Possible Big 12 Invite rumors

[How Sway?!]

Yes, idiotic. I've also never said UConn is a top 5 job once on this board so no idea why you're putting words in my mouth. But speaking of idiotic and biased posters, some of us don't forget

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[Rico444]

Yes, idiotic. I've also never said UConn is a top 5 job once on this board so no idea why you're putting words in my mouth. But speaking of idiotic and biased posters, some of us don't forget

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Yeah I mixed you up with another poster, that's my bad. And I deserve to wear that one, I was definitely too hard on Hurley.

I still stand by what I said, I don't see him sticking around if we leave the Big East.

 

[CL82]

Yes, idiotic. I've also never said UConn is a top 5 job once on this board so no idea why you're putting words in my mouth. But speaking of idiotic and biased posters, some of us don't forget

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#theboneyardneverforgets

 

[bendm]

I think we'd have to take the invite, but I'm skeptical it would go well for us. Travel is an underappreciated detriment to college basketball success. Traveling over 1,000 miles to a game can effectively double home court advantage for the opposition. There's a reason we basically never won at Tulsa or Houston or SMU. And the teams in the B12 are generally better. We'd rarely win on the road.

We were 0-6 against SMU on the road, 1-5 vs. Tulsa, and 1-5 vs. Houston.

the same would be true for them playing in CT tho. very hard to win on the road in the big12 regardless of how far one has to travel. we could beat up on the cellar dwellars like cincy and ucf and byu but then yeah we'd have to win all our home games.

 

[uconndogs]

Maybe the most powerful of issues is that it would alienate sports fans to the point of half the country not caring about college athletics anymore.

You don't think it's entirely possible for those conferences to do that?

Decades and in some instances almost a century of tradition have been thrown to the wayside in the interest of acquiring what are perceived to be lucrative markets.

I think college athletics has already started a professional sports model and that is only going to accelerate. In fact, at the highest level I believe academics will have virtually no role with the athletes. With the money involved there is absolutely no way the NCAA or any other governing body will be able to enforce academic discipline - not that there is much of it now.

 

[bendm]

The entire foundation of college football could shift in a week. The Big 12 is one SEC or Big 10 phone call away from hitting an iceberg. How does jumping on a sinking ship make UConn more money? You speak with such certainty, that you must have an idea of what happens if two more Big 12 teams leave.

there is not a single team left in the big12 that the sec or big10 want to steal or they would have done so already. the only desirable brands left for the taking are currently trapped in the acc GOR. the big12 is far and away the safest bet outside the P2.

 

[bendm]

20 school mega conference:

Schools with every sport: Us, Syracuse, Louisville, Colorado, Duke, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State

Every sport but Football: Creighton, Villanova, Butler, Georgetown, Xavier, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. Johns, Depaul?

what happened to the rest of the acc pac and big12 teams?

 

[The Viking]

I love being in the Big East but if we are actually offered an invitation we are taking it for the football program and to keep us from accumulating 500-700 million in AD losses between now and the time the ACC splits in 2036.

Once the B1G and SEC have their way with the ACC pieces they want, we would probably absorb our old friends or jump to some new east coast league with said old friends.

 

[KingAG]

Turning down a rescue boat for one that may never come is a hell of a strategy

 

[noeynox]

Turning down a rescue boat for one that may never come is a hell of a strategy

The Drowning Man​

A fellow was stuck on his rooftop in a flood. He was praying to God for help.

Soon a man in a rowboat came by and the fellow shouted to the man on the roof, “Jump in, I can save you.”

The stranded fellow shouted back, “No, it’s OK, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me.”

So the rowboat went on.

Then a motorboat came by. “The fellow in the motorboat shouted, “Jump in, I can save you.”

To this the stranded man said, “No thanks, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith.”

So the motorboat went on.

Then a helicopter came by and the pilot shouted down, “Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety.”

To this the stranded man again replied, “No thanks, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith.”

So the helicopter reluctantly flew away.

Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. He went to Heaven. He finally got his chance to discuss this whole situation with God, at which point he exclaimed, “I had faith in you but you didn’t save me, you let me drown. I don’t understand why!”

To this God replied, “I sent you a rowboat and a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect?”

 

[JMick]

I think our current situation is as close to ideal as we are going to get, but you can't turn down the money. The only way you can rationalize turning it down is if you have information that leads you to believe some of the current members are going to be jumping ship.

Ideally we would just be one piece of a 3-4 team eastern expansion that includes Pitt and Syracuse.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Our current situation is not sustainable. It is just that simple. Even if we dropped football (typing that hurt my feelings) we would still have money woes down the road.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Anyone that thinks that joining the Big 12 would “secure” UConn’s financial future has not been paying attention. The SEC and Big 10 could add 2 teams each at any time and effectively wipe the Big 12, ACC and PAC 12 off the map for football.

That could happen in 3 years or next month, and if it did, UConn would find itself in a far flung conference that was sinking into mid majordom. How did that work last time.

There is no way to tell what the networks and P2 are going to do. Until there is better visibility, I don’t like betting the program on low percentage options.

Networks and streaming services will still need content no matter what the BIG and SEC do. While the packages won't be on their level, it will be a helluva lot more than we will ever make in this arrangement.

 

[willie99]

Pointing out the Big East has a bunch of schools that nobody wants to take into their conference isn't a great argument here.

Seriously?

The Big East has basketball only schools, except UConn. Try to keep up

 

[willie99]

The Big East won't be raided, but it will also be dirt poor (comparatively) in perpetuity.

I'd rather take the significant Big XII payday in the short term and let the long term sort itself out if the Big XII has issues down the line.

I'd rather win in basketball, go to sold out games, have passionate rivalries and attend the BET at MSG in NYC every year. That's fun to me

Being in a constant state of flux, turnover, to be in the farm league for the B10 or SEC. Not cool

B10 or bust. We're improving our resume across the boards, we're making ourselves more valuable. Don't settle for the next AAC

 

[Gburyhusky]

One aspect of this I find most intersting... when this issue comes up, invariably the national or regional media will bring up the athletics department defecit as a major consideration for the University (as was the case in the Forde Sports Illustrated piece from yesterday). But do you ever see or hear any of the state politicians complaining about the defecit? Not that I have seen. The state politicians are the most important people in all of this, since they largely have the power to limit or mandate the end of athletics defecit spending, and they also have the ability to publicly raise the issue in a way that would make it much more difficult for the University to spend big dollars on sports. So if the key people don't seem to be bothered by the spending issue, it would seem unlikely that the ultimate decision (if there is a decision to be made) would be driven solely by money.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Plus the Big East is not immune to a raid. A P5 conference could decide to go hybrid if they want to strengthen their basketball offering.

Nobody is going hybrid. The conferences that attempted it failed miserably.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Yeah I mixed you up with another poster, that's my bad. And I deserve to wear that one, I was definitely too hard on Hurley.

I still stand by what I said, I don't see him sticking around if we leave the Big East.

Hypothetically, where do you see Hurley going if he is in fact so tied to coaching a northeast team in a northeast league? Georgetown, Providence, St. John's just hired new coaches, and Seton Hall and Villanova have guys entering their second year.

I could see him leaving for the SUNJ job but Pike seems pretty entrenched there, and its also a Midwestern league.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Nobody is going hybrid. The conferences that attempted it failed miserably.

I'm sorry but the 16 team Big East basketball league and 8 team Big East football league was anything but miserable.

We got screwed by a tv partner. Has very little to do with the leagues construction rather more so lacking anchor football programs.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I'm sorry but the 16 team Big East basketball league and 8 team Big East football league was anything but miserable.

Where is it today?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Where is it today?

So, if the SEC added UConn basketball, Villanova, St. John's and Gonzaga it would implode?

 

[McLovin]

IMO, the Big12 (or ACC) would not be the end goal. The end goal is to get on the lifeboat when the “top” universities breakaway from the NCAA / wrestle away full control of it.

Being in either the B1G or SEC guarantees schools a spot.

Being in the Big12, ACC or PAC puts you in line for a spot (how many make the cut TBD, but probably 16-24)

Anyone else is probably going down with the ship.

The Big12 isn’t the end goal. It’s about positioning ourself for the next moves after that… either as a stepping stone into a B1G expansion to 16/20 team or to be included if the power schools break away. That’s how I’m looking at all this.

It’s not about basketball vs football. And we can’t change our geography, so it’s not worth debating the value of that… It’s about brand power and perception when the final decisions are made. Being viewed as a school with peers of Seton Hall, Providence and Butler will not help that perception during consideration. But having peers like Oklahoma State, Kansas, Virginia, UNC, etc. would.

 

[hank970]

Why not just move football to the Big 12 and play everything else in the Big East? Agree to 2 games a year or something for both hoops teams.

One move I think should be explored is having the Big East offer to absorb all the ACC schools. This gets the ACC out of their long-term contract, and creates a potential basketball behemoth. It might get ESPN to jump and renegotiate the ACC deal to prevent it from happening, which is also a win for the ACC. Maybe the Big East gets a break up fee like 10% of the incremental contract for helping the ACC out.

Quote: "Why not just move football to the Big 12 and play everything else in the Big East?"

Are you serious? Do you really think the Big 12 would extend a football-only invitation to UConn? Delusions of grandeur.

Another quote: "One move I think should be explored is having the Big East offer to absorb all the ACC schools." More delusions of grandeur.

 

[ucp990411]

This. And I absolutely love big East basketball. But for the entirety of the athletic department the move is a no brainer

So you think the golf team and field hockey would really like flying to Lubbock for those Tuesday afternoon matches?

 

[ucp990411]

Hurley came here from URI, he was in a much different position to take or not take a job. There were no promises, but I'm sure Hurley knew what the university's plan was. Compare that, the possibility of going to the Big East with his school throwing that away to ship us out to the Midwest...there's no way he stays, especially when he could take almost any other job he wants. And while that's true that he could do the same now, I believe the allure of UConn and the Big East is too much for him to walk away from for anything short of the NBA.

We get an additional 25 mil for joining the Big 12 the first thing Benedict should do is double Hurley’s salary. He will stay

 

[alphasigko]

It would be a mistake. Their two best programs are leaving, so who knows what the league would even look like when we get there? We have absolutely no cultural connection to the league. I know the AAC stunk comparatively, but being in a league where your school doesn't fit culturally is a bigger problem than most people think. Even the good schools from the AAC like Cincinnati and Houston, there's no juice there.

The other big issue is that leaving the Big East is going to weaken our program. No more rivalries with any kind of history. It'll change the kinds of players we recruit, and not by choice, but because a lot of the players we go after want to play in the Big East and in MSG in March. I'm not naive enough to think we're going to stay in the Big East forever, but does the Big 12 make sense long-term?

Right now we're in a great fit. Ditching that for a bad fit when the whole college landscape is likely to change in 10-15 years anyway is foolish.

One suggested correction: This would be a HUGE mistake.

 

[That Guy]

The Big 12 is the best basketball conference in the country. Stop comparing it to the AAC

Meh. Kansas and Baylor are the only programs that move the needle. The rest of them are capable of making noise every once in awhile, but they will never be true basketball powerhouses nationally.

 

[John]

Meh. Kansas and Baylor are the only programs that move the needle. The rest of them are capable of making noise every once in awhile, but they will never be true basketball powerhouses nationally.

You could say the same about UConn and Villanova RE: Big East

 

[WestHartHusk]

Meh. Kansas and Baylor are the only programs that move the needle. The rest of them are capable of making noise every once in awhile, but they will never be true basketball powerhouses nationally.

They move the needle to the tune of like $50M per year. You are looking at the wrong needles.

I would add WVU would be fun to play, Cinci is fine and Houston is having a moment. KSU has a great coach, and OSU has been pretty consistent long-term.

 

[That Guy]

You could say the same about UConn and Villanova RE: Big East

That's true, which is why the move wouldn't be an upgrade in basketball imo. It would be a lateral move. Obviously the money will be too much to pass up so we will end up leaving if we get an invite. To me, it's still B1G or stay put.