Possible Big 12 Invite rumors

[uconn_jack]

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You could spin those same facts an alternative way. The state should commitment to football by building a 40,000 seat stadium. Despite not being a part of the P5 UConn has shown its commitment to athletics by maintaining a P5 level office spending and it's athletic department.


In any event anyone who thinks having a stadium 25 minutes off-campus doesn't hurt us should rethink that opinion.

IMO building the Rent in East Hartford was the single biggest mistake UConn (or rather the state) has made in its pursuit of a credible D1 football program.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

IMO building the Rent in East Hartford was the single biggest mistake UConn (or rather the state) has made in its pursuit of a credible D1 football program.

Staying in a southern mid-major league as long as UConn did was by far the biggest mistake UConn has ever made, and nothing else is close.

 

[Chin Diesel]

A very good player just decommitted from a Big 10 school because he wanted a better NIL package and we landed him. This is why I think the concerns about us not being able to compete long-term if we don't join a P5 conference are a bit blown out of proportion.

I was going to write the above post in jest as if a grad transfer in basketball will affect university president decisions but, what the heck, you beat me to it.

 

[Tyler2Rings]

IMO building the Rent in East Hartford was the single biggest mistake UConn (or rather the state) has made in its pursuit of a credible D1 football program.

Staying in a southern mid-major league as long as UConn did was by far the biggest mistake UConn has ever made, and nothing else is close.

Add to that 3 consecutive bad HC hires and CANCELLING an entire season. We have Bingo!!

 

[HuskyHawk]

The more schools you add to a conference, the more diluted it gets. Last few years has been peak Big 12, I don’t think it’ll get better than that.

If UConn and Arizona are 2 of 4, it might.

 

[Rico444]

You’re comparing lowly Rutgers vs. reigning national champion UConn in 2023 and using it as anecdotal evidence that our ability to compete long term in blown out of proportion. This decision is not based on a recruiting battle in 2023, it’s a twenty plus year decision.

All I've been hearing for the last twelve years is that we don't make enough money to compete with schools in the P5. Twelve years, and yet we're still having great recruiting success, haven't heard a peep about our head coach that just won a national title leaving for a "bigger" school, our conference mates are paying their head coaches big money and having huge success with NIL attracting recruits (look at what Villanova has accomplished the last 2 months). So yes, I absolutely believe this issue is overblown and we will be able to compete long-term.

As long as the NCAA tournament or whatever iteration of it is here in the future is highly valued by the public, UConn won't have any trouble competing.

 

[The Yakk]

AZ and ... AZ St. if the Big 12 feels forced in some way. They don't really need 2 teams in a market with the exception being huge markets like Texas, FL, CA that can still generate added value.

AZ and AZ St. is a fantastic rivalry that is worth money to any conference. They should be together.

Also, Phoenix and Tucson are seperate markets and there is value in both.

AZ St. should be ahead of Utah in the pecking order. We should be ahead of Utah as well.

 

[HuskyHawk]

A very good player just decommitted from a Big 10 school because he wanted a better NIL package and we landed him. This is why I think the concerns about us not being able to compete long-term if we don't join a P5 conference are a bit blown out of proportion.

Did he say it was all about money and not about wanting to go deep in March? I never saw that if he did.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Staying in a southern mid-major league as long as UConn did was by far the biggest mistake UConn has ever made, and nothing else is close.

Hold on. It wasn’t great. But that venue is not a minus. Ignore the media. It’s a non factor for visitors. For UConn students and the pageantry? It isn’t ideal.

 

[uconn_jack]

Staying in a southern mid-major league as long as UConn did was by far the biggest mistake UConn has ever made, and nothing else is close.

Yes, that was a big mistake overall, but not for football specifcally. If we had built the stadium on campus, we would have gotten a better look from the other conferences during the previous shuffles.

 

[uconn_jack]

Add to that 3 consecutive bad HC hires and CANCELLING an entire season. We have Bingo!!

Problem is HC mistakes can be fixed, and looks like we may have this time (at least for the time being). Not as easy to rebuild a multi million dollar stadium.

 

[CL82]

IMO building the Rent in East Hartford was the single biggest mistake UConn (or rather the state) has made in its pursuit of a credible D1 football program.

Hmmm...

Third worst?

 

[uconn_jack]

Hmmm...
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Third worst?

Like I said, HC can be fixed, not so easy moving a stadium. The Rent in East Hartford is the mistake that keeps on giving and therefore the mistake with the most impact.

 

[CL82]

All I've been hearing for the last twelve years is that we don't make enough money to compete with schools in the P5. Twelve years, and yet we're still having great recruiting success, haven't heard a peep about our head coach that just won a national title leaving for a "bigger" school, our conference mates are paying their head coaches big money and having huge success with NIL attracting recruits (look at what Villanova has accomplished the last 2 months). So yes, I absolutely believe this issue is overblown and we will be able to compete long-term.

As long as the NCAA tournament or whatever iteration of it is here in the future is highly valued by the public, UConn won't have any trouble competing.

And yet we ran a $53 million deficit last season. An architect designed plans for a revamped Gampel but our athletic Director came out and said we can't afford it. We just built a 1500 seat hockey arena, well below the minimum standard in Hockey East because we couldn't afford 3500 seats. Our football team can't keep a normal number of non-scholarship players because we can't afford it. We are cutting our Olympic sports, because we can't afford it.

 

[superjohn]

Hmmm...
View attachment 88785

View attachment 88784

Third worst?

Worst

 

[John]

I do not care about a single team in the big12. Don't know how anyone on this board can make the argument strictly as a fan. It all comes down to some bs misguided notion that we need to jump to "stay competitive." Apparently it bears repeating: we're currently in the best basketball conference in the country, have one of the best coaches in the country and will not have trouble attracting top recruits

I don't know how anyone can make the argument you're making.

 

[nadav]

Staying in a southern mid-major league as long as UConn did was by far the biggest mistake UConn has ever made, and nothing else is close.

Problem for who? You only care about basketball. Seems like basketball is in a good spot!

 

[Palatine]

UConn, Gonzaga, Houston. That would be stealing the best basketball programs from three other conferences to add to Kansas. It's a murderers row.

Throw in Baylor, Cinny, West Virginia, Iowa State (maybe BYU). It's very deep. Perhaps the best basketball conference in the country. Certainly more quality than the BE. If you're a recruit don't you want to play against the best.

 

[businesslawyer]

Like I said, HC can be fixed, not so easy moving a stadium. The Rent in East Hartford is the mistake that keeps on giving and therefore the mistake with the most impact.

You can keep saying it, and the board can keep arguing whether or not UConn made the right move by doing it for another 20 years. But the thought that another school gives a crap, as if it effects their players, donors or pocketbook, is just dumb. If we join the Big XII and one day are trying to recruit Miami when the ACC implodes, you really think you would be influenced to vote no because their football games aren't played in Coral Gables?

 

[CL82]

WorstView attachment 88787

I thought about that. FUCHCRE1 had a bad exit for us, but he did a nice job of helping us transition to FBS football. (You may not realize this but we used to be in trailers.) FUCHCRE2 was it a sh.itshow, but at that point we were already down so low that I don't credit him with taking a lower. He just didn't help us at all. Reasonable people can disagree on that though.

 

[CL82]

You can keep saying it, and the board can keep arguing whether or not UConn made the right move by doing it for another 20 years. But the thought that another school gives a crap, ... is just dumb.

I guess, but the Trammel article specifically talked about our stadium being off campus as one of the negatives about us as a conference realignment target.

 

[CL82]

Like I said, HC can be fixed, not so easy moving a stadium. The Rent in East Hartford is the mistake that keeps on giving and therefore the mistake with the most impact.

Fair enough but apparently, it hasn't been so easy to fix the head coaching situation either. The double whammy of Pasqualoni and Diaco would bring most programs to their knees.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

If UConn was Salma Hayek , Tramel would criticize her for being too short. His opinion or someone else's that he is parroting?

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I do not care about a single team in the big12. Don't know how anyone on this board can make the argument strictly as a fan. It all comes down to some bs misguided notion that we need to jump to "stay competitive." Apparently it bears repeating: we're currently in the best basketball conference in the country, have one of the best coaches in the country and will not have trouble attracting top recruits

You can say that if we are in the B12, + more $.

 

[Blades]

if we're in the Big XII, and Miami wants in, and you think that it's generally a good idea, would you consider voting no just because their stadium is off campus?

Wait Biz, wasn't that the reason the B1G turned down UCLA, because their stadium is 27 miles off campus and over an hour away on a good day in Pasadena

 

[Chief00]

And yet we ran a $53 million deficit last season. An architect designed plans for a revamped Gampel but our athletic Director came out and said we can't afford it. We just built a 1500 seat hockey arena, well below the minimum standard in Hockey East because we couldn't afford 3500 seats. Our football team can't keep a normal number of non-scholarship players because we can't afford it. We are cutting our Olympic sports, because we can't afford it.

I think the state should turn the XL Center and The Rent over to UConn, actually hire some competent managers and see what happens. Absent an NHL team, this is the most logical path forward. The problem is what ex politicians do for a living and we need to unwrap that and not be hostage to the usual CT game.

 

[CL82]

Yes. And Ajou Ajou Deng would have been the best player on our '99 championship team. People say/write things all the time that they don't believe because it serves their purposes

Lol, kind of missing the point here Biz, it is specifically a talking point that hurts the program and was expressly written about by a well respected columnist. Your speculation that the quoted individual "really didn't believe it" seems like whistling in the dark.

So I will ask you since UConn Jack hasn't answered -- if we're in the Big XII, and Miami wants in, and you think that it's generally a good idea, would you consider voting no just because their stadium is off campus? If you can truthfully say yes, then maybe you can think there is any chance whatsoever Trammel even believes that. But I don't see a rational person caring one iota -- just after they've decided no saying whatever comes to mind to justify it

Lol, this is such an odd hypothetical that I could see why UConn jack ignored it. So you're saying if, hypothetically, UConn having a stadium 25 miles off campus didn't prevent them from getting a P5 offer, would another P5 program hypothetically looking to relocate their program not join a hypothetical target conference because uconnmatt has a stadium 25 miles off campus? Haha I have no idea know… There are just too many moving pieces in that hypothetical for it to be realistically evaluated.

 

[Waquoit]

If UConn was Salma Hayek , Tramel would criticize her for being too short. His opinion or someone else's that he is parroting?

The Big 10 didn't care about on-campus stadiums when they just added teams but the Big 12 does? It's not a valid concern, it's trolling from the haters.

 

[CL82]

I think the state should turn the XL Center and The Rent over to UConn, actually hire some competent managers and see what happens. Absent an NHL team, this is the most logical path forward. The problem is what ex politicians do for a living and we need to unwrap that and not be hostage to the usual CT game.

At first blush, some people will look at this and say "well, then the state loses all the money from the UConn rental fees" but since the state foots the bill for that anyway, this idea is actually a net positive for the state because they eliminate the salaries and overhead of the incompetent CDRA. The more interesting question is why would UConn want control of a dilapidated, money losing, half century old arena over 30 miles from campus?

I do think if the state wants Connecticut to play there, it should make the facility available rent free and split the profits from the game. All that would do is eliminate the states subsidy of the XL Center from running through the University of Connecticut athletic department.

 

[UCTitleTown]

The most laughable thing I've seen recently is talk of the Big 10 considering adding that prestigious academic institution, Miami.....