Key tweets, and it's all gone to Hell. | Page 876 | The Boneyard

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

University or Oregon men's basketball had a bad season this year going 12-19 and 5-15 in the Big 10. It was their second year in the Big 10 and they had won 20+ games per season for 14 straight seasons. The move to the Big 10 has resulted in the loss of many traditional rivals as well as increased travel considerably. During the 2024/2025 season, Oregon set an NCAA record for pre-NCAA Tournament travel of 26,700 miles. In 2023/2024, Oregon's last year in the Pac 12, they traveled 7,327 miles. I think the heavy travel would make top basketball players think twice about playing at Oregon.

Why am I bringing this up? The current geographic configuration of the conferences makes no sense and the travel will wear on some schools and have high travel costs. (Cronin at UCLA has been vocal about the travel issues.) The travel is tough, but not a show stopper for football, but it is for every other sport. Thus, I think you will see some conference moves to rationalize their footprints in the next few years. One idea, maybe the Big 10 adds Cal and Stanford to create a 6 school pod in the West.
 
UConnJim said:
University or Oregon men's basketball had a bad season this year going 12-19 and 5-15 in the Big 10. It was their second year in the Big 10 and they had won 20+ games per season for 14 straight seasons. The move to the Big 10 has resulted in the loss of many traditional rivals as well as increased travel considerably. During the 2024/2025 season, Oregon set an NCAA record for pre-NCAA Tournament travel of 26,700 miles. In 2023/2024, Oregon's last year in the Pac 12, they traveled 7,327 miles. I think the heavy travel would make top basketball players think twice about playing at Oregon.

Why am I bringing this up? The current geographic configuration of the conferences makes no sense and the travel will wear on some schools and have high travel costs. (Cronin at UCLA has been vocal about the travel issues.) The travel is tough, but not a show stopper for football, but it is for every other sport. Thus, I think you will see some conference moves to rationalize their footprints in the next few years. One idea, maybe the Big 10 adds Cal and Stanford to create a 6 school pod in the West.
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If Uncle Phil opens his wallet for Oregon basketball like he does Oregon football, the top recruits won’t care about miles traveled.

Ask the poor UCLA women’s basketball team how hard that travel schedule is.
 
Rufus said:
If Uncle Phil opens his wallet for Oregon basketball like he does Oregon football, the top recruits won’t care about miles traveled.

Ask the poor UCLA women’s basketball team how hard that travel schedule is.
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Phil Knight is 88 years old and the Oregon men's basketball team was really good for the 14 years prior to moving to the Big 10 with 20+ wins each season, 4 Round of 32s, 3 Sweet 16s, 1 Elite 8, and 1 Final 4.

The UCLA women's roster was put together by players recruited before the move to the Big 10, former Pac 12 players (Utah, Oregon, Washington St.), Lauren Betts sister, and a European. How many top 100 recruits has UCLA women's basketball signed since moving to the Pac 12? One, Lauren Betts sister Sienna (rated #2 in her class).
 
UConnJim said:
University or Oregon men's basketball had a bad season this year going 12-19 and 5-15 in the Big 10. It was their second year in the Big 10 and they had won 20+ games per season for 14 straight seasons. The move to the Big 10 has resulted in the loss of many traditional rivals as well as increased travel considerably. During the 2024/2025 season, Oregon set an NCAA record for pre-NCAA Tournament travel of 26,700 miles. In 2023/2024, Oregon's last year in the Pac 12, they traveled 7,327 miles. I think the heavy travel would make top basketball players think twice about playing at Oregon.

Why am I bringing this up? The current geographic configuration of the conferences makes no sense and the travel will wear on some schools and have high travel costs. (Cronin at UCLA has been vocal about the travel issues.) The travel is tough, but not a show stopper for football, but it is for every other sport. Thus, I think you will see some conference moves to rationalize their footprints in the next few years. One idea, maybe the Big 10 adds Cal and Stanford to create a 6 school pod in the West.
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I bring this up in the "Shocks" thread I started. I am surprised there has not been a Title IX lawsuit about the travel aspect since the fix, breaking football off, is so easy. There is really no reason for football teams to have to be in the same conference with the other sports.
 
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UConnJim said:
University or Oregon men's basketball had a bad season this year going 12-19 and 5-15 in the Big 10. It was their second year in the Big 10 and they had won 20+ games per season for 14 straight seasons. The move to the Big 10 has resulted in the loss of many traditional rivals as well as increased travel considerably. During the 2024/2025 season, Oregon set an NCAA record for pre-NCAA Tournament travel of 26,700 miles. In 2023/2024, Oregon's last year in the Pac 12, they traveled 7,327 miles. I think the heavy travel would make top basketball players think twice about playing at Oregon.

Why am I bringing this up? The current geographic configuration of the conferences makes no sense and the travel will wear on some schools and have high travel costs. (Cronin at UCLA has been vocal about the travel issues.) The travel is tough, but not a show stopper for football, but it is for every other sport. Thus, I think you will see some conference moves to rationalize their footprints in the next few years. One idea, maybe the Big 10 adds Cal and Stanford to create a 6 school pod in the West.
Expand ...

Oregon got worse because now everyone can pay players, not just Dana Altman.
 
With CFP expansion talks ongoing, presidential committee pushing for 24-team field

The kicker:

"The agenda features an assortment of items: a potential adjustment to determining the Group of Six automatic bid in the 12-team field (from highest-ranked “team” to highest-ranked “conference champion”); a discussion over the CFP financial distribution of the lone remaining FBS football independent not named Notre Dame, UConn (the Huskies receive roughly $350,000 annually, or $1.5 million less than a normal Group of Six program)"
 
How Sway?! said:
With CFP expansion talks ongoing, presidential committee pushing for 24-team field

The kicker:

"The agenda features an assortment of items: a potential adjustment to determining the Group of Six automatic bid in the 12-team field (from highest-ranked “team” to highest-ranked “conference champion”); a discussion over the CFP financial distribution of the lone remaining FBS football independent not named Notre Dame, UConn (the Huskies receive roughly $350,000 annually, or $1.5 million less than a normal Group of Six program)"
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We should get retro pay as well as going forward!
 
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UConnDan97 said:
I'll take whatever connection works to get us to the pot of gold that all the other schools have...
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We need to stop living in the fantasy world that anyone is going to give us tens of millions of dollars because they like us. It is frustrating, and leads to a bad dynamic on all the boards because people think that the ACC or the Big 12 is EVER going to offer us a pot of gold.

There is NO path to this ever happening without a major shakeup in the structure of college sports.
 
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nelsonmuntz said:
We need to stop living in the fantasy world that anyone is going to give us tens of millions of dollars because they like us. It is frustrating, and leads to a bad dynamic on all the boards because people think that the ACC or the Big 12 is EVER going to offer us a pot of gold.

There is NO path to this ever happening without a major shakeup in the structure of college sports.
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No fantasy - there is plenty of deadwood in the A&PCC, Big 12 and/or the BIG that we could replace and said conferences and UConn would be better off in a mutually beneficial way.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
We need to stop living in the fantasy world that anyone is going to give us tens of millions of dollars because they like us. It is frustrating, and leads to a bad dynamic on all the boards because people think that the ACC or the Big 12 is EVER going to offer us a pot of gold.

There is NO path to this ever happening without a major shakeup in the structure of college sports.
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It all depends on ESPN
 
nelsonmuntz said:
We need to stop living in the fantasy world that anyone is going to give us tens of millions of dollars because they like us. It is frustrating, and leads to a bad dynamic on all the boards because people think that the ACC or the Big 12 is EVER going to offer us a pot of gold.

There is NO path to this ever happening without a major shakeup in the structure of college sports.
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Now that you're no longer the commissioner of the Big East, what are you planning to do in your free time, "Nelson"???
 
Fishy said:
Thinking we're going to replace a current member of a P4 conference is the near definition of fantasy.
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A couple of givens - changes are likely coming sooner than later (3-5 years) and there will still be P-4 deadwood then. If not for musing about what might be, then why have a Boneyard conference realignment thread in the first place?

We have been a BB powerhouse for nearly three decades and we make chicken guano from our current conference arrangement. I think we are treading water pretty well as a football independent. But we all know the problem - we can't sustain this status quo for long.

We start out about $35-60 mm behind P-4 conference members each year. Pollyanna, I ain't - no conference is going toss us a charity life vest, but we are currently a better potential conference mate than many P-4 members. And if BB's March Madness is monetized ala CFP, I think our value jumps big time. The NCAA will fiercely fight to keep MM because it pays a huge percentage of its yearly revenue. But it happened in football - why not BB?

So what do we do? Be resigned to a "have not" status in perpetuity or keep working to join the club.
 
Sea Goat said:
A couple of givens - changes are likely coming sooner than later (3-5 years) and there will still be P-4 deadwood then. If not for musing about what might be, then why have a Boneyard conference realignment thread in the first place?

We have been a BB powerhouse for nearly three decades and we make chicken guano from our current conference arrangement. I think we are treading water pretty well as a football independent. But we all know the problem - we can't sustain this status quo for long.

We start out about $35-60 mm behind P-4 conference members each year. Pollyanna, I ain't - no conference is going toss us a charity life vest, but we are currently a better potential conference mate than many P-4 members. And if BB's March Madness is monetized ala CFP, I think our value jumps big time. The NCAA will fiercely fight to keep MM because it pays a huge percentage of its yearly revenue. But it happened in football - why not BB?

So what do we do? Be resigned to a "have not" status in perpetuity or keep working to join the club.
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Your scenario is a lot more realistic than the "Full membership to the ACC is right around the corner" wishcasters' fantasies. The system needs a shock for UConn's conference situation to change. Until then, we are in the Big East and need to make the best of it.

Regarding the dollars, your math is not right. UConn is a G6 football program, funded like a G6 football program. If we were a P4 football program in the ACC or Big 12, trying to compete with Alabama, Texas and Ohio State who have payrolls over $50 million a year, we would likely be in worse financial shape than we are now. Or we would go the BCU/Rutgers route and not try, just consigning ourselves to being pummeled.
 
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UConnDan97 said:
Now that you're no longer the commissioner of the Big East, what are you planning to do in your free time, "Nelson"???
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Defending your idiotic fantasy by pretending I am Val Ackerman is one of the stupidest bits on this board.
 
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