New PAC-12 Forming

[CTpessimist]

Somethings up... Softball type question from someone (missed who) about the rumors/current state of college athletics @ UConn to Dave Benedict just before breaking onto Executive Session.

Sounded like AD Dave will be needed during the Executive Session @ some point (could also be totally not related to conference realignment)

“It’s fluid” “we’re happy” “we need resources though to compete in the future”

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Weren’t the statutes read off that the topic of executive session was just freedom of information act requests?

Telling moniker ^

 

[ScottVib]

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.

27-Boise St. (all locations) & 44-Wazzou (neutral/road) were Quadrant 1 opponents last year.

Edit to add:

For the record so were:
17-Gonzaga (all)
20-SDSU (all)
36-Colorado St. (neutral / away)
38-Utah St. (neutral / away)

 

[UConn Dan]

BOT meeting adjourned. No public decisions today.

 

[Exit 4]

BOT meeting adjourned. No public decisions today.

This is the situation: we want to know what's going on, but we also don't want it leaked in a manner that undermines whatever it is that is going on. So basically, just tell us and we'll keep it here on the Yard. wink wink.

 

[ZooCougar]

This is the situation: we want to know what's going on, but we also don't want it leaked in a manner that undermines whatever it is that is going on. So basically, just tell us and we'll keep it here on the Yard. wink wink.

Don’t tell Zanetto anything.

 

[Jetskies]

I didn’t misread it. It’s a win/win, but they are taking a risk by adding us.

We are a luxury. We don’t make them street legal as a conference because we aren’t a full member.

yeah.... my view is an idealized result, but 4 games (2H / 2A) is also a pipe dream. I would be very mad if UConn agreed to that, i really think it's not necessary.

If we have to give 1 or 2 games, that's survivable in my "imaginary scenario". 4 games is a LOT tho.

 

[ZooCougar]

yeah.... my view is an idealized result, but 4 games (2H / 2A) is also a pipe dream. I would be very mad if UConn agreed to that, i really think it's not necessary.

If we have to give 1 or 2 games, that's survivable in my "imaginary scenario". 4 games is a LOT tho.

2 men and 2 women seems reasonable.

 

[uconnric]

This is the situation: we want to know what's going on, but we also don't want it leaked in a manner that undermines whatever it is that is going on. So basically, just tell us and we'll keep it here on the Yard. wink wink.

No better place to keep a secret!

 

[CL82]

2 men and 2 women seems reasonable.

 

[ec33]

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.

I am not sure life would go on without playing those games against HBCUs I never heard of. I hope we don't lose those.

 

[freescooter]

As Frank the Tank put it, the UConn brand being associated with the PAC is payment. I have no issue with a couple games but we’ve got to keep playing the early season tournaments. They really build the brand. We may have to scrap the cupcakes and offer to play Boise or Utah St in Storrs over Christmas break or something.

Why do you assume we won’t still play early season tournament? I suspect that for at least some of those events, the ones that have first round on-campus games for example, we can probably influence who gets invited. Beyond that, Not sure why consider games against San Diego State, possibly Gonzaga, Boise State, Oregon State are somehow beneath us. All Have had at least one bid in the last couple of years. If this league were to somehow merge with the NEWBE, I suspect they would all finish above the likes of Georgetown PC Seton Hall,Butler and St John’s. Certainly the Zags and SDSU would finish in the top third of the league. Intramural champs from each would likely beat DePaul.

 

[Jetskies]

I am not sure life would go on without playing those games against HBCUs I never heard of. I hope we don't lose those.

your tone indicates you don't get what i'm saying.

obviously we have those cupcake games for a reason, they're designed to win and practice our game.

If we need to get challenged more, which a MW/P12 team would be, i'd rather risk losing a game against a high profile program than risk losing during a weak year, to one of those teams.

 

[freescooter]

Somethings up... Softball type question from someone (missed who) about the rumors/current state of college athletics @ UConn to Dave Benedict just before breaking onto Executive Session.

Sounded like AD Dave will be needed during the Executive Session @ some point (could also be totally not related to conference realignment)

Under Connecticut Freedom of Information law executive sessions are permitted for contract negotiation, law suits strategy, property acquisition and some other things. Only members of the body and others specifically invited for their input are allowed in. In theory, though not always in practice, if there are multiple agenda items and a non-member is not required for item 1 he/she should not be in there when 1 is addressed.

 

[CTpessimist]

This is the situation: we want to know what's going on, but we also don't want it leaked in a manner that undermines whatever it is that is going on. So basically, just tell us and we'll keep it here on the Yard. wink wink.

Might be onto something. This could fall under Freedom of Information act statues per the BOT dialogue. We now know that if an FOI act request resulted in public documents about the big12, those directly contributed to halt in the process and a large financial implication to the state and university. Going forward we are placing these requests under these statutes and no information will be made public (under that law…).

 

[UConn Dan]

Under Connecticut Freedom of Information law executive sessions are permitted for contract negotiation, law suits strategy, property acquisition and some other things. Only members of the body and others specifically invited for their input are allowed in. In theory, though not always in practice, if there are multiple agenda items and a non-member is not required for item 1 he/she should not be in there when 1 is addressed.

Right. They said they’d call him (Dave Benedict) in after they’re done with item 1. What was item 2??

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Memphis would be a great add to the Big East.

Why would they join the Big East ?
They make more money in the AAC and
have a football home.
Its currently over $10,000,000
They‘re better off waiting to see what happens to the ACC
5 departures at &18,000,000 a team
plus Houston’s NCAA credits divided by 5 is a nice bonus .

 

[Samoo]

travel will only be atrocious 4 trips a year. I assume the team flew to North Carolina for the Duke game, they will fly to Rice, UAB, and most likey Cuse. One you get on a plane you get off where it lands. How many extra hours in the air are we talking about per year. 20 to 25?

I'm 60 and just finishing up a 36 hour door to door trip. They can suck up a 6 hour trip to Oregon once a year.

 

[ScottVib]

Why would they join the Big East ?

Memphis was inquiring to put all sports in the Big East and try to be in a football-only association with the (then) PAC-6 (now PAC-7). That arrangement failed and the PAC-6 wouldn’t cover enough of their exit fees/couldn’t guarantee enough additional revenue for Memphis to justify the cost so they stayed in the AAC.

 

[UConnDan97]

Conspiracy Kitty says:
That's just the kind of thing that you would expect them to say if they were trying to hide a conference realignment discussion.

You don't know how much I miss Conspiracy Kitty...

 

[LoyalFanCT]

does anyone know if Benedict attended the executive session? Sometimes, government agencies will list in minutes who attended executive session. If he was there, it wasn't a discussion on football helmets but likely conference affiliation, ACC, B12 or PAC.

 

[ZooCougar]

does anyone know if Benedict attended the executive session? Sometimes, government agencies will list in minutes who attended executive session. If he was there, it wasn't a discussion on football helmets but likely conference affiliation, ACC, B12 or PAC.

He did.

 

[WrenchFan69]

yeah.... my view is an idealized result, but 4 games (2H / 2A) is also a pipe dream. I would be very mad if UConn agreed to that, i really think it's not necessary.

If we have to give 1 or 2 games, that's survivable in my "imaginary scenario". 4 games is a LOT tho.

The Big East should be actively working to solidify a men's PAC-12/Big East annual challenge contingent on our football-only addition. If it requires us to play another men's game annually, I'd be okay with that. One home, one away isn't unreasonable if you ask me. Women play a national schedule of home and away games so I'm sure they can make at least one game annually work. Plenty happy to play Oregon St and/or Gonzaga in baseball as well.

 

[ec33]

your tone indicates you don't get what i'm saying.

obviously we have those cupcake games for a reason, they're designed to win and practice our game.

If we need to get challenged more, which a MW/P12 team would be, i'd rather risk losing a game against a high profile program than risk losing during a weak year, to one of those teams.

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

 

[UCFBfan]

I'm just happy to see that we are taking the Big12 advice and investigating in football for the next 6-7 years by possibly joining a conference on the other side of the country!! That is true commitment. Take that B12 presidents!!! Lol

 

[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.