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

[huskymedic]

I hate to say it, but the situation is being monitored. As I mentioned in a previous post, give that the president of BCU is a member of the ACC executive committee, it is highly unlikely that he would allow an invite to UConn.

I guess it’s a good thing then that Fr. Leahy is retiring after next year.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

.

Well, a new stadium would be a heck of a lot more than $100 million.

What sticks in my craw is how short our travel distance is compared to most big-time programs and how much we complain about travel time. I'm sure the average Penn State fan spends far more time getting to and from a game than anyone in CT. Complaining about travel time is such a bush-league attitude.

I love the comments telling me not to complain about the distance when its too far for 18—
20 kids on a free party bus ride to go about the same distance.is a deterrent .
To be clear I was actually coming from Litchfield county and got dropped off . I probably left my daughters at 3:30 or 4 for But you might say I’m not a casual fan. My grandsons who’s not a fan attended a game in Hartford the year before and commented on how much more convenient Hartford was.
Here is the reality the current location is not a deterrent to becoming respectable and becoming established especially in a top conference
I agree the people who say then the distance doesn’t matter . UConn football is far from established and needs to create the casual fan into a permanent one.
We recently had a similar situation in Phoenix
The Cards stadium is inconvenient for most of their fans considering where they come from although they complain about it but they show up anyway
The Coyotes built an arena next to Cardinal Stadium even though the majority of their potential fans are on the east side . Being less established people didn’t go in enough numbers to sustain them so they tried to move to the East Valley .
They then failed to get a new arena in the East and are now in Utah.
Hockey failing in Phoenix at the time of the year when every other resident is either Canadian or from the upper mid west is testament to incompetence. To be clear i wouldn’t go to an NHL game if it was in my neighborhood us old Whaler fans are a bitter lot.

 

[buddy]

I guess it’s a good thing then that Fr. Leahy is retiring after next year.

Good, then maybe they will come to their senses and throw BC out.

 

[huskymedic]

I love the comments telling me not to complain about the distance when its too far for 18—20 kids on a free party bus ride to go about the same distance.is a deterrent .

 

[Kolumbo]

.

I love the comments telling me not to complain about the distance when its too far for 18—
20 kids on a free party bus ride to go about the same distance.is a deterrent .
To be clear I was actually coming from Litchfield county and got dropped off . I probably left my daughters at 3:30 or 4 for But you might say I’m not a casual fan. My grandsons who’s not a fan attended a game in Hartford the year before and commented on how much more convenient Hartford was.
Here is the reality the current location is not a deterrent to becoming respectable and becoming established especially in a top conference
I agree the people who say then the distance doesn’t matter . UConn football is far from established and needs to create the casual fan into a permanent one.
We recently had a similar situation in Phoenix
The Cards stadium is inconvenient for most of their fans considering where they come from although they complain about it but they show up anyway
The Coyotes built an arena next to Cardinal Stadium even though the majority of their potential fans are on the east side . Being less established people didn’t go in enough numbers to sustain them so they tried to move to the East Valley .
They then failed to get a new arena in the East and are now in Utah.
Hockey failing in Phoenix at the time of the year when every other resident is either Canadian or from the upper mid west is testament to incompetence. To be clear i wouldn’t go to an NHL game if it was in my neighborhood us old Whaler fans are a bitter lot.

18-20 kids is the operable phrase.

The standard for college football is an on-campus stadium. Makes sense since college sports are for the student body first and foremost and most students at large flagship state universities live on campus. If you don't think many kids don't bother going because the stadium is in East Hartford, you are delusional. Lots of students would prefer to go to a game and then go home and study, believe it or not.

If you want to play with the big dogs, don't act like p u s s y cats. We have the stupidity to desire to be in a power conference and continue to act like amateurs. We can't afford to keep pumping money into the wasteland when the proper solution is to build in Storrs.

 

[jostar1]

I hate to say it, but the situation is being monitored. As I mentioned in a previous post, give that the president of BCU is a member of the ACC executive committee, it is highly unlikely that he would allow an invite to UConn.

Yeah, the stars are aligning and not in a good way for UConn.

 

[Hoophound]

I hate to say it, but the situation is being monitored. As I mentioned in a previous post, give that the president of BCU is a member of the ACC executive committee, it is highly unlikely that he would allow an invite to UConn.

I’m not so sure. It’s dated thinking. They aren’t succeeding without their regional rivals. A lot of Cuse fans want UConn in the ACC. It will help their basketball program. They are realizing that in the Northeast, there is strength in numbers. That’s why the Big East has been good for us. We like playing PC, SJU, Nova etc. It’s the history. Cuse and BC have lost that and it has cost them relevance.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Yeah, the stars are aligning and not in a good way for UConn.

I asked this before without a response. What power does the BC president have that the other presidents don’t? Is the executive role THAT decisive?

 

[Stinger92860]

I asked this before without a response. What power does the BC president have that the other presidents don’t? Is the executive role THAT decisive?

At this point I would like to think he has one vote.

 

[uconndogs]

I’m not so sure. It’s dated thinking. They aren’t succeeding without their regional rivals. A lot of Cuse fans want UConn in the ACC. It will help their basketball program. They are realizing that in the Northeast, there is strength in numbers. That’s why the Big East has been good for us. We like playing PC, SJU, Nova etc. It’s the history. Cuse and BC have lost that and it has cost them relevance.

There is some truth to this. GDF was a very insecure guy and in way over his head from a business standpoint. He viewed UCONN as a threat rather than an opportunity to drive regional interest and support for college athletics in New England and maybe even the northeast more broadly. I'm sure the ACC checks have been nice, but this next reound of restucturing could be a real s*** show for BC.

 

[CL82]

From Middletown 30 or so miles away ! ..
The point is Storrs is a logistics problem especially for most of the Ct population centers. If you were an established power not a big deal. We will drive yo NY or Boston but we’re not the Red Sox or Yankees.
if your going to spend $100 million on a stadium without infrastructure improvements you wasting the tax payers money .

It's a 30 minute difference six times a year. And that is assuming you're west of Hartford. It's less if you're east of Hartford.

Making massive infrastructure improvements for six games a year, most on a Saturday, in my opinion, would be the waste of money.

 

[CL82]

I agree the people who say then the distance doesn’t matter . UConn football is far from established and needs to create the casual fan into a permanent

The way to do that is to get students used to attending games on a regular basis. Having them bussed 30 minutes away doesn't do that. Having an on campus stadium where they could go to every game for four years does. It makes it part of the campus experience rather than an inconvenient activity a half hour away.

 

[jostar1]

I believe the ACC Board of Directors includes 18 members representing all 18 Universities. I would assume everyone gets one vote but it is the ACC, so who knows. Maybe ND only gets a 75% share vote.

According to this story, ACC expansion needs a three-fourths majority approval. Notre Dame gets one vote.

ACC expansion on life support with presidents delaying vote; what are the arguments for and against?

League administrators have spent the last several days seriously examining the possibility of adding Pac-12 schools Stanford and Cal, as well as SMU of the AAC.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[CL82]

I asked this before without a response. What power does the BC president have that the other presidents don’t? Is the executive role THAT decisive?

At this point I would like to think he has one vote.

I think that's exactly right, they have a vote. That single vote mattered in the past when I think the conference really didn't have a strong preference over us and Pittsburgh, so BC's statement that "they wanted to be the New England school" was enough for other conference members to go "whatever" and accept Pitt. Now, had ESPN said, "no, we will only pay for Connecticut as an addition", we would've been in.

Likewise, when FSU flexed its muscles against tobacco road and indicated it wanted "a football school" instead of the addition of what it perceived to be another "basketball school", BC's "single vote" allowed FSU to build a majority and overrule tobacco road. Again, though, all it would've taken is ESPN saying, no, Connecticut is our home state and we want to maintain a good relationship with its residents, legislature, and governor. We will only pay for Connecticut in this round of expansion. That did not happen, obviously.

 

[Pat125]

I asked this before without a response. What power does the BC president have that the other presidents don’t? Is the executive role THAT decisive?

My understanding is that the chair of the presidents group of a conference does not really have any additional power. I was sort of an observer at a presidents meeting for a Division II conference. The chair of the group organizes and runs the meeting, and the liaison to the commissioner. During the meeting, the chair can order an executive session where everyone (including the commissioner) are booted from the room.

I’m sure there are differences with the ACC presidents group. But I can’t see any of the presidents ceding their power to any one president. And I don’t believe the chair has any more influence over realignment or other decisions by simply being the chair.

 

[The Yakk]

I hate to say it, but the situation is being monitored. As I mentioned in a previous post, give that the president of BCU is a member of the ACC executive committee, it is highly unlikely that he would allow an invite to UConn.

LOL at the idea that BCU will have any say in where the ACC expands. Some BCU suit on a rubber-stamp committee doesn't mean squat.

The real authority in the ACC resides in the broadcasters and the top schools--the ones whose ratings actually bring the revenue. BCU is very far from that.

 

[jostar1]

I asked this before without a response. What power does the BC president have that the other presidents don’t? Is the executive role THAT decisive?

Well, BC did block us in 2011. And this story also confirms ESPN's role, as CL82 said.

An article in The Boston Globe on Sunday became the talk of college athletics, as it reported just how brazen and blatant Boston College’s blocking of Connecticut’s move to the Atlantic Coast Conference was.

“We didn’t want them in,” Boston College’s athletic director, Gene DeFilippo, told The Globe. “It was a matter of turf. We wanted to be the New England team.”

The most stunning comment in the article was DeFilippo’s public admission that ESPN guided the A.C.C.’s decision to add Syracuse and Pittsburgh last month. “We always keep our television partners close to us,” DeFilippo told The Globe. “You don’t get extra money for basketball. It’s 85 percent football money. TV — ESPN — is the one who told us what to do. This was football; it had nothing to do with basketball.”

DeFilippo’s comments give credence to the popular theory that ESPN encouraged Pittsburgh and Syracuse’s exit from the Big East in the wake of the Big East’s turning down ESPN’s billion dollar television deal in May during an exclusive negotiating window. ESPN has a billion dollar deal with the A.C.C., making that move either savvy business or collusion, depending on one’s perspective.

 

[uconnyankee]

yeah, the problem with that is BC was never really Boston's school... mostly due to its snobbishness and a lot of Mass is still very blue collar once you get past the high tech padding. That and people went to school everywhere else.

I think BC used to be the poor man’s Notre Dame in MA. It was the local football program that got national attention, especially when Flutie played. Casual college football fans would cheer for BC.
Especially the Catholic faithful.

That was a long time ago, and BC’s irrelevance have squashed that.

 

[UConnJim]

I think BC used to be the poor man’s Notre Dame in MA. It was the local football program that got national attention, especially when Flutie played. Casual college football fans would cheer for BC.
Especially the Catholic faithful.

That was a long time ago, and BC’s irrelevance have squashed that.

There is truth to that, but I think the bigger issue for BC is that they went from a local/regional college to a national college. When they changed the demographics of the school, they lost many fans as the school lost many of their local connections. I know some BC grads that are still upset that their kid was not accepted at BC. And, since the demographics changed, BC grads don't tend to stay as much in the Boston area anymore after graduation.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

 

[CL82]

I thought they were supposed to forgive and forget?

They?

 

[temery]

If you can't reply without injection religion into your post, don't reply.

 

[jostar1]

 

[Forte]

Predictions from Athlon. It sounds like Memphis and USF are just about a sure thing next round.

https://athlonsports.com/college-fo...ege-football-conference-realignment-expansion

The MAC Becomes a 14-Team League

UMass will join the MAC next year (2025) to bring the MAC membership to 13 teams. Even if the conference prefers all-sports members, the MAC eventually grows by one with a football-only deal with UConn.

And if UConn isn't the right fit, perhaps a FCS team (maybe Illinois State?) fits as the No. 14 member.


Translation ... if UConn football isn't worthy / good enough for the MAC they would look for more viable FCS options.