Rumor- UCONN Pursuing ACC Membership?

[UCONNJACK]

Florida State is not a flagship. The Florida Gators are the flagship university in the State of Florida.

Texas A&M is not a flagship. The Texas Longhorns are the flagship university in the State of Texas

Map illustrates the 50 flagship state universities. Never seen that URI logo before.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

If you go by the colors, they are claiming Rhode Island College, not URI is the flagship. I have no idea which is correct.

 

[UCONNJACK]

If you go by the colors, they are claiming Rhode Island College, not URI sis the flagship. I have no idea which is correct.

URI is the flagship university

 

[storrsroars]

If you go by the colors, they are claiming Rhode Island College, not URI is the flagship. I have no idea which is correct.

That's actually the logo for the University of the District of Columbia Firebirds.

 

[billybud]

Florida State is not a flagship. The Florida Gators are the flagship university in the State of Florida.

Texas A&M is not a flagship. The Texas Longhorns are the flagship university in the State of Texas.

FSU has been declared by the legislature of Florida of Florida as a state Flagship university....

Depending on the definition, the flagship doesn’t have to be just one university. In Texas, both the University of Texas and Texas A&M are considered flagship universities and arguably are the “flagship” of each of the university systems they represent. However, looking at the flagship of various state systems may not workout either since The Texas State University system doesn’t limit itself to just one flagship but seven!

 

[NE Football]

The Catholic 7 were responsible for Penn State not joining the oBE. They had the majority vote in the conference.

Not true, it was UConn and Dave Gavitt that were adamant about not letting Penn St. into the BE. At the time the then UConn AD Perno has zero interest in going D1 with football. SU did nothing to support adding PSU. BC AD Flynn was supportive of Penn St. joining as he did not want to lose a football contract with Penn St.

Yes, the DeFilippo kept UConn out of the ACC, but it started much sooner. BC opposed UConn getting into the Big East football league starting with their AD Gladchuk . After UConn was admitted, Gladchuk informed BE Commissioner that BC was pursuing the ACC. BE commissioner thought BC had no chance at getting into the ACC.

At this point the ACC can’t figure out what to do other than pray that ND joins full time. That’s a long shot unless ND can’t get a 70 million per year TV contract on their own.

 

[UCONNJACK]

Not true, it was UConn and Dave Gavitt that were adamant about not letting Penn St. into the BE. At the time the then UConn AD Perno has zero interest in going D1 with football. SU did nothing to support adding PSU. BC AD Flynn was supportive of Penn St. joining as he did not want to lose a football contract with Penn St.

Yes, the DeFilippo kept UConn out of the ACC, but it started much sooner. BC opposed UConn getting into the Big East football league starting with their AD Gladchuk . After UConn was admitted, Gladchuk informed BE Commissioner that BC was pursuing the ACC. BE commissioner thought BC had no chance at getting into the ACC.

At this point the ACC can’t figure out what to do other than pray that ND joins full time. That’s a long shot unless ND can’t get a 70 million per year TV contract on their own.

Perno was never the athletic director at UConn.

 

[ScottVib]

It’s been reported in multiple sources (Crouthamel among others) that UConn was one of the yes votes for Penn State.

 

[NE Football]

Perno was never the athletic director at UConn.

Sorry, it was John Toner. My source was Joe Paterno.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

Sorry, it was John Toner. My source was Joe Paterno.

Toner was a UConn legend!

 

[Fairfield_1st]

Ok but by that logic you can just add any team and say well now they’re in a better conference and have more resources so they should be better. It doesn’t work like that. You have to earn your spot. Much like UCF or BYU did for the B12. While in all time POS conference.

I'm not contending that we have to earn a spot in a better conference. I was just commenting on you saying we would get beat by every team in our new conference. I was pointing out that it would be temporary until we built up with the better players we would have access to. Your thought was maybe temporarily realistic, but would not necessarily apply to the long term.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Sorry, it was John Toner. My source was Joe Paterno.

Toner and Paterno (along with a few others) worked together on the committee that designed the 1A-1AA split. Toner wanted UConn to move up to 1-A as soon as possible. Paterno was going to help in an advisory role.

Toner was pushing PSU into the BE more than anyone. It appeared that the conference would vote them in but Gavitt persuaded St John's and Georgetown to change their votes without telling anyone until it was time to vote. After believing PSU's acceptance was just a formality, the vote went against them. Toner was heartbroken and Paterno was pissed. To add insult to injury, during the same meetings Pitt was added.

Paterno may have blamed Toner (he did hold it against UConn for decades) but Toner wanted PSU in the conference

 

[CL82]

Toner and Paterno (along with a few others) worked together on the committee that designed the 1A-1AA split. Toner wanted UConn to move up to 1-A as soon as possible. Paterno was going to help in an advisory role.

Toner was pushing PSU into the BE more than anyone. It appeared that the conference would vote them in but Gavitt persuaded St John's and Georgetown to change their votes without telling anyone until it was time to vote. After believing PSU's acceptance was just a formality, the vote went against them. Toner was heartbroken and Paterno was pissed. To add insult to injury, during the same meetings Pitt was added.

Paterno may have blamed Toner (he did hold it against UConn for decades) but Toner wanted PSU in the conference

I believe Pitt was added later.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I believe Pitt was added later.

The vote on PSU was the day before the vote on Pitt, part of the same meetings.

 

[How Sway?!]

Might just be me, but if the choice was between Pitt and Penn State, then Pitt was the right choice.

 

[noeynox]

Might just be me, but if the choice was between Pitt and Penn State, then Pitt was the right choice.

Why? Trying to understand that taking into account the landscape back then, because today no one would say that.

 

[Luna]

Say we get a invite to the acc
And we accept…then in 5 year’s basketball starts catching up to football in tv viewership and the big east gets a great tv deal… then in 10 years the acc falls apart and schools start jumping to other conferences … and a school like duke wants to save their basketball and accepts a invite to the big east… but the big east won’t let uconn back in … and we are stuck in the aac 2… without any way out… could happen

 

[Skies2018]

Say we get a invite to the acc
And we accept…then in 5 year’s basketball starts catching up to football in tv viewership and the big east gets a great tv deal… then in 10 years the acc falls apart and schools start jumping to other conferences … and a school like duke wants to save their basketball and accepts a invite to the big east… but the big east won’t let uconn back in … and we are stuck in the aac 2… without any way out… could happen

Definitely could happen. But you do have to remember we currently run a $40-50M+ yearly athletics deficit - even without the bs Ollie payout. The school needs to figure out a way to erase that with sports revenue not state funding or student fees. And the only real option I see is finding a way to bring football - and with it anll our other sports - into a P5 conference. I’m happy to be proven wrong but I think they’ve already looked pretty hard for those millions.

 

[Luna]

The championship game hasn’t been played yet…but if we win the ncca championship and with the new coaching hires…the big east will have a lot of wind behind its sails going into the next tv contract negotiations

 

[ScottVib]

Say we get a invite to the acc
And we accept…then in 5 year’s basketball starts catching up to football in tv viewership and the big east gets a great tv deal… then in 10 years the acc falls apart and schools start jumping to other conferences … and a school like duke wants to save their basketball and accepts a invite to the big east… but the big east won’t let uconn back in … and we are stuck in the aac 2… without any way out… could happen

I'd put the likelihood of any of these scenarios as low (with the exception of the ACC eventually needing to reload).

For this to be true you'd need basketball rights to triple in value, in the next 5 years, in an environment where streaming is threatening to blow up the current revenue and rights fees model. Then... you'd have to have Duke deciding that rather than building a conference with the leftover conference mates and then selecting teams to join them.. would decide that it would rather send it's football team to independence to join a basketball league comprised of schools whom they've never partnered with before AND those same schools (presumably out of spite) would then lock out their former conference mate who has double (at least depending on how things go down tomorrow night) the national titles than the rest of the schools combined (excluding "new member" Duke).

I think the more likely scenario would be for Duke and the leftover larger brands to select schools to join them, rather than choosing to jump into some other league.

Ultimately though, you make the best decision you can based on the known information at the time. You don't bypass a good opportunity on the slim chance it could go bad... now if somehow they had information that made any of these scenarios seem more likely, then that might chance the equation; but only because the chance of it going bad would be believed to be greater at the time the decision is made.

 

[Waquoit]

Four of those ACC schools are in probably the least southern portion of the south. That helps.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

The championship game hasn’t been played yet…but if we win the ncca championship and with the new coaching hires…the big east will have a lot of wind behind its sails going into the next tv contract negotiations

Don't count on it. If anything, if the ACC adds UConn the ACC may get more cash during the next negotiation round.

 

[Luna]

The value of basketball is supposedly around 20% of a tv deal… I think in time that might go up… at least i hope…i do think if we win a national championship and our football team performs well..with better fan support… the acc or the big 12 might make a offer to join their conference…me personally i hope uconn
Turns it down… if either conference offers, that offer will usually be there later… that way we can continue to built our brand and wait to see how everything falls

 

[Sea Goat]

The ACC watched the governance of the oBE for years before raiding it. The schools that left weren't happy with the dominance of the Catholic 7. What makes you think that the ACC would take in a school that isn't named Notre Dame for FB or BB only?

When they dump Syracuse's sorry ass out of the conference...

 

[History Geek]

Four of those ACC schools are in probably the least southern portion of the south. That helps.

100% true. Duke's and Wake's student body is national in nature. My daughter went to Wake. Almost every class has at least one student from every state in the union. Additionally, a sizable plurality (approaching or hitting half) of Wake's student body is from the northeast corridor from just north of Boston to just south of DC. It's essentially a northeast school located in NC.