New Frank the Tank Post on Conf. Realignment

[Kolumbo]

UConn is 22 even being hamstrung by an underperforming football program. Put that program in a power conference and forgetaboutit.

This is a list which begins Stanford, UCLA, USC, Texas, Michigan...

7 BIG
5 PAC 12
3 SEC
2 ACC
2 Big XII
2 Ivy
1 AAC

ND, Nova, Denver


25 Top Colleges That Dominate Academically And Athletically

 

[huskyrob1]

Anything we say will be a guess. Here are mine.

1) Yes to both. We have a long term commitment right up until we don't. They know we will leave if we can, but we know we might not be able to, so want to make the league as strong as we can.

2) No idea. Benedict. Edsall.

3) It wasn't originally, since we were in an FBS league. It was aimed toward the fact that the schools we wanted to emulate all have D1/FBS football (Michigan, UVA and Penn State were named I believe). Now? I am sure it is viewed as an essential factor in gaining any P5 invite.

4) You will see mixed opinions here. My guess is that if the door to a P5 invite closed, permanently and forever, we'd consider dropping football. I also don't think we'd consider independence in football and say Big East basketball, unless the income disparity and impact on basketball was much larger than it is now. It's possible the next AAC contract could pay more than the Big East. Also, with WSU joining the American, apart from Villanova, the difference in the leagues is not all that really.

2) I would add two powerful and very rich benefactors, Mr Burton and Mr Shenkman. UConn will never drop football, these two guys and a few unnamed others won't let that happen.

4) Big difference between the two leagues. The Big East doesn't play football, it's a basketball league formed by private and or Catholic schools. The AAC will outlive the The Big East as we know it today BECAUSE of football, the Big East may even cease to exist in 10 to 15 years for many reasons, chief among them is no public support, small private schools are privately in panic mode right now on how to keep down their skyrocketing costs, and the first cuts will be to the athletic budgets. Declining enrollment in the next few years will just add fuel to the fire. Even the very well heeled will think twice about sending their kids to a small private school like Providence or Seton Hall for an ok but only above average education for $150,000 a year. Those schools certainly won't be getting 40,000 student applicants every spring like UConn gets, and getting a top shelf education on the cheap is a rarity nowadays. UConn is certainly not going to drop football and join a dieing Catholic basketball league.

 

[Redding Husky]

Agreed. I don't think he's doing it as an attention whore like the obvious twitter clowns. Nor do I think he's making stuff up.

What I do think is that his views reflect (naturally) a Big Ten region, midwestern bias. That includes some preconceived notions about football, flagship state universities, history etc. Unfortunately for UConn, I think Delaney and the B1G Presidents are quite likely to have similar biases. I'm originally from the KC area, went to Kansas law school after attending UConn and mostly growing up in CT, so I think I have a pretty good feel for this. People from the northeast have a pretty inaccurate view of much of the midwest, and people from the midwest have a pretty inaccurate view of the northeast.

Simply stated, I suspect that the B1G folks view things much as Frank suggests that they do. That doesn't mean that they aren't all wrong, and shouldn't be more open minded. For example, what Frank said about Syracuse is effectively a half truth. None of it is false, but it provides an incomplete and therefore inaccurate sense of what Syracuse means to the region vs. UConn and what each could bring to the league.

I think the ACC is the mostly likely P5 lifeline to UConn, if there ever is one.

I grew up in the NYC metro area, then moved to Dallas, TX when I was 23. I'm 56 now.

I agree with you about different regions of the country. Most Northeasterners don't understand the Southwest and most Texans don't understand the Northeast.

 

[Guapo]

I grew up in the NYC metro area, then moved to Dallas, TX when I was 23. I'm 56 now.

I agree with you about different regions of the country. Most Northeasterners don't understand the Southwest and most Texans don't understand the Northeast.

As someone that lives in Georgia; I can confirm this for the southeast too.

Pretty laughable how wrong (both) sides precieve each other.

Unfortuantly for UConn and realignment, this misconception hurts us greatly.

 

[CL82]

As someone that lives in Georgia; I can confirm this for the southeast too.

Pretty laughable how wrong (both) sides precieve each other.

Unfortuantly for UConn and realignment, this misconception hurts us greatly.

So give us some examples, Guapo?

 

[Guapo]

So give us some examples, Guapo?

I could write a novel, can you ask for a specific aspect of something you'd want to know?

 

[JMick]

I could write a novel, can you ask for a specific aspect of something you'd want to know?

Do your southern friends unironically still call it the "war of northern aggression"?

 

[Guapo]

Do your southern friends unironically still call it the "war of northern aggression"?

Friends? No.

Others? Yes.

I know many people who will passionately defend the use of the confederate flag and monuments; even people who are relatively liberal.

 

[CL82]

I could write a novel, can you ask for a specific aspect of something you'd want to know?

Sure. How do they view northern schools commitment/prowess in BB and FB?

 

[Guapo]

Sure. How do they view northern schools commitment/prowess in BB and FB?

(Note: I'm at work so I can't commit the amount of time I'd like to in order to answer this fully)

But, they simply cannot comprehend the idea of basketball being more popular than football at any given school (I'm in Georgia so I can't speak to the Tobacco Road part of the South).

On a more macro level, as it relates to UConn the thing I think best encapsulates the difference in college sports culture is the fact that so many of UConn's sporting events are held off campus and so many in the fanbase actively support that.

 

[Guapo]

Sure. How do they view northern schools commitment/prowess in BB and FB?

They know that UConn is a good basketball school, they just don't care.

 

[billybud]

They know that UConn is a good basketball school, they just don't care.

That pretty much nails the deep south....in the ACC, the fact that Duke and UNC can play good basketball doesn't mean much south of Tobacco Road.

Folks down here do know that UConn, like Duke and UNC , is a good basketball school.

And folks do support other sports...but football is the passion base of most deep south ACC programs and certainly the SEC.

 

[billybud]

Part of the deep south's tradition of college football fandom goes back 60 years or so.

When I was a boy, there was no pro football team south of Washington nor baseball team, nor basketball team. We followed college ball. The Bear at Bama against Shug Jordan at Auburn, etc. The radio was the medium for a lot of fandom....listening to the games. Fewer were televised.

And the south was far more rural 60 years ago...and high school football was a local passion. In many towns, Friday nights are still set aside for high school football games...and crowds show up to watch under the lights.

But, the south isn't that south any longer. And in-migration has changed parts of the south and added additional interests...but not in the hinterlands of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina or North Florida.

 

[Guapo]

Part of the deep south's tradition of college football fandom goes back 60 years or so.

When I was a boy, there was no pro football team south of Washington nor baseball team, nor basketball team. We followed college ball. The Bear at Bama against Shug Jordan at Auburn, etc. The radio was the medium for a lot of fandom....listening to the games. Fewer were televised.

And the south was far more rural 60 years ago...and high school football was a local passion. In many towns, Friday nights are still set aside for high school football games...and crowds show up to watch under the lights.

But, the south isn't that south any longer. And in-migration has changed parts of the south and added additional interests...but not in the hinterlands of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina or North Florida.

Have you been to Connecticut before?

 

[billybud]

Have you been to Connecticut before?

Not really...passed thru once on the way to Boston...but you know that you don't get a feel for a state from the super slab.

I spent some years in Madison, Wisconsin. And I acted as a go between with my Michigan grad (Wisconsin raised) father's family in Wisconsin and my mom's Alabama family. And in the 50's, it was akin to Abie's Irish Rose.

 

[Guapo]

Not really...passed thru once on the way to Boston...but you know that you don't get a feel for a state from the super slab.

I spent some years in Madison, Wisconsin. And I acted as a go between with my Michigan grad (Wisconsin raised) father's family in Wisconsin and my mom's Alabama family. And in the 50's, it was akin to Abie's Irish Rose.

I think you'd be surprised by how rural the area around UConn is.

My wife, who is from rural Georgia, was shocked by how isolated Storrs is.

Anyway, I was going to wax poetic about the role of UConn basketball in the state and why it's such a big deal but this video does a good job of saying what I would say.

Basically, for being such a small state, the variations in life style are immense. The experience of growing up as an Italian kid in the South End of Hartford varies greatly from growing up a Swamp Yankee on a farm somewhere in Windham County. On top of all that, there's the overarching cultural split between the part of the state that's "more New York" and the part that's solidly New England.

UConn basketball is the sole unifying thread in the state. Without it, the state only exists as a place for people to drive through on their way to Boston.

 

[billybud]

The deep south has been defined by its football rivalries...and particularly those in state..

Alabama vs Auburn

FSU vs Florida and Miami

Clemson vs South Carolina

Are there any basketball rivalries outside of UNC and Duke?

 

[Guapo]

The deep south has been defined by its football rivalries...and particularly those in state..

Alabama vs Auburn

FSU vs Florida and Miami

Clemson vs South Carolina

Are there any basketball rivalries outside of UNC and Duke?

In the Deep South or around the country?

 

[billybud]

In the Deep South or around the country?

Never thought of UConn as having a main football rival...

Nor any northeastern team, for that matter...not in the sense of a Alabama-Auburn, FSU-Florida, UNC-NC State, etc.

Never thought of UConn as one of those states like Florida, Texas, Georgia where Friday nights at the high school stadium are the main social event of the season.

Other areas of the country do have their rivalries, particularly like Ohio state-Michigan and Texas-Oklahoma...but does Stanford-USC really have the passion of a Georgia-Florida?

 

[billybud]

Did you see the old Big East as defined by football rivalries?

 

[Guapo]

Never thought of UConn as having a main football rival...

Nor any northeastern team, for that matter...not in the sense of a Alabama-Auburn, FSU-Florida, UNC-NC State, etc.

Never thought of UConn as one of those states like Florida, Texas, Georgia where Friday nights at the high school stadium are the main social event of the season.

Other areas of the country do have their rivalries, particularly like Ohio state-Michigan and Texas-Oklahoma...but does Stanford-USC really have the passion of a Georgia-Florida?

No, UConn definitely doesn't have football rivalries like that; but, I was asking if you thought UNC-Duke was the only college basketball rivalry.

 

[CL82]

Did you see the old Big East as defined by football rivalries?

UMass and URI were the big Yankee Conference rivals. Not comparing the quality of play or even intensity, but those were the guys we loved to hate back in the day. Part of UConn problem is that it has continued to move as sports evolved and our traditional rivals have not.

 

[billybud]

No, UConn definitely doesn't have football rivalries like that; but, I was asking if you thought UNC-Duke was the only college basketball rivalry.

It is the primary basketball rivalry in the south, maybe the country...but sure, there are other rivalries...but they are a tremor on the scale compared to major football rivalries.

Yep...I know about the old BE rivalries...and WVU-Pitt and others...

 

[Guapo]

It is the primary basketball rivalry in the south, maybe the country...but sure, there are other rivalries...but they are a tremor on the scale compared to major football rivalries.

Yep...I know about the old BE rivalries...and WVU-Pitt and others...

Not to the schools and fan bases involved.

 

[billybud]

Not to the schools and fan bases involved.

Exactly...there is regionalism...and UConn, Georgetown, et al did not register to the fans in the deep south,,,just as Alabama-Tennessee did not register in the north.

And that is no blame on anyone...it is regional interest..