Key tweets, and it's all gone to Hell.

[BKarchitect]

I believe it is just Bowlsby and the 3 member expansion committee, which are 3 presidents ( WVU, Oklahoma, and Kansas State)

Winning over that room could be the easy part. Bowlsby, left to his own intuition is a very smart man. Can easily see WVU being favorable. Rumors already exist that OU and Boren have been pro-UConn and no reason for KSU to be demonstrably a anti-Huskies.

The hard part is when Bowlsby and co make their recommendation to all the league presidents and then they vote. You need 8 yes votes. The individual presidents have never shown any inclination to listen to their own commissioner and steering committee about what is best for the league. If you can convince Texas it's not going to matter because they'll have their veto block. Likewise the northern schools. That's why I still feel this is 4 or nothing. I don't see any two schools which will satisfy everyone in terms of horse trading. The only way it is 2 with Houston and whoever is if the GOR is extended to match the ACC's.

 

[MattMang23]

I wish Texas were in the room.

 

[gioff23]

I wish Texas were in the room.

They'd need a very big room to fit in Texas

 

[MattMang23]

They'd need a very big room to fit in Texas

The egos alone would take up 95% of the room, let alone what the land mass would take up.

 

[djct1999]

If that's the case, the trial balloon popped. Aside from a few astute Big XII fans, most of whom post here, the resounding response has been rejection of UConn.

The rejection is solely based on recent football performance. Again, the people actually making the decisions should go by a very different set of metrics.

 

[jostar1]

I believe it is just Bowlsby and the 3 member expansion committee, which are 3 presidents ( WVU, Oklahoma, and Kansas State)

After the Kansas State President left, Bowlsby appointed Ken Starr from Baylor to the Composition (Expansion) Committee. After Ken Starr left, Bowlsby made a statement that there wasn't a pressing need to appoint someone else. That was before the Conference issued their statement that they had decided to expand. I haven't been able to find anything after that.

 

[noeynox]

Berry Tramel@BerryTramel 27 mins ago
Some Big 12 expansion candidates have rocky starts

Overly harsh on the part of Trammel, but he has been one of our biggest advocates. Conservative, tough, grind it out football leads to scores like we had. It doesnt matter that there were other close scores FCS vs FBS. There are 4 real candidates like Trammel said. That is who you will be compared against.

I believe results like against Maine wont be held against us vs our overall profile, but if you dont want to see articles like that written, it is better then that you dont put on performances like that.

 

[MattMang23]

The rejection is solely based on recent football performance. Again, the people actually making the decisions should go by a very different set of metrics.

Well, sure. But the poster I was responding to was saying that he had hoped that the process was being done overtly so that Big XII fans would get used to being in a league with UConn. They're not. By and large they don't want us. Obviously that won't (at least I'd hope not) factor into the decision to invite us or not. Whether or not the presidents want us remains to be seen.

 

[06029]

Overly harsh on the part of Trammel, but he has been one of our biggest advocates. Conservative, tough, grind it out football leads to scores like we had. It doesnt matter that there were other close scores FCS vs FBS. There are 4 real candidates like Trammel said. That is who you will be compared against.

I believe results like against Maine wont be held against us vs our overall profile, but if you dont want to see articles like that written, it is better then that you dont put on performances like that.

Attendance will be held against Uconn. I don't care if it was against the CAA, somehow, someway, there needed to be close to a full stadium there. I would have given away tickets and paid for the buses for every pop warner and high school team within a 90 minute drive to pack the stadium last week. If UVA and Cuse are less than 35k, that would be way more important than any score in any game this year. Also need solid regional TV ratings for both those games.

 

[ninety-nine]

Attendance will be held against Uconn. I don't care if it was against the CAA, somehow, someway, there needed to be close to a full stadium there. I would have given away tickets and paid for the buses for every pop warner and high school team within a 90 minute drive to pack the stadium last week. If UVA and Cuse are less than 35k, that would be way more important than any score in any game this year. Also need solid regional TV ratings for both those games.

Agree - people need to show up for these next two home games. There won't be any FCS or Thursday night mulligans - these are Saturday games against ACC schools in our general region. Bread-and-butter OOC games. Unfortunately, I don't think enough people get it - they want to show up for a team that's already winning and already in the big leagues.

Quick, someone start a rumor that Beyoncé and Taylor Swift will be giving surprise halftime performances at those games!

 

[06029]

Agree - people need to show up for these next two home games. There won't be any FCS or Thursday night mulligans - these are Saturday games against ACC schools in our general region. Bread-and-butter OOC games. Unfortunately, I don't think enough people get it - they want to show up for a team that's already winning and already in the big leagues.

Quick, someone start a rumor that Beyoncé and Taylor Swift will be giving surprise halftime performances at those games!

Ratings in the NYC DMA also need to show an uptick over what they would have been for UVA/Cuse versus any other opponent, especially teams like Wake, BC and GT. If Uconn is promoting NYC as a reason to be invited, two games in a row at decision time have the opportunity to show it. The added benefit is that good ratings might make the ACC or B1G think about the preemptive move to add Uconn first or risk losing those eyeballs.

 

[06029]

Quick, someone start a rumor that Beyoncé and Taylor Swift will be giving surprise halftime performances at those games!

Swift's summer home is less than 2 hours from the Rent in Westerly.

 

[Marty Jackson]

There is growing consensus among Big 12 fans (particularly Texas fans and OU fans) that the Big 12 made this into a cheesy full-blown Bachelor-like production to completely overshadow the ongoing news of Baylor's despicable scandal.

it's worked... what is Baylor's scandal?

 

[IMind]

The gripe, at least my gripe, isn't in Turner or his opinion, it's in John Altavella presenting a guy who served as AD from 1987-1990 as a legitimate source on present day UConn athletics and Big 12 Expansion.

The Courant's editors are just as bad... the title of the article is pretty misleading... if you actually read the article he says he doesn't think the Big 12 will expand at all this time around. It's not that he doesn't like UConn's chances... he doesn't like anyone's chances.

Turner's pretty good at laying out why UConn would be a good choice... but he goes and brings up the BS travel issue again... specifically the golf team... they golf team is already going to Arizona, Florida, South Carolina, and Nebraska. They already travel all over the place... so does every single team at top division I program.. for every sport... Texas does and so do we... one or two extra trips for TX to CT or CT to TX isn't going to break anyone's bank. It's just stupid.

 

[MattMang23]

Does UConn even host anyone in golf? I knew a kid on the team back in my days and he was always going to Florida with the team. I don't think I ever remember him having a tournament at home.

 

[upstater]

Attendance will be held against Uconn. I don't care if it was against the CAA, somehow, someway, there needed to be close to a full stadium there. I would have given away tickets and paid for the buses for every pop warner and high school team within a 90 minute drive to pack the stadium last week. If UVA and Cuse are less than 35k, that would be way more important than any score in any game this year. Also need solid regional TV ratings for both those games.

Who are you comparing UConn to though? Cincy? Which had less than UConn?

 

[ninety-nine]

Does UConn even host anyone in golf? I knew a kid on the team back in my days and he was always going to Florida with the team. I don't think I ever remember him having a tournament at home.

Well, the entire state of Connecticut is a par-four, so probably not. ;-)

 

[BKarchitect]

The Turner article has made its way to the Big 12 forums and doesn't exactly make folks excited for you all. If you actually read the article, it's not that bad - his summary is he doesn't think the Big 12 will take anybody, not that UConn isn't as or more qualified that anybody else. But all people are going to see is "Even the former UConn AD doesn't believe his old school can make the grade!!!" Believe me, that's all anybody in Big 12 land will see.

While Big 12 presidents aren't going to be swayed by random article...it's kind of odd that your local paper would put out essentially a negatively titled piece against the best interests of the university at this time that, in this environment, would be sure to get picked up and re-tweeted and posted to death right as UConn is about to make their final push.

 

[MattMang23]

Well, the entire state of Connecticut is a par-four, so probably not. ;-)

I just checked our golf sched. They play a ten event season. Host one event in Ellington, otherwise it's all on the road. They play in NY, Nebraska, Florida twice, twice more in CT (once hosted by UHart and once by Yale) and a couple other places that aren't CT. Methinks it's not a big deal to be in the Big XII for golf.

 

[noeynox]

Attendance will be held against Uconn. I don't care if it was against the CAA, somehow, someway, there needed to be close to a full stadium there. I would have given away tickets and paid for the buses for every pop warner and high school team within a 90 minute drive to pack the stadium last week. If UVA and Cuse are less than 35k, that would be way more important than any score in any game this year. Also need solid regional TV ratings for both those games.

I wrote an email to warde a few years back that they should award free tickets to honor students from inner city schools. Put on a tailgate for them the whole nine. I looked at it as way to expose kids to UConn football that wouldn't otherwise would be, while at the same time building the fan base and increasing attendance. Warde like the idea but it never materialized.

In many respects i feel that the school is always behind the curve. NOW ATTENDANCE IS CRITICAL? Now you're begging people to come out and buy tickets etc? There is never any creativity out the ticket office instead what you get is mistakes from them that frustrate people and lead them to drop their season tickets.

 

[noeynox]

The Turner article has made its way to the Big 12 forums and doesn't exactly make folks excited for you all. If you actually read the article, it's not that bad - his summary is he doesn't think the Big 12 will take anybody, not that UConn isn't as or more qualified that anybody else. But all people are going to see is "Even the former UConn AD doesn't believe his old school can make the grade!!!" Believe me, that's all anybody in Big 12 land will see.

While Big 12 presidents aren't going to be swayed by random article...it's kind of odd that your local paper would put out essentially a negatively titled piece against the best interests of the university at this time that, in this environment, would be sure to get picked up and re-tweeted and posted to death right as UConn is about to make their final push.

It was a dick move from the Courant and Turner himself. Perceptions become reality. Soon the article will be spun to habe said that former UConn AD said "UConn doesnt belong" yada, yada, yada.

 

[Jimdish255]

I just checked our golf sched. They play a ten event season. Host one event in Ellington, otherwise it's all on the road. They play in NY, Nebraska, Florida twice, twice more in CT (once hosted by UHart and once by Yale) and a couple other places that aren't CT. Methinks it's not a big deal to be in the Big XII for golf.

All these dopes have to do is look at the schedules for these sports to realize it is a non-issue, but their brain-dead thought process won't allow them to bother to click on a webpage. Baseball is the only sport other than Basketball that might require yearly travel. Soccer would but they don't have it. Indefensible.

 

[MattMang23]

All these dopes have to do is look at the schedules for these sports to realize it is a non-issue, but their brain-dead thought process won't allow them to bother to click on a webpage. Indefensible.

I don't think it's mandatory that any of the tournaments even feature conference opponents till the conference tournament anyway. If Texas doesn't want to send their team to the CT tournament I don't think they even have to.

 

[Husky25]

I wrote an email to warde a few years back that they should award free tickets to honor students from inner city schools. Put on a tailgate for them the whole nine. I looked at it as way to expose kids to UConn football that wouldn't otherwise would be, while at the same time building the fan base and increasing attendance. Warde like the idea but it never materialized.

The problem is they may not be able to do that. I don't know much about recruiting, but Geno Auriemma made a phone call to a 13 year old 8th grade Little League baseball pitcher and got a slap on the wrist because she was too close to being a high school student. Who's to say that a football prospect is not among those receiving tickets? Even if they were honors middle schoolers, in smacks of toeing the line of a violation for an overseeing body already with an itchy trigger finger toward UConn.

 

[noeynox]

The problem is they may not be able to do that. I don't know much about recruiting, but Geno Auriemma made a phone call to a 13 year old 8th grade Little League baseball pitcher and got a slap on the wrist because she was too close to being a high school student. Who's to say that a football prospect is not among those receiving tickets? Even if they were honors middle schoolers, in smacks of toeing the line of a violation for an overseeing body already with an itchy trigger finger toward UConn.

Point is, we all saw where attendance took a HUGE hit. It was toward the end of P's 2nd year. By his last year they had a major problem. Diaco's first year didn't excite.

Try something. CR is too crucial to expect to get people back in the seats by SLOWLY improving the product.