More future schedule dates/opponents for 2021/2022

[Pudge]

I have a hard time having any excitement for the garbage home games (outside of Army and possibly BC) the next 3 years. I know the refrain will be "ECU Tulsa etc etc were no better" but the AAC had better games. UConn may go 3 years without playing a ranked team at home.

Ranked team sure. But I guarantee you ... this Fanbase is exhausted from the soul sapping 56-10 games.

A season or two of 5-7 and some hope is what is needed

 

[FroginCT]

Ranked team sure. But I guarantee you ... this Fanbase is exhausted from the soul sapping 56-10 games.

A season or two of 5-7 and some hope is what is needed

5 wins next year means beating UMass, Maine, ODU, Liberty and MTSU and / or have an upset on the road. Assuming Maine and UMass are wins (crossing fingers), then if ODU and MTSU are still bad let's put them in the win column. But Liberty and SJSU likely won't be easy - Liberty crushed UMass and Maine, and SJSU lost a lot of close games.

I don't see more than 4 wins next year, and that's giving UConn the benefit of the doubt against a weak schedule.

 

[UConnDan97]

I can't believe we're talking about the number of football players that have to travel. This is silly, and travel has already been hashed out as a seven-figure net positive in print for the AD after the Big East move.

Yes, 100 people have to travel to six road games somewhere in the country by plane. And they've always had to, save 1 game against Temple. The men's basketball team has to travel maybe 18 times. So does the women's basketball team. The two soccer teams maybe about 12 - 14 times each? And so on.

Now, those teams don't have to fly to play Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's, Villanova, etc. Anyone arguing against that is simply being a pain in the back side on purpose...

 

[kingdobbs]

Football travel is what is. It’s a net equal. The 25 or so other sports no longer have their 2nd closest Conference game in OH. Those Midwest schools are now the far ones not the close ones.

In truth though, the amount of money we were spending (and thus are now saving) on travel is usually overblown.

We have 22 sports (10 M, 12 W) we sponsor at varsity.

For nine of those sports, (Cross Country M&W, Track and Field M&W, Swimming and Diving M&W, men's golf, Tennis M&W), the only conference competition we have is a once a year conference championship. Most of the competition takes place regionally rather than interconference, and will frequently not even be against one single team but rather in multiteam meets (Cross Country, for example, competed in the Paul Short Run at Lehigh this year, and 45 schools ran in that event).

Women's crew is similar, and didn't go further than Philadelphia for a meet, without even an AAC championship to contend with.

Women's lacrosse played in the American, but only UConn, Cincinnati, Temple and ECU played in that league (alongside otherwise SEC teams Florida and Vanderbilt). In other words, the three closest teams in the American.

Field hockey never left the Big East (and field hockey is another one of those sports where very often, teams would play each other at another team's home venue just because they were already there; the somewhat infamous Kent State fireworks controversy this past season took place at a game between Maine and Temple; UConn itself played a match against Northwestern at Stanford's home field on the same weekend the Huskies played the Cardinal).

Men's and women's hockey ice hockey play in Hockey East, which has most of its teams within a two hour drive.

Baseball and softball were going to play lots of events in Florida, Texas or the rest of the sun belt anyway, regardless of what conference we were in. The only thing that changed with being in the AAC was whether those were conference games, or non-conference games against Northern teams that were played in Florida anyway.

That just leaves six with any kind of relevant travel expenses relating to playing in the American: football, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, and volleyball.

And of those, men's and women's basketball were likely profitable enough that the travel expenses for an AAC schedule were nullified, and football is football.

So the pain of travel was really down to three sports. Men's and women's soccer, and women's volleyball.

 

[Samoo]

Saving on travel is about everything but football

#Casualanalysis

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

What I wanna know is will the aac b-ball refs kick us in the ass on our way out the football refs did?

 

[kemba]

And of those, men's and women's basketball were likely profitable enough that the travel expenses for an AAC schedule were nullified, and football is football.

So the pain of travel was really down to three sports. Men's and women's soccer, and women's volleyball.

I don't pay attention to most of the other sports in your post so Ill take your word for it but the basketball point doesn't make any sense. Cutting down the expenses is good regardless of how profitable the programs are

 

[HuskyAlum012]

disingenuous. The current conf has 1 school in driving distance. One. Yes, some travel still, but not every game is 500+ miles away.

Providence, Seton Hall, St Johns, Nova... You think they are flying from Hartford, to NYC?

 

[businesslawyer]

What I wanna know is will the aac b-ball refs kick us in the ass on our way out the football refs did?

If you perceived that the AAC football refs were biased against us, I can guaranty you will perceive that the AAC basketball refs will be biased against us as well.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Providence, Seton Hall, St Johns, Nova... You think they are flying from Hartford, to NYC?

Current means AAC

 

[weyuo]

What I wanna know is will the aac b-ball refs kick us in the ass on our way out the football refs did?

I wouldn't expect them to do UConn any favors and besides, the Huskies with their sloppy play are doing a good enough job kicking themselves in the .

 

[gioff2323]

Providence, Seton Hall, St Johns, Nova... You think they are flying from Hartford, to NYC?

Are you 12 years old? Do you really not know what conference we are in right now? Google it before you get to post 300

 

[uchusky32]

Football travels with 100 people - it’s the elephant in the room. Additionally, For the other teams with relatively small travel parties, the Big East has teams now in OH, IL, WI and NE. I know another consultant gave the state what numbers they were looking for but this is silly. There’s not going to be any meaningful travel savings in a budget that runs a $40 million annual deficit. There are much bigger fish to fry.

Not everyone travels. Up to school but would be closer to 50 maybe a little more.

 

[kingdobbs]

I don't pay attention to most of the other sports in your post so Ill take your word for it but the basketball point doesn't make any sense. Cutting down the expenses is good regardless of how profitable the programs are

My point is that it largely wasn’t going to be an issue. We’d have been more than be able to cover for it from revenue.

Obviously our expenses will be significantly lower replacing trips to Houston and Dallas with Providence and New York. And much more convenient for the traveling fan, which is something else that breeds bigger and better engagement.

 

[freescooter]

If I were a player I’d be pissed. I’m trading a trip to the Big Easy for one to Omaha. Yuck!

 

[Adios]

@HuskyDogArt, we still dropping football????

I am getting a feel recruits would rather play at UConn as an independent than as a member of the AAC. We didn't fit in the community college culture, to say the least, of the AAC.

The other AAC schools sure were attracting students from CT during our time in the conference.

UMass secured a home/home series with Mizzou. UMass' home game will be played in Hadley, not Foxborough.

 

[Chief00]

Not everyone travels. Up to school but would be closer to 50 maybe a little more.

You are way off - Chief has been on these trips. You need to include coaches, trainers, managers and other staff and there are more than fifty players.

 

[UConnJim]

Let's put some facts behind travel in the AAC vs. Big East.

First, let's look at actual miles the football team traveled in 2018, 2019, and 2020. (Measured straight line between Storrs and host city):
2018: 6,442 miles 6 games
2019: 4,018 miles 6 games
2020: 5,501 miles 5 games

So, for football, it looks like no real change to travel, as most of us would have expected.

Here are the distances (straight line) between Storrs and AAC basketball and Olympic sport schools and Big East and Olympic sport basketball schools:
AAC schools: total distance, 11 schools, 11,592 miles, average = 1,054 miles.

Big East schools: total distance, 10 schools, 4,949 miles, average = 495 miles.

Schools less than 1000 miles away:
AAC: 3/11
Big East: 9/10

Furthest school in Big East is Creighton, 1,222 miles. In the AAC, there are 5 schools further than Creighton: Wichita St., SMU, Houston, Tulane, Tulsa.

AAC mens' basketball tournament 2020 is in Dallas, 1,479 miles away.
Big East men's basketball tournament 2020 is in NYC, 119 miles away.

Bottom line is that Basketball travel and Olympic travel will be less in the Big East, although some Olympic sports will have limited impact.

 

[Chief00]

My point is that it largely wasn’t going to be an issue. We’d have been more than be able to cover for it from revenue.

Obviously our expenses will be significantly lower replacing trips to Houston and Dallas with Providence and New York. And much more convenient for the traveling fan, which is something else that breeds bigger and better engagement.

Ever pay for a hotel room in NYC? Ask Lew Perkins about the cost of OJ?

 

[uchusky32]

You are way off - Chief has been on these trips. You need to include coaches, trainers, managers and other staff and there are more than fifty players.

Chief I played football college UConn. Yes there are other members that go. 80 something scholarships and walkons. Not everyone travels. I wasn't coming at you like the others. Far from confrontational.

 

[Chief00]

Let's put some facts behind travel in the AAC vs. Big East.

First, let's look at actual miles the football team traveled in 2018, 2019, and 2020. (Measured straight line between Storrs and host city):
2018: 6,442 miles 6 games
2019: 4,018 miles 6 games
2020: 5,501 miles 5 games

So, for football, it looks like no real change to travel, as most of us would have expected.

Here are the distances (straight line) between Storrs and AAC basketball and Olympic sport schools and Big East and Olympic sport basketball schools:
AAC schools: total distance, 11 schools, 11,592 miles, average = 1,054 miles.

Big East schools: total distance, 10 schools, 4,949 miles, average = 495 miles.

Schools less than 1000 miles away:
AAC: 3/11
Big East: 9/10

Furthest school in Big East is Creighton, 1,222 miles. In the AAC, there are 5 schools further than Creighton: Wichita St., SMU, Houston, Tulane, Tulsa.

AAC mens' basketball tournament 2020 is in Dallas, 1,479 miles away.
Big East men's basketball tournament 2020 is in NYC, 119 miles away.

Bottom line is that Basketball travel and Olympic travel will be less in the Big East, although some Olympic sports will have limited impact.

Pretty decent analysis up to a point. But, you need to look at costs of hotel and food. NYC, DC , Chicago are not cheap stays. Places like WI and NE are costly to fly to since they are not high volume hub airports. Houston, Dallas, Tampa Bay even NC have good volume hence you can shop for better fares.

 

[Chief00]

Chief I played football college UConn. Yes there are other members that go. 80 something scholarships and walkons. Not everyone travels. I wasn't coming at you like the others. Far from confrontational.

How long ago? The expansion of staff has been enormous the last 10 years. I haven’t counted guys but 50 seems very low unless guys keep transferring and you might be right then.

 

[huskymedic]

Pretty decent analysis up to a point. But, you need to look at costs of hotel and food. NYC, DC , Chicago are not cheap stays. Places like WI and NE are costly to fly to since they are not high volume hub airports. Houston, Dallas, Tampa Bay even NC have good volume hence you can shop for better fares.

It’s not like UConn doesn’t know what they spent on travel the last few years in the Big East... they can figure out the delta adjusted for inflation fairly quickly. Anthony Travel has a vast data base of travel costs for their contracted schools across all conferences. People are making this much more complicated than it needs to be.

 

[UConnJim]

Not everyone travels. Up to school but would be closer to 50 maybe a little more.

The AAC does not have a limit on the size of travel football squads, but typically, schools bring 70 to 75 players. Other conferences do have limits on the travel squad size. For example, the Big 10 used to limit travel squads to 70 players, but they have recently increased the number to 74.

A typical FBS football team travels with up to 150 people.

 

[uchusky32]

Yep, not everyone travels. Minimum 50. When I played it was around 70 and it was a priveledge for the younger guys to make the travel squad.