Like I was saying...

[gampelcrazies]

What's dumber is being illogical.

 

[zls44]

I, for one, agree that this is totally the time for this thread for the 400,000th time, yes.

 

[zls44]

View attachment 40964

W

 

[McLovin]

Attendance/donations would jump, more games at MSG, help recruiting....

UConn currently has the #18 recruiting class for next year. And while Ollie couldn't develop players, we always ranked highly in recruiting and getting top 100 talent. Being in the Big East would have little (and most likely, no) impact on recruiting. If any recruit is making the school's conference affiliation a priority, then they are going ACC, SEC, BIG 10 or BIG 12. Being in the BE vs AAC isn't going to make an impact in a recruit like that.

 

[gampelcrazies]

UConn currently has the #18 recruiting class for next year. And while Ollie couldn't develop players, we always ranked highly in recruiting and getting top 100 talent. Being in the Big East would have little (and most likely, no) impact on recruiting. If any recruit is making the school's conference affiliation a priority, then they are going ACC, SEC, BIG 10 or BIG 12. Being in the BE vs AAC isn't going to make an impact in a recruit like that.

Maybe. But IMO I think it would help. Especially when trying to recruit on the east coast. Big East is still more attractive than the AAC.

Big East + Hurley would be huge.

 

[ucawn]

This whole conference talk is garbage. AAC is going in the right directions in the future and it would make 0 sense to join the Big east on the whim that our basketball team plays at MSG for a tournament. The Big East is going to be worse than the American in a few years. It also makes no sense to join the Big East if you are looking for a P5 invite when likely the ACC or Big10 expandes in a few years. They will not accept a team without football. The AAC is the best non P5 conference. I’d rather be in the AAC than Big East. The Big East will never be as good as it was in the 2000’s again. People need to give it up because it’s a thing of the past. We’ll stay in the AAC until a P5 invite period

 

[ucawn]

The only thing that is objectively true is the fact that we'd be playing more games at MSG assuming we kept the Cuse game and made deep runs into the BE tourney. The rest of those things are maybe... we've already talked at length that CT fans are fare weather fans. If we were good in the AAC we'd have the same or better attendance numbers. Not to mention the Big East schools have rather bad TV contract. There is no value in being a basketball only school right now people like you need to understand that. Read about the economics of college sports, basketball doesn't drive that bus for most schools.

Even this season there was probably 10k for every AAC game that wasn’t on super bowl Sunday

 

[gampelcrazies]

Let the record show I was a pro AAC guy

 

[McLovin]

Maybe. But IMO I think it would help. Especially when trying to recruit on the east coast. Big East is still more attractive than the AAC.

Big East + Hurley would be huge.

I think you're putting too much stock on the legacy of the big east. Half of those teams from the glory days are no longer in the conference. Kids we would be competing for in the 2020+ recruiting classes grew up with a different big east than you / I did.

 

[biggieb1950]

Give up on the Big East, past history. AAC is a good league, look at the coaches. Better players, better results. Win and it doesn't matter. Non-league schedule becomes important. Old rivalrys and new rivalrys.

 

[McLovin]

I think you're putting too much stock on the legacy of the big east. Half of those teams from the glory days are no longer in the conference. Kids we would be competing for in the 2020+ recruiting classes grew up with a different big east than you / I did.

And for what is is worth, schools no longer in the BE has combined to win 20 BE tournaments. Schools in the current BE have only combined for 19. And that's with having 4 "freebees" since the last member (UConn) left.

 

[Ts5034]

Since 2013-2014 season:

AAC: 15 NCAA bids
New Big East: 28 NCAA bids

And we can argue year after year about which conference is better based on how many teams make the NCAA Tournament, but one thing that you cant argue is the perception and honestly fact that UConn is on an island of misfit toys in the AAC. We have zero regional rivals, the closest school in our conference is in Philadelphia. We have little in common with most of the schools in our conference. The majority of the schools in the AAC are not, and never will be the main course in the state or region they are located. North Carolina will always belong to Duke, UNC, NC State, nobody cares about ECU. Oklahoma will always be owned by OU, not Tulsa. Texas will always be Longhorn territory, not SMU, and not Houston. I dont care how good USF becomes in basketball or football, Florida will always be Miami, FSU, and Gator country.

Those are just facts, and thats one of the reasons why people have said UConn will no longer be relevent on the National stage when they are in the AAC.

 

[DMIL]

The AAC is worse than the Big East.

It's trending up.

 

[DMIL]

And we can argue year after year about which conference is better based on how many teams make the NCAA Tournament, but one thing that you cant argue is the perception and honestly fact that UConn is on an island of misfit toys in the AAC. We have zero regional rivals, the closest school in our conference is in Philadelphia. We have little in common with most of the schools in our conference. The majority of the schools in the AAC are not, and never will be the main course in the state or region they are located. North Carolina will always belong to Duke, UNC, NC State, nobody cares about ECU. Oklahoma will always be owned by OU, not Tulsa. Texas will always be Longhorn territory, not SMU, and not Houston. I dont care how good USF becomes in basketball or football, Florida will always be Miami, FSU, and Gator country.

Those are just facts, and thats one of the reasons why people have said UConn will no longer be relevent on the National stage when they are in the AAC.

Quit blaming the conference. The conference hasn't stopped Cincinnati, Wichita State, SMU or Houston. The old Big East was built into a powerhouse. The AAC is trending up and to be honest UCONN has not their part (our part) in holding up the conference. In a couple of years this will be a 4 to 5 bid NCAA league every year with other years where we will challenge for 6 bids.

 

[huskyinfl]

I care more about the future than the past.
Dropping football to move to a marginally better/comparable basketball conference is not good for our long term viability.
I was concerned about the AAC as a basketball conference a couple years ago. Although it will never be anything close to the OBE, it is turning into a very nice basketball conference. We have 7 or 8 legit programs.

If we could move to the Big East for geography/rivalry/tradition and keep football in the AAC, I'm with you. But right now, unfortunately our best bet is the AAC.

If you care about the future you would drop football. Cost/brain health/ new development leagues ... Football is not the future. I am a fan but I'm also a realist.

 

[UCDaveD]

MAAC, Independent. I could care less and I'm a football season ticket holder/supporter.

Ah yes, all of the expenses, but without the revenue. Somebody get this guy a job at the Fed

 

[Ts5034]

It's trending up.

The reason I think its trending up is because for schools like UCF, Memphis, and Houston, moving to the AAC was an upgrade.

 

[gampelcrazies]

Ah yes, all of the expenses, but without the revenue. Somebody get this guy a job at the Fed

Do you know where I can submit my resume?

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

The conference may be getting better but look at how many people showed up to the AAC tournament. Shows you how many people cared to be a that tournament. Even houston who could be a #2 seed barely had an audience

 

[calluke]

Did I miss the actual invite from the Big East that would be required for us to actually move to the Big East?

 

[Ts5034]

Quit blaming the conference. The conference hasn't stopped Cincinnati, Wichita State, SMU or Houston. The old Big East was built into a powerhouse. The AAC is trending up and to be honest UCONN has not their part (our part) in holding up the conference. In a couple of years this will be a 4 to 5 bid NCAA league every year with other years where we will challenge for 6 bids.

Im not blaming just the conference, but it played a major role. I just said in another post that for schools like SMU, Houston, Memphis, and Wichita, the AAC is an immediate upgrade compared to the conference they came from. UConn is the one school in the country that has gotten hurt the most in the last round of realignment. Getting stuck in the AAC is a downgrade for UConn, and Cincinnati. The difference with Cincinnati is they played in Conference USA for years before joining the Big East in 2005, so their time at the top of the mountain was relatively short compared to us.

 

[SwingDog]

The huge difference between the Big East vs AAC is the conference tournament. How many fans were in the building for our game today? 2,000? And how many UConn fans traveled to Memphis for the tournament? 300??

Exactamundo. The Big East tournament at MSG was a spectacle and one of the crown jewels of college basketball. NYC was the perfect place to draw fans from all of those teams based in the northeast/Greater NYC Metro area. The AAC conference doesn't have that regional flavor. Will it someday draw more fans? Who knows. It is NOT a terrible conference, but geographically it is weak when it comes to conference tournaments and developing regional rivalries.

 

[jibsey]

Quit blaming the conference. The conference hasn't stopped Cincinnati, Wichita State, SMU or Houston. The old Big East was built into a powerhouse. The AAC is trending up and to be honest UCONN has not their part (our part) in holding up the conference. In a couple of years this will be a 4 to 5 bid NCAA league every year with other years where we will challenge for 6 bids.

Initially I did blame the conference but you are correct, we have been middle and now bottom of the league. Hurley has to get them here and I bet he is going all out from this day forward.

 

[BY06518]

Win many more games and conferences will come calling. This does include our football program. No one wants a loser, regardless of pedigree.

They didn't want our Football Program when we were getting blown out by Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Just move the Football team to the MAAC or independent and get the basketball program back to the Big East with Geographic rivals, which will increase ticket sales to our home games at the XL Center and Gampel, give us a conference tournament where there is excitement, and lastly help us sell recruits on a good basketball conference that will help get them to the NBA.

We have to protect the basketball brand rather than a mediocre football program that was good for one season and all the memories are mainly "Remember the time we almost this or that team."

 

[BY06518]

So incorrect. Try a Wesleyan game.

They could beat our lousy football team