Possible Big 12 Invite rumors

[businesslawyer]

What are you talking about? The last 15 years have seen regional conferences destroyed by ≤networks.

No, regional conferences were destroyed by schools and conferences chasing network money.

 

[Stinger92860]

Nova improved, Seton Hall improved, Providence improved, UConn improved once they came back.

One commonlaity, each had a coaching change. Let’s see what happens to Hall and Providence going forward. I expect St Johns and Georgetown to improve, why? A coaching change.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Kentucky:
Calipari $8.5M
Stoops: $8.6M

Kansas:
Self $5.7M
Leipold $5M

Pretty equal. I'd imagine overall they spend more on football coaching salaries because the staff is like 5x the size of a basketball staff.
UConn's coaching salaries are pretty low compared to most P5 teams. Hell, isn't Hurley one of the lower paid coaches in the Big East? He needs a huge raise

I think one factor is that if those schools land a good coach, they have to pay up to keep him, because they aren't attractive places to be for football. KU was terrified they'd lose Leipold so overpaid him.

 

[Stinger92860]

If they go to 16 teams, they're going to use travel pods.

Not sure if you've noticed, Kansas ain't exactly local.

Driving distance to Omaha from Storrs 1,369 miles
Driving distance to Lawrence from Storrs 1,382 miles

Somehow we figured out how to get to Omaha, but that extra 13 miles is going to be a show stopper.

 

[David 76]

It can be solely about UConn Men’s Basketball. This is a UConn Men’s basketball board. Some of us just want to preserve the crown jewel and do not care about any other sports. I’d say that majority of fans think that way. If moving to the Big 12 improves football by 50% and hurts basketball by 5% , it’s a mistake.

By the Crown Jewel, I assume you mean UConn Women's Basketball?

 

[mike012]

The BE isn’t going anywhere. If this doesn’t work out they will still be around. We will get a 50 million exit fee but I am sure we can always go back to the BE.

 

[Bongo Fury]

Or we'll see them all the time.

Time to start a new rivalry. I loved that game in 96. I was proud how hard those young Huskies fought.

 

[Stinger92860]

Do you think ESPN and FOX really want to pay for Rutgers?

Yes they absolutely want to pay Rutgers so they can charge the carriage fees to every cable household in New Jersey. Thats 7,348,620 households. At .59 per month per household thats 52M plus advertising revenues on the BTN. Obviously thats a declining number due to cord cutting, but the Networks are coming out ahead or even. The B1G is the huge winner here.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Driving distance to Omaha from Storrs 1,369 miles
Driving distance to Lawrence from Storrs 1,382 miles

Somehow we figured out how to get to Omaha, but that extra 13 miles is going to be a show stopper.

As I'm probably the only one here who has done it (well, from Simsbury), I recommend flying. That said, it's pretty straightforward from Pittsburgh on. Get on I-70, get off in Lawrence. Lot of universities along that highway.

 

[ElGreco]

It's funny I'm on the 57th page of this thread, and there's so little here about playing Kansas perhaps 2x a year in basketball, and facing teams like Cincinnati, Baylor, West Virginia, Iowa St, Kansas St or Houston. This isn't chopped liver.

Good point. A lot better than playing Butler, DePaul and Seton Hall for sure.

 

[mussels]

Driving distance to Omaha from Storrs 1,369 miles
Driving distance to Lawrence from Storrs 1,382 miles

Somehow we figured out how to get to Omaha, but that extra 13 miles is going to be a show stopper.

And for the Big East that’s the furthest, while for the Big 12 that's closer to the average.

 

[HuskyHawk]

One of two things are going to happen. Either Big Tech will get into the sports media game, and which case everyone else is going to lose, or Big Tech stays out of the sports media game, in which case we are at the high point for media rights in broadcast history, and there is only one way for them to go. If it is the latter, why would UConn jump leagues to the Big 12, which by any objective measure seems to be wildly overpaid on its current media contract? If you are right, and Big Tech is not joining the fray, than by the time UConn is vested as a full member, the Big 12 media rights will be declining.

Sort of. The question around everything is really about ad supported content. Newpapers are all but done because newspaper ads aren't worth anything anymore. The only reason sports is big, is because it is the only thing people watch live, in real time. The ad money for regular TV has dried up. So the shift is to the subscription model, hence Netflix, Prime, Max, Apple etc. Do they need live sports? Not really and in some ways it is wasted on them unless they can work ads in, since ads still have value with that content.

So where would it make sense? YouTube, probably, since they already have an ad driven model. I think it's really hard to blend an ad driven sports model with a subscription based movie/show model. ESPN+ was an attempt to find out if people would subscribe to live sports while also getting commercials.

The content people consume and the manner in which they consume and pay for it is evolving pretty rapidly. Apple, Peacock, Paramount and Prime have toe in the water on the sports side. With a subscription service they have different goals than a cable channel. It's not clear that sports = net additional subscribers. My guess, long term, is that we may see a lot more PPV for live sports. It's already how they fund some sports with more limited appeal. You have to recoup production costs somehow. What the streaming services have, that cable doesn't, is a very easy way to monetize that. Want to watch UConn vs KU, pay $3.99 in the app. Just like renting a movie.

 

[ElGreco]

I’m starting to like it. More positives than negatives. The BE will be expanding before the next TV contract and they most likely will be mid major types plus we wont miss Butler, DePaul & Seton Hall or others. We can still play BIG games in MSG!!

 

[ElGreco]

And for the Big East that’s the furthest, while for the Big 12 that's closer to the average.

The college landscape is changing fast and conferences are going national. We can’t be left out. The BE may end up like the Ivy League minus the top tier academics.

 

[Rockford]

Big 12 to Establish Commercial Sales Division

Today, the Big 12 has announced it will create an internal commercial sales division for the first time in the Conference’s 27-year history. In having complete control of its commercial business, the Conference is also announcing the hiring of Sean Desmond, the Big 12’s first-ever Vice President...

big12sports.com

Interesting they hired this guy from the Red Sox? Help with NYC and filling up the Rent like the old days? Would be shocked if B12 isn't ready to offer UConn.

 

[HuskyHawk]

We might be on the list, but Colorado definitely is at the top of the list.

 

[ctchamps]

I just had a son this past year and was looking forward to making the trek down to NYC for the BET an annual tradition once he gets old enough. Sucks that will never happen.

I’m sure a lot of the frustration with this decision is rooted in the nostalgic/romantic view of college sports being confronted with the hard reality of the business.

Even though I can recognize accepting a B12 offer would be the “right” decision, I still won’t like it. And to be quite honest, I don’t think I will care as much as I do now. Maybe that means I’m not a true fan…

A true human perhaps. We as humans create paradigms and quite often stubbornly cling to that paradigm even if it starts to break down primarily because it’s too uncomfortable to have been proven wrong.

I have similar nostalgic feelings around the BE and the MSG BE Tournament but if the rumors come true I’ll start with a positive point of view and go from there. I don’t want any personal negative feelings influencing my attitude against a team I supported most of my life.

 

[ctchamps]

No, you'll see WVU, UCF and Cincinnati all the time. You might see Kansas twice a year, maybe not even in Connecticut.

Just imagine how often we’ll see @kobe and how infrequently we’ll see @FriarJ.

And not a moment too soon given kobe was running out of digs towards us. He finally got one clever one across. I was betting against him being able to repeat. Guess I there’s a correlation between supporting a pathetic team and cleverness.

 

[Rockford]

I believe B!2 rivalries would be fantastic. My son was on campus right before Covid in 2020 and the games against Cinci and Houston at Gampel were electric. Only game I went to this year was a sleeper versus DePaul in Hartford. How about the women's team in a conference with Baylor and Kansas?

Botom line UConn as a larger public institution has much more in common with state flagship schools in the B!2 than they do private east coast and midwest schools. (Prov, St John's, X, Georgetown. And the $$ has been discussed. Seems like a no brainer to me, especially if it turns into a national conference with Colorado, AZ, ASU....

 

[HuskyHawk]

Seton Hall had some great teams with PJ. PC had a great team with Rick. Barnes/Gillen had good, but not great teams, like Cooley. Seton Hall was occasionally bad post PJ, PC was almost always competitive.

I'd miss the PC games for sure. Those have always been competitive and good for both teams. I would hope they'd continue even if UConn leaves the BE. I don't care if we never play St. Johns or Seton Hall again though. Pitino might make SJU interesting I suppose.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

People really want to bet the entire future of the Athletic Department to play a post Cooley PC, a post Wright Nova, and a Georgetown, St. John's and Seton Hall program that have a combined 1 Elite 8 since the year 2000?

DePaul, Butler, Creighton, Xavier, and Marquette if we never played again i won't shed a tear.

I think many of you are more enamored with the idea of being in the Big East rather than what it is today. That and you resent UConn football.

If the BE had a tv deal for the next decade that you could hold your hat onto at least there would be some type of stability to point to.. right now the BE doesn't have a deal and the big networks are limited in bandwidth for tv slots. You guys really are so pumped to play Xavier on Peacock?

This doesn't even begin to take into account the football schedule and being in an AQ league. Which instantly brings the football program back from the dead and makes us relevant.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Exactly. The "retraction" came after two days of blow back.

And let go not long after.

 

[Jarhead_1775]

Are you guaranteeing that money? Like with an insurance policy? Otherwise, shhhh.