Pros of going Indy

[Rosebud70]

After trying to wrap my head around this. The only pro to this could possibly be money. Going Indy will open up 8 games if you can get half of those to be against power 5 teams that will pay you roughly a mill to come play them it will generate the program more money.

Also after a few years you may get those mid level 3 stars low 4 stars that could be offered by the powerhouses to play but not start right away. Having the possibility of starting at UConn could get us some of those players based on the fact they’d be playing against much stronger competition. In all seriousness over the last few years how many 3 stars have we gotten with P5 offers? I’m certain there’s been no 4 stars in many years. It may not be all bad if we schedule more B1G teams and possibly a few SEC and ACC teams.

 

[ZooCougar]

After trying to wrap my head around this. The only pro to this could possibly be money. Going Indy will open up 8 games if you can get half of those to be against power 5 teams that will pay you roughly a mill to come play them it will generate the program more money.

Also after a few years you may get those mid level 3 stars low 4 stars that could be offered by the powerhouses to play but not start right away. Having the possibility of starting at UConn could get us some of those players based on the fact they’d be playing against much stronger competition. In all seriousness over the last few years how many 3 stars have we gotten with P5 offers? I’m certain there’s been no 4 stars in many years. It may not be all bad if we schedule more B1G teams and possibly a few SEC and ACC teams.

We will never land 4 stars as an Indy. We barely landed then in the Big East days.

There really aren’t any pros. It’s basically more crappy than being in the AAC but it might help basketball. Might.

 

[Rosebud70]

Yea the only thing I see is a UofM or OSU or even a Bama playin the school a million to come get whooped. Bama and OSU are famous for that. Perfect example Mercer played Bama and auburn last year and got paid 1.5 mill roughly for each game

 

[Rosebud70]

If your gonna lose play top notch programs and get some money back to the university I guess

 

[huskysupporter]

There are no pros to going Indy for UCONN. None.

 

[SubInATub]

There are no pros to going Indy for UCONN. None.

Literally being able to play in the Big East for all other sports is the pro. This is the best move overall.

We will never land 4 stars as an Indy. We barely landed then in the Big East days.

Boston College doesn't get them either... Northeast won't have top college programs.

 

[UConnRock]

To the average fan is there any difference between playing Tulane, Tulsa, SMU, Memphis, and Houston than having annual games against UMass, Army, BYU, Liberty, and New Mexico st.

 

[Alum86]

It’s already 21-0 Clemson and we don’t play them ‘til next year.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Going Indy is like going Indy car racing. With no helmet

 

[Husky92]

To the average fan is there any difference between playing Tulane, Tulsa, SMU, Memphis, and Houston than having annual games against UMass, Army, BYU, Liberty, and New Mexico st.

I think this is a good point. The answer is "no. there is no real difference to the average fan." "Average" fans come for winning teams, recognizable names, and to see competition with peers. The first two can be done (maybe) as an independent or within a conference. It is yet to be seen if we can get recognizable names as an independent. The last point is the kicker. People will attend a game again USF or even Tulane if the conference championship is on the line. As an independent, we will never have that game(s) at the end of the season that says, "If we win, we'll win the division/conference/league." It'll be just another game (and likely one against a no name team like Tulane or UMass. Of course, if we keep playing 1-3 win seasons it doesn't matter anyway.

 

[06029]

For FB there are no pros. Recruiting will fall below where it is now unless the school goes all in on JuCo's like Boise and adopts a play anyone anywhere anytime. Total coaching and recruiting budgets will be slashed to try and balance revenue. Any successful coach/coordinator will be out the door quickly to a more stable platform for success and recruiting.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

We will never land 4 stars as an Indy. We barely landed then in the Big East days.

There really aren’t any pros. It’s basically more crappy than being in the AAC but it might help basketball. Might.

I know people who consider themselves football first fans (insane we even have a distinction...but this is UConn) are upset over being cast to the curb. I get it just as much as anyone who has spent countless weekends at The Rent and traveled all over the country to watch our program. I get it.

But can we please stop with this insane notion that joining the Big East "might" help basketball? As crazy as the basketball fans who say the football team never deserved to be FBS, blah blah blah, it looks just as ridiculous to say the school joining the 2nd or 3rd best hoops conference that plays games in our backyard against teams we care about is somehow similar at all to playing no name teams throughout the southwest that our fans will never care about.

I'm just as bummed about football - hell - anyone thats posted on this board the past decade clearly gives two craps. But just be fair and call it like it is.

This is huge for hoops, but pretty bad for football, which was already pretty much dead to begin with.

 

[ZooCougar]

I know people who consider themselves football first fans (insane we even have a distinction...but this is UConn) are upset over being cast to the curb. I get it just as much as anyone who has spent countless weekends at The Rent and traveled all over the country to watch our program. I get it.

But can we please stop with this insane notion that joining the Big East "might" help basketball? As crazy as the basketball fans who say the football team never deserved to be FBS, blah blah blah, it looks just as ridiculous to say the school joining the 2nd or 3rd best hoops conference that plays games in our backyard against teams we care about is somehow similar at all to playing no name teams throughout the southwest that our fans will never care about.

I'm just as bummed about football - hell - anyone thats posted on this board the past decade clearly gives two craps. But just be fair and call it like it is.

This is huge for hoops, but pretty bad for football, which was already pretty much dead to begin with.

Your memory fails you. We didn’t care about the 7 dwarves when we were in the real Big East. We won’t now either. This could end up looking really foolish.

 

[Austin316]

There are plenty of negatives... not going to get into it.

Pros:

scheduling your own opponents can positively impact your record and get back to bowl eligibility. Surely we will play beatable cup cakes but if it means getting back to a bowl against a beat up Air Force, San Diego State, or North Texas... then I’ll take it for now.

Money games will help boost revenue and might help put butts in the seats for an ACC or B10 former big east foe.

We can build relationships with regional teams in big conferences to become a cheap travel expense for an OOC game.

We might play ND again (very unlikely but I would love to have a rematch).

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

There are plenty of negatives... not going to get into it.

Pros:

scheduling your own opponents can positively impact your record and get back to bowl eligibility. Surely we will play beatable cup cakes but if it means getting back to a bowl against a beat up Air Force, San Diego State, or North Texas... then I’ll take it for now.

Money games will help boost revenue and might help put butts in the seats for an ACC or B10 former big east foe.

We can build relationships with regional teams in big conferences to become a cheap travel expense for an OOC game.

We might play ND again (very unlikely but I would love to have a rematch).

Indy equals no conference equals no bowl tie-in. 5-7 NC State would have a better shot a bowl than a 10-2 UConn team if we were Indy.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Your memory fails you. We didn’t care about the 7 dwarves when we were in the real Big East. We won’t now either. This could end up looking really foolish.

You may not have cared. I know when I was at UConn but most people did care about playing Villanova, Georgetown, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and even Marquette (which became a very good game even from the onset of them joining the league..think there was a stretch of like 4 games decided by 4 points).

So, sure, from a rivalry standpoint, Xavier, Butler, Depaul and Creighton aren't much just yet, but Xavier,and Butler are perennial tournament teams, and Creighton is solid more often than not. DePaul just built a brand new arena in Chicago as well.

 

[Slasher]

After trying to wrap my head around this. The only pro to this could possibly be money. Going Indy will open up 8 games if you can get half of those to be against power 5 teams that will pay you roughly a mill to come play them it will generate the program more money.

Also after a few years you may get those mid level 3 stars low 4 stars that could be offered by the powerhouses to play but not start right away. Having the possibility of starting at UConn could get us some of those players based on the fact they’d be playing against much stronger competition. In all seriousness over the last few years how many 3 stars have we gotten with P5 offers? I’m certain there’s been no 4 stars in many years. It may not be all bad if we schedule more B1G teams and possibly a few SEC and ACC teams.

You can get those buy games while being in the AAC. Sure you have maybe one or two more slots for them, but it's going to be really tough to play P5 buy games outside of September or early October. So maybe you can open with four buy games, but that means no FCS warmup game or really any home games early in the year. And then late in the year the home games will be other independents. It's going to be really tough.

 

[ZooCougar]

You may not have cared. I know when I was at UConn but most people did care about playing Villanova, Georgetown, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and even Marquette (which became a very good game even from the onset of them joining the league..think there was a stretch of like 4 games decided by 4 points).

So, sure, from a rivalry standpoint, Xavier, Butler, Depaul and Creighton aren't much just yet, but Xavier,and Butler are perennial tournament teams, and Creighton is solid more often than not. DePaul just built a brand new arena in Chicago as well.

No, they did not. Other than Nova and Georgetown those games had very little juice.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

No, they did not. Other than Nova and Georgetown those games has very little juice.

Not sure when/if you were ever at UConn, but I can only touch on my experiences when I was there from 2005-2009. I just checked all four years and looked up home games vs. St. John's, Seton Hall, Providence, Marquette, and Depaul, and the games were either sell outs barring the following exceptions Seton Hall game at XL that "only" had 15k one year at XL, St. John's had 9.6K at Gampel, Providence 13.7K XL, Depaul 14.8K at XL.

So, in other words, they would have been among our best home games since being in the AAC.

 

[06029]

Not sure when/if you were ever at UConn, but I can only touch on my experiences when I was there from 2005-2009. I just checked all four years and looked up home games vs. St. John's, Seton Hall, Providence, Marquette, and Depaul, and the games were either sell outs barring the following exceptions Seton Hall game at XL that "only" had 15k one year at XL, St. John's had 9.6K at Gampel, Providence 13.7K XL, Depaul 14.8K at XL.

So, in other words, they would have been among our best home games since being in the AAC.

Average attendance and records:
Last Years in BE
2005 13,771(23-8 record; second round)
2006 13,948 (30-4 record; regional final)
2007 13,012 (17-14 record; no tournament)
2008 11,887 24-9 record; first round)
2009 12,518 (record 31-5; national semi)
2010 11,685 (record 18-16; no tournament)
2011 11,569 (record 31-9; National Championship)
2012 12,640 (record 20-14; second round)
2013 10,728 (record 20-10; no tournament)

AAC
2014 10,134 (record 32-8; National Championship; you could argue these were Calhoun's players)
2015 10,687 (record 20-15; no NCAA)
2016 10,413 (record 25-11; second round)
2017 8,505 (record 16-17; no NCAA)
2018 7,829 (record 14-18; no NCAA)

Bottom line is win your games, be ranked and attendance is stronger. You will have 3 games a year that may have increased attendance over the AAC

 

[nelsonmuntz]

After trying to wrap my head around this. The only pro to this could possibly be money. Going Indy will open up 8 games if you can get half of those to be against power 5 teams that will pay you roughly a mill to come play them it will generate the program more money.

Also after a few years you may get those mid level 3 stars low 4 stars that could be offered by the powerhouses to play but not start right away. Having the possibility of starting at UConn could get us some of those players based on the fact they’d be playing against much stronger competition. In all seriousness over the last few years how many 3 stars have we gotten with P5 offers? I’m certain there’s been no 4 stars in many years. It may not be all bad if we schedule more B1G teams and possibly a few SEC and ACC teams.

Our football recruiting is rock bottom right now, so it can't really get any worse. Football is going to get 3 kinds of kids going forward:

1) FCS players that want to play FBS
2) Northeastern G5 caliber players that didn't get many FBS offers because no one recruits up here.
3) The occasional borderline P5 player that doesn't want to ride the bench for 4 years for the chance to start his 5th year.

That is basically what Edsall got in the 2000's, with the occasional 4* and 3* that had other offers.

Our recruiting will not be measurably worse as an independent than it was in the AAC, and I think it may get better.

 

[coachcap]

There are plenty of negatives... not going to get into it.

Pros:

scheduling your own opponents can positively impact your record and get back to bowl eligibility. Surely we will play beatable cup cakes but if it means getting back to a bowl against a beat up Air Force, San Diego State, or North Texas... then I’ll take it for now.

Money games will help boost revenue and might help put butts in the seats for an ACC or B10 former big east foe.

We can build relationships with regional teams in big conferences to become a cheap travel expense for an OOC game.

We might play ND again (very unlikely but I would love to have a rematch).

I read these remarks & thought back to UCONN's first in the RENT, its last as a independent. Opening at Indiana, beating a Paul Johnson coached Navy team in Annapolis 38-0. Having a 9-2 (?) record & STILL be shut out of bowl selection. Then, UCONN was an "unknown" commodity. Currently the Huskies own a multiseason losing record. How will playing patsies to get the W-L record to bowl eligibility ensure selection to a minor bowl, virtually all of which are owned by Disney? (Which UCONN has just spat in its face)

 

[EJHarrington]

There's plenty of Bowl Games (too many). If we go 6-6 as an Independent we likely will be in. If we go 7-5 it will b e a sure thing.

 

[don356]

Our football recruiting is rock bottom right now, so it can't really get any worse. Football is going to get 3 kinds of kids going forward:

1) FCS players that want to play FBS
2) Northeastern G5 caliber players that didn't get many FBS offers because no one recruits up here.
3) The occasional borderline P5 player that doesn't want to ride the bench for 4 years for the chance to start his 5th year.

That is basically what Edsall got in the 2000's, with the occasional 4* and 3* that had other offers.

Our recruiting will not be measurably worse as an independent than it was in the AAC, and I think it may get better.

Boy, i don't know. I hope you are correct, but at least during the 2000's era he had a conference to recruit to. Not having any set schedule home or away, and likely having to go on the road an awful lot to take some bad beatings would make it hard to recruit comparatively from that set of cards. I also worry about the perception of how many folks are going to watch you play live or on tv. It will be interesting to see how many current players stick. LIkely a good indication of things to come, particularly with a relatively young team.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Boy, i don't know. I hope you are correct, but at least during the 2000's era he had a conference to recruit to. Not having any set schedule home or away, and likely having to go on the road an awful lot to take some bad beatings would make it hard to recruit comparatively from that set of cards. I also worry about the perception of how many folks are going to watch you play live or on tv. It will be interesting to see how many current players stick. LIkely a good indication of things to come, particularly with a relatively young team.

We won't get the Orlovsky caliber player as an independent.

We are probably better off just taking transfers and JUCOs for QB rather than trying to recruit freshmen, because we will get the bottom of the barrel at that position and it is one of the easier positions to evaluate for coaches, so there are not as many "under the radar" players. Better to wait for juniors once they realize they will never get to play at wherever they are and just want to get on the field somewhere.

To be honest, that is not a bad strategy for a lot of the positions.

There are a million running backs, wide receivers and defensive backs out there, and Edsall has typically been good at player evaluation and finding the kids that others miss.

The lines will have to be built off 1* and 2* players, but that is how over half of college football builds their lines.

 

[don356]

Sounds a lot like the prison team in the Longest Yard, LOL. The beer better be cheap to watch those beat downs. Get the training staff ready.

 

[Redding Husky]

I know people who consider themselves football first fans (insane we even have a distinction...but this is UConn) are upset over being cast to the curb. I get it just as much as anyone who has spent countless weekends at The Rent and traveled all over the country to watch our program. I get it.

But can we please stop with this insane notion that joining the Big East "might" help basketball? As crazy as the basketball fans who say the football team never deserved to be FBS, blah blah blah, it looks just as ridiculous to say the school joining the 2nd or 3rd best hoops conference that plays games in our backyard against teams we care about is somehow similar at all to playing no name teams throughout the southwest that our fans will never care about.

I'm just as bummed about football - hell - anyone thats posted on this board the past decade clearly gives two craps. But just be fair and call it like it is.

This is huge for hoops, but pretty bad for football, which was already pretty much dead to begin with.

Unfortunately, college sports is 80% football, 15% basketball, and 5% everything else.

 

[Jaybird65]

There's plenty of Bowl Games (too many). If we go 6-6 as an Independent we likely will be in. If we go 7-5 it will b e a sure thing.

Doing a quick check on-line, all current bowls have contractual tie-ins with conferences. This past year, there were more conference teams bowl eligible than there were slots available heading into the last weekend of the season. Army was 9-2 at that time & ranked #23 in the country & was projected as not going to a bowl until there were a couple of upsets that last weekend that opened up a couple slots. The only sure thing for a bowl bid as a independent is ND if they are bowl eligible.

 

[MustangMan]

Indy equals no conference equals no bowl tie-in. 5-7 NC State would have a better shot a bowl than a 10-2 UConn team if we were Indy.

And ESPN literally owns many of the lower level bowls. BYU doesn’t have a huge problem since ESPN is their partner? How will a “Fox” team be treated by ESPN?

 

[don356]

Cobbling together 6 bowl eligibility wins as an independent will be a tough, tough task.