Should We Join the Catholics?

[VAHuskyFan]

I know this will not be a popular view, but UConn's new league has to be the 7 Catholics.

Priority #1 for UConn has to be to protect basketball. Football is driving the bus on realignment because football on average generates more profit for schools. UConn doesn't fully allocate revenues/expenses by sport, but we can all agree that:

1) Football = LESS profit for UConn than for the average BCS school;
2) Basketball (mens & womens) = MORE profit for UConn than for the average BCS school.

A SEC school in a BCS game will sell its tickets and book a healthy profit. We lost seven figures on the Fiesta Bowl. The economics just don't break out the same for UConn as they do for the majority of BCS schools. And beyond that, basketball is our national brand. With Calhoun gone, we absolutely cannot afford to wind up in a weak basketball conference with no traditional rivals.

Join the Catholics. Go independent in football. We can't gamble everything on some doomed-to-fail Conference USA mashup.

 

[ctchamps]

I think if we join the Mormons we come out ahead!

 

[06029]

Much like the ACC, if you are not invited you can not join. Its not like you just show up and they include you.

 

[UCFBfan]

1) Football = LESS profit for UConn than for the average BCS school;

How do you figure this?? Are you lumping in the stupid notion that UConn lost money and was the only school to lose money on ticket sales for a BCS Bowl? I don't honestly know how you even come up with this statement?

 

[specialisthusky]

this would be the death of uconn football. So, no.

 

[specialisthusky]

How do you figure this?? Are you lumping in the stupid notion that UConn lost money and was the only school to lose money on ticket sales for a BCS Bowl? I don't honestly know how you even come up with this statement?

i think he is referring to conference payouts as compared to the big 4 plus the more profitable hopeful future conference.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

From what I understand there are quite a few Buddhists in the world so that could be an option.

 

[UCFBfan]

i think he is referring to conference payouts as compared to the big 4 plus the more profitable hopeful future conference.

Possibly. I read it as saying that compared to other BCS schools, UConn makes less money then their peers. I wasn't looking at it from the future perspective of how UConn won't be a BCS school.

 

[zls44]

UConn will not be invited, so this is an irrelevant point.

 

[VAHuskyFan]

Much like the ACC, if you are not invited you can not join. Its not like you just show up and they include you.

zls44 mentioned that they may need 2 FB votes. Not sure how true that is. Us and Temple.

How do you figure this?? Are you lumping in the stupid notion that UConn lost money and was the only school to lose money on ticket sales for a BCS Bowl? I don't honestly know how you even come up with this statement?

Really? You are honestly disputing that we turn less of a profit on football then the average BCS school??? Forget about the Fiesta Bowl. We have a 40,000 seat stadium for crying out loud! UConn reported $17.5M in football revenue in 2010. Texas had $95M. Auburn and Alabama had $76M. Florida, Michigan, Georgia, Penn State all also over $70M. We're talking orders of magnitude difference. There's 30 other programs that pull in twice the revenue we do for football.

Source: bizjournals.com

 

[junglehusky]

Only if we can keep FB in some kind of FBS conference. If we have to go independent then no. But like others I doubt we or Cincy get invited since we'd obviously bolt for the first "power 5" spot to open up. Maybe there could be some kind of agreement written into the new league with that understanding, higher exit fee for us or Cincy... but I doubt it.

 

[upstater]

zls44 mentioned that they may need 2 FB votes. Not sure how true that is. Us and Temple.

Really? You are honestly disputing that we turn less of a profit on football then the average BCS school??? Forget about the Fiesta Bowl. We have a 40,000 seat stadium for crying out loud! UConn reported $17.5M in football revenue in 2010. Texas had $95M. Auburn and Alabama had $76M. Florida, Michigan, Georgia, Penn State all also over $70M. We're talking orders of magnitude difference. There's 30 other programs that pull in twice the revenue we do for football.

Source: bizjournals.com

That link is not trustworthy. Lots of schools dump contributions and licensing into football coffers. You have to compare apples to apples, and it's impossible to do it unless you see a breakdown.

UConn makes a decent amount in football--we saw this a few years ago.

Think what you are recommending, however. You want UConn to send a signal that football doesn't matter to it. so how do you expect to get an invite to the ACC in the 50/50 eventuality (in the next couple of years) that a team leaves the ACC for the B12 or B1G? That's a bad signal to send. and for what? A spot in a glorified A10? We'll be UMass soon.

When the ACC option dies totally (it's not dead yet), UConn can elect to become another UMass then.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Why isn't SH calling a press confernce.
She has to answer a lot of questions.
We've got a 200 million dollars in football that is being thrown away.
Don't give me crap about acedemics.
Our Acedemic success is directectly related to our athletic success.

 

[upstater]

Don't give me crap about acedemics.
Our Acedemic success is directectly related to our athletic success.

How so?

How many state schools in the AAU don't have BCS sports? Many.
How many private schools don't? Many.
UConn can ramp up academics pretty quickly, if it wanted to. It's in a wealthy state with a great secondary education system, which provides plenty of smart kids.