Like I was saying...

[Stainmaster]

PS: However, I think the AAC needs to be aggressively courting Gonzaga for basketball only and BYU for all sports. If Aresco can make that happen, I'd rather the AAC be our home, and it would be like creating a new BIG East once again. This would force ESPN and Fox to pay the AAC close to P5 levels.

What on earth did I just read?

 

[gampelcrazies]

What on earth did I just read?

I don’t usually agree with you but I have to here.

 

[ASweet3781]

"We have no rivalries..."

I don't know. I am beginning to hate these schools kicking our a$$es the last 3 years.

 

[Ts5034]

I agree. Not because of the conference because the AAC is trending up and doing a good job of building. However, we have no rivalries in this conference nor we create any because UCONN's rivals are already established in the collective psyche of fans. Allowing the Catholic schools to take the BIG East name was a HUGE mistake.

We play in front of mostly empty arenas and a conference tournament that draws nobody.

Our former rivals are having the same issue as the Cuse have zero rivals in the ACC, and are getting clowned annually by Duke, UNC, and Virginia. Pitt has become a nobody. Louisville has similar issues in the ACC with no real rivals.

PS: Basketball is the future not football. Interest in football is declining among the youth.

PS: However, I think the AAC needs to be aggressively courting Gonzaga for basketball only and BYU for all sports. If Aresco can make that happen, I'd rather the AAC be our home, and it would be like creating a new BIG East once again. This would force ESPN and Fox to pay the AAC close to P5 levels.

I agree with the part about our former rivals having the same issue. The ACC will always be owned by Duke and UNC. Thats just always how its going to be, and schools like Syracuse, Louisville, will always be considered the “red headed step child”. But, at least people care about the ACC. The American does not have the regional or national following, so their situation isnt nearly as bad. Im not sure adding Gonzaga can ever happen. The travel alone makes things almost impossible.

 

[Adios]

Hey, Loyola-Chicago made it to the Final Four! Maybe we can consider their conference, too???

 

[gampelcrazies]

How could anyone watch this Xavier-Nova game and not want to be in the new Big East? Sold out building. Great play. We need this

 

[ASweet3781]

How could anyone watch this Xavier-Nova game and not want to be in the new Big East? Sold out building. Great play. We need this

I forgot it was on TV.

 

[gampelcrazies]

I forgot it was on TV.

Just a reminder the championship is on national tv tomorrow. Fox 6:30.

Don’t want you to forget

 

[Huskymagic]

I agree with the part about our former rivals having the same issue. The ACC will always be owned by Duke and UNC. Thats just always how its going to be, and schools like Syracuse, Louisville, will always be considered the “red headed step child”. But, at least people care about the ACC. The American does not have the regional or national following, so their situation isnt nearly as bad. Im not sure adding Gonzaga can ever happen. The travel alone makes things almost impossible.

The AAC with Gonzaga and BYU will have a national following. We need more marquee names and they provide it.

I am an advocate for going to the Big East. However, if we are to stay in the AAC we should be proactive and go east coast to west coast to live up to the name.

In essence we would be creating a new Big East conference. This would force the hands of ESPN and Fox. It is beneficial for us and the conference.

 

[UConn_Top_Dog]

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??

I traveled. I'm still here actually. Surprised not more uconn fans don't make the trip. It's a nice road trip and Memphis is a much better place to hold the tournament than Hartford. So much more to see and do, it's warmer down here, the people are extremely welcoming (nothing better than southern hospitality) and the food is better. After being down here it hit me how much Hartford sucks. There is literally nothing to do there. Outside of uconn basketball CT sucks in general.

 

[gampelcrazies]

I traveled. I'm still here actually. Surprised not more uconn fans don't make the trip. It's a nice road trip and Memphis is a much better place to hold the tournament than Hartford. So much more to see and do, it's warmer down here, the people are extremely welcoming (nothing better than southern hospitality) and the food is better. After being down here it hit me how much Hartford sucks. There is literally nothing to do there. Outside of uconn basketball CT sucks in general.

We have pizza

 

[whaler11]

We have pizza

and three digit iqs

 

[kemba]

How could anyone watch this Xavier-Nova game and not want to be in the new Big East? Sold out building. Great play. We need this

Yes the Big East tournament still blows away the American tournament. Outside of that though the Big East is a shell of what it used to be, and all the downsides of moving there already mentioned in this thread aren't worth having a better conference tournament one week every year.

However, we have no rivalries in this conference nor we create any because UCONN's rivals are already established in the collective psyche of fans. Allowing the Catholic schools to take the BIG East name was a HUGE mistake.

Hard to develop rivalries when you're bad. We're never going to develop a rivary at the the level of Syracuse in this conference. But there are a number of good teams in our conference and others on the rise. If we are good and playing them people will care. Only a couple of teams in the current Big East would cause buzz if we play them based on just the name, and we can and have schedule those teams ooc.

 

[BlueDogs]

So park football elsewhere. CT doesn't care about college football

According to who?

 

[gampelcrazies]

According to who?

My bad. Nobody cares about UConn football.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

Is anyone’s mind ever changed in these conference pro & con discussions? Asking for a friend.

 

[BY06518]

Is anyone’s mind ever changed in these conference pro & con discussions? Asking for a friend.

Nope just makes me hate the UConn football fans more

 

[Bonehead]

and three digit iqs

And most of our teeth.

 

[Stainmaster]

Nope just makes me hate the UConn football fans more

This post is exactly why UConn is stuck in the situation.

 

[DMIL]

I agree. Not because of the conference because the AAC is trending up and doing a good job of building. However, we have no rivalries in this conference nor we create any because UCONN's rivals are already established in the collective psyche of fans. Allowing the Catholic schools to take the BIG East name was a HUGE mistake.

We play in front of mostly empty arenas and a conference tournament that draws nobody.

Our former rivals are having the same issue as the Cuse have zero rivals in the ACC, and are getting clowned annually by Duke, UNC, and Virginia. Pitt has become a nobody. Louisville has similar issues in the ACC with no real rivals.

PS: Basketball is the future not football. Interest in football is declining among the youth.

PS: However, I think the AAC needs to be aggressively courting Gonzaga for basketball only and BYU for all sports. If Aresco can make that happen, I'd rather the AAC be our home, and it would be like creating a new BIG East once again. This would force ESPN and Fox to pay the AAC close to P5 levels.

We're simply going to need to develop new rivalries period. Cincinnati, Memphis, Temple, SMU, Houston. Then you add the out of conference rivalries once we get them scheduled. Coaches and Recruiting get's this done. Remember Penny over at Memphis has the number 1 or top 3 recruit in the nation coming into the conference next year and a Top 7 class. Kelvin Sampson at Houston is going to bring in a solid class and his classes will get better especially if he stays in the AAC. Winning and star power solves a lot the attendance problems. UCONN has to move forward and stop living in the past. It's a new era. Good things are coming.

 

[gampelcrazies]

This post is exactly why UConn is stuck in the situation.

No it's not. It's a problem and past leadership at UConn set it up for this to happen.

 

[Stainmaster]

No it's not. It's a problem and past leadership at UConn set it up for this to happen.

Name me one school with a big-time athletic department whose sport-specific fans not only hate fans of other sports, but are proud of it.

 

[gampelcrazies]

Name me one school with a big-time athletic department whose sport-specific fans not only hate fans of other sports, but are proud of it.

None. But I can't blame fans that are split.

UConn waited too long to move football up. If they had moved the football program up in the late 80s/90s, same time basketball became relevant. You wouldn't have this problem. Everyone I know who is a die hard UConn basketball fan is a fan of another school in football.

This was all setup to fail.

 

[freescooter]

Name me one school with a big-time athletic department whose sport-specific fans not only hate fans of other sports, but are proud of it.

Or where employees of the athletic department lobby against sports the school sponsors.

 

[UConn_Top_Dog]

After experiencing this tournament in person I will say this... the potential is there for a great conference in the future. The fans that are here are passionate about their teams. I just don't know how uconn fits in with the culture and geographic qualities of the conference, but we bring a unique brand of basketball to the conference. I spoke to a Memphis fan while eating some late lunch on Beale St at Blues City Cafe. He had nothing but respect for our program and had encouraging things to say. He was optimistic that top to bottom the AAC will be getting better and that both Memphis and UConn will rise to the top, along with Wichita St. He also talked about Wiseman and how insanely good he is and how he thinks we will be landing Achiuwa and that Hurley is a crazy dude who will rope in some serious talent for us. He also said he vividly remembers Shabazz destroying their point guard our championship year and how much bs it is that we had a post season ban for APR and North Carolina gets a slap on the wrist for their violations. It's refreshing to hear all this but it's all speculation right now. Bottom line is as long as the AAC doesn't win on the big stage and beat the big boys, we are essentially in a high mid major conference. The member schools need to win games to rake in the money needed to grow their programs. And tbh, UConn needs to be good for the AAC to gain some steam.