No Temple - We need out of this Conf

[Jimmy Serrano]

I posted this somewhere else (and can't find it now), but I'm not clear why moving back to the Big East and parking our football team in the MAC (like UMass has done) isn't an option. I'll admit, I don't know the intricacies of it, but the MAC is relatively local (especially if UMass is there), and is probably a good fit for us, in terms of what we'll be able to produce, talent-wise.

Nobody is going to allow UConn to be a football only member of the conference without bringing it's hoops program. What is the incentive for the MAC to let UConn park their football program? It's just another mouth to feed.

Nelson's plan of either dropping football or going Indy and crawling back to the Big East is a sure fire way to kill the athletic program. He thinks going to the Big East is going to save our hoops. I disagree. It's P5 or bust. Regrettably, if I were a betting man, I don't like our chances.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Because playing UCF, Houston, Navy and East Carolina in football > Kent St., Akron, Eastern Michigan, and Bowling Green. It raises our profile just that much more.

UConn fans are going to have to get used to playing basketball in a more football centric conference.

I didn't know that about UMass getting booted, which obviously means that isn't really an option (unless we wanted to play in the Sun Belt).

But it's not like this league raises our football profile in any meaningful way, and it's clearly doing significant harm to our basketball program. And if Memphis and Cincy to the Big 12 is a real thing, it gets worse. We can't stay in the league beyond that.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I didn't know that about UMass getting booted, which obviously means that isn't really an option (unless we wanted to play in the Sun Belt).

But it's not like this league raises our football profile in any meaningful way, and it's clearly doing significant harm to our basketball program. And if Memphis and Cincy to the Big 12 is a real thing, it gets worse. We can't stay in the league beyond that.

Can we at least be honest about one thing? Our football program is not the reason we lost to Yale, Houston, and Memphis (twice) this year.

The anti football crowd can thump their chests all they want but we finished SIXTH in this terrible basketball conference.

 

[MattMang23]

I didn't know that about UMass getting booted, which obviously means that isn't really an option (unless we wanted to play in the Sun Belt).

But it's not like this league raises our football profile in any meaningful way, and it's clearly doing significant harm to our basketball program. And if Memphis and Cincy to the Big 12 is a real thing, it gets worse. We can't stay in the league beyond that.

We need to play the highest caliber of football teams possible if we want any shot at a better league. Period.

It seems like everyone wants to sacrifice football to ensure that basketball plays in a mid major conference. Well, we already are, and our football team is better off for it than putting it in the MAC or Sun Belt.

I know we are UConn and we love basketball but we need to go about preserving football and trying to keep basketball relevant rather than the other way around. Basketball has a far better chance to survive in a lesser conference than football does.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Because playing UCF, Houston, Navy and East Carolina in football > Kent St., Akron, Eastern Michigan, and Bowling Green. It raises our profile just that much more.

UConn fans are going to have to get used to playing basketball in a more football centric conference.

We should be DOMINATING this rat's nest the way Gonzaga dominates the WCC.

Nelson's answer is moving from one mid major to another.

 

[MattMang23]

We should be DOMINATING this rat's nest the way Gonzaga dominates the WCC.

Nelson's answer is moving from one mid major to another.

Correct and yes, and it makes no sense.

 

[CallMeBruce]

We should be DOMINATING this rat's nest the way Gonzaga dominates the WCC.

Nelson's answer is moving from one mid major to another.

That other mid-major just got 6 teams in the tournament, including a #1 seed. You can say that moving back to the Big East is a mistake, but to equate Big East basketball, even in its current state, to the AAC is ludicrous.

 

[Inyatkin]

That other mid-major just got 6 teams in the tournament, including a #1 seed. You can say that moving back to the Big East is a mistake, but to equate Big East basketball, even in its current state, to the AAC is ludicrous.

You know what he's saying. Anything not P5 is a losing proposition. The current state of the two is irrelevant.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

That other mid-major just got 6 teams in the tournament, including a #1 seed. You can say that moving back to the Big East is a mistake, but to equate Big East basketball, even in its current state, to the AAC is ludicrous.

Nobody's equating the 2 right now.

You guys act as though we aren't 1 year removed from the AAC and Big East sending the same number of teams to the tourney.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Nobody's equating the 2 right now.

You guys act as though we aren't 1 year removed from the AAC and Big East sending the same number of teams to the tourney.

You said it was "from one mid-major to another." The Big East isn't P5, but in basketball, they sure aren't perceived as a mid-major.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Nobody's equating the 2 right now.

You guys act as though we aren't 1 year removed from the AAC and Big East sending the same number of teams to the tourney.

You would have more credibility if you didn't keep making the same stupid arguments. One of the teams that went last year was Louisville. Is Louisville still in the AAC? You also can't use UConn's results with the AAC as indicative of which conference is a better league for UConn. If UConn was in the Big East last year, what would that league have looked like?

So what do you think the conversation is like at Temple today? Do you think they are sitting around saying "we just got to give this AAC thing more time", or do you think they are asking themselves WTF they are doing in a southern mid-major league that can't get a 34 RPI team in the dance when their football program is a cash sinkhole with no hope of recovery? The A10 got 3 teams in the dance.

 

[ctchamps]

I agree the AAC needs to do better OOC and schedule better. But you have to conclude an obvious bias when UCLA and Indiana get in while Temple and CSU are left out. Obviously they were concerned given the AAC's lack of impact on the tourney last year. It's hard to question their competence because they know exactly what they're doing twisting the criteria to suit their financial interests. The only factor left is a question of integrity but the media isn't in a position to ask tough questions so the kids just have to take the hit.

PAC (Stanford AD) and B!G (Michigan St AD) were both represented on this year's committee. This seems to happen every year where a bubble team from a represented conference gets selected over a more deserving bubble team from a non represented conference.

 

[David 76]

Maybe if someone from the AAC had some success in last year's tournament we would get some respect...

 

[uconnell]

Maybe if the AAC had a represenative on the committee Temple would have gotten in. Why do we not have a rep, Mr Aresco?

 

[Windsorlocks]

I'll state here what I've stated in several threads by now. The NBE has absolutely no incentive to expand past 10 teams. 10 teams and a double round robin league schedule is the perfect size. The NBE and Big 12, by having schools with strong OOC, had a league full of teams with strong RPI's. The 10 team double round robin league schedule then acts to "protect" those strong member RPI's. Smaller is better. They now understand this. All the coaches are on record liking the double round robin. There is simply no reason for the NBE to add programs to their league right now. They may bomb in the tourney, but they know what needs to be done to enter league play with a majority of teams having strong RPI's. And being a 10 team league is integral to that success. Not 11, not 12, not 15. 10. I doubt they are in any kind of hurry to change a good thing.....

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The NBE would add teams for the same reason any other league would add teams: more TV revenue and sell more tickets. By the time most posters on this board will want to pull that parachute, UConn will not be worth much in either category.

 

[pepband99]

You would have more credibility if you didn't keep making the same stupid arguments.

Pot, kettle.

 

[Windsorlocks]

We belong, and have always belonged, in a Northeastern-centric conference. All those national championships in a sport that possesses the nation for an entire month of the year, and we look at the composition of the American, and it will always pale in comparison to all the old rivalries that steeled and prepared the team to win it all. Such a league does still exist. It's doing well, but it isn't proven yet. Yes, $$$ is always there to drive a league's big decisions. And FS1 is getting few viewers in comparison. BE, and only BE fans, are tuning in to date. I think that has to mean their teams have to win now in particular if the NBE is really going to be relevant in the eyes of a lot of fans. But this year the committee was impressed with the league's resume. If that league succeeds in the long run, it will always seem a more natural fit. I don't know, should they expand, if we are the fit they would want. $$$ talks, I know, but they are pretty unique in their backgrounds as a group of schools. I bet they would prefer a school like St. Louis for example. Good bb tradition, Catholic...

 

[uconnell]

UMass was kicked out of the MAC.

Conferences want all the sports they can get in their conference, or you don't add much.

How many times is this going to be posted before people get it? Doesn't anyone read the many, many posts on this subject? Learn to love this conference until we don't have to anymore. Dropping football is NOT an option, it is NOT an option. GET IT?

 

[FriarJ]

I know it's not going to happen but I firmly believe that the only number that the BE would expand to is to 11 to maintain the round robin and the only school short of Gonzaga they would take is UConn. They said as much when the conference was initially formed that they were only going to 10 and wanted to wait until all the chips fell in CR (read Uconn there) Anyway now that the coaches as AD's have realized that the round robin is the way to go, it would only be one more school and it would have to be a doozy.

 

[CL82]

I don't care where we put football - but we can't remain in this conference or we will be irrelevant in about 5 years

Well I think, barring a P5 offer we are sticking around at least 4 years to collect the BE exit fee money and probably 5 to get our NCAA money from last year. I agree that it's a problem though.

 

[CL82]

That may be true. But if the Big East won't have us, then what are the realistic probabilities of the ACC and Big 10 ever taking us?

I'd say better. We aren't a great fit with a bunch of small catholic privates. We're a better fit with either B1G or the ACC. I choose not to comment on the "realistic probabilities" portion of your question because it makes me very sad.