Report: UConn Going To Big East For 2020-2021 Season

[HuskyHawk]

I don’t think she cares about football. Her background is Duke.

The school we just signed up to play in Football.

 

[Adios]

Lol @ this horse manure.

 

[Devland]

This could turn out to be a disaster. With recruiting up in the AAC and the Big East being mediocre last year it is quite possible that the Big East could be looking up at the AAC in a couple years. There wasn't a big difference between the leagues this year.

 

[Adios]

We're still looking for P5 football home and homes.

Don't believe this nonsense. We can't leave the AAC with a football program. My God. Someone was saying something about people being so gullible in some other thread?

 

[HuskyHawk]

This could turn out to be a disaster. With recruiting up in the AAC and the Big East being mediocre last year it is quite possible that the Big East could be looking up at the AAC in a couple years. There wasn't a big difference between the leagues this year.

The Big East is looking up at the AAC right now. It’s already here.

 

[Kenny11]

From over a week ago.....

That thread and threadstarter was pooped on pretty hard if I remember correctly.

But I don’t know what to say about this, just going to wait and see.

 

[Dean Wormer]

That thread and threadstarter was pooped on pretty hard if I remember correctly.

But I don’t know what to say about this, just going to wait and see.

Same. I didn’t think it was feasible, but there’s lots of smoke right now. If true, I’m not sure how i feel about this.

 

[reddevilhusky]

I didn’t share this because I had no idea how credible it was but I had heard something about this second hand a couple of months ago. A friend in my class is really close to a family of big boosters and they were texting her all excited about going back to the big east. Now this girl didn’t even know what a conference was for college sports so I figured it could have been plausible. Hadn’t heard even a rumor about it since so I figured it was nothing but here we are with this report so I thought I’d share in case it is possible.

 

[UConnNick]

Thank you. Reading from Belgium, that is was what went through my head. I think going to Big East would be a major step backwards even for basketball. I don’t see it happening and if it does it’s another in a long line of short sighted mistakes. The American, as it is right now, is a better basketball conference next season than the Big East. I expect it to keep getting better and the Big East to lose ground.

That's what scares me about it. Suzy has never been smart about the athletics program. If this is for real and not some half assed negotiating ploy to keep the SNY deal, then it's a long term disaster for athletics at UConn, unless the deal includes admission to the ACC for football only. Even our new president said football will not be killed. This would kill it.

 

[UConnNick]

This could turn out to be a disaster. With recruiting up in the AAC and the Big East being mediocre last year it is quite possible that the Big East could be looking up at the AAC in a couple years. There wasn't a big difference between the leagues this year.

The AAC was better than the new Big Least last season, and is going to continue to be.

And that's just in basketball. The AAC is a great baseball conference and will continue to get better. We just spent millions on a new baseball stadium.

The AAC is committed to competing head to head with the P5 leagues. With the exception of Tulsa, all of the AAC schools have money to spend on athletics. Most of the schools have huge enrollments and huge alumni bases. Financially almost all of the schools dwarf those in the new Big Least.

UConn is a flagship state university. Almost all flagships support a football team, whether their program makes money or not. Our incoming president publicly expressed support for the football program. How will the state politicians feel about taking a wrecking ball to PAWS-ARF?

 

[HuskyHawk]

That's what scares me about it. Suzy has never been smart about the athletics program. If this is for real and not some half assed negotiating ploy to keep the SNY deal, then it's a long term disaster for athletics at UConn, unless the deal includes admission to the ACC for football only. Even our new president said football will not be killed. This would kill it.

I really hope this is a ploy. ESPN has never, in its existence, not had UConn in its portfolio. Does it care? Maybe not. But if it does, put us in the ACC with independent football and a scheming deal like Norte Dame. That’s the outcome we need.

 

[UConnNick]

I really hope this is a ploy. ESPN has never, in its existence, not had UConn in its portfolio. Does it care? Maybe not. But if it does, put us in the ACC with independent football and a scheming deal like Norte Dame. That’s the outcome we need.

Not that it likely matters to them, but we are by far the cheapest property to produce in the entire ESPN inventory. They can be in Hartford in half an hour, Storrs in an hour.

Instead we're going to be on FOX Sports getting routinely beaten out by women's games in the same time slots, and for less money than the AAC? The whole country can't wait to see us play Creighton. Fox should use the sound of crickets as their intro music to NBE basketball games.

 

[pj]

Better than UConn in football? You're joking right?

Better for the league. UConn brings a whole state and some fans in NYC. No other candidate would bring as large a market.

Football performance is cyclical, it depends so much on coach and quarterback. If the school invests in football it will be competitive.

 

[uconndogs]

Herbst wants another Presidential gig and won’t get it unless she get a conference realignment win. This is her idea of a win

Mother of god that’s about the most stupid thing I have ever read!

 

[uconngb]

Hmmmm......I mentioned that I had heard this a couple weeks ago from a Providence insider and I got skewered about a thousand times. If it ends up being true, I wonder how many apologies I get??

I’m looking at you Fishy.

 

[temery]

Hmmmm.I mentioned that I had heard this a couple weeks ago from a Providence insider and I got skewered about a thousand times. If it ends up being true, I wonder how many apologies I get??

I’m looking at you Fishy.

Oh, this is gonna be fun.

 

[uconngb]

Not saying this report makes it true......but if it ends up being true, I’d love to see who fesses up. And paraphrasing from Fishy’s initial response:

“Your source is not CLOSE to credible”

“Blah, blah, blah.....the long answer is ain’t happening. The short answer is......lol, no”

 

[Chin Diesel]

This will be a fun case study on one source being used multiple times by other sources and morph in to a multiple sources are saying..... news story.

Other fun part is right now there are 5 pages of posts on the basketball board and 5 posts on the football board.

 

[CCSUblue]

But where are the reputable sources?

 

[Wordbomar]

None of the horde have confirmed or denied anything yet

 

[Chin Diesel]

None of the horde have confirmed or denied anything yet

They've been asleep since 8pm last night and haven't taken their Geritol yet this morning. Most of them are trying to remember how to unlock their phones or open an app.

 

[CTFIRERETIRED]

The article makes it seem we will keep the football program around in some facet. Maybe going back to lower division.

Then I guess that multi million dollar investment in the "Rent", was just more "pissed" away tax money.

 

[DefCONNOne]

The school we just signed up to play in Football.

"We can still play them as an Independent!" - signed the basketball-only crowd

 

[djct1999]

None of the horde have confirmed or denied anything yet

It's Saturday. They all are still sleeping.

 

[Pgh2Storrs]

I’ve withheld commenting on this for a while, mostly because this thing is way too nuanced to really break down, but this is my quick and dirty take.

I do not hate the AAC as much as most do, but without a major shift in the P5 power structure, I just don’t see any way that the College Sports Overlords ever truly legitimize this conference. In addition, does anyone ever envision a time where all the schools in this conference are dedicated to staying and building it? UCF, USF, Houston, Memphis, and Cincy are all looking for the first boat off this island and I doubt that changes anytime soon. It’s hard to really get behind the AAC when you know the only good things about it could leave at any moment.

In a perfect world, the AAC continues to grow/evolve and we play a role in that but I just can’t see that being the case long-term. The NBE isn’t a perfect answer either, but there’s a comfort/familiarity that just works for us in so many areas. I absolutely love UConn Football, but we’ve watched the devaluation of the basketball program go on too long. Imagining what Dan Hurley can do selling the UConn brand in the Big East is incredibly exciting. This may be just dumb speculation, but if not, this is a move we have to make.