Non-Key Tweets

[TRest]

In regards to fan interest when Memphis is "good." A month ago Memphis passed last year's TOTAL season ticket sales. Memphis also averaged over 40,000 attendance in the mid-2000s. That should happen again this season ... at least.

What was last year's season ticket number?

 

[whaler11]

Boise and BYU solve the CCG, but they can't do a network without UConn and Cincinnati. It may be that they can't do a network with UConn and Cincinnati.

I don't even think they have any fantasies of a Big 12 network.

 

[junglehusky]

I don't even think they have any fantasies of a Big 12 network.

Still, #FireWarde.

 

[MemphisBlues]

What was last year's season ticket number?

Not published but we're 4,000 ahead of that number according to Fuente. We averaged 33,000 last season in a "good" year that snuck up on us. So I see 40K this season .. easy.

 

[FDNY99]

MH actually had Memphis and Houston in front of us too. If Warde loses on a 4 team expansion to the Big 12 where any of Boise, Memphis, UCF or Houston are picked in front of us, he should be escorted from the premises the day of the announcement.

Minnesota's AD just got canned maybe you can call there on Warde's behalf to get him a job since you want him out so much:
http://www.si.com/college-football/...eague-resigns-sexual-harassment?xid=si_social

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Couple points.

1) BYU/Boise makes a lot of sense for FB only. Didn't Boise have an Olympic sport only deal in place with the WCC when they were expecting to join the Big East as a FB only?

2) Cincinnati and UCF makes a lot of sense as the other two best football brands with recruiting territory. I think Cincinnati is all but guaranteed of an invite if this is the scenario. I think people are under valuing UConn's appeal with respect to market, basketball brand and only a few years removed from being a mid tier BCS level program (though it seems like ages).

3) In retrospect, yes the deal with ESPN should've been signed. Even at the time it was a toss up. That begin said, who knew the other leagues would carve us up so badly? Also, say the deal was signed, who's to say when the ACC, B1G came calling, it all would've fallen apart anyways?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Minnesota's AD just got canned maybe you can call there on Warde's behalf to get him a job since you want him out so much:
http://www.si.com/college-football/...eague-resigns-sexual-harassment?xid=si_social

There are posters who would watch UMass get picked over us for a P5 and say "Warde is doing the best he can".

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I don't even think they have any fantasies of a Big 12 network.

Then UConn and Cincinnati won't get added. Pretty simple how that works.

 

[FDNY99]

There are posters who would watch UMass get picked over us for a P5 and say "Warde is doing the best he can".

And there are poster's like you who say that UCONN should dump football and go running back to the Big East. Like I have said in previous posts...go over and spend some time reading what the UNJ, Maine, and UVM fans write over on the USCHO hockey D-1 hockey forum. It's "small time" "small market" stuff...although you would feel right at home reading and responding to them.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

And there are poster's like you who say that UCONN should dump football and go running back to the Big East. Like I have said in previous posts...go over and spend some time reading what the UNJ, Maine, and UVM fans write over on the USCHO hockey D-1 hockey forum. It's "small time" "small market" stuff...although you would feel right at home reading and responding to them.

You keep misrepresenting what I said. I said UConn WILL dump football and take whatever league they can get if the athletic department keeps going through money like Charlie Sheen goes through blow. You live in this fairy tale world where money grows on trees and playing on TV for free somehow works financially when we have three coaches carrying huge salaries..

 

[FDNY99]

You keep misrepresenting what I said. I said UConn WILL dump football and take whatever league they can get if the athletic department keeps going through money like Charlie Sheen goes through blow. You live in this fairy tale world where money grows on trees and playing on TV for free somehow works financially when we have three coaches carrying huge salaries..

Oh yeah will dump football...newflash Nelson..there has been a HUGE investment in football..from a stadium in East Hartford to a team practice facility that is football specific on campus. You are the one who lives in a fantasy world. Why don't you do us ALL a favor here and go root for St Johns or Seton hall...they seem to be MUCH more your speed in terms of college athletics! Oh yeah..stop smoking all that K2...you are going to kill off any of the remaining brain cells you have!

 

[itgoeslike]

BYU and Boise as football only members will partially pay for themselves by folding in their solo deals into a B12 TV contract. Both are big names in football that will create a lot of great matchups for TV. Cincinnati and UConn are a bit different. Both bring good winter programming, which both Fox and ESPN care about, and UConn provides access to the New York market, which ESPN is smart enough to see that they are losing to the BTN.

The problem with what you're saying is that the Big 12 won't benefit from UConn's winter programming like a conference with a financial stake in a TV network would. An invite from the Big 12 would be great for UConn, in that it would allow it to still monetize tier 2 and 3 programming. However, a member of the Big 12 conference wouldn't necessarily benefit from that. Now, if the Big 12 was forward thinking with plans for a network in place, UConn could get a look, but knowing the Big 12, I doubt that's the case.

 

[jostar1]

Berry Tramel
NewsOK | BLOGS
BYU & Boise State wouldn't work as football-only Big 12 members
Football-only members to me brands your conference as mickey mouse. Second rate. The whole reason for expansion is to get the Big 12 on the same plane as the other power conferences. Bringing in football-only members would make the Big 12 less like the Big Ten and SEC, not more. Bringing in football-only members would make the Big 12 more like the MAC and the Sun Belt and defunct Western Athletic Conference, leagues that have dabbled in football-only members.

BYU and Boise State as football-only members absolutely would solve the geographic issues that bubble up when you add Mountain Time Zone schools to a conference that also has a member in Morgantown, W.Va.

But the cost is too great. Football-only membership screams temporary. Screams unstable. A league with football-only members does not address the root of the problem, which was quite adequately described by OU president David Boren as the Big 12’s “psychological disadvantage.”

Schools that are football-only are not vested in the conference. Schools that are football-only would — and should — have an eye toward greener pastures. A football-only model would be a stopgap. It would be seen, correctly, as trying to stop the bleeding.

The Big 12 does not need to stop the bleeding. The Big 12 needs a cure. I believe BYU and Boise State could be that cure. But only as full-fledged members.

http://newsok.com/byu-boise-state-w...rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

[UConnJim]

Why would the Big 12 add schools like Boise St, BYU, UCF, Memphis,...? For a conference football championship game? The only schools that would be in favor of these adds would be the schools that would be left out if the Big 12 fell apart. Do you think Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas would welcome these adds when they probably have better options?

The NCAA is about to allow a conference championship game for the Big 12 with 10 members. What would 2 more schools add to the party?

Finally, anybody who thinks UConn is a good fit for the Big 12 is delusional and anybody who thinks Warde should be fired if the Big 12 expands without UConn isn't rational. If UConn was located 500 miles from Austin, TX, then UConn would have a chance. Unfortunately, it is what it is.

 

[Marty Jackson]

If the PAC takes the four Texas schools; the Big takes Kansas and OU; the SEC takes OK State and K State, and the ACC takes WVU and holds or adds Iowa State too; then UConn is screwed. . .

Iowa State in the ACC? really?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Oh yeah will dump football...newflash Nelson..there has been a HUGE investment in football..from a stadium in East Hartford to a team practice facility that is football specific on campus. You are the one who lives in a fantasy world. Why don't you do us ALL a favor here and go root for St Johns or Seton hall...they seem to be MUCH more your speed in terms of college athletics! Oh yeah..stop smoking all that K2...you are going to kill off any of the remaining brain cells you have!

How does UConn pay for this athletic program off a crappy AAC TV contract and 5k people in the seats? I look forward to hearing this.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Why would the Big 12 add schools like Boise St, BYU, UCF, Memphis,...? For a conference football championship game? The only schools that would be in favor of these adds would be the schools that would be left out if the Big 12 fell apart. Do you think Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas would welcome these adds when they probably have better options?

The NCAA is about to allow a conference championship game for the Big 12 with 10 members. What would 2 more schools add to the party?

Finally, anybody who thinks UConn is a good fit for the Big 12 is delusional and anybody who thinks Warde should be fired if the Big 12 expands without UConn isn't rational. If UConn was located 500 miles from Austin, TX, then UConn would have a chance. Unfortunately, it is what it is.

1) The Big 12 would add schools that are available to join it. What better options are you talking about? NO ONE IS LEAVING A GRANT OF RIGHTS, so that is not one of the answers.

2) The NCAA is not going to allow a CCG to 10 member conferences.

3) I suspect that Warde knows he has 5 years to get UConn into a P5 league or he is gone, and is probably gone sooner if it becomes apparent that UConn has no chance. UConn can not afford its athletic department, and will downsize significantly in the not to distant future unless more revenue materializes.

 

[NYUConn]

BYU and Boise State as football-only members absolutely would solve the geographic issues that bubble up when you add Mountain Time Zone schools to a conference that also has a member in Morgantown, W.Va.

What is he talking about? Is there some secret wormhole from Provo to Morgantown that scientists have discovered?

Under what circumstances does that help WVU? It puts their football team out further on an island and at best is neutral to the rest of their Olympic sports because they wouldn't have to travel out there, but still wouldn't have any closer schools.

 

[itgoeslike]

Iowa State in the ACC? really?

I don't think it's likely, that's why I said the ACC adds WVU and holds. I originally wrote Iowa State to the AAC, but if the strategy is a managed implosion of the Big 12 with everyone finding a spot, the ACC would be the only viable conference. Some might think the B1G would be an option, but I don't think so.

 

[jostar1]

Tramel:
The Big 12 should look west for two new additions
But you can’t sacrifice brand for geography. That’s why West Virginia worked. Houston or New Mexico were a lot more geographically-aligned with Big 12 members. But West Virginia football is a national brand that trumps convenience. Same with BYU and Boise State.

Basketball travel doesn’t matter. A sport that takes its best non-conference games to Hawaii and Puerto Rico, Vegas and New York, a sport that plays on aircraft carriers, can’t suddenly say it doesn’t want to go to Boise, Idaho, for a ballgame.

It’s the other sports that suffer when a conference stretches from Morgantown to Boise. The sports that play round robin schedules: baseball, softball, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball. BYU fields teams in all those sports. Boise State doesn’t play baseball but fields teams in the others.

BYU is a national power in women’s volleyball. I don’t know much about BYU’s or Boise State’s status in the other sports. The Big 12 could encourage them to drop those sports and add others. That would simplify things. Focus on the sports that meet for a conference championship — swimming, track, golf.

http://newsok.com/tramel-the-big-12-should-look-west-for-two-new-additions/article/5438621

 

[FDNY99]

How does UConn pay for this athletic program off a crappy AAC TV contract and 5k people in the seats? I look forward to hearing this.

I have no idea...that's why I'm not the AD at UCONN. That's what he gets paid to do. You have been screaming from the hills for UCONN to dump football since the BE broke up...it's getting real old and it's not gonna happen. Get that through your thick skull....or go root for St Johns, Seton Hall or PC..then you can root for a team in your precious Big East that has no football program!!

 

[UConnJim]

How does UConn pay for this athletic program off a crappy AAC TV contract and 5k people in the seats? I look forward to hearing this.

How? By putting a good product on the field. If UConn football is winning, fans will come. Maybe not filling the Rent for every game, but attendance will be much better.

Also, funding of the athletic department over time will be an issue, as it is at most schools, and we will have to address this. We will need more sponsorships, donations, alternative media revenues,... But, UConn athletics has significant value in an over the top media world which is probably coming. I am confident we will keep funding the athletic department.

Private colleges are at a much greater disadvantage long term no matter what conference they are in today. They have low value for cable networks (unless they are USC, Notre Dame, or Duke) and in some cases low endowments. Look at Syracuse's endowment. It may look big at $1.2 billion, but it is only $56k per student!

 

[Adios]

I believe MH on this. Doesn't mean it is a done deal, but I feel relatively confident that the Big 12 is at least considering that structure.

You believe one of these non-key (aka moronic) CR tweeters? That sure explains a lot.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Nelson, you very specifically and adamantly called for UConn to drop football and get into the Big East.

The only reason we are in this position to even dream of a Big12 invite is because we didn't do that.

You're right, 10-15 years down the line I could see the investment in football being reeled in, but we're still paying a competitive salary and until the day we don't, we're in the game.

 

[Fishy]

Private colleges are at a much greater disadvantage long term no matter what conference they are in today. They have low value for cable networks (unless they are USC, Notre Dame, or Duke) and in some cases low endowments. Look at Syracuse's endowment. It may look big at $1.2 billion, but it is only $56k per student!

This nonsense comes up time and time again.

No, they're not.

If your athletic department is currently in a P5 conference and remains in one, they are not in trouble. The money will be there.

If your athletic department is not in a P5 conference and doesn't manage to get in one, you are in trouble. The money, despite ridiculous talk about a "P6", will never be there.

Public, private, no matter.