"New England's Team?" How much weight does UConn carry in the region?

[RegisteredUconn]

People here are delusional if they think UConn is or will become New England's team. New England has far too many colleges for any one to dominate. Furthermore, people in other states are not going to make the state university of another state their #1 team.

Every time something difficult is attempted there are those happily proclaiming someone delusional. Congratulations for finding your niche. Now, isn't there some other parade you need to rain on?

 

[ZooCougar]

I don't consider Oregon or Washington states as areas where HSFB is as revered as it is even here in Connecticut just that their able to cash in on the Cali overflow of athletes and lure them there....in fact I'd almost think of the Pacific northwest as a wasteland w/o the imports ala Montana,Wyoming and the Dakotas..CFB has gone the way of the manufacturing jobs in the NE and midwest snowbirds...to the warmer weather climates bolstered by the relative newcomers..Reconstruction again in the south CFB style and this time the rebs are happy about carpetbagging(but wont admit it) yankee style lol!!

True, but college sports is bigger in the PAC NW, than it is in the NE.

 

[ZooCougar]

People here are delusional if they think UConn is or will become New England's team. New England has far too many colleges for any one to dominate. Furthermore, people in other states are not going to make the state university of another state their #1 team.

Yes because people up in Maine would rather pull for Bowdoin.

 

[NickyNewark]

True, but college sports is bigger in the PAC NW, than it is in the NE.

Yes it is probably because like in MANY areas in the south theres nothing else to rally around like we have in the Philly/ NYC/Boston corrider(culture) they've found 1M ways to get our dollars and the dollars are here....thats why I'm so confident UConn goes in the next move in musical chairs(CR)!

 

[06029]

If UNH or Maine were playing for an FCS National championship against a school from an other area.
90% of hardcore Conn football fans would be routing for them.
There is a natural regional pride.
If UConn is in the B1G it will be a source of regional pride for all New England football fans.Remember the bar is set pretty low ,all were asking is for them to tune in to watch a game. For instance you have Texas Tech playing Baylor or UConn vs Mich State. I would guess the rating for the later game will be 5 times the former.

Do you remember rooting for UMass a few years back when they were in it? Were you all over Victor Cruz when he was at Umass?
How about Nova in the championship when both schools were part of the BE?

I do not care for anything below Div 1 BCS quality football. You can not tell me that watching an FCS championship or Div II or III championship is must see TV or check your phone for the score kind of event. Given the choice, I watch a replay of the Beef O'Brady Bowl over any regional school in a lower level championship game.

As stated above, if a major school in the region is winning, they get eyeballs and support. No school in NE has enough die hard alumni to make a difference in the ratings so they need to grab the casual fan. And that only happens with winning against major competition.

Your example of competing games is interesting because that is what BC does in Boston and most of NE when they play major opponents (FSU, Clemson, USC, ND). Those games are the regional telecast in New England on the Disney networks. Their ratings outdraw other less compelling regional games at the same time. Uconn against any major B1g, ACC, SEC, Big 12 or Pac12 school outdraws Tech-Baylor in New England. A better example would be does Uconn-Ind or Uconn-Ill outdraw Tech-Baylor? Or does that kind of match up outdraw BC-Wake Forest or BC-Duke? That is the kind of matchup of competing games that you need to win big in New England to be considered the regions team. I'm not sure if Uconn has that much FB interest to end up better than a draw in the ratings across New England today.

Uconn needs the big name opponents on the schedule to start building that regional draw and support and have ratings reflect any build up in support. Actual evidence is better than hope. The AAC schedule is not going to do it. Time to play any one in the country in their stadium or venue of choice. Or just accept being lost in the nether world of the G5.

 

[Pudge]

NIT finals against Michigan. We took over the Garden. Just because we don't go when we suck (which, be honest, if UCONN sucked CT fans wouldn't be making the trek either), doesn't mean we don't travel to the Garden when we have good reason to.

Crazy talk

You took over the Garden? What freaking planet are you on? You have no concept of what a good atmosphere is with a college basketball game. This is delusional.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

Sorry for the dose of reality. It would seem many here prefer to live in Fantasyland.

Everybody dreams (although you might be the exception). Progress is built on them. When asked about failing 1000 times before inventing the electric light, Edison informed the questioner (RF0 perhaps?) that the light bulb was a 1001 step process. Some things take many years and many steps before success arrives. That doesn't make those who brought them about less realistic than you. You either lack vision or lack the stomach for the fight. In your "reality," the pyramids don't exist.

 

[Pudge]

Interest in UConn pretty much ends at the CT state border. There is no one New England college team and there never will be. New England is too provincial and very fractured (too many colleges in such a small region) for this to ever occur.

The only reason UConn was on tv in VT was for CT residents vacationing there to watch. Any assertion that UConn could become New England's team is absurd. CT is the least New England state in all of New England.

Funny.

I don't see this at all. In Vermont, it also is Burlington & Rutland ... not just the ski resorts. I have been in sports bars when UConn has been on. But ... it's really marginal - if that's your point, I agree. But, if the system carries throughout NE, more will watch & the UConn is New England brand will grow. (Are you going to watch Maine vrs Albany? Are you going to watch Arkansas vrs Mississippi? OR ... will you watch UConn versus Michigan or Iowa? I'd argue it will skew to the latter. )

 

[JayRU09]

Crazy talk

You took over the Garden? What freaking planet are you on? You have no concept of what a good atmosphere is with a college basketball game. This is delusional.

Um........watch the game.

 

[ZooCougar]

Yes it is probably because like in MANY areas in the south theres nothing else to rally around like we have in the Philly/ NYC/Boston corrider(culture) they've found 1M ways to get our dollars and the dollars are here....thats why I'm so confident UConn goes in the next move in musical chairs(CR)!

CT is an exception within New England. For some reason we evolved a love for the local State U. I never went to UConn, never even considered attending UConn... when alums here talk about places on campus I have no idea what they are talking about. But watching Tate George make that shot is one of my earliest memories in sports, that "Husky Hoops on Channel" song still is in my brain. We have a brand that was really succesful in state, and without a doubt it has permeated and established itself in some other parts of New England.

 

[BoatShow]

Um...watch the game.

RU's crowning achievement- A bunch of people hopped on a train for a game they lost.

 

[UConnDan97]

Yes because people up in Maine would rather pull for Bowdoin.

You beat me to the punch. I was going to make my joke about Colby, but Bowdoin works fine...

 

[JayRU09]

Oh I forgot we were discussing wins now when the original discussion was over travelling to the friggin' Garden.

Keep moving them goal posts.

 

[Pudge]

Traveling to the friggin' Garden ... for an NIT game?

We are going to pull out pictures of 1988 for UConn. Guys had short shorts and NIKE & ESPN were barely breathing. I would say that UConn has 50 more significant games than Rutgers since then. We get it: you're in because of cable boxes; you never showed more than a smidge of Bigtime College Sports capability. (fan base or athletes)

 

[ZooCougar]

Traveling to the friggin' Garden ... for an NIT game?

We are going to pull out pictures of 1988 for UConn. Guys had short shorts and NIKE & ESPN were barely breathing. I would say that UConn has 50 more significant games than Rutgers since then. We get it: you're in because of cable boxes; you never showed more than a smidge of Bigtime College Sports capability. (fan base or athletes)

Rutgers goes to MSG for big games about as often as I go to Australia. The only people that attend Rutgers basketball games are family members of players on the team.

Everyone knows that there are only two schools that will pack that place. One simply does not discuss college basketball in MSG without mentioning UConn and Syracuse. Rutgers doesn't even figure into the equation.

 

[BoatShow]

How did this thread, about UConn and New England, become a discussion of RU and NYC??

 

[Kolumbo]

How did this thread, about UConn and New England, become a discussion of RU and NYC??

At this point the jersey residents are already about $0.20 richer now that SUNJ is in the B1G, aren't they?

 

[ZooCougar]

How did this thread, about UConn and New England, become a discussion of RU and NYC??

Jay hijacked it. And we never miss a chance to diss Rutgers. I miss our Newman already.

 

[DrG]

CT is an exception within New England. For some reason we evolved a love for the local State U. I never went to UConn, never even considered attending UConn... when alums here talk about places on campus I have no idea what they are talking about. But watching Tate George make that shot is one of my earliest memories in sports, that "Husky Hoops on Channel" song still is in my brain. We have a brand that was really succesful in state, and without a doubt it has permeated and established itself in some other parts of New England.

I think you hit the nail on the head with respect to the outstanding support from your home state, no doubt due to the success of UConn men's and women's basketball. But I just don't see that extending very far beyond the state border. Living in Boston, there is very little buzz here about UConn (or BC and UMass, for that matter). Connecticut, to its credit, is just different from the rest of New England when it comes to college sports, and I'm not sure that even B1G membership would change that. Just my two cents.

 

[ZooCougar]

I think you hit the nail on the head with respect to the outstanding support from your home state, no doubt due to the success of UConn men's and women's basketball. But I just don't see that extending very far beyond the state border. Living in Boston, there is very little buzz here about UConn (or BC and UMass, for that matter). Connecticut, to its credit, is just different from the rest of New England when it comes to college sports, and I'm not sure that even B1G membership would change that. Just my two cents.

I think people focus on cities too much in college sports. For many reasons, college sports seems to have it's greatest appeal in small towns and rural areas. Maybe it is that people in places like that are less likely to identify with a pro sports franchise.

 

[DrG]

It really is an anomaly, isn't it? Around the country, big-time college sports are most popular in less populated areas, but the networks demand ratings so the P5 conferences are focusing on the major markets.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Is there enough regional pride and demand generated to consider all of New England "In-State" for cable distribution purposes? 14 Million people looks and sounds better than 3.5 ish Million for Connecticut alone. Similar to proximity and culture playing a factor of getting RU and B1G into basic cable in NYC, I feel like the same logic should hold in getting UConn & B1G into New England.

I have always thought that the ACC made a mistake taking BC and then Syracuse....Moving into the northeast was their Remagen bridge...a bridge too far. They should have left the northeast for the B1G.

The ACC, before these moves, was a southern-mid Atlantic conference with most of the teams coming out of the old southern conference.

It is difficult to build border rivalries when you have BC and Cuse in a division with FSU, Virginia and Clemson...and it added more geographic diversity to a conference already too diverse (basketball first schools and football first....private schools and public....large schools and very small schools....)

I do understand that in the Darwinesque feeling of the times that it was either adapt or die....but the conference has become so disparate that natural rivalries have been diluted and there are few match ups of national interest.

It would make much more sense to have Cuse, BC, UConn, Rutgers all playing one another.

I have no disrespect for your great football program,but in the Northeast the ACC is considered a basketball league. When college football comes to mind it's the a B1G or SEC that people think of. Plus the ACC is the league that destroyed the big east.
The regions chief contribution to big time sports.
Southerners are not the only ones with long memories.
Also Most of your schools have little northeast traction.
BC even with their good ACC teams didn't raise a heartbeat because of that.
For some reason Midwest schools don't have that same problem.
I love rivalry games ,the high schools were I come from have played each other for well over 100 years. Having played in a few of those games,I can vouch for the fact that there is a special feeling that goes with being a part of a tradition.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

I'll start off by saying I'm a fan of getting UConn into the B1G, and I apologize if this subject has already been brought up, but what kind of pull does UConn have outside of Connecticut?
I think UConn should just start calling themselves New England's team as an advertisement to the Big Ten and to mess with Boston College.
First of all, Rutgers made far more headway in a far shorter time than I expected. So even though UConn has a solid presence in the city it appears that the B1G didn't need UConn as much as I thought we would to capture NYC's attention. I would still anticipate UConn strengthening the B1G reputation in the city, but in my opinion even without NYC, New England is a tight group of state with a cumulative population exceeding 14 Million people many of which are well educated and well to do... but how well do the other states support UConn? What are the ratings for Football, MBB & WBB outside of Connecticut?
How big and influential are the alumni groups in places like Boston and Providence?
To sum things up. I'm not sure if there will be any expansion especially with the SEC, ACC and B1G at 14. But I can't help but think an opening may come available in the B1G due to Northwestern's Union bid.
"It's better to be lucky than good" Bobby Bowden

The real question is can we capture New England, not do we now. The answer is it will be difficult but I'm sure we are much more on the minds of the residents of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island than we were 20 or so years ago. It would take a concerted effort on our part as well as continued excellence in basketball (and a big push in football) but it would surprise me greatly if we can't move the needle significantly. Take one of our basketball teams north, blanket the local high schools and the rest of the area with reduced price tickets, offer a free t-shirt to the first x-thousand people through the gate, invite the local press (give them a shirt too), but some time on the radio. Not only will we create something of a local buzz as the national champions arrive, but when we leave we have an ongoing free advertisement every time one of the x-thousand wears the t-shirt.

You are correct about New England being a market of 14 million. What you didn't say is that those 14 million exist in an area smaller than Minnesota and Nebraska.

 

[pj]

People here are delusional if they think UConn is or will become New England's team. New England has far too many colleges for any one to dominate. Furthermore, people in other states are not going to make the state university of another state their #1 team.

Far too many colleges, yes, but we're not competing to become their favorite college -- only their favorite collegiate sports team. In football, it's UConn or BC, that's it. In basketball, it's UConn or who? In women's sports, who compares to UConn? When it comes to big time college athletics, New England is really wide open for the first program to step up. And no, BC has not stepped up.

 

[NickyNewark]

I have no disrespect for your great football program,but in the Northeast the ACC is considered a basketball league. When college football comes to mind it's the a B1G or SEC that people think of. Plus the ACC is the league that destroyed the big east.
The regions chief contribution to big time sports.
Southerners are not the only ones with long memories.
Also Most of your schools have little northeast traction.
BC even with their good ACC teams didn't raise a heartbeat because of that.
For some reason Midwest schools don't have that same problem.
I love rivalry games ,the high schools were I come from have played each other for well over 100 years. Having played in a few of those games,I can vouch for the fact that there is a special feeling that goes with being a part of a tradition.

Growing up in N.NJ I can attest to that fact of longtime HS tradition and special affection here in our neck of the country paisano!!