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

[aburks41]

If I’m Benedict I’m offering all sorts of concessions to get us an invite. Commit to building an on campus football stadium. Offer conference games at MSG. Reduced share for the first 6 years. Everything. Just get us an invite and save the athletic department

 

[upstater]

The state doesn't pay that huge deficit. The school does. Apparently they find considerable value in doing so. Perhaps they realize that excellence in sports has elevated UConn toward excellence in education. Perhaps they recognize that the state has chosen to invest in the university, at least in part because of the goodwill generated by its outstanding athletic teams. Perhaps they, correctly, realize that having competitive athletic teams is attractive to students, who are the university's lifeblood. Perhaps they understand that having successful athletic teams create a brand for the university and name awareness in students, and their parents.

In the end all of those things contribute to being able to pay for the college of arts and sciences, and many other schools as well, because if they didn't realize it, why would the university be doing so? Let me state this again, the state of Connecticut does not directly pay the athletic department, the University does. It probably does so for good business reasons.

Flip everything around that you'd said 180 and you'd be right.

 

[NE Football]

BC will always be in demand due to their location, but only if they get back to the level they had when they first joined the ACC. It appears that their president and trustees don’t really care about athletics. They will probably go the route of Holy Cross

 

[Exit 4]

If I’m Benedict I’m offering all sorts of concessions to get us an invite. Commit to building an on campus football stadium. Offer conference games at MSG. Reduced share for the first 6 years. Everything. Just get us an invite and save the athletic department

I would have thought a commitment to a major reno of The Rent or on campus stadium would be part of our B12 invite....as a condition.

 

[Double Jay]

Here is my issue of UConn being sleighted again….why is the big 12 taking four schools (Utah, Arizona, ASU, BYU) to get into two markets?

It’s just inane when you think about diversity and breaking into new markets.

Compare football attendance between Utah and UConn and you have your answer. Utah has a bigger fan base that supports the fb program.

 

[giddyup]

If I’m Benedict I’m offering all sorts of concessions to get us an invite. Commit to building an on campus football stadium. Offer conference games at MSG. Reduced share for the first 6 years. Everything. Just get us an invite and save the athletic department

Negotiating on your knees is rarely a winning strategy.

 

[superjohn]

10 years ago UConn wasn't running a $50m deficit.

And before people jump in to tell us that the state continues to finance that deficit, tell me why the state isn't defraying the skyrocketing tuition?

As UConn increasingly comes under pressure at the top end (rising tuition) it's going to find it very difficult to maintain that huge deficit. People look at the $B budget and think $50m doesn't matter, but they don't realize most of that budget is spoken for, it's not fungible, it leaves the colleges little wiggle room. If I had to guess the College of Arts & Sciences runs on much much less than $50m.

30 years ago UConn was a cow town that no serious students looked at from across the country, and anyone with options in state never even thought about unless someone convinced them to apply to as a guaranteed safety school acceptance. We can thank the basketball programs for changing all of that.

 

[superjohn]

If I’m Benedict I’m offering all sorts of concessions to get us an invite. Commit to building an on campus football stadium. Offer conference games at MSG. Reduced share for the first 6 years. Everything. Just get us an invite and save the athletic department

No thanks.

You're being dramatic.

 

[ec33]

Did I miss the part where Arizona and Arizona State get to dictate terms?

What is their recourse? Stay on the sinking ship?

 

[jostar1]

because it doesn't make any sense. if we were in we'd be in. we're clearly not in or that mike anthony article would not have dropped today. that was a sign from the AD that we are on the cusp but don't have an invitation. I think we're just overconfident again.

Regarding that Mike Anthony article---he just rehashed the old storylines. There is nothing new there. The part about Yormark having to sell UConn to the Presidents is an old storyline.

As I posted before, the newer storyline is that the Presidents are on board with UConn (after the 4 Corners Schools). Heather Dinich from ESPN tweeted it on July 31. Her source is a Big 12 insider.

if the @pac12 stays together, Big 12 sources indicate UConn would be a strong candidate for that 14th team.

 

[Fishy]

The percentage of our fan base that believes just covering their eyes and ears for the next decade and thinking things will just “work out” is impressive.

College athletics is becoming more expensive by the day. Our revenue is absolutely static - we will not make more than what we’re making in television rights and the department had a mandate to cut the deficit not grow it.

So expenses will go up, revenue is static and the deficit is inflexible. What will happen is that we will be able to do less. Facilities, amenities, player perks, whatever it is, we will just have to do less.

Long haul…that’s not a winning formula.

 

[CL82]

Flip everything around that you'd said 180 and you'd be right.

No, actually it's correct as it is.

 

[nadav]

The percentage of our fan base that believes just covering their eyes and ears for the next decade and thinking things will just “work out” is impressive.

College athletics is becoming more expensive by the day. Our revenue is absolutely static - we will not make more than what we’re making in television rights and the department had a mandate to cut the deficit not grow it.

So expenses will go up, revenue is static and the deficit is inflexible. What will happen is that we will be able to do less. Facilities, amenities, player perks, whatever it is, we will just have to do less.

Long haul…that’s not a winning formula.

Sure. But we do get to play Seton Hall.

 

[Fishy]

Sure. But we do get to play Seton Hall.

Can’t really put a price on that.

 

[NowInStorrs]

Can’t really put a price on that.

Apparently for some people, that's worth about $40 million a year.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

F

Doesn't Fox already have us for like $4 million a year? Why would they want to move us to the Big 12 to pay us $32 million a year?

Fox only pays 11m of the 31m; ESPN has the rest.

 

[Jimdish255]

30 years ago UConn was a cow town that no serious students looked at from across the country, and anyone with options in state never even thought about unless someone convinced them to apply to as a guaranteed safety school acceptance. We can thank the basketball programs for changing all of that.

We won a soccer National Championship in 1981.
Field Hockey in 1981 and 1985.
Not bad for a "cow town".

Today has been nothing short of hysterical. Hopefully this madness is over soon.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Negotiating on your knees is rarely a winning strategy.

It worked when I proposed to Mrs Diesel.

 

[NEforceUConn]

Wow this is crazy.

I wish all conference media contacts/GORs matured on the same date. Then there could be a huge free for all.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

BC will always be in demand due to their location, but only if they get back to the level they had when they first joined the ACC. It appears that their president and trustees don’t really care about athletics. They will probably go the route of Holy Cross

Always, but with a condition. Huh?

 

[superjohn]

The percentage of our fan base that believes just covering their eyes and ears for the next decade and thinking things will just “work out” is impressive.

College athletics is becoming more expensive by the day. Our revenue is absolutely static - we will not make more than what we’re making in television rights and the department had a mandate to cut the deficit not grow it.

So expenses will go up, revenue is static and the deficit is inflexible. What will happen is that we will be able to do less. Facilities, amenities, player perks, whatever it is, we will just have to do less.

Long haul…that’s not a winning formula.

You're probably my favorite poster but you don't have a good track record with burying dirt on UConn men's basketball and the Big East, you seem to be doing it again.

This is it, this is the end of realignment, this is the end of UConn basketball...it's comical how we keep going through this, programs continue to constantly shuffle around, and UConn keeps winning national championships.

Whether we get in this time or not our basketball program is the best in the country right now and that isn't changing any time soon. Realignment isn't stopping any time soon.

 

[jostar1]

If the Big 12 takes Utah over UConn, then Tony Petitti just ate Brett Yormark's lunch. Because the Big 10 is going to be a national conference and the Big 12 isn't. I just hope that the Big 12 Presidents get it.

​

 

[superjohn]

We won a soccer National Championship in 1981.
Field Hockey in 1981 and 1985.
Not bad for a "cow town".

Today has been nothing short of hysterical. Hopefully this madness is over soon.

I went to Joe Morrone soccer camp, I was a fan but soccer and field hockey don't exactly give you a major bump in applications, raise your profile dramatically nationally, and aren't the impetus for major capital campaigns.

 

[mikeinmanila]

I think the split is Fox pays $11M and ESPN pays $20M.

Going from $4M to $11M isn’t that big if a stretch, especially considering $4M is extremely undervalued and doesn’t include UConn football

And Fox will simply shave money off the next Big East contract to more than cover UConn moving to the Big 12. Fox will come out ahead.

 

[Fishy]

You're probably my favorite poster but you don't have a good track record with burying dirt on UConn men's basketball and the Big East, you seem to be doing it again.

This is it, this is the end of realignment, this is the end of UConn basketball...it's comical how we keep going through this, programs continue to constantly shuffle around, and UConn keeps winning national championships.

Whether we get in this time or not our basketball program is the best in the country right now and that isn't changing any time soon. Realignment isn't stopping any time soon.

I am not burying anything, but I am also not trying to ignore what’s happening around us - and I’m not just a UConn basketball fan.

The revenue issue will have consequences all the way down the line. We’re running a P5 athletic program on basically no television revenue. No one else is trying to do what we’re doing - even schools that were recently promoted to the P5 were not doing what we’re doing. We can’t defy gravity forever.

And a split is coming. The NCAA is basically almost irrelevant now and it’s expensive to run. The power conferences will run their own show and we do not want to be on the other side of that split.

My personal opinion is that realignment will once again happen without us. I don’t see us being included down the line when the ACC blows up and various power schools are absorbed by other conferences - 2011 was probably our shot and whatever life is like for a school outside of the power structure is what we will have to deal with in a few years.