Outside of Louisville in what world is newcomer in D1FB UConn more worthy of P-5 than the rest of the schools who all offer something unique (Market,history,cache)to a major conference? Just curious!!It takes more than 10 years of mediocre bigboy football to those conferences outside of our east coast bubble!Some of those hicks couldn't pick Connecticut out on a map!Just look at frankthetanks perception (and he's educated) of us!!We can agree re: deserving a P-5 invite. If Rutgers, Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, BC "deserved" a P-5 invite then we sure as hell do too!
If Seagoat had said "as worthy" it would have seemed a reasonable post!!But "more worthy"???
@I have to reread the post....I absorbed it as "belonging ahead of"?Where did he say "more worthy"? You used the phrase "more worthy".
I see it now(as worthy)...my mistake jostar !!Where did he say "more worthy"? You used the phrase "more worthy".
PJ is a good uconn fan. We need more like him, from time to time we all overstate the value of our team/program regardless of who our team/program is. Like upitt said above, there is a reason nebraska was grabbed ahead of umd/ru the first time. Anytime you can grab a truly premium football brand you do it.
All that said, OU is in GOR bind, we are not. Fun to speculate but I'm not packing suitcases to big 10 towns anytime soon.
If Seagoat had said "as worthy" it would have seemed a reasonable post!!But "more worthy"???
PJ is a good uconn fan. We need more like him, from time to time we all overstate the value of our team/program regardless of who our team/program is. Like upitt said above, there is a reason nebraska was grabbed ahead of umd/ru the first time. Anytime you can grab a truly premium football brand you do it.
All that said, OU is in GOR bind, we are not. Fun to speculate but I'm not packing suitcases to big 10 towns anytime soon.
Except the Pac10.
The Pac10 didn't want them.
And not because of Okie St.
Oh, and the B1G doesn't want them either.
I respect PJ as well. He just about always puts things into a good perspective and I respect him for taking a fair minded approach. I just disagree with his opinion on Oklahoma, and this may be due to our different backgrounds. I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA with no NBA team and a couple weak college BB teams. For most of my region (western PA, Eastern OH, WV) it was football, football, football. Football was year round and High Schools football games would routinely draw larger crowds than college BB. I respect that much of CT/NYC/NE and Uconn fans put a larger emphasis on BB than some of the other regions. Uconn's success in BB is why I have followed Uconn and respect the newly developed rivalry between Pitt and Uconn. Maybe it is a cultural difference between myself (and Frank and a few others from the midwest) and many of the Uconn fans that live in the NE, but I honestly think that some of the Uconn posters are short sighted when sighting BB and WBB as the reasons that Uconn will and should be invited to join the P5 while downplaying the importance of football. I agree that BB has had an influence in realignment with the ACC and NBE, but in general football has trumped BB due to the structure of TV contracts (10 to 1, football to BB money). I think many Uconn posters fail to give the Uconn football program the credit it deserves with respect to realignment because they feel BB is a stronger talking point. Uconn took big strides in 10 years of BE football and has put the school in a position to receive and invite to the P5. Without these big strides, Uconn may have considered joining the NBE and dumping football in CUSA, or MAC or DII. Instead we are discussing Uconn joining the B1G and ACC which would have been a pipe dream only 10 years ago, but seems more likely than not today. I would like nothing more than to see Uconn in the ACC because I enjoy watching the BB games. I would also welcome them to the B1G as well, although I would be disappointed personally because they would lose a few rivals in the ACC.
Basketball isn't that valuable under current arrangements. But:
- Basketball is extremely valuable to networks. ESPN was built on basketball. Basketball is extremely valuable to the BTN. It is especially valuable for penetrating the northeast, eg NYC. Other conferences don't value basketball because they don't have a network. The B1G will value it more than any other conference. It's likely the BTN becomes a larger share of B1G revenue in the next conference.
- We know the D4 breakaway is in the works. Once D4 forms for football, they will break away in basketball. At that point, basketball revenue is no longer split 330 ways and becomes split 64 ways, it is much larger per school. It becomes of the same order as football. It becomes extremely valuable for your conference to have a top basketball brand and to get a larger share of the tourney/playoff shares, which goes with success. Commissioners like Delany are planning ahead and they want to put the pieces in place for their conference to dominate in the new D4 environment.
So the money is going to shift from something like 3:1 football:basketball currently (not 10:1; the ACC $20 mn/yr is probably about $7 mn basketball and $13 mn football, and that's not counting ACC NCAA tourney revenue; ACC is basketball is far more valuable than new Big East/C7 basketball which got $3 mn/year, so the $7 mn could be an underestimate) to 2:1 or 1:1.
And it will shift the most for the B1G. Delany knows this. And that is why UConn can be passed over multiple times by the ACC and be a top target of the B1G.
But I do agree with one thing: UConn's situation would be far better if our football program were stronger. A lot of people do place a lot of weight on football.
Basketball is selectively important in that it gives ESPN and other networks content for otherwise weak periods of time during the year. From the post-Super Bowl (and preceeding two-week gap between championship games) to the end of the Final Four, there's very little else interesting going on in sports outside of mid-season NBA and NHL games which generally are snoozefests, and the playoff push for them isn't really in full swing until NCAA tournament time. IF you were to remove CBB, ESPN's live sports programming during January, February, and March would be a wasteland of NBA games. Certainly basketball doesn't bring in nearly the TV revenue of football, but it provides four-plus primetime hours of content on multiple networks four nights during the week, and all day on Saturday and potentially Sunday. Football is (realistically) a two or three-day sport that is getting increasingly weaker as the NFL moves into the weeknights.Basketball isn't that valuable under current arrangements. But:
- Basketball is extremely valuable to networks. ESPN was built on basketball. Basketball is extremely valuable to the BTN. It is especially valuable for penetrating the northeast, eg NYC. Other conferences don't value basketball because they don't have a network. The B1G will value it more than any other conference. It's likely the BTN becomes a larger share of B1G revenue in the next conference.
- We know the D4 breakaway is in the works. Once D4 forms for football, they will break away in basketball. At that point, basketball revenue is no longer split 330 ways and becomes split 64 ways, it is much larger per school. It becomes of the same order as football. It becomes extremely valuable for your conference to have a top basketball brand and to get a larger share of the tourney/playoff shares, which goes with success. Commissioners like Delany are planning ahead and they want to put the pieces in place for their conference to dominate in the new D4 environment.
So the money is going to shift from something like 3:1 football:basketball currently (not 10:1; the ACC $20 mn/yr is probably about $7 mn basketball and $13 mn football, and that's not counting ACC NCAA tourney revenue; ACC is basketball is far more valuable than new Big East/C7 basketball which got $3 mn/year, so the $7 mn could be an underestimate) to 2:1 or 1:1.
And it will shift the most for the B1G. Delany knows this. And that is why UConn can be passed over multiple times by the ACC and be a top target of the B1G.
But I do agree with one thing: UConn's situation would be far better if our football program were stronger. A lot of people do place a lot of weight on football.
I believe basketball is currently undervalued by networks. I agree 10:1 may not be realistic , but 5:1 or even 8:1 are realistic. The contract that the BE turned down was for 130 million/year. The offer was for $13.8 million for full time members, $2.43 million for BB only, and $11.37 million for FB only. Under this contract the football was worth 82% and the BB was worth 18% and the remaining sports were of little value. Thats puts FB:BB ratio at 5.5:1 for the best basketball league in the country vs the lowest BCS football league. A league such as the ACC may see a similar ratio, but I suspect the stronger football leagues get a higher ratio of revenue from football. Going forward, especially with concussion revelations, basketball value can only increase with respect to football. You are also dead on that conference networks and the interenet will change the game. Conference network channels and internet conference streaming will increase the value of BB and other non revenue sports. But, we are all just speculating as to future worth of BB, TV contracts, network channels, etc. It's just too hard to predict what will happen. 10 years ago, no one would have predicted you could watch sports on your phone.
Yes I absolutely agree when I reread your post Seagoat!I read it too fast and just woke up lol! I think I already made a retraction here earlier!My apologies sir!!NN,
Read my post - I don't say "more worthy" and I was responding to Bearcat so I was thinking Cincy too. To be clear, if the schools I listed "deserve" a P-5 nod then UConn and Cincy do too. That's it - no more, no less.
UConn's situation would be far better if our football program were stronger.
So let's make that our goal. This season let's win the AAC and crush Louisville. How about that for starters. (I'm feeling feisty tonight!)
Well happier anyway. If we end up the B1G, I'd be happy. I'm okay but not thrilled with the ACC. We are not a great fit in the Big 12 , but ...any port will do in a storm, right?If Texas goes to the B1G, we can take the open spot in the Big 12 and everybody's happy.
If Texas were to leave the big 12, the conference would fall apart quickly. OU would be looking for a partner to join the Pac 12 and Kansas would be on its way to the B1G. The Big12 would try by adding cincy and USF/UCF but the conf would not be in the national picture any longer
Maybe but believe me I was shocked at the midwestern teams lack of sophistication or knowledge of teams outside there footprint and RU had 3 teams AD's lobbying for them for years!Whatever happened to east coast bias?lol!I wouldn't be surprised by a backlash but that would be expected in the B1G unless your a Texas,ND or Oklahoma!!I guess now with Md,RU and PSU being in/for (for the most part) you guys it might ease the angst!!I can't wait for it to happen speaking for most RU fan's!UConn and KU to the B1G would please me greatly.
UConn and UVa just as good.
So would UConn and UNC or UConn and Texas, or UConn and Miss Porters School for Girls. I don't think that last one is AAU but you get the point.
But I would like going in with Kansas. I think the PR would be better than when RU and MD. "Two BB heavyweights that have also have functional FB programs with BCS appearances." I think it'd sell very well.
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