New Frank the Tank Post on Conf. Realignment

[CTGoonie]

Here it is: Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Where Big Ten Graduates Live and Conference Realignment


Contains this little blurb about UConn:
"UConn is a more of an institutional fit as a flagship school, has strong connections to both New York and Boston and a top level basketball program historically. However, its largest roadblock can’t really be fixed by anything other than the passage of time: the Big Ten simply isn’t adding a school that has only been playing FBS football since 2002. In fact, that’s an underrated factor in why UConn isn’t in any Power Five conference today. All of the years that UConn played Division I-AA football might not as well exist. In the minds of the powers that be, UConn is more of newbie than a school like UCF (upgraded in 1996), and that’s a black mark in a universe where being able to say that a school has been playing at the highest level of football since the 1800s actually matters. It might sound arbitrary and unfair, but old school pedigree is simply an absolute requirement when getting to the Power Five level and dealing with very literally the snobbiest group of people on Earth AKA university presidents. Even a bad football history can be overcome if it’s at least a long football history (e.g. Rutgers).

Syracuse actually sends a similar percentage of its grads to the Boston market as UConn despite a farther distance from Upstate New York along having the largest percentage of grads of of any FBS school living in the New York City market with the exception of Rutgers. While Syracuse is a private school, it’s a very large one where it almost serves the role of a flagship-type institution for New Yorkers. As a result, it has Big Ten-like attributes in a region where Ivy League and other elite private universities have historically kept public universities in a subservient position."

 

[Exit 4]

What's the deal with Frank-the-Tank, is he now a teaching professor on CRA at Northwestern?

 

[CTGoonie]

I have to add that it's complete BS that Rutgers got in because "long football history". They got in because of the number of TV sets that would put the Big Ten Network on basic cable.
I also think if you look at only alumni numbers you miss out on non-alumni fan support. I think there are many big state schools like UConn where non-alumni fans are equal to or exceed alumni fans.

Note: I'm not sure if I should be using alumni or alumnus in this post. I didn't go to UConn so please forgive my english skills.

 

[DefCONNOne]

I like how FTT told this board repeatedly after Louisville went to the ACC that UCONN's best hope for the P5 was the Big 12. Yet when the Big 12 was sending out expansion feelers, here came FTT to bury UCONN as not worthy of inclusion to the Big 12. That boy ain't right.

 

[crewbear742]

The world doesn't totally revolve around football. Rutgers is an R1 university that does more than $650 million worth of research annually. It is an AAU University with a high and well-earned academic reputation. Its inclusion into the B1G brought considerably more than cable revenue.

 

[dwalks93]

Personally I enjoy Frank the Tank's simple musing.....it reminds me of all the obscurement and false justification that surrounds the entire premise of realignment...it really could be summarized in one word, "money"

Allow me to be less eloquent than one of the great thinkers of our time, Frank the Tank...its not about how long a school has been participating in football, its not about academic appeal, and its certainly not about cultural fit...its about money and winning. If UConn was packing a 70,000 person stadium and regularly fielding a top 20 teams we'd be in the Big10. In fact, if that were to happen UConn could probably completely drop academics to a community college level, engaging in paying recruits and run a rampant prostitution service for players and we'd still make it to the Big10...I call that the Louisville model.

"In the minds of the powers that be" football makes the big money and UConn football hasn't reached that money level. If UConn football gets there no conference will care we've only been playing 20 years..they'll just cash the check and look forward to a competitive opponent coming to their house.

Oh and Rutgers had 11,000,000 cable boxes to sell...it wasn't there 100 year football history.

 

[Adios]

His opinions are irrelevant.

 

[Fishy]

His opinions are irrelevant.

Your grasp of the obvious is a marvel.

 

[Exit 4]

Has there been a relevant opinion on cra that has come from anyone other than a Univesity BOT member or tv executive?

 

[whaler11]

Has there been a relevant opinion on cra that has come from anyone other than a Univesity BOT member or tv executive?

The crackerjack team at Flueg Empire knew that Minnesota State was joining the Big Ten in wrestling.

Although Big Ten Man is probably both on a BOT and running a TV network.

 

[ivrytontusker]

The world doesn't totally revolve around football.

Um...

 

[crewbear742]

Um...

The business of the B1G is research. That's where the money is. These Universities leverage each other to get grants. Rutgers was not included in the B1G simply because of cable markets.

 

[The Funster]

Frank doesn't look at data points and gather opinions and then draws a conclusion. He draws a conclusion then manipulates data and opinions to support that conclusion. He kinda like a political pundit in that respect.

 

[huskyrob1]

The business of the B1G is research. That's where the money is. These Universities leverage each other to get grants. Rutgers was not included in the B1G simply because of cable markets.

UConn is also an "R1" school, as well as a recognized "Public Ivy" school of which Rutgers is also.

 

[crewbear742]

UConn is also an "R1" school, as well as a recognized "Public Ivy" school of which Rutgers is also.

I didn't say otherwise. I was simply challenging this oft-repeated narrative that Rutgers got a B1G invite that it didn't deserve simply because it occupied the right piece of real estate at the right time.

 

[huskyrob1]

I didn't say otherwise. I was simply challenging this oft-repeated narrative that Rutgers got a B1G invite that it didn't deserve simply because it occupied the right piece of real estate at the right time.

No I know that, wasn't inferring anything on your part, just getting in a plug for the old blue and white.

 

[Adios]

Your grasp of the obvious is a marvel.

Why, thank you.

 

[Adios]

Has there been a relevant opinion on cra that has come from anyone other than a Univesity BOT member or tv executive?

Executives and writers hanging around the Big Ten headquarters.

 

[CL82]

The world doesn't totally revolve around football. Rutgers is an R1 university that does more than $650 million worth of research annually. It is an AAU University with a high and well-earned academic reputation. Its inclusion into the B1G brought considerably more than cable revenue.

Not so much. It brought cable revenue, but is it a better school than it gets credit for.

FWIW USNWR has it 69th in National Universities (UConn is 56th).

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Personally I enjoy Frank the Tank's simple musing.....it reminds me of all the obscurement and false justification that surrounds the entire premise of realignment...it really could be summarized in one word, "money"

Allow me to be less eloquent than one of the great thinkers of our time, Frank the Tank...its not about how long a school has been participating in football, its not about academic appeal, and its certainly not about cultural fit...its about money and winning. If UConn was packing a 70,000 person stadium and regularly fielding a top 20 teams we'd be in the Big10. In fact, if that were to happen UConn could probably completely drop academics to a community college level, engaging in paying recruits and run a rampant prostitution service for players and we'd still make it to the Big10...I call that the Louisville model.

"In the minds of the powers that be" football makes the big money and UConn football hasn't reached that money level. If UConn football gets there no conference will care we've only been playing 20 years..they'll just cash the check and look forward to a competitive opponent coming to their house.

Oh and Rutgers had 11,000,000 cable boxes to sell...it wasn't there 100 year football history.

Yep !
Follow the money
However winning is a big component of making money .
Win make money and the world will beat a path to your door.

 

[ZooCougar]

Personally I enjoy Frank the Tank's simple musing.....it reminds me of all the obscurement and false justification that surrounds the entire premise of realignment...it really could be summarized in one word, "money"

Allow me to be less eloquent than one of the great thinkers of our time, Frank the Tank...its not about how long a school has been participating in football, its not about academic appeal, and its certainly not about cultural fit...its about money and winning. If UConn was packing a 70,000 person stadium and regularly fielding a top 20 teams we'd be in the Big10. In fact, if that were to happen UConn could probably completely drop academics to a community college level, engaging in paying recruits and run a rampant prostitution service for players and we'd still make it to the Big10...I call that the Louisville model.

"In the minds of the powers that be" football makes the big money and UConn football hasn't reached that money level. If UConn football gets there no conference will care we've only been playing 20 years..they'll just cash the check and look forward to a competitive opponent coming to their house.

Oh and Rutgers had 11,000,000 cable boxes to sell...it wasn't there 100 year football history.

In other words. “Sorry, even though your income is 30M a year, you can’t have a Black American Express card because your credit history is too short”.

 

[Adios]

Why are we even boosting this dude's ego? It's already too big for the Big Ten headquarters.

 

[DefCONNOne]

Why are we even boosting this dude's ego? It's already too big for the Big Ten headquarters.

His undeserved sense of accomplishment is already out of this world, so I don't think we can boost that hypocritical clowns ego any higher. He needs to be called out on his hypocrisy. He said UCONN should petition or apply or (insert adjective here) the Big 12 for inclusion. Yet when the Big 12 asked for candidates for inclusion, here came ol' Frank to tell everyone how UCONN was less than nothing and how they didn't deserve to breathe the same air as the "superior" P5.

 

[whaler11]

His undeserved sense of accomplishment is already out of this world, so I don't think we can boost that hypocritical clowns ego any higher. He needs to be called out on his hypocrisy. He said UCONN should petition or apply or (insert adjective here) the Big 12 for inclusion. Yet when the Big 12 asked for candidates for inclusion, here came ol' Frank to tell everyone how UCONN was less than nothing and how they didn't deserve to breathe the same air as the "superior" P5.

You sure you don’t have him confused with Flug or the Dood? Frank The Tank is pretty mild.

 

[CL82]

You sure you don’t have him confused with Flug or the Dood? Frank The Tank is pretty mild.

He's not a big believer in our brand. Never has been. We are on the outside looking in, so I suppose one could argue that he's right.

 

[Hoophound]

He has gone out of his way to degrade us and justify why far inferior schools were better CR choices. I’ve always felt that we needed better PR, better marketing and a greater willingness to get dirty in order to move up. Guys like Frank push us down and we rarely punch back. It seems to me that some schools, even G5 schools, make friends in the media and find ways to get their brand bolstered in public perception. We seem to let amateur journalists and bloggers ruin us in the public perception arena. The other day someone posted an article that basically said our basketball and football programs were shells of their former selves. I am so drained by it all that I took heart that the writer was willing to admit that our football was actually pretty good at one point. It is sad when you consider that a win, but honestly, it was nice to have someone outside of the Boneyard acknowledge it. It is rare.

 

[The Funster]

Frank is always trying to drive readers to his blog. Love/hate is part of the schtick.

 

[Adios]

Big Ten administrators do not care what Frank and his ilk think. So who cares?

 

[huskeynut]

Frank is a legend in his own mind.

 

[Exit 4]

Yes I gave him too much credit in my comment. But at the time I made it I was thinking more about the pseudo cottage industry he has always been trying to generate out of his CRA musings.