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

[CL82]

Eh, just a continuation of balling on a budget. Its not so much him, but the money for assistants doesn't seem to be there. It is what it is. That offense last week looked like dog barf. People complained about Charlton all the time, this looked much worse.

Yeah, I wasn't really excited about the Sammis promotion. I'm just not sure how much of that is budget related and how much of that is the notion that we aren't a good job. I suppose either way it could be fixed with money.

 

[CL82]

Can we get a Really,Really Key Tweets thread going - nothing but tweets that are key to our fit in the realignment game

Just the fact that you would ask that question makes me realize that you really don't know us at all.

 

[noeynox]

Yeah, I wasn't really excited about the Sammis promotion. I'm just not sure how much of that is budget related and how much of that is the notion that we aren't a good job. I suppose either way it could be fixed with money.

Went two years without a DC and now when we get a DC our answer to replacing the departing OC is to promote the OL coach. Money or not money being the issue, these moves are suck.

 

[How Sway?!]

Do you think it looks good when a vast majority of our fans are going online and railing against this move? Or when CT senators make statements like Chris Murphy did? None of this helped us, and I do not understand why people deny the reality of our situation. Husky fans foolishly looked a gift horse in the mouth. Enjoy the next couple of years. Once Dan and Geno are gone, we are screwed.

Those fans opposed to the move were far from the majority. Also, did it hurt Utah getting a B12 invite when they went on record stating that joining the B12 was the last thing they wanted to do? Or that they're gone the first opportunity they get?

Fans opinions and wishes play a 0.01% in realignment decisions

 

[GG]

Those fans opposed to the move were far from the majority. Also, did it hurt Utah getting a B12 invite when they went on record stating that joining the B12 was the last thing they wanted to do? Or that they're gone the first opportunity they get?

Fans opinions and wishes play a 0.01% in realignment decisions

Those fans opposed to the move were far from the majority. Also, did it hurt Utah getting a B12 invite when they went on record stating that joining the B12 was the last thing they wanted to do? Or that they're gone the first opportunity they get?

Fans opinions and wishes play a 0.01% in realignment decisions

i wish you were correct, but it all has an impact.

 

[CL82]

Only year three, this is the same crazy stuff we heard during Diaco and Edsall 2.0

… And Pasqualoni and every bad coaching hire ever. Nothing's going happen until the end of the season, if at all.

 

[CL82]

Went two years without a DC and now when we get a DC our answer to replacing the departing OC is to promote the OL coach. Money or not money being the issue, these moves are suck.

Agree, but understanding the why it is necessary to be able to fix it.

 

[ZooCougar]

You can’t firewall basketball. That is the point. Money from football is gonna pour in to basketball from other schools.

Thst is going to create a competitive disadvantage for UConn if epic proportions, and, it also leaves UConn exposed as an athletic department. Right now, UConn has muscle because hoops wins. But, it has no say in what comes of the ncaa tourney or how the leagues will be set up and money distributed in the future.

There is no guarantee the big east will be a major basketball power in the future. They have killed the conference twice 04 and 13…and will do it again if they can find a way.

BTW. For the first time in realignment history college presidents decided not to listen to their marketing, financial analysis, and even espn but went with something else.

UConn is always a first.

You can firewall football.

 

[ZooCougar]

I'm disappointed in you. Your realignment PhD has been revoked

Good lord he’s been arguing against the Big 12 this whole time and he didn’t know this was a thing?

C’mon Nelson.

 

[ZooCougar]

a state flagship without football is incredibly small time, especially one like UConn who's trying to position themselves nationally to be a best of the best type of institution. What's sadder is there's fans who want us to be in that position and stuck in that small time conference.

This.

We simply can’t cut football.

Can we just elevate this thing to mediocre instead of it being a giant embarrassing stain? Stop hiring wack jobs and old coaches off of the couch?

 

[HuskyHawk]

Good lord he’s been arguing against the Big 12 this whole time and he didn’t know this was a thing?

C’mon Nelson.

This is coming, but probably closer that that 2031 timeline. I doubt more than half the Big XII and ACC schools would be "in" at the higher tier. If we can get football to "not embarrassing" we should land with Syracuse, Pitt, BC and the like, which is fine.

 

[JMick]

This.

We simply can’t cut football.

Can we just elevate this thing to mediocre instead of it being a giant embarrassing stain? Stop hiring wack jobs and old coaches off of the couch?

I don't know if we're going to have a choice. When revenue sharing kicks in we will have to put all of that towards basketball. How will we compete in football without real dollars coming in from a conference and CFP money?

 

[Chin Diesel]

One day the basketball fans who were against this move are going to realize what a mistake they have made. There is no future in the big east. It is really disturbing that very few people can recognize that. We’ve basically sealed the fate of our athletic department, which will be its demise.

This feels like Blockbuster pushing Netflix away when they could have bought it at its infancy.
The UConn basketball first fans are willing to cut off the face to spite the nose.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Good lord he’s been arguing against the Big 12 this whole time and he didn’t know this was a thing?

C’mon Nelson.

Nope. You are wrong. I was mildly in favor of the Big 12 unless it was basketball only or flat revenue. It turned out it was on both counts, and the networks still didn’t want us.

 

[ZooCougar]

Nope. You are wrong. I was mildly in favor of the Big 12 unless it was basketball only or flat revenue. It turned out it was on both counts, and the networks still didn’t want us.

I’m mildly in favor of putting you in Realignment Jail with San Diego State.

 

[ZooCougar]

I don't know if we're going to have a choice. When revenue sharing kicks in we will have to put all of that towards basketball. How will we compete in football without real dollars coming in from a conference and CFP money?

We won’t be the only ones in the hurt locker. Let some other schools cut it and we can benefit.

If Wyoming can field an FBS team then Connecticut can.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

It's heartbreaking but at some point we have to recognize it isn't happening for us. Now do we decide we're okay letting UConn basketball die as well. That's unacceptable, it would be devastating to the University and to the state.

I am not convinced UConn Basketball is salvageable long-term without a P4 conference. You think the future of NCAA basketball is UConn and Gonzaga and Creighton and Providence?

You think we lose recruits to Duke and Kentucky now? Wait until they pay 5x.

 

[JohnFSilver]

With all due respect if football is cut, several other programs will be as well.

If they cut football they are gonna halve the athletic department budget and it will affect basketball, tremendously.

How many ncaa champions last 50 years didn’t play football?

Outside of Villanova and UConn (1999) no other program that isn’t in top tier football has won since 1984.

 

[ZooCougar]

If this is true then Benedict fumbled bad. Hopefully it’s not or wildly blown out of proportion. If not. This is very bad. Like go find a new job bad.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Even the rumored 10-11 million is a 50% increase on the new Big East deal.

The last statement is partially correct. The colleges don’t want UConn, the people running the league clearly do. They’ve failed to make their case (again).

For openers, if we had received the offer from the B-12 that had been leaked I would have been fully behind making the move.

If we did move, we would have joined for basketball (and other sports) for the 26-27 academic/athletic year and remained independent in football until 2031 (five years as a partial member). By all reports our exit fee from the BE would be $15 million and our revenue increase from the B-12 roughly $3 million per year.

Please walk me through how there would have been any material economic gain from the move over the five year stretch.

Again, I have be all for putting a far greater effort into building the football program from before we hired Jim Calhoun to run our men's basketball program. I also don't see how it would be impossible for us to build a quality program, considering some schools have somehow overcome decades of futility yet were able to find a way.

 

[gsmooth]

well until some of you are willing to drop down all kinds of money on the program, OL to OC is going to be what you get. We don't have the money to do otherwise.

I drop my fair share of money into the collectives and my father had been a donor since the 80s and he was a part time medical consultant for the Men's basketball team. Is it T. Boone Pickens money? No. I think this is besides the point, though.

I understand there budget constraints, which is why they tried the horribly desperate hire of Edsall 2.0. Mora is starting to look like that, but let's give him the year and see if he can turn things around.

UConn has to do 1 of these 2 things:
1) UConn has to push for more funding, maybe from the state legislature, to get more positional coaches and staff needed to improve recruiting and the roster. Make the investment in football and it will payoff.

2) But if the budget constraints are rigid and they cannot get more funding (#1 above), then they need to hire better coaches, perhaps from the FCS level that have shown they are program builders and have a history producing good offenses. Proven offensive innovative FCS coaches would be cheaper and are better than older retreads anyways.

There are teams with less money, paying their coaches less, and don't have nearly the branding of UConn that are doing far more with less such as North Dakota St, Appalachian State, lots of Sun Belt teams, and I am sure there are more G5 teams I am sure I am leaving out.

 

[temery]

If this is true then Benedict fumbled bad. Hopefully it’s not or wildly blown out of proportion. If not. This is very bad. Like go find a new job bad.

I don't believe it.

 

[John]

Nope. You are wrong. I was mildly in favor of the Big 12 unless it was basketball only or flat revenue. It turned out it was on both counts, and the networks still didn’t want us.

You have zero idea what revenues were being discussed.

 

[JMick]

If this is true then Benedict fumbled bad. Hopefully it’s not or wildly blown out of proportion. If not. This is very bad. Like go find a new job bad.

This reads like smear campaign type stuff. We have done this presentation how many times now? The last time we saw the leaked presentations it was clearly the best one.

 

[CL82]

Please walk me through how there would have been any material economic gain from the move over the five year stretch

The number I saw talked about for the big 12 was 15 M for us. That's less than a half share. That would make an increase of 9 million a year, actually probably more, but that's a convenient number, so that our $15 million exit fee would've been been paid in two years.

Keep in mind that that doesn't take into account the potential receipt of college football playoff money, a full share of which would be worth $15 million on its own. Granted we certainly wouldn't be entitled to that prior to 2031, but we would be on a path to attain it.