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

[Sportsman5]

It might be a hard sell for either UConn or Louisville alone to get the 14th spot. But to tell school presidents to split the pie into smaller pieces for three okay football programs and no really big ones (not that any are available) is probably a much harder sell. But as Katz implied, at this point maybe stuff doesn't need to make sense any more.

The best and most safe route to take for the ACC and ESPN is to take on UConn, Louisville, and Cincinnati, then renegotiate a slightly larger deal with espn so per school dollars go up a little and increase the buyout from 50 to 75-100 million. ESPN would increase the deal a little because if they don't, than schools will leave and the value of the conference may go down significantly. So in the long run ESPN will lose money from advertisers if they don't incentive the conference. Not sure about how easy it is to restructure the deal. Also, ESPN might just want to gamble that the ACC will stay in tact. They will lose that bet 95% of the time though. I'm sure my plan is too idealistic, but it seems to make a lot of sense.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Point taken, bl. I guess I assumed some secret desires on the part of the SEC/Big 12. Sorta like a hidden crush waiting for... Hell, I have a headache.

Pour yourself three fingers and sit tight. Here's a tidbit of info: Things are either going to change, or stay the same.

I hope our football players aren't paying attention to this mess the way the boneyarders are. BL's got year end stuff to do, and I think he's gone from 3k to 4k in posts in 24 hours. We need focus, b/c I want to kick the crap out of Louisville and continue to save this season.

 

[Adios]

I had a key tweet today:

Louisville fan: @TheWildEagle38: Arguing between UConn and UofL for the ACC spot is so dumb it shouldn't even be a ? Yes they have good men's and women's bball but what else

My response: @mattmang23: @TheWildEagle38 start w/ 2x the market size, proximity to NYC & Boston and student body that wouldn't be rejected from CT community colleges

Looks like he deleted your response.

 

[MattMang23]

Looks like he deleted your response.

Awwww he didn't like things that make sense.

 

[Adios]

Awwww he didn't like things that make sense.

You should tell him we also have national titles in soccer and field hockey and they are only 4-3 against us in football. Louisville should just go to the Big 12. The Big East was a huge help to Louisville. But we were in the Big East way before. Would be nice if people would return favors.

 

[MattMang23]

You should tell him we also have national titles in soccer and field hockey and they are only 4-3 against us in football. Louisville should just go to the Big 12. The Big East was a huge help to Louisville. But we were in the Big East way before. Would be nice if people would return favors.

Lol look at his prior tweets. He's touting their baseball and soccer teams. I wanted to respond to that also but I figured one response tweet was all he was worth.

 

[ZooCougar]

@DanWolken: Not a single school that left C-USA wants to go back. In worst case scenario they'd form something else.

 

[UConnRock]

Arguing with L'ville folks about which program is better is useless banter. There is no question that UConn and L'ville are the two most complete athletic programs in the BE and are better total athletic programs than many in the larger conferences. Rutgers made a decision to throw all their eggs into the Shiano basket and spend boatloads of money on football while other sports floundered and academic programs were cut. They took much criticism for that pathway, but the B1G bailed them out and they are patting themselves on the back now.

I am very proud of UConn's total package and hope there is value in strong men's and women's olympic sports. However, what this will come down three factors
1) just like the Rutgers decision by the B1G, UConn offers a larger TV audience which will be expanded as the Boston market embraces a true NE rivalry,
2) There is regional appeal for the ACC with 'cuse and BC. Once BC gets over their paranoia they will find that having UConn in their conference is a positive for TV coverage in the Boston area and for recruiting in both football and basketball. Loisuville would be a major outlier in the ACC from a geographic standpoint, with the best potential rival being Pitt
3) Most importantly, UConn has a far stronger academic reputation that is only getting better. UConn has been moving up in ratings in the past 5 years and shows no signs of slowing. Louisville would be a huge drop in ACC academic standards. UConn is a flagship university that fits the ACC mold to perfection. Louisville will always be second in Kentucky regardless of on field success.

 

[Vowelguy]

I think we need a thread that is a repository of key tweets.

Now there's an oxymoron.

>90% of what's being tweeted is people making up crap/giving their opinions

 

[Rumrunner]

Be relentless on twitter with these cretins. Fact after fact.

Louisville has a 22% graduation rate, it is a commuter college, its student body profile is two standard deviations away from the ACC's and UConn's

Addition of UConn offsets the isolation of BC, Cuse and Pitt with the Big 10 taking MD and Rutgers;

Not only is Hartford-New Haven market #30, but UConn is the only tristate team to actually have a cable contract with a NYC based network (sNY),

Nate Silver (I'm to the right of attila the hun so don't give me grief on this guy) says that UConn with 618,000 fans versus Louisville with 300,000

UConn's football recruiting ranking for 2013 is light years ahead of Louisville's, even with PP
#54 v #73. Louisville is being outrecruited by Southern Miss and Tulane

Louisville currently has a DIRTY recruiter Clint Hurtt that provides the pipeline from south florida that has given Strong his success. Clint Hurtt will be gone after this year when the NCAA crushes Miami. That has been why Louisville has been successful. Does the ACC want any part of this with what is going on at Miami and UNC. UConn's APR problems end this year.

http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news?slug=ys-clint_hurtt_allegations

"According to summary documents acquired by Yahoo! Sports, Shapiro told federal agents in taped interviews that on two occasions, he paid for Hurtt to bring large groups of Hurricanes football recruits to dinner at Miami Beach restaurant Café Grazie."

 

[clmssun]

The best and most safe route to take for the ACC and ESPN is to take on UConn, Louisville, and Cincinnati, then renegotiate a slightly larger deal with espn so per school dollars go up a little and increase the buyout from 50 to 75-100 million. ESPN would increase the deal a little because if they don't, than schools will leave and the value of the conference may go down significantly. So in the long run ESPN will lose money from advertisers if they don't incentive the conference. Not sure about how easy it is to restructure the deal. Also, ESPN might just want to gamble that the ACC will stay in tact. They will lose that bet 95% of the time though. I'm sure my plan is too idealistic, but it seems to make a lot of sense.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes... The best move the ACC can make, basically their only long-term hope. Arguing over petty differences among the three will be perilous. Take them all. NO ONE from SEC, B1G (or Pac, of course) is coming to ACC; highly unlikely any BigXII comes to ACC. The 2012 Big East is the "best of the rest", and UConn, Louisville, and Cincinnati are "the best of the 2012 Big East".

I would be stunned if it happened.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Does it though? Or at least, does it count for much? Serious question.

Let's say UL/UConn make a bowl. If UL fills the stands and UConn only fills half it's allotment, that's great for UL and all but does it mean much if the number of TV's watching at home is half that of UConn's (I don't know the exact numbers, but theoretically)? TV ad revenue could more than make up for any lost gate sales, I would think.

Of course you have a ton of other factors, but if TV is really running things, attendance doesn't really matter as long as the eyes are glued to the screens if they aren't at the park.

You forget the power of the bowl people. There is a TON of money made from tourism at all these cities; that's why there are so damn many of them now, and that is why the bowls haven't just gone away in favor of a straight up playoff system. And the bowl people want 35,000 people in the stands - and in the hotels, and bars and restaurants of the host city; not 1/10 of that number. It's not all about TV, although TV is obviously huge.

 

[junglehusky]

Hah, I replied to Pete Thamel, we'll see if he responds..

@SIPeteThamel
One TV exec floats idea of a coast-to-coast hoops league. Could that be future of Big East hoops? My @sinow story. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/pete_thamel/11/20/Big-East-realignment/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_wr_a2 …

@junglehusky
@SIPeteThamel Your comparison of UL vs. UConn athletics is lazy conventional wisdom. Have you checked head-to-head record in football?


@junglehusky
@SIPeteThamel How about number of times UConn finished ahead of UL in the Big East?

 

[MattMang23]

I, too, will observe the power of the bowl and alter my state of mind so I can stop thinking of conference realignment.

 

[caw]

You forget the power of the bowl people. There is a TON of money made from tourism at all these cities; that's why there are so damn many of them now, and that is why the bowls haven't just gone away in favor of a straight up playoff system. And the bowl people want 35,000 people in the stands - and in the hotels, and bars and restaurants of the host city; not 1/10 of that number. It's not all about TV, although TV is obviously huge.

Yes, but they have almost zero influence in realignment (relative to TV at least).

I agree that UL is probably a more favored pick for bowl games, is a bowl person going to tell any ACC team, "we won't take an ACC team if you take UConn over UL." I doubt it, highly.

 

[GampelGladiator]

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes... The best move the ACC can make, basically their only long-term hope. Arguing over petty differences among the three will be perilous. Take them all. NO ONE from SEC, B1G (or Pac, of course) is coming to ACC; highly unlikely any BigXII comes to ACC. The 2012 Big East is the "best of the rest", and UConn, Louisville, and Cincinnati are "the best of the 2012 Big East".

I would be stunned if it happened.

IMO...I love the premise, but it won't happen because:

1. Requires forward thinking on behalf of the ACC leadership

2. Leaves ACC with 17 basketball teams due to ND partial membership. It seems less than ideal to have uneven divisions of 9 and 8. (Perhaps add Georgetown as basketball only, but then the ACC is headed toward a path that ruined the Big East.)

 

[GampelGladiator]

But for argument's sake...the football divisions do line up quite nicely. The football centric southern schools that don't want to play road games in the cool northeast autumn air would be happy that they travel to BC/CUSE/PITT/UCONN only once every five years for each.

ACC

North: Boston College, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech
South: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Wake Forest

 

[jostar1]

Andy Katz‏@ESPNAndyKatz
OK. Cleared my head after a workout. Maybe ACC should take both UConn and Louisville. We're past the point of odd numbers mattering.

 

[junglehusky]

A conversation on twitter about a possible national bball conference if the catholics don't split, actually very similar sounding to some of HFD's western targets (UNM, Fresno added to the NNBE (ex-CUSA) minus UConn... you could probably assume UL leaving for the B12). Not sure if this is just twitter people tossing ideas around, or if some of the schools involved are also tossing ideas around. they probably can't do anything till they know what's up with UConn/Louisville and whether the catholics are going to split or not.

 

[jostar1]

Dennis Dodd‏@dennisdoddcbs
In consecutive days BTN has called Maryland and Rutgers "sleeping giants". That's not sleeping, that's comatose.

 

[OkaForPrez]

Tony Terzi ‏@TerziMedia
Friends of mine with ESPN say they are hearing Louisville, not UConn, will be invited to join the ACC. And, that Big East ftbl will fold.

Tony Terzi ‏@TerziMedia
UConn or L'ville to ACC? Ftbl, men's hoop better @ 'ville, but UC in larger TV mkt & is much higher ranked univ. ESPN hearing it's 'ville.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Tony Terzi ‏@TerziMedia
Friends of mine with ESPN say they are hearing Louisville, not UConn, will be invited to join the ACC. And, that Big East ftbl will fold.

Tony Terzi ‏@TerziMedia
UConn or L'ville to ACC? Ftbl, men's hoop better @ 'ville, but UC in larger TV mkt & is much higher ranked univ. ESPN hearing it's 'ville.

Malloy has to drop the hammer on ESPN if this happens. Basically tell them the state will use tax credits it was going to give ESPN to cover lost revenue at UConn.

 

[Vuce]

Tony Terzi ‏@TerziMedia
Friends of mine with ESPN say they are hearing Louisville, not UConn, will be invited to join the ACC. And, that Big East ftbl will fold.

Tony Terzi ‏@TerziMedia
UConn or L'ville to ACC? Ftbl, men's hoop better @ 'ville, but UC in larger TV mkt & is much higher ranked univ. ESPN hearing it's 'ville.

It is simply amazing that every time this realignment happens the needle goes one way then the other. First it is ALL about market, academics, etc. Now, let's throw those two things out the window completely and bring in the second lowest ranked academic school in the BCS and a market that is way below where Uconn's is. And let's totally misrepresent L'ville's "much better" hoops program and ignore the FACT that Uconn has the most National Championships of ANY SCHOOL in the last 13 years. And has been every bit as good as L'ville in football since they arrived. F'in ridiculous.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

It is simply amazing that every time this realignment happens the needle goes one way then the other. First it is ALL about market, academics, etc. Now, let's throw those two things out the window completely and bring in the second lowest ranked academic school in the BCS and a market that is way below where Uconn's is. And let's totally misrepresent L'ville's "much better" hoops program and ignore the FACT that Uconn has the most National Championships of ANY SCHOOL in the last 13 years. And has been every bit as good as L'ville in football since they arrived. F'in ridiculous.

Its unbelievable. I mean, did we not make a Final Four in 2009? Did we not win a National Title in 2011? Does our Big East Football Championship allllll the way back two seasons ago not count?

Were the 30th bigggest media mark not even including Fairfield or ANY NYC penetration!

Not to mention our school is a top 20 public university and Loserville is a glorified commmunity college.

Even after all of that, Irecognize Ville IS still a solid candidate, but the overall message ffrom the media and twitter is UConn sucks and Ville is Alabama.

I hope that the ACC is smarter than the masses and doesn't fall vicctim to the masses and FACTUALLY incorrect BS their spewing.

 

[Vuce]

The thing is - I know Tony Terzi - he went to Uconn. He rooted hard for Uconn back in the day. I am sure he is not making stuff up about what he is hearing from his contacts at ESPN. I am very very worried about this now.

 

[SaeHusky]

So many haters out there- this Nate Miles thing/academic thing really hurt our perception. We are so screwed

 

[Hoophound]

There is not likely any truth to this. If the ACC takes UL, they are taking UConn too. The ACC cannot afford to pass over the only team in the NYC market available now that they missed Rutgers.

 

[Felix]

Someone make me feel better about this. Don't really like the fact that he is getting his info from ESPN and not some wahoo in West Virginia. Seriously someone, show me something credible from somewhere that gets me off the ledge.

 

[Dooley]

Not to mention, UConn stretches a bit into Boston too. Pick up the Globe or turn on NESN and UConn scores are covered every bit as much as BC. UConn can reach into NYC, Boston and all of CT. That's the #1, #7, and #30 (Hartford/New Haven) markets. Seems like a no-brainer. Actually, I'm surprised we're not hearing more chatter about UConn to the B1G to be honest. That conference wants in in the big markets and UConn is exactly that, while not sacrificing academics or athletics. I saw a post saying that UConn and UVA are the only American schools in the AAU 2.0 yesterday somewhere. What am I missing???

 

[mets1090]

Toni Terzi's 'source' at ESPN could just be a friend of his that works for ESPN that has been hearing from other people at ESPN that they think it will be Ville. It's entirely possible, even probable, that the beginning of this rumor is a random person or group of people at ESPN that just think it will be Ville not based on contacts at Ville/UConn/BE/ACC but on their own thought process, which means jack.

Guy A (talking to Guys B-F at water cooler): "I think it's gonna be Ville."
Guy G (talking to Terzi): "I'm not sure but I'm hearing Ville to the ACC over UConn."
Terzi (talking to us fools): "ESPN hearing it's Ville."