More conference realignment Hunger Games

[Futbol]

It's funny than UConn agent Michael Tranghese hasn't surfaced in any of this? Maybe that's by design. He operates more in the shadows now.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Have the Boneyard posted up in the backyard like

View attachment 77505

Those buttons aren't going to survive 3 plates worth of food!

 

[Longtime fan]

There’s talk on Twitter about UConn and WVU going to the ACC or UConn to the Pac12 but take that with a grain of salt. Some of the people on Twitter say they’ve been visited by aliens from outer space.

UCONN and WVU are not from the same planet. UCONN can play football with Colgate and Wagner, maybe. Add in St. Marys, Hofstra and Montclair State and, with a few breaks, UCONN puts up a .500 season. There is no way the conferences you mention have interest in UCONN. West Virginia is a whole different story.

 

[Ozimoto]

Although the football program is not quite what it used to be.

 

[CL82]

UCONN and WVU are not from the same planet. UCONN can play football with Colgate and Wagner, maybe. Add in St. Marys, Hofstra and Montclair State and, with a few breaks, UCONN puts up a .500 season. There is no way the conferences you mention have interest in UCONN. West Virginia is a whole different story.

Game recap

 

[HuskyNan]

UCONN and WVU are not from the same planet. UCONN can play football with Colgate and Wagner, maybe. Add in St. Marys, Hofstra and Montclair State and, with a few breaks, UCONN puts up a .500 season. There is no way the conferences you mention have interest in UCONN. West Virginia is a whole different story.

This WVU? The one that finished 6-7?

2021 Football Schedule - West Virginia University Athletics

The official 2021 Football schedule for the West Virginia University Mountaineers

wvusports.com

 

[Skeets]

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Game recap

Also undefeated against ND, but that won't be happening again any time soon. How many teams are undefeated against ND?

 

[CL82]

Also undefeated against ND, but that won't be happening again any time soon. How many teams are undefeated against ND?

 

[HuskyNan]

View attachment 77561

It’s worth watching the whole 4 minutes to hear U-C-O-N-N ringing out in the South Bend stadium. For those who don’t know, Jasper “Jazz” Howard was a UConn football player, #6, that was stabbed to death on the UConn campus. Edsall, in probably his finest moment, lists all members of Jazz’s family and dedicates the game to Jazz.

I wanted to slap Jim Nance for stepping on the Huskies’ greatest moment in their football history to babble on about Charlie Weis and ND.

 

[Bald Husky]

Edsels decision to leave like he did was the downfall of the program and was the catalyst that prevented UConn from getting an invitation to the ACC. Not knowing at the time, but his decision screwed UConn forever.

 

[CL82]

It’s worth watching the whole 4 minutes to hear U-C-O-N-N ringing out in the South Bend stadium. For those who don’t know, Jasper “Jazz” Howard was a UConn football player, #6, that was stabbed to death on the UConn campus. Edsall, in probably his finest moment, lists all members of Jazz’s family and dedicates the game to Jazz.

I wanted to slap Jim Nance for stepping on the Huskies’ greatest moment in their football history to babble on about Charlie Weis and ND.

That’s a great clip Nan. Thanks for posting it.

Randy Edsall in his second incarnation at UConn in particular I had his flaws, but the way he handled Jazz Howard‘s passing, the way he kept the team together, in this moment in particular has earned him my respect and admiration.

 

[CL82]

Edsels decision to leave like he did was the downfall of the program and was the catalyst that prevented UConn from getting an invitation to the ACC. Not knowing at the time, but his decision screwed UConn forever.

That’s not accurate. I grant you, Randy’s exit from his first tenure was less than graceful, but the decision to take Louisville over Connecticut had less to do with his departure and had more to do with the fact that we were late to move up to D1 (FBS) football. Our rise was astronomic, but 10 years wasn’t enough time.

 

[diggerfoot]

Folks like @CL82 , @ZooCougar , @Fishy and others who pay a lot more attention to this may correct me, but I think pointing to losing out to Louisville or Edsel’s actions as pivotal moments ignores root causes.

Presumably, BC had no ardent objectors among the ACC members to it joining the ACC. By the time we might have had interest in joining the ACC there was at least one ardent objector among the members, BC. So the pivotal moment seems to be the BC entry into the ACC first. Otherwise, it is not obvious to me why BC’s resume should be more desirable than ours at the time of their entry.

 

[Hondo 77]

Well if this can happen, no reason why Gonzaga can't join the Big East....

Not enough money.

 

[Hondo 77]

This study sought to estimate how conferences value program ranking and program popularity when adding conference members. The paper is an interesting read, at least the parts I read. Zipping to the conclusion: “We find evidence suggesting that Power Five conferences, those who drive conference realignment, have preferences for football programs with larger potential fan bases, but do not necessarily prefer winning football teams.”
Well UCONN does have a perrenial losing football program. One box checked! So how does UCONN make a case for a potentially large football fan base? Is there quantative evidence showing the popularity of UCONN's existing football program? Does UCONN draw well from the Northeast states? This is very important since the words are “larger potential fan base” and Connecticut is not a populous state. Could the national popularity of the UCONN women's basketball program be leveraged? Can it be quantified?
Competition Among Athletic Conferences for New Members

https://web.holycross.edu/RePEc/fek/Session04.3-Reilly.pdf

MBB doesn’t matter, why would WBB?

 

[Hondo 77]

The onus is on David Benedict and Dr. Maric to put on their salesmen's hats to show the benefit of adding UConn to the Big Ten, which IMO is the best fit for us and the BIG conference. Maybe even Gov. Lamont.

We all know the current weakness of UConn football and someone mentioned earlier that bringing on a school that finishes in the bottom half of the standings is not necessarily a knockout - Rutgers and Maryland have not impressed since joining BIG, and there are other perennial 2nd tier teams in that league too (including my dad's alma mater Purdue). That aside, the key to a UConn candidacy is the Olympic sports and how its addition to BIG has far more benefit to BIG than most other candidates. BIG has said that it's not only football but other sports and academic reputation and how accretive a new member will be.

Over the past 40 years UConn has won more national championships (22) across all NCAA sports than all other BIG school except Penn State (38) and Maryland (29). We know all about UConn WBB but if UConn joined BIG that its 4 NC's would be second only to Indiana's 5. Penn State's 38 are dominated by women's volleyball and wrestling, while Maryland has won many field hockey and men's & women's lacrosse championships. In doing the math that means UConn has more national championships than 12 other existing BIG members over the past 40 years (although both USC and UCLA jump right to the top upon joining BIG).

After football NCAA basketball is the second biggest revenue generator, followed by ice hockey and baseball. Softball is the fastest growing sport and both men's and women's lacrosse are rapidly growing a national footprint. Other Olympic sports that BIG is a top conference for include field hockey, volleyball, wrestling, swim & dive and gymnastics.

Basketball: Adding UConn MBB and WBB elevates the BIG to best basketball conference period (IMO). That's worth a lot of dough by itself.

Ice Hockey: Adding UConn ice hockey solidifies the men's conference with its 8th member and an important New England presence, while the women would be the 5th BIG team which means BIG only needs to get either Michigan or Michigan State to elevate it's club teams to create a 6-team BIG conference. These also add to the overall BIG media value.

Baseball: Husky baseball is also accretive to BIG, especially with the California schools. Believe it or not but Wisconsin does not offer D1 baseball. So UConn would be its 16th team. And don't forget Jim Pender's unranked squad ousted #15 Maryland in the regionals this year and gave a scare to #2 Stanford in the super regionals.

Other Husky Olympic sports teams: Women's lax can become the 8th BIG member and women's volleyball can only add to BIG dominance after adding USC and UCLA. UConn field hockey makes BIG a ridiculously good conference and softball helps too. And if UConn ever adds men's lacrosse there's no doubt in my mind that UConn can be a national power in a few years' time.

The Hartford DMA is 32nd in the US, ahead of most BIG markets! We could claim that we have a NY following (like Rutgers does) although one could argue that a FOX contract makes that moot.

I strongly believe that there's much upside and glamour in adding the pedigree of UConn to the BIG or any P5 conference. Football success ebbs and flows, as it does in many sports for every school, and I know all of us are hopeful that Coach Mora has us on the right track. Nevertheless, AD Benedict and President Maric need to accentuate the many, many positives of UConn as a great university with an athletic success story that not many other universities can claim.

And Dr. Maric needs to start working on AAU accreditation (although Nebraska doesn't have it nor does supposed candidate Notre Dame).

So let's focus on the positive attributes to get the attention of Kevin Warren, and let's not be shy to ask Warde Manuel for advice and guidance too.

Finally I think our Dairy Bar can compete with Penn State's Berkey Creamery for best ice cream in the BIG.

Go Huskies!

The only thing that matters is football.

 

[Hondo 77]

Throughout this thread your fellow UConn fans have answered why neither conference is likely for the school, but if I had to guess which conference is more likely to pick up UConn it would be the B1G. The SEC is not a factor.

Expansion is being driven by TV market viability, but to specify, COLLEGE FOOTBALL market viability. UConn could argue that they bring NYC, but for college football do you really?

The B1G already has the NYC DMA.

 

[McFly]

The governor of California, who also is the chairman of UC board of regents, apparently wasn't too happy when he was informed that UCLA would be leaving the PAC 12, and that the regents weren't consulted in the decision. I wonder what effect that might have.

 

[socal613ws]

“Miami, Florida State, Clemson, and North Carolina are going to be in the SEC pretty quick," Jim Donnan.
I really don't think the Acc is going to survive, how funny tho that the Acc killed the big east cause of football and now would get obliterated by an ever bigger conference of football. Karma?

 

[billybud]

“Miami, Florida State, Clemson, and North Carolina are going to be in the SEC pretty quick," Jim Donnan.
I really don't think the Acc is going to survive, how funny tho that the Acc killed the big east cause of football and now would get obliterated by an ever bigger conference of football. Karma?

and the funny thing is...that those schools would be cheering...other than UNC, they felt more SEC-like than the basketball-lacrosse crowd.

UNC is one that I do not see going to the SEC...although the UNC Chancellor considered it in 2010,,

He outlines some problems leaving NC State and Duke...

UNC considered move to SEC or Big Ten in early 2010s, former chancellor says

Former UNC chancellor Holden Thorp discussed the ACC's Grant of Rights agreement with The OG's Joe Ovies and Joe Giglio. He said North Carolina could have gone to the SEC around 2011.

www.wralsportsfan.com

 

[socal613ws]

and the funny thing is...that those schools would be cheering...other than UNC, they felt more SEC-like than the basketball-lacrosse crowd.

UNC is one that I do not see going to the SEC...although the UNC Chancellor considered it in 2010,,

He outlines some problems leaving NC State and Duke...

UNC considered move to SEC or Big Ten in early 2010s, former chancellor says

Former UNC chancellor Holden Thorp discussed the ACC's Grant of Rights agreement with The OG's Joe Ovies and Joe Giglio. He said North Carolina could have gone to the SEC around 2011.

www.wralsportsfan.com

What would happen to Duke if Unc left is the biggest factor. Could they join the SEC? I think Duke needs a lot of work before they are competitive in football.

 

[billybud]

Duke might be happy in a basketball conference...Coach K wanted that.

Their main national success has been in men's basketball, women's lacrosse, women's golf (they have six NC's since 2000), women's tennis....a country club set.

 

[CL82]

The Hartford DMA is 32nd in the US, ahead of most BIG markets! We could claim that we have a NY following (like Rutgers does) although one could argue that a FOX contract makes that moot.

Don’t forget we had another million people in Fairfield County that is outside of the Hartford DMA. That said, Rutgers fulfills the Big Ten‘s need for a presence in the NYCDMA which allows it to get increased per household first tier pricing. If you were talking total fans, however, I feel like you cons brand and success gives it a stronger number of potential subscribers.

Finally I think our Dairy Bar can compete with Penn State's Berkey Creamery for best ice cream in the BIG

I’ve had them both, and I can say that, though Penn State is quite good, it isn’t in dairy bar territory. Surprisingly, Delaware’s ice cream is quite good. I would rank them number two behind UConn with Penn State in the third spot.

 

[visitingcock]

What would happen to Duke if Unc left is the biggest factor. Could they join the SEC? I think Duke needs a lot of work before they are competitive in football.

It’s not about being competitive in football. It’s about packing large stadiums with money spending alums and tv eyeball. Duke doesn’t to that in football

 

[CONN78SEJ]

It’s not about being competitive in football. It’s about packing large stadiums with money spending alums and tv eyeball. Duke doesn’t to that in football

Well, let them eat cake!!!