Rutgers officially out

[Dooley]

Assuming that your question wasn't rhetorical, yes. They left early, for two reasons. One, it was cold (colder in Birmingham than in Hartford that day), and they showed up in sweatshirts and without gloves.

Two, Andre Dixon tore them up like his name was General Sherman, and their brigades of SUVs (they really did travel very well) hit the road and headed for home.

That Husky team was, by far, my favorite. Hard-nosed, tough team that would punch teams in the mouth and quickly get up off the mat when their opponent punched them. They dominated USCe that day.

 

[UConn9604]

That Husky team was, by far, my favorite. Hard-nosed, tough team that would punch teams in the mouth and quickly get up off the mat when their opponent punched them. They dominated USCe that day.

This is off-topic for this thread, but that 2009 team might be my favorite sports team of all time (it's definitely up there). No team has given me any wider swings of emotion than that squad. Five losses, by a total of 15 points. Just a great group of guys and the main reason I went to Birmingham was because I'd have done just about anything to see 60 more minutes of football from that team.

 

[DoctorWho85]

That Husky team was, by far, my favorite. Hard-nosed, tough team that would punch teams in the mouth and quickly get up off the mat when their opponent punched them. They dominated USCe that day.

I will never forget that day. I was nervous all day because every talking head and SEC homer wasn't giving UConn a chance. Then the game started and it was utter domination the whole game. I was rooting for a shut out, but that got ruined on a garbage TD.

 

[rich1122]

O

You know that there is a way to discuss the issues that surround this program without sounding like a total /troll, right?

ditching the hyperbole would be a good start.

By pointing out that we have an attendance problem makes me a ? Wow we are a little bit thin skinned are we? The fact is that the other teams were chosen and we were not. Stop making all of the other excuses why or why not. We either get people in seats or we don't. If not we go nowhere. (That's being a ?)

You make it sound like I don't like the team or the Diaco hire or the new staff, which is absurd. I have been to every game every spring game and every signing day. Nobody supports more than I do.

Maybe we got it right this time. I hope the paradigm has shifted.

You guys just have to stop whining like babies.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

O

By pointing out that we have an attendance problem makes me a ? Wow we are a little bit thin skinned are we? The fact is that the other teams were chosen and we were not. Stop making all of the other excuses why or why not. We either get people in seats or we don't. If not we go nowhere. (That's being a ?)

You make it sound like I don't like the team or the Diaco hire or the new staff, which is absurd. I have been to every game every spring game and every signing day. Nobody supports more than I do.

Maybe we got it right this time. I hope the paradigm has shifted.

You guys just have to stop whining like babies.

Nobody is whining like babies. We're just saying you're wrong about why we didn't get chosen. And we've provided strong evidence. It does sound like you're trolling your fellow UConn fans.

 

[J187Money]

OK you guys win. We do not have a long term attendance problem and miraculously we will fill the stadium and the ACC and Big1G will be at our door step. And everybody will stay till the end of the game.

Nobody stays in ANY stadium until the end of the game when there is nothing on the line. I've said this before, but my old boss went to Tallahassee this fall to see Cuse/FSU. NOBODY was there after HALFTIME. And they won the National Championship. So bitching about things that aren't possible is pretty stupid. And saying that attendance is the reason we got passed over is equally silly. Rutgers was always going to get in before us unless we somehow moved the campus to NJ.

When we won, people came. When we stopped winning, they stopped coming. If we end up 9-1 in November and ranked and nobody shows up, I'll believe you. But *I* believe we'd be packed to the gills if that was the case. It never has been. Win.

 

[J187Money]

O

By pointing out that we have an attendance problem makes me a ? Wow we are a little bit thin skinned are we? The fact is that the other teams were chosen and we were not. Stop making all of the other excuses why or why not. We either get people in seats or we don't. If not we go nowhere. (That's being a ?)

You make it sound like I don't like the team or the Diaco hire or the new staff, which is absurd. I have been to every game every spring game and every signing day. Nobody supports more than I do.

Maybe we got it right this time. I hope the paradigm has shifted.

You guys just have to stop whining like babies.

It's a winning problem. We haven't been winning at football for long enough. The program is not respected enough by the people that make these decisions. We need to win and force their hand. And if we do win enough, we won't be talking about attendance problems.

(or maybe you were the guy posting about how nobody filled the field house in 1982 and how we were never going to go anywhere in hoops until people started coming to the games)

 

[rich1122]

I appreciate that everybody disagrees and has stopped the name calling. I think attendance is the problem an you guys don't. I appreciate many points of view. I will leave you with this. Who is in and who is out. You can find each team - hit the Search Again button above the Cuse chart.
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/...crowds_in_201.html?appSession=029437076240734



Assuming that numbers are fudged evenly attendance vs turnstile shows the bottom two teams did not get invites and the others did. Enjoy the snow. See you at the spring game.

2013 Avg attendance

CT 31,000
Cincy 32,000
SU 38,000
MD 39,000
RU 47,000
Lville 52,000

 

[Dooley]

O

By pointing out that we have an attendance problem makes me a ? Wow we are a little bit thin skinned are we? The fact is that the other teams were chosen and we were not. Stop making all of the other excuses why or why not. We either get people in seats or we don't. If not we go nowhere. (That's being a ?)

You make it sound like I don't like the team or the Diaco hire or the new staff, which is absurd. I have been to every game every spring game and every signing day. Nobody supports more than I do.

Maybe we got it right this time. I hope the paradigm has shifted.

You guys just have to stop whining like babies.

We all know UCONN's attendance has declined in the past few seasons. Losing does that. Scroll up and you'll see the same thing occurs at other places across the country (and at schools that were recently invited to a P5 conference). But how about taking a different approach with your attendance crusade? Most of the guys on this board are season ticket holders and as avid a UCONN fan as you will find. The 'Yarders who live out of town do everything possible to follow the team and support the school. We're not the casual crowd showing up late and leaving games at halftime. We're part of the diehard fan segment that tries to promote the school, the program and the atmosphere to casual fans in hopes of making new diehard fans. Instead of complaining that attendance dwindled under Pasqualoni (like Louisville's did under Kragthorpe, BC's has for decades, Pitt's always does when not playing ND or WVU, the Fruit's has since Pasqualoni, and Miami's has for as long as they play sports in Miami), how's about you turn some negative energy into positive and come up with ways to improve attendance and enhance the game day experience? You're obviously as big of a fan as we all are here if you were at the Memphis game and saw the scoreboard clock read 00:00. Go out and recruit more fans. It's a new era for UCONN football and positive things are happening. Time for us fans to catch up with the positive energy, embrace it, and look forward.

 

[Dooley]

I appreciate that everybody disagrees and has stopped the name calling. I think attendance is the problem an you guys don't. I appreciate many points of view. I will leave you with this. Who is in and who is out. You can find each team.
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/...crowds_in_201.html?appSession=029437076240734



Assuming that numbers are fudged evenly attendance vs turnstile shows the bottom two teams did not get invites and the others did. Enjoy the snow. See you at the spring game.

2013 Avg attendance

CT 31,000
Cincy 32,000
SU 38,000
MD 39,000
RU 47,000
Lville 52,000

Just FYI, UCONN reports tickets scanned at the gate. Hence why it reported the lousy attendance figures for Memphis, Rutgers, and Louisville games. Other schools (ex - Rutgers) reports tickets sold. While RU sold some 38,000 for their last game at USF, its' been widely reported/speculated that 17,000 (the same number we had for Memphis to watch two 2-win teams) fans actually showed up to watch their team try to gain bowl eligibility. When UCONN wins again and has a home game to try to gain bowl eligibility, we are getting MUCH more than 17,000 at the Rent.

 

[rich1122]

We all know UCONN's attendance has declined in the past few seasons. Losing does that. Scroll up and you'll see the same thing occurs at other places across the country (and at schools that were recently invited to a P5 conference). But how about taking a different approach with your attendance crusade? Most of the guys on this board are season ticket holders and as avid a UCONN fan as you will find. The 'Yarders who live out of town do everything possible to follow the team and support the school. We're not the casual crowd showing up late and leaving games at halftime. We're part of the diehard fan segment that tries to promote the school, the program and the atmosphere to casual fans in hopes of making new diehard fans. Instead of complaining that attendance dwindled under Pasqualoni (like Louisville's did under Kragthorpe, BC's has for decades, Pitt's always does when not playing ND or WVU, the Fruit's has since Pasqualoni, and Miami's has for as long as they play sports in Miami), how's about you turn some negative energy into positive and come up with ways to improve attendance and enhance the game day experience? You're obviously as big of a fan as we all are here if you were at the Memphis game and saw the scoreboard clock read 00:00. Go out and recruit more fans. It's a new era for UCONN football and positive things are happening. Time for us fans to catch up with the positive energy, embrace it, and look forward.

My positive energy is to go to every game, be in my seat early, and stay till the end. I'll even increase the ST allotment to 10 this year. Dooley you re right. It's time for the fans to catch up and step up and be there. You obviously used much more tact than I did. We are where we are because it's where we deserve to be. The fans are going to be the only one's to drive this thing in the new era. Scoreboards help coaching helps records help recruiting helps, even new turf, but us being there is what really counts. Hopefully next year there will be more than a handful of us watching the clock hit 0:00 in December.

 

[DoctorWho85]

Not to throw fuel on the fire, but isn't ECU known to have a pretty packed house when the play football too? If attendance was a big contributor to CR, then ECU would have been a contender based on their numbers alone.

Not trying to say attendance isn't the problem here. I think the problem with UCONN is preception and only that. I forget where who posted it, but they summarized it well. Hathaway lost control and was in over his head. Herbst and Manuel are doing a fantastic job to right the boat. If you ask me, in two years time, I bet football games will be closed to averaging sell outs and the mens BB will have it's 4th NC. Just my two cents.

 

[UCFBfan]

Not to throw fuel on the fire, but isn't ECU known to have a pretty packed house when the play football too? If attendance was a big contributor to CR, then ECU would have been a contender based on their numbers alone.

Not trying to say attendance isn't the problem here. I think the problem with UCONN is preception and only that. I forget where who posted it, but they summarized it well. Hathaway lost control and was in over his head. Herbst and Manuel are doing a fantastic job to right the boat. If you ask me, in two years time, I bet football games will be closed to averaging sell outs and the mens BB will have it's 4th NC. Just my two cents.

Not only does ECU pack their stadium, they also have a fanbase that travels to bowl games in droves. This is another bogus figure used by people in CR discussions. Your example of ECU is a good one as they are not in any discussion to join a power conference because of their location, not because of their attendance. There are more than enough teams from NC in the ACC and the last thing any of those schools want is another team in their home state to take away recruits from them by being on equal conference footing.

Thanks Dooley for posting those photos. I was just about to go on Google and do the exact same thing! This whole point is moot as it's been clearly shown that a lot of the Big East schools had poor attendance when they were in the BE and even after they left.

 

[CL82]

O

By pointing out that we have an attendance problem makes me a ? ....

...You guys just have to stop whining like babies.

Nope, but the way you do it kind of does.

Hope that helps.

 

[DoctorWho85]

Not only does ECU pack their stadium, they also have a fanbase that travels to bowl games in droves. This is another bogus figure used by people in CR discussions. Your example of ECU is a good one as they are not in any discussion to join a power conference because of their location, not because of their attendance. There are more than enough teams from NC in the ACC and the last thing any of those schools want is another team in their home state to take away recruits from them by being on equal conference footing.

Thanks Dooley for posting those photos. I was just about to go on Google and do the exact same thing! This whole point is moot as it's been clearly shown that a lot of the Big East schools had poor attendance when they were in the BE and even after they left.

I always was a fan of adding ECU. I saw their stadium on TV a couple times and it just looked packed like a sardine can. And I knew they travelled well too, especially to bowl games. Outside of that, I don't know much about academics or anything else other than the school is in the middle of nowhere. But like you said this school has very loyal fan base that goes to even the "no name" games. But again that didn't even get them a second thought. Heck it took West Virginia, Pitt, Syracuse, TCU, Boise St, SDSU, Rutgers and Louisville leaving this conference for them to get the nod.

 

[UCFBfan]

I always was a fan of adding ECU. I saw their stadium on TV a couple times and it just looked packed like a sardine can. And I knew they travelled well too, especially to bowl games. Outside of that, I don't know much about academics or anything else other than the school is in the middle of nowhere. But like you said this school has very loyal fan base that goes to even the "no name" games. But again that didn't even get them a second thought. Heck it took West Virginia, Pitt, Syracuse, TCU, Boise St, SDSU, Rutgers and Louisville leaving this conference for them to get the nod.

I agree. I always thought ECU was a good add. Every time I see an ECU poster on a board they are very passionate about their team. I remember on the old ESPN blog that a lot of the comments, once they were added to the American, were from ECU fans. Most other schools were non-existent in posting.

 

[DoctorWho85]

I agree. I always thought ECU was a good add. Every time I see an ECU poster on a board they are very passionate about their team. I remember on the old ESPN blog that a lot of the comments, once they were added to the American, were from ECU fans. Most other schools were non-existent in posting.

I was rooting for ECU and UCF to get added to the conference the whole time. ECU from what I've seen, plays a pretty good footbal most years (even under Skip Holtz) and UCF has a beautiful campus (sister when there for two years and loved going to down there) and was really starting to show their football prowess at the time. I happy both schools are in and I'm pretty curious to see how well the conference will be in a couple years if we end up still being it it. There a lot of schools with potential and could really turn into something special. That being said I would like us to get into the B1G if possible. Either way this team will be getting my 120% year in and year out. In other words, no energy vampires here!

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I will never forget that day. I was nervous all day because every talking head and SEC homer wasn't giving UConn a chance. Then the game started and it was utter domination the whole game. I was rooting for a shut out, but that got ruined on a garbage TD.

Who,

I apologize in advance if I am wrong but I somehow have the feeling that you are really an ECU fan laying low and playing nice (nothing wrong with that).


Also, is that an anime David Tenant in your avatar?

 

[Stray_Dog]

O

By pointing out that we have an attendance problem makes me a ? Wow we are a little bit thin skinned are we? The fact is that the other teams were chosen and we were not. Stop making all of the other excuses why or why not. We either get people in seats or we don't. If not we go nowhere. (That's being a ?)

You make it sound like I don't like the team or the Diaco hire or the new staff, which is absurd. I have been to every game every spring game and every signing day. Nobody supports more than I do.

Maybe we got it right this time. I hope the paradigm has shifted.

You guys just have to stop whining like babies.

One Word "Burton"...unless you are looking to make a donation to have your name put on a building???

 

[DoctorWho85]

Who,

I apologize in advance if I am wrong but I somehow have the feeling that you are really an ECU fan laying low and playing nice (nothing wrong with that).


Also, is that an anime David Tenant in your avatar?

That would be Tennant yes

May have gotten off my original point, but no not an ECU fan. I'm definitely a UCONN fan. Graduated from UCONN in 2011 and plan on going back for my graduate there as well. Was a member of the marching band my first two years until school and work started to get in the way. And was a season ticket holder until I lost my job and was force to pick up two jobs to afford the bills (stupid having to pay for rent and stuff preventing me from attending games). So I definitely bleed blue and white, just always thought that ECU would have been a nice add to the old Big East. Just my opinion.

 

[J187Money]

I appreciate that everybody disagrees and has stopped the name calling. I think attendance is the problem an you guys don't. I appreciate many points of view. I will leave you with this. Who is in and who is out. You can find each team - hit the Search Again button above the Cuse chart.
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/...crowds_in_201.html?appSession=029437076240734



Assuming that numbers are fudged evenly attendance vs turnstile shows the bottom two teams did not get invites and the others did. Enjoy the snow. See you at the spring game.

2013 Avg attendance

CT 31,000
Cincy 32,000
SU 38,000
MD 39,000
RU 47,000
Lville 52,000

OK. So assuming you are 100% correct. We can't get more than 40K in the stadium anyway, so LV and RU win automatically. Which means we were doomed by the fact that we didn't have the demand on day 1 to expand the stadium to 60K.

 

[Durks07]

My positive energy is to go to every game, be in my seat early, and stay till the end. I'll even increase the ST allotment to 10 this year. Dooley you re right. It's time for the fans to catch up and step up and be there. You obviously used much more tact than I did. We are where we are because it's where we deserve to be. The fans are going to be the only one's to drive this thing in the new era. Scoreboards help coaching helps records help recruiting helps, even new turf, but us being there is what really counts. Hopefully next year there will be more than a handful of us watching the clock hit 0:00 in December.

You are right that the lack of fans in the seats does not help our perception. You are even right that it negatively impacts our perception. However, schools with putrid attendance have moved on in CR. The photos in above posts are indicative of that. The problem is that it negatively affects our perception and not the perception of others. That is the underlying issue that it shows. It doesn't seem that attendance issues are the be all end all.

The ACC rejections have been motivated by misguided spite. The Rutgers and Maryland additions were motivated by large population bases (subscription fees) and academic cohesion (AAU). Conference expansion does not hinge on whether people go to the games. These additions are premised on the ability to jam the conference's network down the cable provider's throat. Once the network is put on basic packages and the subscriber fees come in, it does not matter a whit that no one actually attends the games. Sure, a negative impact on advertising fees probably occurs, but if the B1G can require that all cable households in NJ and MD have to pay $10 a month for the B1G network, the conference pulls in over $511 million dollars annually. Conversely, the same subscription fee in CT would net around $132 million. That is what the B1G looks at. The ACC, well, the h*** with them.

 

[rich1122]

ECarolina 45,000
Navy 36,000
UCF 42,000
Tulsa 20,000
Houston 22,000
SMU 18,000

If we put 40K in every game we could have made a good case for entry against everybody except LV. 31,000 not in the ballpark.

 

[Durks07]

ECarolina 45,000
Navy 36,000
UCF 42,000
Tulsa 20,000
Houston 22,000
SMU 18,000

If we put 40K in every game we could have made a good case for entry against everybody except LV. 31,000 not in the ballpark.

What do these numbers mean? If we're talking about "could," then the correct attendance figures are from MD, Rutgers, WVU, Cuse, Pitt, and Nebraska, not the schlock we are stuck in this conference with. If you mean that increased attendance will make us more attractive than these schools that's another issue.

None of these schools, with the possible exception of UCF has an outlet to a major conference in the foreseeable (if ever) future. Who is going to take Tulane? The SEC? No. They have Louisiana sown up. The ACC? It provides an outlet into New Orleans, but it becomes a geographic outlier. Can the ACC network (allegedly anyway...) successfully force the New Orleans market to put it on basic cable? Unless there is a contingent of people in Louisiana who even know there is another school outside of LSU in the state, I'm not holding my breath. Same for the Big 12. Tulane loses to at least BYU, Cincy, and UCF. Unless they are looking to go to 16, forget about it. What about Navy? They might gain viewership when they play big opponents, but are their games must-see TV when the opponent is Marshall? What about Houston and SMU? They bring in huge markets (Houston and Dallas). Well, they are part of the AAC, and that contract is pretty putrid. Who exactly is clamoring to pay big money for the 5th and 6th most important BCS teams in Texas? They are redundancies for the Big 12 and the SEC (TAMU). Well, the ACC doesn't care about academics anymore.... But on what planet do those schools have the athletic pedigree of Louisville? Not Earth in 2014. In 1980, maybe... but today, forget it.