Should ESPN tell the American to make a football only deal with UConn?

[UConnTrumbull]

Yes. Great idea. Let's make ourselves feel better by pushing out a corporation that employs thousands of Connecticut residents. We can afford to do that because it will make you feel better.

Thousands of Cuse grads

 

[businesslawyer]

You realize that "pushing out" is different than "not subsidizing" right?

I'm not a fan of corporate welfare myself. But if we are providing it because it's in the best interests of the State and we thought it might be necessary to keep jobs here, risking the jobs because ESPN isn't doing our state university's athletic department an unrelated favor is absurd. If they leave, are you going to tell families of laid off workers that it was the right thing to do because you favored a better football schedule? Is any human being that selfish?

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

I'm not a fan of corporate welfare myself. But if we are providing it because it's in the best interests of the State and we thought it might be necessary to keep jobs here, risking the jobs because ESPN isn't doing our state university's athletic department an unrelated favor is absurd. If they leave, are you going to tell families of laid off workers that it was the right thing to do because you favored a better football schedule? Is any human being that selfish?

Who made you some kind of expert on the litigious workings of a company?

 

[businesslawyer]

Who made you some kind of expert on the litigious workings of a company?

Nobody "makes someone" an expert. People make themselves experts by learning things.

 

[CL82]

I'm not a fan of corporate welfare myself. But if we are providing it because it's in the best interests of the State and we thought it might be necessary to keep jobs here, risking the jobs because ESPN isn't doing our state university's athletic department an unrelated favor is absurd. If they leave, are you going to tell families of laid off workers that it was the right thing to do because you favored a better football schedule? Is any human being that selfish?

Lol, "absurd" is it? Well then you surely must be right. Easy there drama queen, that doesn't advance your argument. Again, not subsidizing a business enterprise is not "pushing them out."

So by your logic, must the state of Connecticut subsidize every employer under the fear that they'd leave if they didn't? If you have done this work then you understand that these types of arrangements fall under two general groupings. The first is statutory. That typically is reserved for enterprise zones. The second I'd call "political" as they need to be approved. In the first case if meet the standard, you'll receive the break, but in the second case the entity's citizenship" is a part of the review.

ESPN's decision to fund the evisceration of the Big East has cost UConn, and thus the state of Connecticut 100s of millions of dollars. It is "absurd" to ask Connecticut residents to subsidize a business that caused that level of loss. I'm not particularly worried about ESPN abandoning their facilities in a huff over that because it makes no economic sense to do that.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

ESPN's decision to fund the evisceration of the Big East has cost UConn, and thus the state of Connecticut 100s of millions of dollars. It is "absurd" to ask Connecticut residents to subsidize a business that caused that level of loss. I'm not particularly worried about ESPN abandoning their facilities in a huff over that because it makes no economic sense to do that.

Makes perfect sense. They have not been good citizens.
I would love to know what discussions, if any, have occurred over time since the dissolution of the original BE between ESPN and CT politicians. Has there been any tough talk or do campaign contributions make it all better? Just wondering.

 

[storrsroars]

I don't believe for one second that UConn football would equate to any significantly larger # of subscribers for ESPN+. Everything is moving to screens anyway. About the only demo ESPN+ may not get is cranky old men who post on BY.

 

[huskyinfl]

Unless we get good fast the AAC wants us gone. We hurt The strength of schedule of every school we play in our conference IE UCF USF Houston all feel the pain by being dragged down by playing us

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

If it turns out UConn football stays in the AAC it will be incredible embarrassing for Aresco.

As long as it doesn't make him mad...

 

[Exit 4]

Unless we get good fast the AAC wants us gone. We hurt The strength of schedule of every school we play in our conference IE UCF USF Houston all feel the pain by being dragged down by playing us

This is true - we have been a drag on SOS and that is certainly fodder for twitter takes.

However, its not like the P5 bowl opportunities will suddenly open up if any AAC school's SOS improves.

• The bowl committees want to see direct wins against P5 programs to steer rankings and bowl assignments. UCF, Cincy, UH, Memphis have to win those P5 OOC games and that wont change one scintilla whether we are in or out of this conference.
• Bowl access is gated. The AAC has access to certain bowls - relationships set up years in advance. Doors to better bowls wont open because of SOS as those doors are guarded by the P5 cartel. The AAC and fellow G5 schools get the scraps we are assigned....SOS be damned.

Its actually BB that is more influenced by SOS than football. Conference and team SOS is more meaningful in filling out the final tournament slots because that is a wide open system. NCAAFB bowls are a semi closed system where SOS really just influences the debate for the rare undefeated G5 team that might (but wont because the cartel has the doors shut) get into the NCAA football playoff.

 

[noeynox]

I can see that. But it does not mean fans will think it is the "big time."

I get that, but there is likely more interest in seeing that among locals than most of the AAC opponents we have no history with. I think our best bet is to embrace anything that may get fans to the stadium.

 

[Hoophound]

The SOS argument is always kind of silly. We should be better so Houston can beat a better team and get a major bowl bid? That doesn’t always work out so well, it was just a few years ago they came to the Rent and we spoiled their season. At that time, UCF was a winless doormat. Sports programs come and go.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I get that, but there is likely more interest in seeing that among locals than most of the AAC opponents we have no history with. I think our best bet is to embrace anything that may get fans to the stadium.

It's not even so much the AAC as it is the AAC West. I always liked playing Cincinnati and USF in the Big East, and Temple was always a decent out of conference matchup that was local. I don't have any interest in ECU or UCF, but at least the latter has been very good as of late. The AAC West teams just bring nothing to the table for me as a football fan.

I think in a perfect would, we would stay in the AAC, Randy starts to turn the ship, and OOC we get UMass, 2 P5, and a local FCS (Nova, Maine, UNH, URI, etc.) ever year.

I do think that we could be in this league for 30 years and nobody will care about Houston, Tulsa, SMU, Tulane, Memphis or ECU.

 

[Guapo]

I do think that we could be in this league for 30 years and nobody will care about Houston, Tulsa, SMU, Tulane, Memphis or ECU.

Nor should we care

 

[jibsey]

The AAC is a good or at least decent football league right? Maybe we can recruit better players to compete in this league. We’re not independent Norte Dame where the players will come because recruits come to be on a national stage like the B1G or the SEC. it matters not if at this point we don’t like the teams we play and we would be lucky to stay in the AAC for football. Didn’t Aresco already announce no way? What if we agree to have a few more sports in the AAC like curling and badminton? That’s the ticket.

 

[Fishy]

The AAC has to show they will extract maximum pain from anyone leaving as a warning to other members thinking of leaving.

Meaningless.

No one else is leaving for anything but the P5 and there’s nothing the American can do to scare anyone away from that.

 

[auror]

They move the needle more than most AAC teams

That's not really the question, though. It's about moving the needle more than any other possible replacement.

Not a comprehensive measurement by any means, but teams outside of AAC and P5 with more Reddit CFB subreddit flairs than UConn:
Notre Dame
BYU
Army
UAB
Boise St
Appalachian St
Georgia Southern

On the same tier (but slightly below UConn) for flairs:
Western Michigan
North Texas
Ohio
San Diego St
North Dakota St.

Since the question is "Who will have more hardcore football fans to sign up and pay money for an online/app streaming service for the games", CFB subreddit self-identifying flairs is a pretty good proxy. Casual fans are unlikely to pay and subscribe unless the team is very good. A few of these schools are definitely not options for the AAC, but this at least lines up with the seemingly-random Georgia Southern talk.

For reference and context, every single P5 team has more than us, and we're 7th in the AAC behind (in order) UCF, Houston, Cincy, USF, Navy, and Temple. Memphis is behind, but has been steadily gaining on us over the last 3 years and will likely pass us shortly.

 

[upstater]

Meaningless.

No one else is leaving for anything but the P5 and there’s nothing the American can do to scare anyone away from that.

I don't see the P5 knocking on their doors, but I do wonder how long a school like Temple can hold out.

 

[pj]

Is any human being that selfish?

Yes.

 

[noeynox]

I don't see the P5 knocking on their doors, but I do wonder how long a school like Temple can hold out.

For what?

 

[Hoophound]

That's not really the question, though. It's about moving the needle more than any other possible replacement.

Not a comprehensive measurement by any means, but teams outside of AAC and P5 with more Reddit CFB subreddit flairs than UConn:
Notre Dame
BYU
Army
UAB
Boise St
Appalachian St
Georgia Southern

On the same tier (but slightly below UConn) for flairs:
Western Michigan
North Texas
Ohio
San Diego St
North Dakota St.

Since the question is "Who will have more hardcore football fans to sign up and pay money for an online/app streaming service for the games", CFB subreddit self-identifying flairs is a pretty good proxy. Casual fans are unlikely to pay and subscribe unless the team is very good. A few of these schools are definitely not options for the AAC, but this at least lines up with the seemingly-random Georgia Southern talk.

For reference and context, every single P5 team has more than us, and we're 7th in the AAC behind (in order) UCF, Houston, Cincy, USF, Navy, and Temple. Memphis is behind, but has been steadily gaining on us over the last 3 years and will likely pass us shortly.

Good info and definitely relevant. However, this is not exactly a great time for that experiment. Memphis is gaining because they are good. The other schools above us have been consistently good. If we started a season 3-0 our numbers would begin to climb dramatically. We just don’t have our average fans engaged right now. That happens when you are horrible. When Memphis was horrible they had about 2500 people at their games.

 

[upstater]

For what?

Before they cry uncle.

 

[huskyinfl]

The SOS argument is always kind of silly. We should be better so Houston can beat a better team and get a major bowl bid? That doesn’t always work out so well, it was just a few years ago they came to the Rent and we spoiled their season. At that time, UCF was a winless doormat. Sports programs come and go.

It would be silly if our last season wasn't such a statistical outlier on being one of the worst performances of all time. Since empirical data backs this thesis up it is less silly. Sure it's really not important but we complain in b ball about the tulsa and ecu being a drag but they are not setting records on being the worst.

 

[Hoophound]

I get what you are saying but my point is, every conference has an easy win or two at all times. It is cyclical. If we get better, another team will be a dog. Fortunes change quickly. We beat UCF 40-13 in 2015.

 

[noeynox]

Before they cry uncle.

Temple has a long history of FBS. These schools all accept losing money in FB. Truth is, to Temple, the AAC is like a glass of water in the dessert.