Left Behind in Realignment

[CTGoonie]

New article from CBS. Nothing new though.

 

[CTMike]

All true. I hope WM takes it to heart before trying to sell us how great our situation is.

 

[Durks07]

I threw you a like, because it isn't even 10:30 in the morning and I'm nodding sullenly, blankly staring into my (after reading this, it doesn't feel too early for a) gin and tonic"

 

[Hoophound]

Yeah, the campus is really nice, that can't be argued anymore.

 

[HobokenHusky]

"It wasn't UConn's Northeast footprint or its 21st national ranking among public universities that lost it. The lack of football tradition and game-day environment at Rentschler Field (capacity 40,000) did, according to an ACC source."

So DJ Dog-Pound really did have something to do with us not getting into a better conference? If he is at the Rent again this year I will loose my . It's embarrassing. Our game-day experience reeks of a minor league baseball game.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Not anything earth.shattering, but as Carl has mentioned on here before, if we can grow UConn and the AAC in the next few years, then we stand to hopefully get a better media deal because.it's short term deal.

I'm not happy, in fact I'm pretty pissed off still about everything, but everything is there for the taking for UConn to continue to succeed in hoops and to become a top 25 team in football.

We can survive till the end of this media deal, let's see where we stand in 6 seasons if we're stuck here.

 

[epark88]

Just another inane article to help 'cheapen' the worth of the UConn brand (as well as the others, but ya know what? Cincy and USF right now).

News flash: We are the University of frickin' Connecticut! We win championships. Lots of them. On the regular. We have been and still remain a valuable commodity in the college sports landscape, despite what these media spinning heads say about our school (and frankly have been saying for the past decade).

Lack of tradition and game atmosphere, huh? I take that a couple of ways:

1) It's a load of crap because MONEY MONEY MONEY is the ONLY reason for realignment. Come on, somebody decided to take a flyer on Exit 9's 'lack of tradition and game atmosphere' because they miiight get them a few more cable subscribers, for cripes sakes. Don't insult us, scribes.
2) It's the ultimate dis to the UConn fanbase, which has included the likes of me since the fall of '86. Sorry, but I can't help but to take these kinds of comments personally. A bunch of media pinheads are saying that I'm the reason Seton Hall hoops will make more TV money than the entire UConn AD? That's some BS.

I know one thing: I personally won't give them the opportunity to say that about me ever again. I root for the coolest university in the country! 11 hoops 'ships in 18 years? A BCS bowl berth in less than 10 years at FBS level in football? C'mon, what other school has ever done that?

Time to put my money where my mouth is: get my butt in the stands, cheer like crazy and prove all the dumb scribes wrong...

 

[zls44]

Still waiting to see a CT guy carry the water like Dodd did for Cincy or Forde did for UL.

/wow
//what's good
///WHY ARE THEY CHANGING THE WHALE BACK TO THE WOLFPACK OMG

 

[UConn Dan]

You will be waiting a long time. Plus we need an ally in the national media. We have none.

 

[epark88]

What's Zac Boyer up to these days? Not still reporting on RG3's knee, I hope.

At this point he'd come home to a hero's welcome if he so chose...

 

[Waquoit]

I call BS on "game-day" environment. Was it really better in the back of a lumber yard? BCU has zero game-day environment.

 

[SubbaBub]

After the fact reasoning. Doubtful any of the decision makers have ever been to the Rent. We weren't picked for the exact reasons Flippo stated. Nothing more.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[RMoore1999]

All true. I hope WM takes it to heart before trying to sell us how great our situation is.

How do you "like" a post hundreds of times? No matter how many times I "like" this post, it only seems to register me once.

 

[UCFBfan]

Stadium size/atmosphere is a lazy argument for why we are where we are. I'll give you lack of history because we've been FBS fir all of 10 fricking years (even if that includes 2 conference championships and a BCS game). But here's your ACC stadium capacity comparison....

BC - 44,500 - +4500 (whoopty doo!)
Wake - 31,590 - -8500 (wha, wha, what?)
Miami - 75,504 - need I get the picture of a typical Miami crowd? Lucky to get close to 40,000
Duke - 33,941 - -6000 (hmmmm)

So shut up pundits with stadium qualms and the ACC. The B1G might care a little more but please stop with this bull$#^t.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[UCFBfan]

Oh and one more thing. Thank god Warde didn't give this article a second of his time. Is he finally learning that no comment is better than saying anything about the mess we're in?? Bravo to him! (I do really like the guy and his recent scheduling feats are making me a believer)

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Carl Spackler]

Just another inane article to help 'cheapen' the worth of the UConn brand (as well as the others, but ya know what? Cincy and USF right now).

News flash: We are the University of frickin' Connecticut! We win championships. Lots of them. On the regular. We have been and still remain a valuable commodity in the college sports landscape, despite what these media spinning heads say about our school (and frankly have been saying for the past decade).

Lack of tradition and game atmosphere, huh? I take that a couple of ways:

1) It's a load of crap because MONEY MONEY MONEY is the ONLY reason for realignment. Come on, somebody decided to take a flyer on Exit 9's 'lack of tradition and game atmosphere' because they miiight get them a few more cable subscribers, for cripes sakes. Don't insult us, scribes.
2) It's the ultimate dis to the UConn fanbase, which has included the likes of me since the fall of '86. Sorry, but I can't help but to take these kinds of comments personally. A bunch of media pinheads are saying that I'm the reason Seton Hall hoops will make more TV money than the entire UConn AD? That's some BS.

I know one thing: I personally won't give them the opportunity to say that about me ever again. I root for the coolest university in the country! 11 hoops 'ships in 18 years? A BCS bowl berth in less than 10 years at FBS level in football? C'mon, what other school has ever done that?

Time to put my money where my mouth is: get my butt in the stands, cheer like crazy and prove all the dumb scribes wrong...

From 1986-1990 the football program went 37-17 (22-4 at home) and won two conference titles. To this date, still the best win percentage 5 year stretch of football in 116 years regardless of level of competition. The people that went to games, got used to seeing the team win. That continued into the 90s with Skip Holtz, the people that went to see the team play, got used to seeing them win. The same thing happened into the 2000s - the people that went to the games, got used to seeing the team win, except there were a lot more of them, than in the 80s and 90s.

It's time for that to happen again in the 2010's....We win, and put together another good recruiting cycle stretch of winning football, like we did in the previous three decades, adn by the time the exit fee money dries up, and it's time to put together a new athletic broadcasting contract, we'll be in very good shape, becuase it will be the first time, that we've put together a decent stretch of winning football, with both the game attendance AND TV viewership, and more than the vast majority of other football programs in the country - like everything esle UCONN has done, we will have proven that we've earned it.

Many tend to forget that until 2010, there were still multiple UCONN football games, that other than buying a ticket - the radio was the only way you could pay attention.

We lose? and we don't earn it. How else are you going to approach life in anything? I'm not a free handout person,and on that note,stepping a little higher on my box, I wish the majority of voters both locally and nationally felt the same way.....

 

[06029]

Stadium size/atmosphere is a lazy argument for why we are where we are. I'll give you lack of history because we've been FBS fir all of 10 fricking years (even if that includes 2 conference championships and a BCS game). But here's your ACC stadium capacity comparison....

BC - 44,500 - +4500 (whoopty doo!)
Wake - 31,590 - -8500 (wha, wha, what?)
Miami - 75,504 - need I get the picture of a typical Miami crowd? Lucky to get close to 40,000
Duke - 33,941 - -6000 (hmmmm)

So shut up pundits with stadium qualms and the ACC. The B1G might care a little more but please stop with this bull$#^t.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Not that I disagree with you but, with the exception of Miami, every one of those is on campus. Of course, Miami plays in a pro stadium and, well, it is in Miami and the scenery outside the stadium speaks for itself. The ACC already has 2 or 3 of the smallest BCS stadiums in the country so maybe adding a 4th, located off campus, was a consideration. I know why the Rent in EH, I get that the bonding issue BS and stuff, but Uconn and the state made a significant mistake not having the campus in Storrs.If BC can handle crowds 6-7 times per year on Commonwealth and Beacon, the state and locals could have figured out how to handle getting to and from campus effectively. On campus stadiums are way better than off campus facilities.

 

[huskymedic]

I didn't write it - just sharing it in the thread where it's relevant.

JohnFSilver 1:05pm via WordPress.com
UConn's attendance and Power 5 conferences
http://snyuconn.com/uconn/football/uconns-attendance-and-power-5-conferences/

 

[Adios]

We can create tradition, easily. We have a great, great, great foundation to build from. We'll be with the big boys, one day.

One thing we must do meanwhile, go to the damn games!

 

[Carl Spackler]

I didn't write it - just sharing it in the thread where it's relevant.

JohnFSilver 1:05pm via WordPress.com
UConn's attendance and Power 5 conferences
http://snyuconn.com/uconn/football/uconns-attendance-and-power-5-conferences/

Stadium expansion in the future is definitely needed, for simple revenue generating potential. It's going to take baby steps though, because of the small time (NON- football generated) thinking that led to the entire concept of "sell it out before we expand". Yeah, lets wait until every piece of inventory is off the shelves and off the lot, or out of the store, before we think about what we're going to do to restock when you're trying to grow a business.......ugh.

It's funny, because when Gampel pavilion was less than capacity for December cupcake games at 8,000 some odd capacity, people were smart enough to realize that 10k capacity for the big games was better than 8,000.

Bringing in the extra seats for the Michigan game is a good step in the right direction to start moving the thought processes (that - and completing the basketball facility ASAP).

 

[Pudge]

Hmmm ....

I feel like I have a BIG "I told you so" I'm keeping in.

Some of us, I have noted, have rooted for another Bigtime Program in our life. And, we have found ourselves (not in the BCS UConn lifetime), observing Gameday's at many other Programs. And some, ME in particular, thought that Rutgers and Louisville's rush to Stadium expansion was a wasted opportunity when it occurred ... WHY? Because there was plentiful money being thrown around. It was cheap and did not have hard handcuffs. The Rutgers scheme was silly crazy. Rentschler/UConn has a solid finance structure. When the money is easy ... and you have a Bigtime CR craze around, WE should HAVE expanded. We did have Jeff Hathway as our leader .... though.

UCLA is my other program. I have been to games at 20 other Power 5 Stadiums. When outright crying & bleating was heard when Louisville was chosen over us, I distinctly thought that the choice was obvious. IF ... there is NO Academic component (which is where the ACC's FSU and Clemson and Georgia Tech wing went), then Louisville is far beyond us in Fanbase and overall Game Atmostpherics. We are what we think we are: a Solid Newbie.

You blamed Warde Manual and Susan Herbst. Of course, they should have been on the phones and pleading with the ACC Presidents and ADs. Neither deserved the scrutiny since the course we are on comes from 8-15 years away.

Having put this out there ... I do believe firmly that UConn CAN have a far better future than Pitt or SU or BC. We can grow this fanbase throughout NEW ENGLAND with far greater penetration into Rich Fairfield County. We can get more Shenkman's, Burton's etc etc. We are NEW at this. We do need to build through a very tough period in this new conference; I recognize that this is going to be extra hard. Our attendance down in the 34-35,000 range? Damn ... blame that on the ADs. Hathaway had no concept of how to improve the Marketing and the Environment. Manual hasn't done much ... IMHO.

 

[CL82]

"It wasn't UConn's Northeast footprint or its 21st national ranking among public universities that lost it. The lack of football tradition and game-day environment at Rentschler Field (capacity 40,000) did, according to an ACC source."

So DJ Dog-Pound really did have something to do with us not getting into a better conference? If he is at the Rent again this year I will loose my . It's embarrassing. Our game-day experience reeks of a minor league baseball game.

The tailgating at the Rent is great. If we got people in the seats for the kickoff and kept them their until the final gun, we'd be in better shape.

 

[Waquoit]

Not that I disagree with you but, with the exception of Miami, every one of those is on campus.

Pitt doesn't play FB on campus. Where are they now?

 

[06029]

Pitt doesn't play FB on campus. Where are they now?

I missed one. Again, it is in a pro stadium like Miami. And not too far from their campus either. Closer than the Rent is to Uconn. If the Rent was home to the Pats or Giants, then maybe the off campus makes sense. But once Kraft was done abusing CT to get what he wanted in Foxboro, the stadium should have been moved on campus.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I missed one. Again, it is in a pro stadium like Miami. And not too far from their campus either. Closer than the Rent is to Uconn. If the Rent was home to the Pats or Giants, then maybe the off campus makes sense. But once Kraft was done abusing CT to get what he wanted in Foxboro, the stadium should have been moved on campus.

Wow, we're back to this again. The stadium WAS going to be on campus. There were multiple sites discussed, both on and off campus, including East Hartford. They had the blueprints and everythign ready to go for an on-campus facility. I dont' recall specifics, but it was either going to go on the same groudn that the jungle is on, or it was going to be up on the hill just north of the jungle and the cemetery - don't recall projected capacity, but I think it was 50k - it was supposed to be larger capacity than Rentschler turned out to be.

THe local townsfolk had a hissy fit, and worked themselves into the bleeding heart state legislature, the same legislatuer that supported a guy named Blumenthal, an d that agreed that somehow those townsfolk had their civil rights stepped on, or something to that effect with the way that UCONN had gone about their plans of building a stadium and were ready to break ground. THe state stopped it. THat's right - the state legislature.

The upgrade was dead in the water, with no hope of making the jump, for the best part of an entire year. Coat tailing on the adriaen's landing project in hartford was the last gasp to make the upgrade feasible, and it worked.