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Message: [QUOTE="Dooley, post: 1764432, member: 2920"] ESPN deserves every ounce of ire it gets from UConn fans after they make statements to the affect of "adding G5 schools will water down the conference". For most schools, yes that is correct. But when UConn is lumped in with these bottom feeders with AD budgets about 1/2 ours, that's when our brand and reputation are put at risk. That devalues our product and puts any future attempts to get out of this trash heap at serious risk. Tax credit for UConn entry seems fair. First, it's not like a FedEx buying Memphis into the conference with lousy metrics. Second, we support a $30M/yr payout. Only BYU can say the same. If ESPN adds BYU and UConn, the two most valuable brands and only schools who can support a $30M/yr payout, [I]and they get a tax credit on UConn's portion of the payout[/I], it would be like ESPN is paying for 1 or 1.5 schools. To me, that's a win-win for the B12, ESPN, FOX (gets to come east), BYU, and UConn. UC, Memphis, Houston, UCF, USF, CSU, Boise...all of them have serious work to do to get to a P5 payout point at $30M/yr. All of them are in the $30-$50M/yr AD budget range and have some form of deficiency in athletics, academics, or market penetration (namely - do they own their home market?). BYU and UConn are the only two that check all of the boxes, so to speak. [/QUOTE]