This was clear when Warde and Sue, told everyone that UConn fans needed to learn to support FB whether they were winning or losing. The losing had yet to really get rolling, but the crowds were starting to get smaller toward the end of Ps 2nd year.
Oh, I get the argument, though I think it's misplaced, that people would rather see the money spent towards football applied to other programs. But I don't think anyone wants us to continue to have a football program that loses. That would be the worst of all possible worlds. So the notion that people are actually rooting for Connecticut football to lose, I think is ill founded.
let's remain in a conference that just kicked out the headliner college sport that we're trying to be successful in. I'm sure that would have played well in the P5 offices, shows some real commitment to football.
So we should have never gone to the AAC? Explain to me how remaining in the non-football rump Big East would play in P5 offices when they considered our commitment to football versus other programs. Especially when all of our football-playing former Big East conference mates went to a football conference.
I know a long time Women's B-ball season ticket holder who hates when the Men's team is good. She thinks they get too, much attention and detract from the Women's team.
the women's fans are an entirely separate sub-species in an ecosystem that's on a different time/space continuum.
Thank God you're not running our athletic department.
It wasn't like we had that choice. The catholic seven from the then BE got up and left and invited Xavier, Creighton and Butler to join. They then purchased the name from the remaining five members (unpaid tournament credits and departure fees from ND, WVU, Pitt & Cuse given entirely to the football members).
Was that money a net positive vs what they paid to leave the AAC snd join the Big East? By how much?
Read history . Look at rule 1. The bar changed every round of realignment . Also, the AAC was the conference we had to go to. The Big East was not an option. I never was opposed to the AAC as a bridge to a P5 invitation. I continued season tickets for hoops and football all these crappy seasons. If you loud football fans were as loyal and filled the Rent, you wouldn’t have this straw man argument.
you could have just said this and skipped the holier-than-thou fan part
Um, I started buying 10 season football tickets after UConn announced it was moving up to Division 1-A, well before the RENT was even conceived. Over the years that allotment has increased to 12 ducats. I agree with John's last comment.
UConn is pretty competitive with the P4/P5 in every sport at current spending with the exception of football. Sure, you could add a few dollars to softball, volleyball, swimming, and track and field to make them more competitive, but we are not talking about a large investment. A $5 million to $10 million per year investment increase in football would go a long way. You could double coaching salaries, increase recruiting budgets, ...
It would have been much worse than that. As it was, UConn remained in the Big East Football conference and the basketball programs bolted. UConn would have had to put its tail between its legs and chosen to leave the football conference which would have been devastating. Leave a conference with Cincy, Louisville, USF, Rutgers and run with the basketball teams. Game over.
Fans would be more likely to support FB if their rivals were regionally local. Rivalries carry outside of stadiums on Saturdays. Coworker fans of rivals, bars with rival fans, families with rival fans. All create a local buzz that fuels support.
www.insidezonemf.com
This may be the first time I’ve ever seen a national media person actually put onto paper that UConn made infinitely more sense than Cal, Stanford, and SMU. Kudos to Matt.The ACC needs to add UConn
Don't overthink this. A conference with a rich basketball history could bolster its hoops product and offer a lifeline to the Huskies' independent football program.
UConn is a better fit. UConn can either wait for the ACC to collapse or make the same deal SMU (or Stanford/Cal) made to join. SMU gave up a lot to get in and so did Stanford/Cal, just not quite as much, but they benefited from Notre Dame pulling for them. Making a deal and getting Notre Dame to pull some strings will get UConn into the ACC short of the collapse of the conference.
I tend to agree with this…. If we go back to back you can offer a SMU/Cal/Stanford like deal to both the Big 12 and ACC and see if either has the balls to take you up on it
I'm not sure there's any relevancy between the events given how long they were apart and the fact that Connecticut was not invited when the Catholic seven left the conference.