More future schedule dates/opponents for 2021/2022

[Pudge]

The UConn Administration did the math before the conference announcement. The Travel Savings was in the millions in cost savings. This one is easy ... but apparently some want to debate this into eternity. I accept the conclusion. I believe our MBB recruitment is significantly better. Our schedule in Football is decent ... with winnable games; and will get better over time.

Not achieving football performance at the level of the AAC is clearly a missed opportunity. But the overwhelming consensus should be ... the first steps to a more engaged Fanbase is a success. Hoop.

 

[businesslawyer]

Let's put some facts behind

You don't get the Boneyard yet, do you?

 

[Palatine]

The UConn Administration did the math before the conference announcement. The Travel Savings was in the millions in cost savings. This one is easy ... but apparently some want to debate this into eternity. I accept the conclusion. I believe our MBB recruitment is significantly better. Our schedule in Football is decent ... with winnable games; and will get better over time.

Not achieving football performance at the level of the AAC is clearly a missed opportunity. But the overwhelming consensus should be ... the first steps to a more engaged Fanbase is a success. Hoop.

The move was never rational. The numbers were as phony as could be. Our basketball problem was descending and The American was the easiest thing to blame. Panic ensued with the emphasis on Sue and the move to go backwards was wholly embraced by small thinkers in the inner circle. Ironically, this was the same thinking many had when the Courant concluded we didn't belong in the Big East because we would never be able to compete with Georgetown and Syracuse.

 

[hardcorehusky]

The move was never rational. The numbers were as phony as could be. Our basketball problem was descending and The American was the easiest thing to blame. Panic ensued with the emphasis on Sue and the move to go backwards was wholly embraced by small thinkers in the inner circle. Ironically, this was the same thinking many had when the Courant concluded we didn't belong in the Big East because we would never be able to compete with Georgetown and Syracuse.

The move was dictated by the suck ESPN Contract. Even if UConn was winning more games in men's basketball and football, the contract at $5M net maybe versus what the P5 were making was not sustainable for UConn. Throw in the ESPN3 issue and it was a no brainer. Cut costs, increase revenue, and reinvigorate much of the fanbase. Football and baseball lose from a conference standpoint, but football has a way back via independence and baseball has a brand new stadium and the ability to schedule "big boys". If the ESPN contract was closer to $15M per team, the move away from the AAC would not have been made.

 

[gampelcrazies]

The move was never rational. The numbers were as phony as could be. Our basketball problem was descending and The American was the easiest thing to blame. Panic ensued with the emphasis on Sue and the move to go backwards was wholly embraced by small thinkers in the inner circle. Ironically, this was the same thinking many had when the Courant concluded we didn't belong in the Big East because we would never be able to compete with Georgetown and Syracuse.

You can't be serious with this post.
1. The numbers are not phony.
2. Basketball and Football were getting hurt by the AAC.
3. This is not thinking small. This is thinking big with a creative alternative than staying in the AAC.

 

[BFieldHusky]

You can't be serious with this post.
1. The numbers are not phony.
2. Basketball and Football were getting hurt by the AAC.
3. This is not thinking small. This is thinking big with a creative alternative than staying in the AAC.

This is the same guy who before the season told us the American was a better basketball league than the Big East. Not worth responding to him.

 

[freescooter]

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.

The problem here is that Olympic sports don’t necessarily play every opponent. Sports like swimming, track and field, etc compete in various regional and national meets not individual dual meets. Soccer plays some league games but far from a full slate. Baseball presumably will continue to play a number of southern teams until April. Then missing games against the Florida schools, Houston etc May well result in higher costs as we replace those early season road trips that “count” with non league opponents.

Overall I would guess there will be a modest savings but anyone counting on that to make this move worthwhile will be sorely disappointed

 

[Chief00]

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.

The state of CT doesn’t have a good track record hiring consultants on It’s estimates. Generally, the consultants give them the answer the State of CT entity wants in order to achieve a particular agenda - in this case the move to the Big East.

 

[Husky92]

I thought this thread was about our 21-22 football schedule focusing on opponents and dates. Where did that thread go?

 

[businesslawyer]

I thought this thread was about our 21-22 football schedule focusing on opponents and dates. Where did that thread go?

Do you wear a sweater at your favorite pizza place?

 

[UConnJim]

The problem here is that Olympic sports don’t necessarily play every opponent. Sports like swimming, track and field, etc compete in various regional and national meets not individual dual meets. Soccer plays some league games but far from a full slate. Baseball presumably will continue to play a number of southern teams until April. Then missing games against the Florida schools, Houston etc May well result in higher costs as we replace those early season road trips that “count” with non league opponents.

Overall I would guess there will be a modest savings but anyone counting on that to make this move worthwhile will be sorely disappointed

Yes, some of the Olympic sports teams have limited conference games, but they do have championships and the Big East championships will generally be closer than the AAC championships.

Some 2020 Championships:

M&W Track and Field: AAC: Tampa, BE: Philadelphia
Women's Lacrosse: AAC: Gainesville, FL, BE: Washington, DC
Softball: AAC: Orlando, BE: Chicago
Baseball: Tampa, BE: Cincinnati
Swimming and Diving: AAC: Houston, BE: NY

There will be travel cost savings for UConn. Maybe it's $1 million or more, who knows, as non-conference scheduling can change the math, but conference travel costs will decline.

Since this thread is about football scheduling, aren't you excited to play 5 P5 schools as well as Army and UMass in 2020? It seems indy scheduling is more exciting for football fans than AAC scheduling.

 

[HartfordHank]

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.

Typically conferences have contracts with a hotel brand and pay a fairly standard rate for all hotel rooms. The hotel brand is willing to guarantee a large number of rooms at a significantly lower rate to guarantee the large number of rooms a conference will require over the course of a year.

 

[gioff2323]

I thought this thread was about our 21-22 football schedule focusing on opponents and dates. Where did that thread go?

squirrel!

 

[Pudge]

Let’s just say ...

Neither Chief or Palatine are going to be appointed to the Audit Committee.

The more I think ... it is the AAC ESPN contract that spun this to a quake.

 

[Guapo]

The move was never rational.

You wouldn’t know a rational thought on this issue if it smacked you in the face

 

[BlueDogs]

The move was never rational. The numbers were as phony as could be. Our basketball problem was descending and The American was the easiest thing to blame. Panic ensued with the emphasis on Sue and the move to go backwards was wholly embraced by small thinkers in the inner circle. Ironically, this was the same thinking many had when the Courant concluded we didn't belong in the Big East because we would never be able to compete with Georgetown and Syracuse.

So true. I remember the small thinkers with the Big East. We would be unable to compete. Not in an recruiting hotbed. Overshadowed by Boston, NY and Philly. Bad facilities. HCC off campus venue was a detractor. Who wanted to go to school in the middle of nowhere. We have a built in inferiority complex.

 

[Guapo]

So true. I remember the small thinkers with the Big East. We would be unable to compete. Not in an recruiting hotbed. Overshadowed by Boston, NY and Philly. Bad facilities. HCC off campus venue was a detractor. Who wanted to go to school in the middle of nowhere. We have a built in inferiority complex.

The AAC is the inferior conference.

There is nothing going on now even remotely analogous to the Big East move in 1979.

 

[ASweet3781]

So true. I remember the small thinkers with the Big East. We would be unable to compete. Not in an recruiting hotbed. Overshadowed by Boston, NY and Philly. Bad facilities. HCC off campus venue was a detractor. Who wanted to go to school in the middle of nowhere. We have a built in inferiority complex.

How much longer are we gonna have to read the AAC Pravda poster brigade and their half assed completely ludicrous posts bemoaning a move that is loved by like 90% (higher?) of the fanbase?

 

[Guapo]

How much longer are we gonna have to read the AAC Pravda poster brigade and their half assed completely ludicrous posts bemoaning a move that is loved by like 90% (higher?) of the fanbase?

Imagine reading C. Austin Cox and thinking “you know what? That guy has a point!”

 

[ASweet3781]

Imagine reading C. Austin Cox and thinking “you know what? That guy has a point!”

It's unbelievable. After calling people small thinkers they in the next sentence start comparing college basketball in 1979 to college football in 2019. Completely the same situations!

 

[Robertelamin]

We need a visionary like Gene Roddenberry to lead us @Palatine

 

[Chief00]

Let’s just say ...

Neither Chief or Palatine are going to be appointed to the Audit Committee.

The more I think ... it is the AAC ESPN contract that spun this to a quake.

If you only knew, there is a sound reason Chief doesn’t buy the BS - many do.

 

[Chief00]

How much longer are we gonna have to read the AAC Pravda poster brigade and their half assed completely ludicrous posts bemoaning a move that is loved by like 90% (higher?) of the fanbase?

Chief is not saying it’s a bad move for basketball but this travel expense rationale is made for an audience that can’t add or subtract.

 

[Chief00]

Typically conferences have contracts with a hotel brand and pay a fairly standard rate for all hotel rooms. The hotel brand is willing to guarantee a large number of rooms at a significantly lower rate to guarantee the large number of rooms a conference will require over the course of a year.

Chief is very familiar with such deals and I have never seen a hotel brand have the same “standard” rate for NYC and Omaha. Why would anyone do that?

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Why would anyone do that?

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