Memphis to the Big East??? Really??,

[freescooter]

I can’t keep cutting up people’s food.

It’s not $10,000,000 and it’s far from settled that it’s the best G conference. No one wants to see any of those schools do anything which is why they’ve struggled to get a rights deal done.

And we made $8M in the Big East last year.

Yeah and if you can guarantee we win the NCAA tournament EVERY year, that will continue. And not a single soul is advocating we go to the PAC in all sports. Nobody. The consideration is doing it for football only, so the $8 million (if we win the Championship) is still there. The possibility of getting another 5-7 million of actual money for football is on top of the NBE deal. And if you are being honest $5-6 million is the real NBE payout

 

[Kowalski]

Agreed- and he said the Pac and UConn weren't a good fit. No AD would characterize it that way if they wanted to keep the door open. Not gonna happen.

Dom Amore’s article from last year - UConn sources, requesting anonymity, told the Courant the university doesn’t consider this the right fit “at this time”.

That was right after AAC teams declined & any media deal. Memphis was among those that declined & doesn't sound like they’ve closed the door on anything.

 

[ScottVib]

Memphis would do it (football-only) in a heartbeat if they knew they could join the Big East for basketball and just about double their current payout; they seem to have closed the door on an all-sports membership (likely for similar reasons, the increase in revenue not being significant enough to endure a more competitive conference for them (especially in basketball) and less attractive opponents for their fans at home in football).

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Dom Amore’s article from last year - UConn sources, requesting anonymity, told the Courant the university doesn’t consider this the right fit “at this time”.

That was right after AAC teams declined & any media deal. Memphis was among those that declined & doesn't sound like they’ve closed the door on anything.

The "at this time" was DB being nice. By saying "right fit", he said it all. Again, not gonna happen.

 

[bendm]

They’re going to get less than the AAC. They’re going to get less than what we got last year from the Big East.

You people are deranged.

I didn’t say anything about leaving the BE I said we’d get more than half a million from the PAC as a football only member. it would be in addition to what we get from the BE for bball

 

[Fishy]

Agreed- and he said the Pac and UConn weren't a good fit. No AD would characterize it that way if they wanted to keep the door open. Not gonna happen.

There's no scenario where this makes sense outside of that conference promising us extra home games and more money than they will have.

Yeah and if you can guarantee we win the NCAA tournament EVERY year, that will continue. And not a single soul is advocating we go to the PAC in all sports. Nobody. The consideration is doing it for football only, so the $8 million (if we win the Championship) is still there. The possibility of getting another 5-7 million of actual money for football is on top of the NBE deal. And if you are being honest $5-6 million is the real NBE payout

You’re making up numbers.

I didn’t say anything about leaving the BE I said we’d get more than half a million from the PAC as a football only member. it would be in addition to what we get from the BE for bball

And sending our football program and staff 3,000 miles four times a year to play schools that cannot even get a pity media deal. You’ll spend more than you make.

Thank God that Dave Benedict is smarter than you nitwits.

 

[freescooter]

For the sake of argument, let's say the PAC's deal is $10mm per, all in.

If this is the case, what could we possibly hope to receive if we were to offer our services as a football only? What would the cost be if we were to incur the amount of travel for our football program?

We are scheduling better than anyone anticipated when we moved from the AAC. Our situation is far from ideal, but we aren't in a situation where we should believe that anything would be better.

It is kinda like getting into Harvard. 5% of those who apply get accepted. 100% of those who don’t apply do not get accepted.

I realize we live in the era where people make up their own “facts” but really not a single person has said we should do this under any circumstance. There are differing opinions on what we would require to make such a move but that’s not the same thing. And not a single soul wants to be back in the AAC as currently constructed. And UConn got about $5 million in media dollars from the NBE media deal. The remainder of the $8 plus had nothing to do with the NBE except possibly in a negative way in that they did not get to keep 100 % of ncaa credits. So the $8 might have been 9 or $10 million with no NBE taking its cut to pay DePaul for its presence.

 

[TRest]

It doesn't pay the bills but I think football independence makes us look a little more prestigious as an add to a P4 conference. On Sunday, I was at a cookout and talking sports. One of the guys I was talking with thought that UConn wasn't in the ACC because we didn't want to leave the Big East. He and another guy concurred that we couldn't leave the Big East because we kill it in basketball there. I explained that was not our reality and that we'd gladly leave. Neither thought we should do it. The money situation was lost on them. Good publicity is probably more important than money for the next 3-4 years.

Was one of these guys Chris Murphy?

 

[CL82]

Was one of these guys Chris Murphy?​

MURPHY!​

 

[UConnTrumbull]

It doesn't pay the bills but I think football independence makes us look a little more prestigious as an add to a P4 conference. On Sunday, I was at a cookout and talking sports. One of the guys I was talking with thought that UConn wasn't in the ACC because we didn't want to leave the Big East. He and another guy concurred that we couldn't leave the Big East because we kill it in basketball there. I explained that was not our reality and that we'd gladly leave. Neither thought we should do it. The money situation was lost on them. Good publicity is probably more important than money for the next 3-4 years.

This is a common sentiment among non-UConn fans and college sports casuals. I remember when we joined the NBE some people were like “wait, UConn had left the Big East?” UConn is the only school that gets pigeonholed into one conference and would be considered heretical for considering leaving.

 

[bendm]

It doesn't pay the bills but I think football independence makes us look a little more prestigious as an add to a P4 conference.

Maybe among the casual fans of the P4 but not the admins

 

[Hoophound]

Maybe among the casual fans of the P4 but not the admins

I disagree. It’s all about perception at the moment. If we win and get ranked, nobody will care where we are playing. I choose Indy over small conferences. I’d rather be ranked 15 in the country as an Indy than as the best team in the American. We just need to win.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[Fishy]

lol…..oh, Memphis.

 

[freescooter]

There's no scenario where this makes sense outside of that conference promising us extra home games and more money than they will have.



You’re making up numbers.



And sending our football program and staff 3,000 miles four times a year to play schools that cannot even get a pity media deal. You’ll spend more than you make.

Thank God that Dave Benedict is smarter than you nitwits.

I’m not making up numbers at all. I’m laying out what I think is a reasonable number for consideration. As to the $8 million UConn made, you are the one who is implying that is a regular thing when it was record performance and if you look at the data provided, $5 million is much closer to the real media deal. That is what the bottom feeders earn.

Finally, we have had a number of games in the general vicinity of the PAC. We travel to Texas this year. Next year we go to Air Force and Wyoming. We have played at Utah State and Fresno.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Hmmmm...


An interesting comment:

 

[Ha Who]

I’m not a fan of Memphis, but if it was North Carolina…

 

[freescooter]

I’m not a fan of Memphis, but if it was North Carolina…

If it was Carolina there would be no penalty! In fact, has anyone confirmed these didn’t happen at UNC and they are just penalizing Memphis?

 

[CL82]

Hmmmm...


An interesting comment:

Well, you can say they're making their case that they would be a good in institutional fit in the Big 12.

 

[TRest]

Even Memphis's cheating is stupid.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Well, are you you can say they're making their case that they would be a good in institutional fit in the big 12

Or now the SEC.

 

[Vowelguy]

An interesting comment:

"Memphis in same category as Big12 Baylor and former Big 12 Oklahoma & TAMU!!" -- Tigers B12 application

 

[ZooCougar]

Good olde Memphis State.

 

[Hskies4Ever]

There’s something fishy about the way this conversation is going… let’s get some things straight:

These comparisons between the PAC-12 and the AAC are ridiculous. If these leagues were equal, Memphis wouldn’t be entertaining jumping though all these hoops to move.

Top to bottom, the brands in the Pac-12 are better than the brands in the AAC.

There are rumors East Carolina is thinking about leaving for the Sun Belt. It’s a league going nowhere fast.

Common estimates for the Pac deal are between $7 and $12 million. 70 to 80% of deals are typically attributed to football. Those are figures that check out based on the current AAC and Mountain West deals.

Let’s do the most conservative estimate possible: 70% of a $6 million share. 4,200,000. That is more than 8x UConn’s current deal.

The football is better than the football they’re playing now. They would still have space for up to 4 P4 teams on their schedule. They’d have a path to the playoff. They’d have bowl tie-ins. They’d have the opportunity to play for a conference championship. Maybe most importantly: it increases $$$ for revenue sharing.

Is it ideal? No. But it’s a leg up on where we are and we get to stay in the Big East while we do it.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Clearly AD David Benedict has more insights than anyone on this board and keeps ongoing conversations with several conferences. With the Pac desperately trying to add their minimum number of FB schools over the past year, the deal that UConn or Memphis were offered certainly must have not been worth it to either institution. With the ongoing ACC instability, it would appear that UConn has decided to wait things out. They've even decided to almost fully fund the $20m rev share obligation. Clearly, the idea of the Pac is not in UConn's plans or it already would have happened as the administration has known for over a year that the rev share obligation was coming. Sure seems like UConn senior leadership (President and BOT) is ok with waiting for ACC fallout and/or further Big12 expansion to occur. They are betting on themselves and that bet doesn't come lightly.