Rumor- UCONN Pursuing ACC Membership? | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Rumor- UCONN Pursuing ACC Membership?

noeynox said:
I don't think people going to UConn and PC games now would go to UMass games if those programs were struggling and UMass got hot. Fan bases just don't overlap like that. I'm with the guys saying if you have to point to Camby and Cal, that was a long time ago. Much longer ago than our than when our football beat ND. Singular events like that our virtually meaningless today.
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CL82 said:
On the other hand, are UMass fans driving the Storrs and Providence to support those teams? Probably not. The issue isn’t that they are enamored with Connecticut and Providence; the issue is that they don’t care about UMass.

Fully agree about the front running thing though. Job one for Massachusetts is to have some success on the court. If you can’t do that, nothing else matters.
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My point is more about being front runners. Massachusetts people aren’t going to go hard for a lousy UMass team. That would be embarrassing as UConn and PC run circles around them. They’d rather just hide or cheer for some other team somewhere. No fun to be a fan of a loser, especially when your successful enemies live right down the street. New Englanders are shameless. They’ll drop their team like it’s nothing when it stinks.
 
Hoophound said:
My point is more about being front runners. Massachusetts people aren’t going to go hard for a lousy UMass team. That would be embarrassing as UConn and PC run circles around them. They’d rather just hide or cheer for some other team somewhere. No fun to be a fan of a loser, especially when your successful enemies live right down the street. New Englanders are shameless. They’ll drop their team like it’s nothing when it stinks.
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Shrugs. I’m a native New Englander and I support UConn through the bad times, as well as the good.

Regardless, the whole oh golly if UMass was a better team, they would have more support point always seems an empty one to me. Job one is that UMass needs to improve. All the talk about how they can be conference realignment, superstars or fill their stadium is meaningless before that happens.
 
UMass somehow still gets about 8K to McGuirk for a football game and they have been terrible for a long time. They have a hardcore base - just like UConn. However, they need to upgrade facilities and get better on the field just to get into any conversation. If the bones aren't there, no conference would look at them to fill a spot.
 
I don't even try to understand CR but anyway.

If it pleased espn, would the ACC be in a position to rise to the level of the P2? If so, espn could open its wallet to make the ACC one of the top 3 destinations and everyone would be happy. It would need some more programs so which programs would make sense.

Otherwise it seems espn will just hold the ACC hostage on the "cheap." Even that doesn't make sense though because the programs in the ACC would most likely perform better if they knew everyone was all in instead of trying to get out of a GOR.

Meanwhile, espn destroyed the Big East only to park programs in a doomed ACC.

Only explanation I see is short term profits.
 
ESPN is in no way compelled to do anything with The ACC at this point in time. They own them lock, stock, and barrel for the next decade+. When their GOR is close to its end they'll work to move their most valuable pieces to The SEC while sacrificing a handful of others to Fox/CBS/NBC. The leftovers will likely reform a new ACC padded with a handful of G5 Schools that are all under a new contract paying them pennies on the dollar of what was available in media rights a decade prior. It sucks for the teams with actual value now like Clemson, FSU, and UNC who are grossly underpaid, and it will suck for the leftovers a decade from now when they are treated like ESPN's new and improved AAC.
 
Ldandy said:
ESPN is in no way compelled to do anything with The ACC at this point in time. They own them lock, stock, and barrel for the next decade+. When their GOR is close to its end they'll work to move their most valuable pieces to The SEC while sacrificing a handful of others to Fox/CBS/NBC. The leftovers will likely reform a new ACC padded with a handful of G5 Schools that are all under a new contract paying them pennies on the dollar of what was available in media rights a decade prior. It sucks for the teams with actual value now like Clemson, FSU, and UNC who are grossly underpaid, and it will suck for the leftovers a decade from now when they are treated like ESPN's new and improved AAC.
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There's no way some of those schools stick for a decade at the price they are being paid versus the current market rate. No way Clemson stays happy with making closer to what Tulane makes than what Rutgers makes. ESPN can sit around with the ACC as is and think their GOR will keep it all together but something is going to give. There's just no way some of those big name schools will continue to sit by as they watch their SEC and B1G neighbors triple or quadruple the ACC schools income in a two/three year span.
 
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UCFBfan said:
There's no way some of those schools stick for a decade at the price they are being paid versus the current market rate. No way Clemson stays happy with making closer to what Tulane makes than what Rutgers makes. ESPN can sit around with the ACC as is and think their GOR will keep it all together but something is going to give. There's just no way some of those big name schools will continue to sit by as they watch their SEC and B1G neighbors triple or quadruple the ACC schools income in a two/three year span.
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Clemson can be as unhappy as they want. At the end of the day they signed the same deal that everyone else in the conference did and they’re bound by the same terms.

Sure, they can leave to the tune of several hundred million dollars, but where are they going to go? It might be a bit tricky getting into their dream conference when those media rights are completely controlled by ESPN as well.

You’re right that it’s completely ridiculous that FSU makes roughly a third of what Rutgers or Missouri do, but that’s their problem not the bottom feeders of The B1G and SEC.
 
hardcorehusky said:
UMass somehow still gets about 8K to McGuirk for a football game and they have been terrible for a long time. They have a hardcore base - just like UConn. However, they need to upgrade facilities and get better on the field just to get into any conversation. If the bones aren't there, no conference would look at them to fill a spot.
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Wow, 8K for football?! I’m surprised the SEC hasn’t snapped them up.
 
There is a rumor on CSNBBS that us and UMass are contemplating joining the MAC for football-only. I don't buy it, and I think it would be a terrible idea.
 
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it's kind of scary to continually read here the silliness on acc's ills, as they don't exist.
i've always believed that it would be our best possible move as we would go upscale, they may find a business reason to do it, and it doesn't feel forced or artificial for either party.
here's an example of how truly bad the 'acc est morte' thinking is.
Conference revenues vary in '20-21 amid COVID

it's all aboot money, football money. the big east is a revenue rounding error as to the money league that the acc is.

the 'south' is the number one population region of the country, and it's shifting into overdrive. from the looks of the money and covid thing in the article, the people there (customers) also don't seem to worry much, either.
very attractive.
acc-bringing in the jingle to a tune of around $600m per year.
good thing we're an Atlantic coast state.
 
Palatine said:
Football is the key.
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I’ll go further that and say Jim Mora is the key. Like 1-12 under Edsall. One year later a great coach takes them to 6-7. The men’s and women’s bball programs would really pump up ACC network ratings. If they want us, it will be much sooner than you think. Might even help recruiting over at Boston College. All that being said I would not be waiting with baited breath. Lol
 
ZooCougar said:
LOL at the idea of exit fees stopping us.

With our luck we get into the ACC as it is falling apart.
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Probably, which is why I hope everything stays status quo for the next 5 years or so when the picture might become clearer as to the future of some of these conferences. Pac12 will get raided one more time by the B1G, then whatever second tier schools are left merge with the Big XII, and the handful of schools left after that look for a new home in one of the smaller western conferences. ACC is going to be picked apart by the B1G and SEC as soon as the coast is clear. Again whatever second tier schools are left after the most prized pieces are taken will join the Big XII, and everyone else will have to find a new home. Whichever of the three P5s not named B1G or SEC that is most aggressive will be the one that survives, and the Big XII seems poised to be that conference.
 
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Ldandy said:
ESPN is in no way compelled to do anything with The ACC at this point in time. They own them lock, stock, and barrel for the next decade+. When their GOR is close to its end they'll work to move their most valuable pieces to The SEC while sacrificing a handful of others to Fox/CBS/NBC. The leftovers will likely reform a new ACC padded with a handful of G5 Schools that are all under a new contract paying them pennies on the dollar of what was available in media rights a decade prior. It sucks for the teams with actual value now like Clemson, FSU, and UNC who are grossly underpaid, and it will suck for the leftovers a decade from now when they are treated like ESPN's new and improved AAC.
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ESPN isn’t going to overpay for rights. They have a mandate to control that.

I would say apple, Amazon and google are the future of tv sports.

Hell. I wonder if Disney would ever sell espn to google.
 
ZooCougar said:
If you prefer Seton Hall to UNC then you are brain dead and it’s time for you to go to Canada to be euthanized.
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LOL. It has nothing to do with what I prefer. It is only about dummies like you not realizing it's never going to happen.
 
It's just a matter of time before the top 4 or more ACC football-focused schools depart for the B1G or SEC. The more time that elapses only increases the chances. Why? Because either:

(a) the buyout becomes less out of pocket expense for each school. As the years pass by and it is a simple math/monetary decision, they reach closer to the tipping point that they can afford to pay out the exit fee in order to go to greener pastures. The bigger the dollars that go to the B1G and SEC the easier it gets for them to pull in the ACC brands that sweeten it even more... And remember - the schools that have recently left a conference have been able to negotiate down exit fees to about two-thirds of what they were accountable for... or,

(b) the top ACC football-focused schools decide it's a smart move to legally challenge the rest of the conference by INDIVIDUALLY (as opposed to as a group) filing separate legal challenges to effectively tie up the conference/rest of the schools with massive legal bills. I'm no legal expert but if this is practical from a legal standpoint, then the shadow of massive expenses would shake the ACC foundation to the point where they might acqessuise privately and agree to reduce the exit fees to somewhere less than the two-thirds level. I think for something this drastic to happen there'd have to be conversations with the jumping schools and their landing spot conferences to see if their respective media partners want to make it happen before the next iteration of the expanded championship playoffs (2026, which is coming soon) or soon thereafter.

I think scenario b would happen in the next few years; as opposed to the longer horizon scenario a.

ESPN has certainly handcuffed the ACC and the FSUs, Clemsons, UNCs, Miamis, and UVAs are getting more anxious about getting left behind money-wise... Notre Dame is a wild card. ESPN itself is a wild card (would an entity like Amazon buy them out one day?). Will be interesting to see this play out.
 
JohnFSilver said:
ESPN isn’t going to overpay for rights. They have a mandate to control that.

I would say apple, Amazon and google are the future of tv sports.

Hell. I wonder if Disney would ever sell espn to google.
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FWIW.....Here's a story from OU Insider that gives that take from 2018 for anyone who wants to read this stuff,

Conference re-alignment will come - shaped by tech, not TV

“Conference realignment will come,” he said (high ranking executive at Amazon) , “but probably not in the way you’re thinking.” “We already have more cash than ABC/ESPN, NBC or CBS” he said. “And, In another five or six years, it won’t even be close. And too, ”the tech companies are far more advanced than the networks when it comes to knowing how to use the future broadcast technologies, (streaming) and that gap is growing to"........

" Again, back to my friend at Amazon. “We’re still seven or eight years away,” he said, “but if we had to restructure the landscape today, we would not start by negotiating with a conference. We don’t care about the SEC, Big 12 of Big 10 as a whole. In our opinion, those entities are not our focus. “Instead, we would want to identify 30 or 40 teams that command the biggest audience. That may be by reputation or location, but generally we all know that there are members in every one of these conferences that frankly don’t move the needle. "
 
CTFAN4LIFE said:
It's just a matter of time before the top 4 or more ACC football-focused schools depart for the B1G or SEC. The more time that elapses only increases the chances. Why? Because either:

(a) the buyout becomes less out of pocket expense for each school. As the years pass by and it is a simple math/monetary decision, they reach closer to the tipping point that they can afford to pay out the exit fee in order to go to greener pastures. The bigger the dollars that go to the B1G and SEC the easier it gets for them to pull in the ACC brands that sweeten it even more... And remember - the schools that have recently left a conference have been able to negotiate down exit fees to about two-thirds of what they were accountable for... or,

(b) the top ACC football-focused schools decide it's a smart move to legally challenge the rest of the conference by INDIVIDUALLY (as opposed to as a group) filing separate legal challenges to effectively tie up the conference/rest of the schools with massive legal bills. I'm no legal expert but if this is practical from a legal standpoint, then the shadow of massive expenses would shake the ACC foundation to the point where they might acqessuise privately and agree to reduce the exit fees to somewhere less than the two-thirds level. I think for something this drastic to happen there'd have to be conversations with the jumping schools and their landing spot conferences to see if their respective media partners want to make it happen before the next iteration of the expanded championship playoffs (2026, which is coming soon) or soon thereafter.

I think scenario b would happen in the next few years; as opposed to the longer horizon scenario a.

ESPN has certainly handcuffed the ACC and the FSUs, Clemsons, UNCs, Miamis, and UVAs are getting more anxious about getting left behind money-wise... Notre Dame is a wild card. ESPN itself is a wild card (would an entity like Amazon buy them out one day?). Will be interesting to see this play out.
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My understanding is that there is NO buyout in the ACC. It's a pure grant of rights. You can leave, but you are leaving your media rights behind. Of course, anything can be litigated, but most seem to think that a grant of rights is a different animal than a buyout.

But nobody knows all the terms. Maybe the GOR can be cancelled if more than 50% of the conference tries to leave, or something like that.
 
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Chuck said:
My understanding is that there is NO buyout in the ACC. It's a pure grant of rights. You can leave, but you are leaving your media rights behind. Of course, anything can be litigated, but most seem to think that a grant of rights is a different animal than a buyout.

But nobody knows all the terms. Maybe the GOR can be cancelled if more than 50% of the conference tries to leave, or something like that.
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There's both a GOR and exit fees. The schools that want to leave will have to deal with both. Negotiations would have to happen to knock down the exit fees and knock down or out GOR.
 
Blades said:
FWIW.....Here's a story from OU Insider that gives that take from 2018 for anyone who wants to read this stuff,

Conference re-alignment will come - shaped by tech, not TV

“Conference realignment will come,” he said (high ranking executive at Amazon) , “but probably not in the way you’re thinking.” “We already have more cash than ABC/ESPN, NBC or CBS” he said. “And, In another five or six years, it won’t even be close. And too, ”the tech companies are far more advanced than the networks when it comes to knowing how to use the future broadcast technologies, (streaming) and that gap is growing to"........

" Again, back to my friend at Amazon. “We’re still seven or eight years away,” he said, “but if we had to restructure the landscape today, we would not start by negotiating with a conference. We don’t care about the SEC, Big 12 of Big 10 as a whole. In our opinion, those entities are not our focus. “Instead, we would want to identify 30 or 40 teams that command the biggest audience. That may be by reputation or location, but generally we all know that there are members in every one of these conferences that frankly don’t move the needle. "
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Wow… what a interesting article… wonder where uconn stands in this…our mens and especially women’s basketball are top tier… Mora is a godsend… hopefully he has more magic in him because we are going to need it
 
hoopsfan22 said:
Probably, which is why I hope everything stays status quo for the next 5 years or so when the picture might become clearer as to the future of some of these conferences. Pac12 will get raided one more time by the B1G, then whatever second tier schools are left merge with the Big XII, and the handful of schools left after that look for a new home in one of the smaller western conferences. ACC is going to be picked apart by the B1G and SEC as soon as the coast is clear. Again whatever second tier schools are left after the most prized pieces are taken will join the Big XII, and everyone else will have to find a new home. Whichever of the three P5s not named B1G or SEC that is most aggressive will be the one that survives, and the Big XII seems poised to be that conference.
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Forget the Big 12, they’ve already been picked apart and are in deep poo poo. Oklahoma, Texas, A&M are gone, Nebraska jumped ship in 2010.
 
Chuck said:
My understanding is that there is NO buyout in the ACC. It's a pure grant of rights. You can leave, but you are leaving your media rights behind. Of course, anything can be litigated, but most seem to think that a grant of rights is a different animal than a buyout.

But nobody knows all the terms. Maybe the GOR can be cancelled if more than 50% of the conference tries to leave, or something like that.
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Your understanding is not correct. The exit fee is three times earnings. That’s about $120 million. The GOR is valued at about $350 million if FSU were to leave after this season. So, assuming that the ACC would agree to settle to take a lump sum payment instead of just holding the media rights for FSU, they are looking at about $470 million to leave.

I could see an arrangement where Connecticut comes in takes a full share of broadcast rights, which might well be reduced, but does not get a share of FSU’s exit fees.

For what it’s worth if FSU and Clemson were to leave you’d be looking at $970 million and exit fees and GOR settlement costs. That can subsidize the remaining teams earnings for a considerable period of time.
 
shizzle787 said:
There is a rumor on CSNBBS that us and UMass are contemplating joining the MAC for football-only. I don't buy it, and I think it would be a terrible idea.
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UMass football was in the MAC about 10 years ago or so for a few years. If I remember correctly, UMass football was kicked out of the conference when the MAC wanted UMass to join the conference as a full member in all sports, but UMass said no, as they wanted to keep their other sports in the A10.
 
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