Realignment and UConn

[John]

Have any UConn sports actually benefited from UConn leaving the Big East? Has the AAC been good for any of our athletic programs?

 

[huskymedic]

Have any UConn sports actually benefited from UConn leaving the Big East? Has the AAC been good for any of our athletic programs?

Hasn't hurt baseball... AAC baseball is a strong conference.

 

[Guapo]

Have any UConn sports actually benefited from UConn leaving the Big East? Has the AAC been good for any of our athletic programs?

Repeat after me, slowly:

UConn DID NOT LEAVE THE BIG EAST

 

[Durks07]

Have any UConn sports actually benefited from UConn leaving the Big East? Has the AAC been good for any of our athletic programs?

Isn't the fact that you are even asking the question itself pretty solid proof of the answer?

 

[RyanCT7]

Have any UConn sports actually benefited from UConn leaving the Big East? Has the AAC been good for any of our athletic programs?

Sometimes I wish you an everyone else that apparently doesn't remember how crappy it was not having a Division I Football team in our state would just give it a rest.

 

[ASweet3781]

It certainly hasn't helped men's sports. Football obviously. Soccer and Basketball both had some of their most disappointing teams in a while last season.

 

[Guapo]

It certainly hasn't helped men's sports. Football obviously. Soccer and Basketball both had some of their most disappointing teams in a while last season.

Why are we answering this question? The fundamental premise is totally false.

UConn did not leave the big east.

 

[Fishy]

There isn't a single aspect of realignment that has not harmed UConn.

Of course, that was the intent of all involved.

 

[Guapo]

There isn't a single aspect of realignment that has not harmed UConn.

Of course, that was the intent of all involved.

I don't think anyone disagrees with this; the thing that annoys me here is that the OP is implying that UConn actively hurt itself by choosing to leave the big east.

 

[billybud]

Fishy may be right...there are forces working against opportunities for the G5 to move up.


As a recent article states...Nick Saban is the Doug Neidermeyer of college football.

"Memphis, UCF, Houston, Cincinnati and USF fans, meet the Most Dangerous Man in the World:

Nick Neidermeyer, Omega Membership Chairman.

I meant Nick Saban, but I keep getting flashbacks to a scene in “Animal House. It’s fraternity rush week at Faber College. Larry Kroger and Kent “Flounder” Dorfman knock on the door of the pompous Omega House.

Doug Neidermeyer quickly sizes them up as losers and escorts them to the social outcast area where he introduces them to Mohammet, Jugdish, Sidney and Clayton.

Fast-forward 39 years. Saban is Neidermeyer, the Omega House is the Power Five and everybody else might as well be Jugdish U.

Saban thinks all Group of Five schools were created equal, as in equally unworthy. His latest stiff-arm must have made American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco want to smash a guitar over the Alabama coach’s head.

Among other items, Saban told ESPN he’d like Power Five conference teams to schedule only other Power Five teams.

Saban’s idea is not without merit. The good part is it would eliminate joke games like Baylor vs. Lamar or Wisconsin vs. Georgia State where the sacrificial lambs are just there for the payday.

The not-so-good part is that it would be a death blow to every team that aspires to greatness.


Half the schools in the AAC thought they had realistic shot at joining the Big 12 last season. When that expansion charade went nowhere, the league rolled out its “Power6”marketing plan, aiming to equate itself with the Omega House boys.

“This is a critical period for the American Athletic Conference, and we approach it with optimism and confidence," Aresco said at AAC Media Days. “The confence is clearly on the cusp of great things, having already accomplished so much in our relatively brief history.”

The league will be history if it can’t play Power Five schools.

Nobody cares to see P-5 teams play Presbyterian or Lamar or Chattanooga. It’s another toga party altogether when Houston or Boise State comes to town. Saban essentially wants to throw out the BYUs with the G-5 bathwater.

Nick Saban's hopes would kill AAC dreams

 

[Rappin'Rodney]

As a recent article states...Nick Saban is the Doug Neidermeyer of college football.

Billybob, I like you, I really do, and I don't know how to say this, but...I'll just put it out there--Jim Delany has been proverbially banging the ACC's old lady yet again. I don't know when this will happen--next year, 5-years from now, 10-years from now, but the coastal division is going to lose a member to the B1G. And when this happens, I'll wear a black armband for your loss, because I know for FSU fans and alums football is king. Oh and BTW, have Swofford call Bob Bowlsby for that AAC G5 candidate short list, cause it'll help John back to the country club just a little bit sooner.

 

[Rappin'Rodney]

Billybob, I don't know how to say this, but...

 

[Rappin'Rodney]

Billybob, I don't know how to say this, but...

 

[Ldandy]

Delany made a mistake in targeting UNC and UVA out of The ACC the last go around. I get it. UVA makes geographic and academic sense and UNC is the crown jewel of the conference. The problem is that both are ACC to their core, and are not going to be motivated to act primarily by money.

JMO but after UMD jumped ship and uncertainty reigned, they should have moved quickly to try to grab GT and VPI. Tech gets the conference entrenched in the growing city of Atlanta, while VPI's addition would create an eternal strangle hold on the DMV along side PSU and UMD.

Strangely just like with UMD, these losses could have been absorbed by the conference and proved far from fatal. WVU, UConn, and Cincy all would have been reasonable replacements that could have grown the conference's footprint and improved it in some areas on the field/court.

 

[billybud]

Billybob, I like you, I really do, and I don't know how to say this, but...I'll just put it out there--Jim Delany has been proverbially banging the ACC's old lady yet again. I don't know when this will happen--next year, 5-years from now, 10-years from now, but the coastal division is going to lose a member to the B1G. And when this happens, I'll wear a black armband for your loss, because I know for FSU fans and alums football is king. Oh and BTW, have Swofford call Bob Bowlsby for that AAC G5 candidate short list, cause it'll help John back to the country club just a little bit sooner.

I won't be alive in 2035...(well...the odds against me making it to 86 are pretty well stacked) and will be way past caring about football.

The ACC, in my lifetime, will be just fine.

I suspect that I could see the ACC go to 16, or may not....

Me? I would trade Virginia for USF or Houston in a heartbeat....But please, please,,would someone take Boston College. Please.

But..your anger is misdirected...the King, Nick Saban, wants to exclude the G5...

 

[Kemba429]

We need to just reply to everything Benedict says on twitter with "get us out of the American."

 

[SubZero]

Me? I would trade Virginia for USF or Houston in a heartbeat....But please, please,,would someone take Boston College. Please.

So get rid of some of the highest academic ranked ACC schools and replace them with academic losers so FSU doesn't look so bad?

 

[billybud]

In a sports conference...I don't watch the debate teams in action...

There could be some media money for televised debate action, I guess....or maybe a form of Jeopardy type competition.

 

[huskyrob1]

There isn't a single aspect of realignment that has not harmed UConn.

Of course, that was the intent of all involved.

Things might have been very very different had Lew Perkins not left Storrs when he did, allowing Hathaway to run the Athletic Dept. If that doesn't occur then HCRE might never have jumped ship to Maryland. The football program hopefully would've continued to improve, Moorhead and others might have hung around too. Louisville joins the Big 12 when the ACC invites us over them. Maybe Calhoun also doesn't retire so early if these things happen, and men's basketball remains a Juggernaut.

 

[huskyrob1]

In a sports conference...I don't watch the debate teams in action...

There could be some media money for televised debate action, I guess....or maybe a form of Jeopardy type competition.

Do you watch college baseball, soccer, tennis, or Lacrosse? UVA has very recently won National Championships in those sports, their men's basketball team was also nationally ranked very recently, and their football team is no push over. Their athletes are true student athletes, not paid mercinaries, and it's endowment could probably bail out both Connecticut and Illinois state governments.

 

[NE Football]

Our biggest problem now is our state is in a free fall financially. Businesses are leaving, home values are declining and our population is declining. We have G5 written all over us for years, even decades to come.

 

[Adios]

VT and UConn? That would be cool.

 

[billybud]

Do you watch college baseball, soccer, tennis, or Lacrosse? UVA has very recently won National Championships in those sports, their men's basketball team was also nationally ranked very recently, and their football team is no push over. Their athletes are true student athletes, not paid mercinaries, and it's endowment could probably bail out both Connecticut and Illinois state governments.

No....I do not watch tennis nor Lacrosse.....we don't have Lacrosse down here in SEC country and Tennis is rarely televised. Basketball? I have just begun to watch but can't say that I am a real fan.

Virginia's football team has been bad of late.

They went 2-10 last year...and have had five losing years in a row and have had losing years in 8 of the last 10 seasons. They make Boston College look good (BC has had 3 losing seasons in the last 10). It's the game that BC can count on winning (they haven't lost to Virginia since FSU joined the conference).

Virginia has a bunch of non revenue sports....25 to FSU's 17.,,,,they are very good at some of these sports and I always enjoy watching their baseball team play FSU.

 

[huskyrob1]

No....I do not watch tennis nor Lacrosse.....we don't have Lacrosse down here in SEC country and Tennis is rarely televised. Basketball? I have just begun to watch but can't say that I am a real fan.

Virginia's football team has been bad of late.

They went 2-10 last year...and have had five losing years in a row and have had losing years in 8 of the last 10 seasons. They make Boston College look good (BC has had 3 losing seasons in the last 10). It's the game that BC can count on winning (they haven't lost to Virginia since FSU joined the conference).

Virginia has a bunch of non revenue sports....25 to FSU's 17.,,,,they are very good at some of these sports and I always enjoy watching their baseball team play FSU.

Stay down there in SEC country. If you're a genuine UCONN fan then I'm a Dan Malloy fan.

 

[Adios]

Our biggest problem now is our state is in a free fall financially. Businesses are leaving, home values are declining and our population is declining. We have G5 written all over us for years, even decades to come.

Fairfield County is not declining.

We're next in line for the ACC and people think we're staying in the AAC...

Some fanbase we got. Someone described it as spoiled?