Jeff Jacobs: UConn denies talks of a Big East return...

[pick6s]

Yeah, he's really being truthful if the intermediary party is his boss Susan Herbst or anyone talking for him. I don't think he has had any communication with the Big East either directly or indirectly. If he did, all the coaches would have to be aware of it. I think an invite to the ACC in all sports except football is a much more likely scenario. That's what the reporters should have asked him, and the answer would have been "no comment". The ACC would love to have that northeast market with the UConn men's and women's basketball programs in the ACC. UConn football goes independent for a couple years but gets 6 or 7 games against ACC teams.

This is an interesting thought. I wonder if the ACC would consider adding UConn for everything but football, as we obviously bring value with our non-football sports.

I don't think UConn could pass this offer up if it came up. By making this agreement, we would almost surely be the 16th football member of the ACC if Notre Dame joins in 2026 (or another time in the future).

 

[huskyrob1]

Football independent is a death to UConn as we know it. UConn is not Notre Dame or BYU where they have their own network deals one with NBC and one with ESPN.
AAC until the next realignment in the next couple of years. One thing working against UConn is ESPN losing money for Disney which is a problem that won't go away anytime soon.

UConn football would still get 1/5 (or there abouts) of a full share of the ACC football contract. That's a lot better than what they get now in the AAC. Plus they could cut an independent deal with SNY, which I'm sure would jump at that. And that's not all, women's basketball in the ACC is dieing a slow death right now, Joanne P McCallie is close to being canned at Duke, things are so bad. They still have Louisville doing well, but that's it. Bring Geno and his crew into the league and tickets sales and ratings go up like 500%.

 

[weyuo]

Interesting, in the last three years(the years the AAC has sent teams to the NCAA tourney in March) The Big East has sent 15 teams(16-14 record) to the AAC's 10(11-9 record). Both conferences have won a national title in that time. If SMU wasn't on probation last year those numbers would be even closer as SMU had an excellent team and might have gone deep into the tourney. My point is the AAC isn't as awful a basketball conference as some might want you to believe for a league not even 5 years old. According to Forbes the AAC made 49 Million from bowls and the NCAA basketball tourney(30/19 respectively) in 2016 and the Big East made 10 mil from the basketball tourney. Total TV revenue per school for 2016, Big East = 4.5 mil vs the AAC = 5.7 mil. Take into consideration that the AAC is in it's first TV contract and had to prove itself. Surely their next contract will be more lucrative.