Next Task for WM - beef up the football schedule

[freescooter]

Just have to go to somebody's house and in front of 100K or so stuff them. Open the phone book and pick one.

You don't even have to do that. Just win by 1.

 

[weyuo]

As hard as it is to get them on the schedule Penn St should be a serious target even if it's a 3 game series or a 2 home/3 away type of series spread out over say 5-8 years. Good for recruiting in that Penn/MD/WV/Delaware area to see UConn putting it to the Nittany Lions on their turf. Would like to see one other regional OOC game between the Cuse, Pitt, BC, MD, Rutgers, WV. and then one long shot top 15-20 type of game per year. If you get spanked then the spin is well at least we're scheduling them but.... if you can eek out a win then you have something to hang your hat on during recruiting trips. The scary part is scheduling 4-5 years up the road without knowing what your gonna have for a team or staff.

Just looked at Penn St's future scheduled OOC games. They are playing everyone but us in the region, including UMass. They got Cuse, WV, Virginia, VT, Temple, Pitt, Buffalo, plus fellow American UCF and then teams like Kent and Akron. And UConn can't get a game with those guys?

 

[UConnJim]

One thing that should be improved is the days and times that games are played. And the bye weeks were three prime weekends that UConn should have played football: September 7, October 5, November 2. This year's home schedule was not ideal for attendance even though we played Michigan and Maryland at home:

Good:

- 2 Saturday games against BCS opponents.

Not So Good:

- Thursday night before Labor Day against against a FCS
- Homecoming on Columbus Day weekend
- Friday night at 8:30 PM game the same night we are playing Maryland in basketball in Brooklyn.
- 2 Home Games November 30th and December 7th. (Not ideal weather times) Play one of those dates, not both.

 

[Carl Spackler]

One thing that should be improved is the days and times that games are played. And the bye weeks were three prime weekends that UConn should have played football: September 7, October 5, November 2. This year's home schedule was not ideal for attendance even though we played Michigan and Maryland at home:

Good:

- 2 Saturday games against BCS opponents.

Not So Good:

- Thursday night before Labor Day against against a FCS
- Homecoming on Columbus Day weekend
- Friday night at 8:30 PM game the same night we are playing Maryland in basketball in Brooklyn.
- 2 Home Games November 30th and December 7th. (Not ideal weather times) Play one of those dates, not both.

Good points. I'm not sure how the new TV contract will work with this though. I still have yet, to have seen anything concrete on what the new TV deal will be like for broadcasting, and unfortunately, the TV world is what dictates a lot of what times and days are. To get on ESPN for the Big East deal, it was Wed,Thur,or Fri nights. That's what he got this season, last year of the Big EAst deal.

The story goes, that with the new AAC deal, pretty much all of our games, are going to be on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPNU. Not ESPN3.com. My hope is that in agreeing to the deal we got, for such pathetic money, ESPN is going to have to put us on TV on Saturdays as a conference during desireable time slots and days. I still hold out hope that Aresco was smart enough that if we were going to agree to have to get shafted so hard on money, that ESPN would have to put us in time slots that NBC would have had available - and that would be ideal time slots, on ideal Saturdays.

We'll see. As for timing for kickoffs and dates and stuff like that, I believe that 2014 will be the first schedule that we have that was not a Jeff Hathaway product, but was still a scramble to fill games. Warde Manuel is afootball guy, he gets football scheduling, I suspect that by 2015, we will start to see schedules that make sense again.

 

[UConnJim]

Good points. I'm not sure how the new TV contract will work with this though. I still have yet, to have seen anything concrete on what the new TV deal will be like for broadcasting, and unfortunately, the TV world is what dictates a lot of what times and days are. To get on ESPN for the Big East deal, it was Wed,Thur,or Fri nights. That's what he got this season, last year of the Big EAst deal.

The story goes, that with the new AAC deal, pretty much all of our games, are going to be on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPNU. Not ESPN3.com. My hope is that in agreeing to the deal we got, for such pathetic money, ESPN is going to have to put us on TV on Saturdays as a conference during desireable time slots and days. I still hold out hope that Aresco was smart enough that if we were going to agree to have to get shafted so hard on money, that ESPN would have to put us in time slots that NBC would have had available - and that would be ideal time slots, on ideal Saturdays.

We'll see. As for timing for kickoffs and dates and stuff like that, I believe that 2014 will be the first schedule that we have that was not a Jeff Hathaway product, but was still a scramble to fill games. Warde Manuel is afootball guy, he gets football scheduling, I suspect that by 2015, we will start to see schedules that make sense again.

I don't mind one Thursday or Friday night home game per year, but the Louisville game was at 8:30 and it should have been at 7:30 and it shouldn't have been on the same night as the Maryland game. If I was in charge, I would have as many games as possible on Saturdays anytime between noon and 6 to help build the fan base.

 

[HuskyPete]

The reason there is no B1G games scheduled...we will be in B1G by 2016.

 

[Dooley]

I like the idea of getting Rutgers on the schedule for an annual game. BC will never schedule us. Their cowardice of anything UCONN is well documented. Penn State is an interesting idea. I think we'd run into the same problems getting them to the Rent as we did with Michigan though. But I'm not opposed to playing a big program on a 1 and 1 and our home game being relocated to MetLife or Gillette or Yankee or Citi.

 

[Woof 101]

I like the idea of getting Rutgers on the schedule for an annual game. BC will never schedule us. Their cowardice of anything UCONN is well documented. Penn State is an interesting idea. I think we'd run into the same problems getting them to the Rent as we did with Michigan though. But I'm not opposed to playing a big program on a 1 and 1 and our home game being relocated to MetLife or Gillette or Yankee or Citi.

We and BC need and should have The New England Cup played the Saturday of Thanksgiving home and home every year. The hatred is there and the distance would allow both teams to travel well. This is a Geno type of game, don't worry about who or where you are playing but promote the sport.

Rutgers again so obvious with hatred added....

The question, as Warde got The M to come in, can our our newly exalted Energy Vampire Stake we stole from ND get his former boss and team to visit our humble little Dog House? That would be a ground gainer in the big picture. Pun intended.........

 

[ecasadoSBU]

My alma mater will officially be playing Connecticut on September 6th. I know Connecticut fans don't get too happy playing FCS teams. But me and my girlfriend which graduates from Connecticut on May 2014 will be returning to the Rent to see Stony Brook play Connecticut for the firs time ever. I'm excited. Should be fun to watch. I'll refuse to predict any scores

 

[IMind]

I'm for one neutral site game at either Giants Stadium or the Gillette per yer. Split gate. We'd make as much as we make during a home game per year anyway... but not against Rutgers or BC or somebody like that. People want to play in the northeast. Try for Texas or a PAC-12 team, a real marquee team. Sort of like a pre-season basketball match up... for all the talk about us being in a dead recruiting area... people do seem to want to play in the area.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

I think we should have long term series with BC and Rutgers. Play one at home, one away each year.

I also think we should approach schools with a bundle offer. I think a school such as Wisconsin would be open to a home a home spanning MBB/WBB//FB. Logistically you can't do this a whole lot but this may be beneficial across the board. I could see schools such as MSU, Kentucky, Baylor, etc going for this.

We need to do our best to maintain a 3 home 1 away split OOC. Will be hard, but I think Warde can do it.

No to playing BC. Not until they realize that having a close by "conference rival" would be a good thing, do I want to have anything to do with them. Leave them isolated - nearest conference rival is 5 hours away in Syracuse.

 

[Colt house75]

Would pefer 3 for 2's to two for one's with exceptions for teams that are perceived as ftball powers, or garner tremendous eposure be but are generally overrated or within reach of us on the field. Last thing we need is a blowout against.

I think we should have long term series with BC and Rutgers. Play one at home, one away each year.

I also think we should approach schools with a bundle offer. I think a school such as Wisconsin would be open to a home a home spanning MBB/WBB//FB. Logistically you can't do this a whole lot but this may be beneficial across the board. I could see schools such as MSU, Kentucky, Baylor, etc going for this.

We need to do our best to maintain a 3 home 1 away split OOC. Will be hard, but I think Warde can do it.

Would like to encompass both of the above ideas if possible. Like maintaining a regional rivalry with Rutgers and developing a Northeast "Lobstah" Cup with BC on Rivalry Weekend. There is enough hate between the schools and Alumni to make it great day for everybody.

Agree with Jimdish, several games with "perceived" p5 schools that are overrated but no blowouts.
Warde seems to be moving that way in the next several years (and Susan and Warde achieved a thaw with BC in all other sports...including Hockey East...anything is possible)..

 

[Carl Spackler]

I don't mind one Thursday or Friday night home game per year, but the Louisville game was at 8:30 and it should have been at 7:30 and it shouldn't have been on the same night as the Maryland game. If I was in charge, I would have as many games as possible on Saturdays anytime between noon and 6 to help build the fan base.

I agree, I've written about this at length before. College football is meant to be played on Saturday afternoons. That is college football primetime, for TV, for game day experience, for weather, for everything about college football - Saturday afternoons. My point, was that television, and really, it's just a handful of people at ESPN, wield a TON Of power in when games scheduled, and when they're scheduling, they don't seem to have built a track record for caring too much about the game day experience for UCONN - and the Big East over the years.

My hope is that Aresco, and his years of television and sports experience, somehow managed to play NBC's disaster of a money offer to the AAC, and take Tranghese's built in prima nocta rights for ESPN in the old Big East contract, and as a tradeoff for accepting such a bend over and take it hard lowball amount of money for the TV contract, squeezed ESPN into having to put the AAC conference games on TV Saturday afternoons - it all depends on what actually was in the NBC original offer for the AAC. If that NBC offer stipulated conference games on Saturday afternoons, then my understanding of the whole process, would mean that ESPN would have to match that, as the terms that Tranghese had put into the contract that just ended, were such that ESPN had the right to match any offer made for Big East rights, but if they did so - they had to match ALL terms of the offer.

It's something I hold out hope for, and will find out if it actually happened when the actual schedules come out for the fall.

 

[Carl Spackler]

BTW: The alterantive to what I just wrote, is a little more disheartening. If during the negotiation process, the old Big East contract basically became void, and the whole situation of ESPN having the rights to match any first offer and close the deal was not part of the process, and an open market determined the AAC contract?

I simply can't believe that to be the case, UCONN women's basketball, by itself, is worth more than what we're getting from the entire conference in this next 6 year contract for all sports. Something else had to be in play in the works, and that contract statement that Tranghese had allowed into the Big East contract for ESPN had to be it.

But we'll all find out what the new contract is really about, when the schedules come out for fall 2014.

 

[ruskin]

Going to the OP's point, very simple. No FCS games and SELECTED one-off 1-aways and 2-for-1s with P5s until CR gets resolved.

 

[Carl Spackler]

What I'm not sure about, is the scheduling now is the front loading of the home games. We open the next two seasons, with three consecutive weeks of home games.

If we have a strong team, that can go 3-0 at home to start seasons (2014 BYU, Stony Brook, Boise) - (2015 Villanova, Army, Tennessee), then that is a very good thing to schedule that way. If we have a team that craps the bed in those first three weeks, then it's a strong possibility that we have a repeat of 2013 and have very low numbers of people going to the stadium for those late November cold games for a struggling team.

This is not an indictment of the fan base, it's the culture we live in, UCONN fans come out for a winner, they have and always will. I would bet my house that we had more people at the Fiesta Bowl in 2010 in Arizona, than those that came to the Memphis game. But the diehard base of the fans for the football program has only had 10 years to grow, and it is what it is.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Going to the OP's point, very simple. No FCS games and SELECTED one-off 1-aways and 2-for-1s with P5s until CR gets resolved.

IT's a good idea to have at least one FCS game, but you got to win the damn game.

 

[FDNY99]

IT's a good idea to have at least one FCS game, but you got to win the damn game.

Tell that to the B1G...they passed a league rule...no more FCS games.

 

[uconNYC]

Would like to see a long term series with Rutgers. It's a natural rivalry. If you go to their boards you'll see a lot of interest (i.e. hatred) for all things UConn.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Tell that to the B1G...they passed a league rule...no more FCS games.

RIght - step back for a second though. THe big 10 is playing football at a different level of post season goals than we are though (for now). They have to seriously consider things like "strength of schedule" when it comes to the future post season bowl system, and they are competing with the likes of the SEC for access to that championship bowl system.

We - on the other hand, in the next few years, need to compile as many winning records as we can, so that we can even be in consideration for that kind of level of post season success.

For UCONN, in the forseeable future, scheduling the one FCS game a year, is a good idea, and it's a good idea to make it a game that should be a mismatch in our favor.

When we are in the Big 10, we can stop scheduling FCS games.

 

[freescooter]

I've commented on the Louisville game before. What that did was spread the word to the sports world that Basketball matters but football doesn't. In a world driven by football that is not the message I would want to send.

 

[Brochacho]

Was just browsing FBSchedules, and I looked at Missouri's. Looks like they have H/H with Arkansas State, Indiana, Toledo, and Memphis. 2 for 1s with Purdue and Wyoming. They also have 3 OOC road games in 2018. Where you at Warde, and who the hell put that schedule together? Get us Missouri at home in 2016 or 17, go there in 2018.

 

[Srqhusky]

Looks like a lot of you guys want to play a lot of road games then.

Not sure if u were responding to my comment but Iowa Indiana or Illinois should have no problem getting home n hone

 

[huskymedic]

Irish Illustrated ‏@NDatRivals3h
Jack Swarbrick on playing Nevada (Polian) and UMass (Molnar) “We like to play our family.” Hunch is you’ll see Miami of Ohio and UConn later


From the transcript of today's Jack Swarbrick ND schedule Presser:

>>We like to play our family. Coach Molnar at UMass, Coach Polian at Nevada. As our coaches move around, you can anticipate future games that might be down the line here. We want to use that not just to fill a slot but to fill one of the others criteria we have in what we're trying to achieve here.<<

>>Q. You mentioned the opportunity for Miami or Connecticut to be on the future schedule.

JACK SWARBRICK: Everybody, frankly. We have somebody go be an AD somewhere, coaching, it will continue to be a factor. Sometimes the balance will shift. We can pick up a Rice and play peer institutions, sometimes we have a friend in a position with an open schedule.
I always want to have some basis for articulating why that decision was made. I don't want to get it because the cost of buying game A was cheaper than the cost of buying game B. I want to have a reason for playing that opponent. <<

 

[Brochacho]

Talking about one offs it seems. If we were to do that I'd rather do it with another team.