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Message: [QUOTE="Dooley, post: 1675526, member: 2920"] The B1G changed the CR rules with this FOX contract. Sadly, we are no longer a candidate. I thought we could make an argument for membership, even being non-AAU, if the buy-in is/was $30M/yr. It was a longer shot argument (not much different than Rutgers to the B1G) but our candidacy is far less likely (read: not a candidate) now with a $50M/yr buy-in. I'm not saying that I don't believe in UConn's P5 resume. I absolutely do. But we are not an Elite2 conference school. We don't have the profile right now. We might in 5-10 years if we can gain AAU membership and donor contributions REALLY spike, but even if we do, the $50M/yr buy-in will likely become a $100M/yr buy-in by the time we do and, again, we will drop out of the candidate pool. Notre Dame, UNC, FSU, Texas, Oklahoma. Those are your schools that we are now competing against for B1G entry. If the candidate pool was GT, UVA, KU, etc, then we match up well with them on various metrics. We don't match up well with any school that is now a serious candidate at $50M/yr. Like I said in another thread, or maybe this one (I don't remember, they really are all about the same thing), our only hopes to gain entry into the Elite2 conferences (B1G or SEC) are the longest of long shots: 1. B1G continues its eastward march and Notre Dame is invited under the contingency of adding another northeastern school. We out maneuver BC for this honor; 2. SEC/ESPN needs desperately to match the B1G's major market annexation plan and, knowing that they have football covered, add UConn for market penetration and basketball strength. None of these 2 things are likely at all of happening. Instead, our best shot at boosting our $2M/yr TV money into the $20M/yr TV money (where it should be all along) is for a game of musical chairs to happen and some of these second tier P5 conferences lose members to the Elite 2. We backfill into a second tier P5 conference and, eventually down the road, the 'best of the rest' unite in trying to remain on a somewhat equal footing as the schools in the B1G/SEC. Whether that means pooling all the content together into one large, attractive TV package or form a scheduling arrangement more friendly than the existing B1G-PAC relationship, I don't know. The money divide will be too great to ignore and its about to grow even larger. And there is now no way on God's green Earth that we move our hockey program from the Hockey East to the B1G. There is no contingency plan and there is no full membership plan. We are now officially priced out. [/QUOTE]

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