New PAC-12 Forming

[freescooter]

No better place to keep a secret!

We’ll, it might get out but there will be so many version NOBODY will know what actually happened!

 

[freescooter]

i think you misread my post. I never said they should give us money to join their conference. I'm saying specifically BECAUSE we have no buyout for them to cover, that is a massssive "gift" we're ALREADY giving them. We don't OWE them bball games, because of that gift we just gave them.

I would rather save our BBall games for prestigious tournaments or one-off games with a Kansas or Michigan State, than have to muck it up with boise state and Wazzu....4 times a year? 2 away games??? get outta here, pac12 - no thanks, we are beyond that. If anything i think it could even hurt our basketball brand and recruiting, to have to commit 4 games a year to a glorified MW. we need to be careful before risking that kind of schedule downgrade, especially if the big east loses prestige and slots in the NCAA tournament - we were complaining last year that big east only had 3 teams in the dance.

Imagine a scenario where we (uconn mbb) perform good but not great and end up 3rd or 4th in the big east; we need our OOC schedule to buoy us up. if 4 of those games were against P12 teams, our resume is not being helped. We get skipped for the dance. BBall fans get pissed off, BBall boosters get pissed off, and football is crapped on because we sacrificed bball for our lame football team...once again.

If you disagree with that, no problem - just wanted to make sure it was clear what i was saying.

this is not big 12 situation. This is a UNIQUE opportunity to have our bball cake and eat our football cake too - we suck but they NEED bodies, and we are indeed a body, a CHEAP body, who is 7-8 against their incoming teams since Jim Mora got here - so a respectable, cheap, body. The table is evenly stacked, so leave basketball out of it. That is what i'm saying.

I get what you are saying but we already waste 4 games s year on 2 dismal teams in our league. The fact that they play UConn twice makes them appear better in the computers than they really are and they are still HORRIBLE. So maybe in your scenario we beat SDSU and Boise State which makes up for the hit to our ranking from just showing up to play Georgetown and DePaul. Every time we play those two our RPI goes down just for playing the games.

 

[Jetskies]

I get what you are saying but we already waste 4 games s year on 2 dismal teams in our league. The fact that they play UConn twice makes them appear better in the computers than they really are and they are still HORRIBLE. So maybe in your scenario we beat SDSU and Boise State which makes up for the hit to our ranking from just showing up to play Georgetown and DePaul. Every time we play those two our RPI goes down just for playing the games.

im not a basketball expert. i'm a football fan, so i'll be careful about declaring things as if i know them - I don't.
but if what you're saying is right re: RPI, then you're agreeing with me - we need a stronger OOC resume, to balance the crappy big east teams we have to play 2x.

i made no comment about conference play, but just going off of your logic.

Again, I'd rather play a H/A with Kansas and MI State, than have to go to friggin Utah state for a basketball game. Do you see duke or UNC going TO a school like boise state? NO, you don't. why? because it's beneath them.

a 6x natty champion shouldn't have to travel to places like those for an OOC game. It's bad optics, in my view. and an unnecessary risk. If we win, it doesn't help much. If we LOSE, we get killed. I'd rather lose to a brand name and have it hurt our RPI less. Idk how that system works, but I assume this is part of it (good loss hurts the score less).

Case in point - in 2023 we went to kansas and lost. And got tons of grace for it; even credit for it, because we went TO allen fieldhouse and almost came away with the win. a loss didn't hurt much, and a win would have blown us up in the stratosphere (not that we needed it, but the risk was low, is my point).

 

[Jetskies]

So they are both too hard and too easy at the same time.

kinda.

a boise state is "probably", on average, more of a challenge than a morgan state or U. New Hampshire. But the voters will not give us credit for beating Boise State, and will certainly kill us if we lose. The same is true with the Morgan State scenario, but there we know the disparity is too great; even the coaches know what's gonna happen. it's a safe bet.

there's no upside to this arrangement with the pac12, in my view. only unnecessary risk.

if we have to do it, so be it, but I would play hardball with p12 and minimize the exposure of our basketball program to such arrangements, if i can help it.

 

[RedRabbit84]

kinda.

a boise state is "probably", on average, more of a challenge than a morgan state or U. New Hampshire. But the voters will not give us credit for beating Boise State, and will certainly kill us if we lose. The same is true with the Morgan State scenario, but there we know the disparity is too great; even the coaches know what's gonna happen. it's a safe bet.

there's no upside to this arrangement with the pac12, in my view. only unnecessary risk.

if we have to do it, so be it, but I would play hardball with p12 and minimize the exposure of our basketball program to such arrangements, if i can help it.

You'd most certainly get more credit for beating Boise than some cupcake, and take less flak if you lost. This is nonsensical, and this "logic" from UConn fans is a big reason you guys aren't taken seriously nationally in football.

I'm not going to urinate on anyone's leg and say it's raining. I'm not a UConn fan. I'm just here because you guys have the more interesting conversations on realignment. That said, I recognize I'm in someone else's house, and I'm not here to bash UConn either. I see a world, when the dust settles, where you guys are in..... Whatever it is that is formed of major college athletics.

 

[Fishy]

2 men and 2 women seems reasonable.

Zero seems reasonable.

If that’s not enough, the Pac-12 can certainly chose from their myriad of options in the Dakotas or South Pacific.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

kinda.

a boise state is "probably", on average, more of a challenge than a morgan state or U. New Hampshire. But the voters will not give us credit for beating Boise State, and will certainly kill us if we lose. The same is true with the Morgan State scenario, but there we know the disparity is too great; even the coaches know what's gonna happen. it's a safe bet.

there's no upside to this arrangement with the pac12, in my view. only unnecessary risk.

if we have to do it, so be it, but I would play hardball with p12 and minimize the exposure of our basketball program to such arrangements, if i can help it.

It is just math where Boise helps us or hurts us in the NET.

 

[KryHavok]

Again, I'd rather play a H/A with Kansas and MI State, than have to go to friggin Utah state for a basketball game. Do you see duke or UNC going TO a school like boise state? NO, you don't. why? because it's beneath them

Not disagreeing with you, but I wonder if Puke and UNC don't wanna play against Boise State cuz they don't wanna get embarrassed by losing to them.

 

[freescooter]

kinda.

a boise state is "probably", on average, more of a challenge than a morgan state or U. New Hampshire. But the voters will not give us credit for beating Boise State, and will certainly kill us if we lose. The same is true with the Morgan State scenario, but there we know the disparity is too great; even the coaches know what's gonna happen. it's a safe bet.

there's no upside to this arrangement with the pac12, in my view. only unnecessary risk.

if we have to do it, so be it, but I would play hardball with p12 and minimize the exposure of our basketball program to such arrangements, if i can help it.

Voters schmoters. It is all metrics now. Voters don’t matter. It isn’t called RPI any more but it’s analytics ranking. You could be voted #1 but if the analytics have you #6 you’ll be a 2 seed.

 

[Jetskies]

Not disagreeing with you, but I wonder if Puke and UNC don't wanna play against Boise State cuz they don't wanna get embarrassed by losing to them.

maybe.... we'll never know.

whatever the reason, they're avoiding it and it's paying off. we're the ones with 6 titles since '99 yet we're the ones constantly defending ourselves in the public eye. those 2 schools and UCLA haven't mattered in some time, yet they're unquestioned elites. poppycock

 

[Jetskies]

You'd most certainly get more credit for beating Boise than some cupcake, and take less flak if you lost. This is nonsensical, and this "logic" from UConn fans is a big reason you guys aren't taken seriously nationally in football.

I'm not going to urinate on anyone's leg and say it's raining. I'm not a UConn fan. I'm just here because you guys have the more interesting conversations on realignment. That said, I recognize I'm in someone else's house, and I'm not here to bash UConn either. I see a world, when the dust settles, where you guys are in..... Whatever it is that is formed of major college athletics.

I never said we'd get the same credit for a Boise win versus a low-level mid-major basketball team.

I said The Risk/Reward equation to having UConn BBall play a MW/Pac12 team (and away games, to boot) IS NOT WORTH IT. And 1000% Certainly not worth agreeing to have a 6x nat'l champion travel to the middle of the rockies to play (insert_name) state university.

Football is a completely different story, entirely. Many UConn fans will admit that we're beggars knocking at any conference door that will open (maybe except the MAC or CUSA)

this is what is so unique and frankly difficult about being the athletic Director at UConn - the polar opposite experiences in managing an elite BBall team (M/W) with a trash (albeit improving) FBall team.

the logic you're referencing has nothing to do with our football perception.
FYI, we're not taken seriously because we've sucked at football for about 13 years. that's it. nothing more/less.

 

[Jetskies]

Zero seems reasonable.

If that’s not enough, the Pac-12 can certainly chose from their myriad of options in the Dakotas or South Pacific.

yes! the Fish has spoken! >: )

 

[WrenchFan69]

I messed around with our upcoming schedules to see how easily we could accommodate a PAC-12 8 game schedule starting in 2026 without paying a bunch of buyouts (for away games we owe) from our independent schedule. Takes some movement but not impossible. All the red are cancelled or pushed to 2029 and beyond. Yellow are moved games. Flipped the home and away for Ole Miss in blue to keep our home/away split at 6/6. Ole Miss hosts an uneven amount of home games annually so likely a less big deal for them. Would need Liberty to move their 2025 FCS game against Maine to another year to play them in the opener, which seems to be the only reasonable way to keep our P4 opponents without pushing Liberty out to 2029+. And if we would be joining the PAC, it would make sense to play Oregon St and Washington St starting next year, so I've added them as well.

 

[MKH2317]

I messed around with our upcoming schedules to see how easily we could accommodate a PAC-12 8 game schedule starting in 2026 without paying a bunch of buyouts (for away games we owe) from our independent schedule. Takes some movement but not impossible. All the red are cancelled or pushed to 2029 and beyond. Yellow are moved games. Flipped the home and away for Ole Miss in blue to keep our home/away split at 6/6. Ole Miss hosts an uneven amount of home games annually so likely a less big deal for them. Would need Liberty to move their 2025 FCS game against Maine to another year to play them in the opener, which seems to be the only reasonable way to keep our P4 opponents without pushing Liberty out to 2029+. And if we would be joining the PAC, it would make sense to play Oregon St and Washington St starting next year, so I've added them as well.
View attachment 103733

If we could maintain a schedule that looked like this after having joined the PAC12 I think our football fan base would be happy. The program would have a conference championship to play for while still playing several of our local P4 teams. If NIL is able to double or triple over the next 2+ seasons, along with a little conference money, we will win several of these OOC matchups

 

[UConnTrumbull]

So now that UNLV is staying in the MW…what do we think happens with us? PAC still needs a full member I believe

 

[Stinger92860]

So now that UNLV is staying in the MW…what do we think happens with us? PAC still needs a full member I believe

I think it improves our chances if we are interested

 

[WrenchFan69]

So now that UNLV is staying in the MW…what do we think happens with us? PAC still needs a full member I believe

I think we are going to be in honestly. Very exciting day ahead of us

 

[shizzle787]

Watch for Texas State, UTEP, and possibly even NIU. They are next on the clock IMO. The Pac-12 is not adding an FCS school and the MW/AAC schools look to be out. If the Pac-12 can only add one more full member, I think we are in.

 

[Rufus]

IF the PAC-12 wins its lawsuit against the MW, or IF the exit fees are negotiated down to settle the lawsuit, how will the MW have the money to pay UNLV and Air Force they have been promised to stay in the MW?

 

[Rufus]

UTEP, which has averaged 3.2 victories over the last nine seasons and is currently 0-4, might now be fielding multiple offers to leave Conference USA.

 

[KryHavok]

Meathead is at again, man I hate this guy.
https://www.theday.com/columns/20240925/uconn-football-to-the-pac-12-show-us-the-money

"... the ongoing courtships illustrate UConn’s continuing desire to find a home for its football program, underscoring the blunder its hierarchy made five years ago choosing to placate the basketball crowd."

Cripes, does he not realize that the move from the AAC to the Big East was more than just pleasing basketball fanatics?

"If UConn could get close to $10 million in media revenue from the Pac-12 and use the stability of a conference for a bowl tie-in, the athletic department deficit - which state officials dismiss like Mike Francesa used to do to callers - would become a bit more manageable. The problem wouldn’t be solved, but would be better than the current situation."

The hell is he getting that $10 million figure from? He's pulling numbers from his arse the way he pulls his hatred for all things UConn.

 

[Rufus]

Texas State, UTEP remain active in conference realignment chatter

Mountain West, Pac-12 expansion could still impact Texas State, UTEP after UTSA, others reaffirm commitment to AAC

www.texasfootball.com

 

[freescooter]

kinda.

a boise state is "probably", on average, more of a challenge than a morgan state or U. New Hampshire. But the voters will not give us credit for beating Boise State, and will certainly kill us if we lose. The same is true with the Morgan State scenario, but there we know the disparity is too great; even the coaches know what's gonna happen. it's a safe bet.

there's no upside to this arrangement with the pac12, in my view. only unnecessary risk.

if we have to do it, so be it, but I would play hardball with p12 and minimize the exposure of our basketball program to such arrangements, if i can help it.

Probably on average they are…recent ncaa bids 2022, 2023, 2024 for Boise. UNH NCAA bids, 0 since inception of the program. Of course maybe we replace Maryland Eastern Shore. Might be better that them, too.

please explain, though, why you assume we are not playing in a tournament if we play 2 games against real teams.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

UNLV and Air Force getting paid to do exactly what they were going to do anyway, and getting paid with exit fees that only exist because the idiots in leadership at those two conferences could not reach a simple agreement.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

UNLV and Air Force getting paid to do exactly what they were going to do anyway, and getting paid with exit fees that only exist because the idiots in leadership at those two conferences could not reach a simple agreement.

At this point, both MWC and PAC-12 will be looking for schools. UCONN will have some options for a football-only membership.