN signed for big dollars as the ESPN platform vaporizes. But we will get more than the current Per University payout.

Will that be enough for our woeful AD problems? We need more disruption in the marketplace.

You keep saying that, so what’s the number?

And what is your prediction based on other than you want it to be true?

 

[CTBballfan243]

BC is just a bigger and more physical team than UConn right now - HCRE's teams during his 1st tenure would have beaten this BC team and handily
BC has a standout RB, an effective OL and good DBacks
That's the difference - Thanks RedPants

Randy Edsall’s first tenure we were in the Big East, a BCS conference. Now we are in a mid-major conference. RE will not be able to recruit the same level player to the AAC.

 

[NE Football]

BC is actually investing in their facilities by building that indoor football field and weight room. It will be interesting to see if their recruiting picks up over the next 3 years. They are a lot tougher competition now versus when we were all in the BE.

All that said, we just need to hire Don Brown. He can find diamonds in the rough and coach them up. BC had very good DB’s last night thanks to Don Brown. They were always terrible at that position until he arrived.

 

[LIuconn]

Don Brown's salary is ~$1M without bonuses or incentives. So, how are we hiring him again?

 

[Redding Husky]

UConn would have been a better fit (and more competitive) in the P5 than BC, Syracuse, Rutgers, or Pitt.

But we never got that chance and we may never get that chance.

 

[UConnJim]

Disagree that UConn football can't be competitive. BC is on the 5th year of the same head coach and they have AJ Dillon today. UConn is on their 3rd head coach in 5 years. A school like UConn, which must develop players, can not win with coaching turmoil. The plan is now in place with Edsall.

Clearly PP was a big mistake and that is on Hathaway, but we could have recovered. Diaco was an even bigger mistake and that is on Manuel. Now that we have experienced Diaco, it makes you wonder how Manuel ever hired him. Seriously, Diaco is nuts and I'm sure most coaching insiders knew that. With what went down with CR plus the Diaco hire, it's pretty clear Manuel was not a good AD.

 

[Pudge]

You keep saying that, so what’s the number?

And what is your prediction based on other than you want it to be true?

I say that because of the incredible discount Aresco placed on the AAC first contract. And the relative VALUE of AAC televised games versus the P5 - particularly the non-Elite.

If we are getting - say $2m per annum per AAC University for football now (I don't have the specifics in my brain) versus a high double figure for Duke or Wake or Maryland or Syracuse ... there will be a home for AAC games in the early 2020 timeframe at $4-7m. That doesn't make us float; but it gets us into the middle of the next decade. And the actual Football played - IMHO - is more interesting than most in CFB.

The $25-40m per University for P5 is what I see as the real low hanging fruit of the recent ESPN waterfall of Cash. If we aren't staying solely on ESPN or Fox going forward - and that's my presumption - the dollars paid will not be robust for the bulk of that content.

We are the neighborhood fixer-upper. Not mansion road. But comparatively, a better Value than 65% of P5.

 

[whaler11]

I say that because of the incredible discount Aresco placed on the AAC first contract. And the relative VALUE of AAC televised games versus the P5 - particularly the non-Elite.

If we are getting - say $2m per annum per AAC University for football now (I don't have the specifics in my brain) versus a high double figure for Duke or Wake or Maryland or Syracuse ... there will be a home for AAC games in the early 2020 timeframe at $4-7m. That doesn't make us float; but it gets us into the middle of the next decade. And the actual Football played - IMHO - is more interesting than most in CFB.

The $25-40m per University for P5 is what I see as the real low hanging fruit of the recent ESPN waterfall of Cash. If we aren't staying solely on ESPN or Fox going forward - and that's my presumption - the dollars paid will not be robust for the bulk of that content.

We are the neighborhood fixer-upper. Not mansion road. But comparatively, a better Value than 65% of P5.

So you pretty much agree. They can get a big percentage gain but in absolute value it pretty much is the same.

 

[HartfordHank]

UConn would have been a better fit (and more competitive) in the P5 than BC, Syracuse, Rutgers, or Pitt.

But we never got that chance and we may never get that chance.

You may believe that but the ACC, B1G and BigXII obviously did not!

 

[Pudge]

So you pretty much agree. They can get a big percentage gain but in absolute value it pretty much is the same.

YUP

But UConn getting $5m keeps us on track to survive for 2025. I have more faith in Kevin Ollie's last few moves than most here; and I do think Benedict was a winner in pushing Diaco in the trash and bringing back HCRE for a rebound for $1.

National Champs in a few sports.

And in 2025 ... who knows. I pray for massive disruption by Hubris-like behavior with Texas and ND and/or Miami etc. We can learn to love second tier FB with some big games ... and (for me) continued contention up the College Hoop March Madness. Plus Geno.

 

[Pudge]

You may believe that but the ACC, B1G and BigXII obviously did not!

F--- You.

BC is not but a ZipCode school. National in your mind only. And the continued National Championships at UConn are clear evidence that the B1G and ACC should have done a little more thought ... than taking a damn phone call from DeFilippo in 2001. I - see above - think that the GREED of some schools break up the P5 Cartel.

Why?

Econ 101: Cartels always cheat. Some Player will find a way to go get supernormal profits beyond the norms ... and then Katie bar the door.

 

[B1GEast]

If programs UCF, Memphis, Northern Iowa and Houston can put competitive teams on the field, we have no excuse.

We have better brand recognition than any AAC or MAC conference university.

Hire the right coaches and AD's and not only will we win, but the fans will return and support.

It's not that complicated