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

[FfldCntyFan]

For what it's worth, one of the knocks against Connecticut by big 12 A.D.'s was that their northeastern "culture" doesn't match the big 12s culture. I can only speculate what they meant by that.

None of us own overalls,... Or livestock.

 

[Kolumbo]

They don’t care about being contiguous. And haven’t for decades.

Really? I don't know man. Research. AAU. Alumni. It's all about contiguity. Nebraska lost its AAU but it's still contiguous. They have to complete the jigsaw.

 

[Kolumbo]

None of us own overalls,... Or livestock.

Since when?

CTAgFairs.org

ctfairs, ctfairs.org, ctfairs.com, ctagfairs.com, ctagfairs.org, ct fairs, agricultural fairs

www.ctagfairs.org

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I don't know how much importance the B1G attaches to an applicant's fiscal resources, but if it does, I don't think it would consider a billion-dollar endowment to be very impressive. That's chump-change nowadays. A quick search on Wikipedia reveals that most B1G members have pretty sizeable endowments. OSU, for example, is at $7.9 billion, Northwestern at $14.3 billion, newcomer Washington at $6.6 billion, and so on. Michigan has a whopping $19.2 billion endowment. Rutgers, which is treated rather dismissively in the Boneyard, has an endowment of more than $2 billion. The University of Utah may be an aspiring B1G member, but its endowment is only $1.64 billion. Even so, that's about 2.5 times the size of UConn's.

The B1G is also a research powerhouse, and UConn doesn't compare very favorably in terms of research activity. UConn has a very long way to go.

Rutgers is treated dismissively by the BY because it was one of the least if not the least accomplished athletic department while in the Big East. These are sports fans message boards. Thats lost somehow on you. It's a good school. It was also a private school for much of its existence until relatively recent. Their 2 billion endowment is a system number shared by two other universities. State schools in the northeast unlike schools in the Midwest compete with many, much older and more established private schools. It's a totally different dynamic than the rest of the country. Maybe UVM may be the exception. It doesn't have an Ivy that the other state schools have to compete with, it does have Middlebury. Maine has Bates, Bowdoin and Colby. AAU research activity Is limited to on-campus research IIRC. UConn has more relationships on the outside. So yes, the endowment is lacking by comparison, but it was not needed for things like infrastructure improvements over the last 20 or so years. Monies are still available under older state building programs. You are here just to be a dick.

 

[Waquoit]

I mostly agree.
Though the B1G is the one conference where it's less clear.

University "research" has changed overnight. Check out what's going on at Indiana. The paradigm has shifted. AAU is just another set of letters. Now's the time for the Big 10 Kobayashi Maru, reset the programming. UConn can hang with those guys.

 

[Vowelguy]

None of us own overalls,... Or livestock.

Don't bring my wife into this.

 

[hank970]

Rutgers is treated dismissively by the BY because it was one of the least if not the least accomplished athletic department while in the Big East. These are sports fans message boards. Thats lost somehow on you. It's a good school. It was also a private school for much of its existence until relatively recent. Their 2 billion endowment is a system number shared by two other universities. State schools in the northeast unlike schools in the Midwest compete with many, much older and more established private schools. It's a totally different dynamic than the rest of the country. Maybe UVM may be the exception. It doesn't have an Ivy that the other state schools have to compete with, it does have Middlebury. Maine has Bates, Bowdoin and Colby. AAU research activity Is limited to on-campus research IIRC. UConn has more relationships on the outside. So yes, the endowment is lacking by comparison, but it was not needed for things like infrastructure improvements over the last 20 or so years. Monies are still available under older state building programs. You are here just to be a dick.

I'm just here on occasion to acquaint you folks with a sense of reality. You think UConn is the be-all and end-all, somehow deserving of affiliation with a more prestigious conference. It isn't.

Yep, you're stuck in a totally different dynamic. It must really suck.

 

[Kolumbo]

University "research" has changed overnight. Check out what's going on at Indiana. The paradigm has shifted. AAU is just another set of letters. Now's the time for the Big 10 Kobayashi Maru, reset the programming. UConn can hang with those guys.

 

[ZooCougar]

Really? I don't know man. Research. AAU. Alumni. It's all about contiguity. Nebraska lost its AAU but it's still contiguous. They have to complete the jigsaw.

Really.

The contiguous thing is folklore

 

[CL82]

Rutgers is treated dismissively by the BY because it was one of the least if not the least accomplished athletic department while in the Big East. These are sports fans message boards. Thats lost somehow on you. It's a good school. It was also a private school for much of its existence until relatively recent.

If I recall correctly, it's been the state University of New Jersey since the 50s, give or take.

Actually, I think Rutgers is treated dismissively on The Boneyard because it's fans are among the neediest in college sports and would frequently come here, and pretty much every other fan form in the country, looking for validation.

It is a good school, but it is nowhere near as beloved as UConn is in Connecticut. By way of example, where I live in North Jersey, you can't find a Rutgers flag flying on game days, but within a mile of my house there are three different homes flying UConn flags. Just sayin'.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

"Although Rutgers thus became a public university, it still retains—as the successor to the private college founded and chartered in 1766—some important private rights and protections from unilateral state efforts to change its fundamental character and mission."

 

[Samoo]

Rutgers' Fundamental Mission - to maintain the National Championship drought while sucking off the B1G hind teet well into the 21st century?

 

[CL82]

Rutgers' Fundamental Mission - to maintain the National Championship drought while sucking off the B1G hind teet well into the 21st century?

 

[CL82]

"Although Rutgers thus became a public university, it still retains—as the successor to the private college founded and chartered in 1766—some important private rights and protections from unilateral state efforts to change its fundamental character and mission."

Yeah, that's only 'kind of, sort of' true. Rutgers did end up buying the assets of the defunct Queens university, which could trace its roots back to 1766, but even Queen's university wasn't open continuously. It struggled financially and periodically would fail and then after a period of time, be restarted again. So Rutgers actually does not have a lineage going all the way back to 1776. It's best claim to that is that it bought the assets of a failed college with an on and off again history that dates back to 1776.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

View attachment 109103

For the record they do have half of a fencing trophy (not sure if it was cut vertically or horizontally) from ~1960 (NYU got the other half).

 

[CL82]

For the record they do have half of a fencing trophy (not sure if it was cut vertically or horizontally) from ~1960 (NYU got the other half).

Was it for their innovative use of chain-link?

 

[Kolumbo]

For the record they do have half of a fencing trophy (not sure if it was cut vertically or horizontally) from ~1960 (NYU got the other half).

 

[WrenchFan69]

GCU cutting its men's volleyball program one year after making the 2024 Final Four. Non-rev sports are going to get slaughtered over the next couple years.

 

[gmc1055]

Really.

The contiguous thing is folklore

contiguous until it wasnt. UCLA and USC

 

[ZooCougar]

contiguous until it wasnt. UCLA and USC

Sometimes I think Kolumbo gets his info from a Sports Illustrated from 1985.

 

[Kolumbo]

contiguous until it wasnt. UCLA and USC

Ya think? Thus Colorado and Arizona. Of course contiguity trumps markets and brands and research. That's why UConn isn't in the Big Ten. Syracuse sucks and there is no other NY program worthy.

Sometimes I think Kolumbo gets his info from a Sports Illustrated from 1985.

Come on Zougar. Sometimes I think you seriously don't get sarcasm.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Really? I don't know man. Research. AAU. Alumni. It's all about contiguity. Nebraska lost its AAU but it's still contiguous. They have to complete the jigsaw.

Remember when we thought this mattered? Like, UConn doesn’t connect to New Jersey, so no. UConn isn’t AAU, so now. UConn is a land grant research institution….it never mattered.

UConn met every criteria for getting into these conferences except the one that kept them out…no one wants us in their league.

 

[CL82]

Remember when we thought this mattered? Like, UConn doesn’t connect to New Jersey, so no. UConn isn’t AAU, so now. UConn is a land grant research institution….it never mattered.

UConn met every criteria for getting into these conferences except the one that kept them out…no one wants us in their league.

I feel like this summarizes every conference realignment negotiation we've ever had:

 

[uconndogs]

Remember when we thought this mattered? Like, UConn doesn’t connect to New Jersey, so no. UConn isn’t AAU, so now. UConn is a land grant research institution….it never mattered.

UConn met every criteria for getting into these conferences except the one that kept them out…no one wants us in their league.

Yeah, it's really bizarre. In fairness, we went through a self-inflicted period ot total incompetence in football that certainly did not help our cause. P, Diaco and Edsall 2 is a hell of a string of misses.

 

[Kolumbo]

Remember when we thought this mattered? Like, UConn doesn’t connect to New Jersey, so no. UConn isn’t AAU, so now. UConn is a land grant research institution….it never mattered.

UConn met every criteria for getting into these conferences except the one that kept them out…no one wants us in their league.

A lot of things did matter that don't know. Things change. Location was and is still a major factor. At first conferences were created by region but that no longer matters. Then markets became more important. See Exhibit A, B, and C: Ruttie

I think AAU is still a factor. All Big Ten schools are research powerhouses. If the Big Ten wants a non-AAU program, it will suddenly get an invite. Oregon is probably the weakest link in terms of size and research, but it has football and Nike.

UConn is just not large enough. Enrollment, ranking, national titles, yes. Supposed market (I think they look at a map and see a small square), endowment, research, UConn falls short. I think if God forbid UConn and UMass merged, and maybe Buffalo, to create Northeast University, or UConnNYMass, the Big Ten would swoop in pronto. The founders didn't foresee the CR mess.