So what's next?

[shizzle787]

What happened to thread ratings?? Were some THAT bad?!?

Must have been. I saw the posting when I logged on, yet I couldn't see any thread ratings anywhere seconds later.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

It would suck as an all sports conference, which is why it won't work.

The AAC has virtually no chance of survival in its current form. If you have a better idea, I am all ears.

The issue I see is that while UConn could find a home in the New Big East for basketball, I'm not sure where a Cincinnati, Temple or San Diego State would put their hoops programs.

At that point if say Cincinnati and Temple are stuck in the AAC for everything, why would they allow UConn's football program to be a part of their scheduling arrangement.

The best and most realistic thing that UConn can do is to try and get out Tier 3 rights back and continue to schedule attractive out of conference matchups in football and basketball.

I don't think there is a perfect solution to this mess and I would rather prolong the inevitable than to just burn it all down sooner than need be.

 

[whaler11]

There is no Jedi mind trick that will convince all these other schools to do what's best for UConn.

You have two real choices:

1. Keep football and remain in the AAC. If the school doesn't mind sticking the student body with $30+ million - there really isn't a reason to change course. If you can shake some t3 rights loose in the next AAC negotiation that is great - but that isn't going to be easy and you better have many games on a legitimate national network or you can't recruit at all.

2. Drop football. This makes you attractive to the ACC as basketball #16 and would give ESPN exactly what they want as they roll out the ACC network (they aren't going to 20 conf basketball games for no reason). It also makes you attractive to the Big East if the ACC is really that stupid.

If tbe school is comfortable sticking the student with the tab (and it clearly hasn't cut down applications) then you may as well stick it out in the AAC and see what happens in the next 5-7 years in television.

I personally don't see how anyone is going to generate the revenue in any future model better than the cable model does today. This is why I don't think any of the leagues with networks are even thinking about expanding. There is no upside in adding more mouths to feed when there is this much uncertainty in the revenue model.

Understanding I have no business sense... somehow I knew the ACC wasn't doomed and the Big 12 wasn't expanding... the next trend is that television revenue is going to decline in future contracts.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

There is no Jedi mind trick that will convince all these other schools to do what's best for UConn.

You have two real choices:

1. Keep football and remain in the AAC. If the school doesn't mind sticking the student body with $30+ million - there really isn't a reason to change course. If you can shake some t3 rights loose in the next AAC negotiation that is great - but that isn't going to be easy and you better have many games on a legitimate national network or you can't recruit at all.

2. Drop football. This makes you attractive to the ACC as basketball #16 and would give ESPN exactly what they want as they roll out the ACC network (they aren't going to 20 conf basketball games for no reason). It also makes you attractive to the Big East if the ACC is really that stupid.

If tbe school is comfortable sticking the student with the tab (and it clearly hasn't cut down applications) then you may as well stick it out in the AAC and see what happens in the next 5-7 years in television.

I personally don't see how anyone is going to generate the revenue in any future model better than the cable model does today. This is why I don't think any of the leagues with networks are even thinking about expanding. There is no upside in adding more mouths to feed when there is this much uncertainty in the revenue model.

Understanding I have no business sense... somehow I knew the ACC wasn't doomed and the Big 12 wasn't expanding... the next trend is that television revenue is going to decline in future contracts.

I think almost all the AAC schools would be better off holding and expanding their Tier 3 rights than selling them they way they do now. The value of the whole is much less than the sum of the parts.

In a world where everything is on demand, live TV will hold its value to viewers, it is just a question of finding the right distribution mechanism.

 

[whaler11]

I think almost all the AAC schools would be better off holding and expanding their Tier 3 rights than selling them they way they do now. The value of the whole is much less than the sum of the parts.

In a world where everything is on demand, live TV will hold its value to viewers, it is just a question of finding the right distribution mechanism.

That part is potentially realistic - but there are plenty of schools in the AAC where the tier 3 value is
just about zero.

Piecing together conferences of the schools you want to invite to a football only confederation not so much.

 

[Pudge]

There is no Jedi mind trick that will convince all these other schools to do what's best for UConn.

You have two real choices:

1. Keep football and remain in the AAC. If the school doesn't mind sticking the student body with $30+ million - there really isn't a reason to change course. If you can shake some t3 rights loose in the next AAC negotiation that is great - but that isn't going to be easy and you better have many games on a legitimate national network or you can't recruit at all.

2. Drop football. This makes you attractive to the ACC as basketball #16 and would give ESPN exactly what they want as they roll out the ACC network (they aren't going to 20 conf basketball games for no reason). It also makes you attractive to the Big East if the ACC is really that stupid.

If tbe school is comfortable sticking the student with the tab (and it clearly hasn't cut down applications) then you may as well stick it out in the AAC and see what happens in the next 5-7 years in television.

I personally don't see how anyone is going to generate the revenue in any future model better than the cable model does today. This is why I don't think any of the leagues with networks are even thinking about expanding. There is no upside in adding more mouths to feed when there is this much uncertainty in the revenue model.

Understanding I have no business sense... somehow I knew the ACC wasn't doomed and the Big 12 wasn't expanding... the next trend is that television revenue is going to decline in future contracts.

Doesn't this cable cutting/no model like the current cable modle thinking ... lead to the fundamental: the recently inked deals with the ACC are stupid. How can you go out to 2035 on that?

 

[whaler11]

Doesn't this cable cutting/no model like the current cable modle thinking ... lead to the fundamental: the recently inked deals with the ACC are stupid. How can you go out to 2035 on that?

The only reason I can see them signing the GOR/ESPN until 2035 is to look stable in comparison to their conference peers. Ends the Clemson/FSU to Big 12 nonsense and ends speculation of UVa and UNC to the Big 10.

If ESPN is insolvent everyone is probably screwed anyway. If they are insolvent may as well let some other lawyers deal with it 15 years from now.

When Disney spent a billion on MLBAM - with their resources I don't see how ESPN isn't the best bet to monetize streaming sports in a real way.

Is someone going to crack the code and end up with more money than the current model? That seems pretty unlikely to me - getting people to pay for your product who don't even use it is going to be tough to beat.

Culture wise it doesn't seem to me that the millenials and younger are anywhere near as invested in college sports as the older generations. Throw in how mobile people are today and how schools are recruiting their students nationally and internationally... direct to consumer is going to be really difficult at these revenue levels.

 

[pepband99]

Doesn't this cable cutting/no model like the current cable modle thinking ... lead to the fundamental: the recently inked deals with the ACC are stupid. How can you go out to 2035 on that?

The conference goes out to 2035. If they move, they ALL move, but even that is too simplistic, given that opening the contract to move probably makes 2035 moot anyway.

Best comparison is an NFL long-term contract - it works great, until you're cut.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The only reason I can see them signing the GOR/ESPN until 2035 is to look stable in comparison to their conference peers. Ends the Clemson/FSU to Big 12 nonsense and ends speculation of UVa and UNC to the Big 10.

If ESPN is insolvent everyone is probably screwed anyway. If they are insolvent may as well let some other lawyers deal with it 15 years from now.

When Disney spent a billion on MLBAM - with their resources I don't see how ESPN isn't the best bet to monetize streaming sports in a real way.

Is someone going to crack the code and end up with more money than the current model? That seems pretty unlikely to me - getting people to pay for your product who don't even use it is going to be tough to beat.

Culture wise it doesn't seem to me that the millenials and younger are anywhere near as invested in college sports as the older generations. Throw in how mobile people are today and how schools are recruiting their students nationally and internationally... direct to consumer is going to be really difficult at these revenue levels.

I agree with your points regarding riding it out in the AAC and seeing what happens the next decade or so and then looking into Big East or ACC hoops. I think the school has spent too much on football to drop it at this point. I don't think it's a sunk cost just yet.

Regarding the uncertainty of the cable model and schools selling their games through other platforms if somewhere down the line the P5 league revenues end up decreasing a bit and UConn's ends up increasing if we can sell our content through a different medium.

I think our penetration into NYC is overstated (so is every other school aside from ND) and even in CT our football ratings are poor but I do believe we have a pretty captive fan base over 3 sports that could be monetized.

Who knows tbough. The loose confederation of football only won't work but at least appreciate Nelson giving an actual plan for once.

 

[TRest]

I agree with your points regarding riding it out in the AAC and seeing what happens the next decade or so and then looking into Big East or ACC hoops. I think the school has spent too much on football to drop it at this point. I don't think it's a sunk cost just yet.

Regarding the uncertainty of the cable model and schools selling their games through other platforms if somewhere down the line the P5 league revenues end up decreasing a bit and UConn's ends up increasing if we can sell our content through a different medium.

I think our penetration into NYC is overstated (so is every other school aside from ND) and even in CT our football ratings are poor but I do believe we have a pretty captive fan base over 3 sports that could be monetized.

Who knows tbough. The loose confederation of football only won't work but at least appreciate Nelson giving an actual plan for once.

The real white elephant of UConn football is actually owned by the state, the Rent. The on-campus facilities were paid partially by donors and can be re-purposed to other sports training. Good luck telling the legislature thanks for building the football stadium, but we will no longer be competing there.

 

[DoctorWho85]

If the Big XII doesn't expand, UConn's best remaining option is staying put due to neither the ACC or B1G expanding in the foreseeable future. This isn't going to be a death sentence to UCONN'S athletic department, it'll just be a little tight. We've all lived like that at one time. But when the Big XII inevitably implodes when Texas, Texas Tech, OU and OSU, UConn along with some other AAC members can combined with the lefts overs and be a pretty damn good conference. Better than the ACC at bare minimum

 

[gioff23]

This entire thread is a giant

Click, bait, nothing more.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

That part is potentially realistic - but there are plenty of schools in the AAC where the tier 3 value is
just about zero.

Piecing together conferences of the schools you want to invite to a football only confederation not so much.

I want the football only conference I described for two reasons:

1) more and better regional matchups which will be important to selling to outlets like NESN and SNY. It also reduces costs and travel times. If UConn has to choose between playing Tulane and Tulsa or UMass and Temple, i am choosing UMass and Temple.

2) Better potential for Top 25 matchups later in the year. This is simple math of pulling from a bigger group of schools.

 

[MASSconn]

This entire thread is a giant

Click, bait, nothing more.

How on earth is this click bait? Well we have another member of the head in their a$# crew. This is a serious issue that should be discussed

 

[Jae-VT]

Here is the loose concept of an idea I posted about 5 months ago. Let's start with the AAC and MWC. Split it into 6 pods instead of 4 divisions.

Southeast: USF, UCF, ECU, Memphis
Southwest: Houston, Tulsa, Tulane, SMU
Northeast: UConn, Temple, Navy, Cincinnati

Pacific: Hawaii, SDSU, Fresno, SJSU
Mountain: Nevada, UNLV, Boise, Utah State
High Plains: New Mexico, Colorado State, Wyoming, Air Force

Play own pod every year. Play 1 team from other adjacent pod every year. Then set up tiers for the entire grouping, and play similar strata teams for 2 or 3 games every year. Or just play own pod plus 4 strata games. This works better if BYU, Army and UMass are in it, but I don't want to burn a lot of brain cells on the pods, just want to talk about the idea.

So let's say UConn is good (Diaco learns what that thing with numbers that is counting down is for), UConn's schedule could be:

Pod: Temple, Navy, Cincinnati - these become our rivalry games
SMU
USF
Strata Games: BYU, Houston, SDSU
4 OOC

If UConn was not as good, those strata games may be ECU, Colorado State and Nevada. In that case, we are no worse off than we are now.

You could even leave the last two dates of the season open for each team, 1 home, 1 away, that would be filled with the strata matchups once they were set, say 11/1 every season.

If you take this scheduling philosophy, you could theoretically pull in all the G5 conferences. Unless UConn sucked, it would never play a Sun Belt school, but if a Sun Belt school had a monster year, it could provide a good late season matchup of two teams receiving votes or maybe even ranked. This would also provide a Top 15 G5 school a way to get a late season win over a ranked opponent, and give them a better chance at a playoff bid.

This combined affiliation would sell maybe 6 games per team as Tier 1 and Tier 2 content, and leave half the schedule to the individual schools to sell on their own.

Both the AAC and MW would have to forego hosting a conference championship game if they were to go to a pod system. This might, theoretically, allow another G5 conference that does host a conference championship game to surpass a team from the AAC and MW in the final standings of the CFP rankings since they could always point to the 13th data point.

 

[TRest]

I want the football only conference I described for two reasons:

1) more and better regional matchups which will be important to selling to outlets like NESN and SNY. It also reduces costs and travel times. If UConn has to choose between playing Tulane and Tulsa or UMass and Temple, i am choosing UMass and Temple.

2) Better potential for Top 25 matchups later in the year. This is simple math of pulling from a bigger group of schools.

If we really want yearly matches with UMass, we can make it happen. There aren't any other regional teams that are available other than Army.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

If we really want yearly matches with UMass, we can make it happen. There aren't any other regional teams that are available other than Army.

Temple, UMass, Army, Navy. and maybe stretching as far as Cincinnati. Most of the AAC schedule is worthless to UConn as annual matchups, so we don't need them on our schedule every year.

 

[uconNYC]

Temple, UMass, Army, Navy. and maybe stretching as far as Cincinnati. Most of the AAC schedule is worthless to UConn as annual matchups, so we don't need them on our schedule every year.

Wouldn't mind a scheduling alliance with Temple, UMass, Army, Navy and maybe BYU. Would need to find 7 more games each season. 4 would come via FBS opponents early in the season. 1 FCS. and then 2 from MAC/SunBelt

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I'd rather play nearly all of the AAC schools besides Army and UMass.

I'd prefer Army and UMass over a Maine or Towson, but I think most AAC teams aside from Tulsa and Tulane are usually a) better and b) generate more interest.

 

[Yawkey Way]

I'd prefer Army and UMass over a Maine or Towson, but I think most AAC teams aside from Tulsa and Tulane are usually a) better and b) generate more interest.

A Umass- Uconn football game each year will generate" more interest" throughout New England than a Uconn- Cincy ( or Houston ) game will, imo.... especially within the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

 

[Hoophound]

Tulsa deserves respect. I agree, they are small time but they put pretty good teams on the field and court and have strong academics. We aren't a match because we've crossed paths so few times over the years and they aren't a big name in any sport, but they are solid. Tulane is terrible in sports but they were once in a major conference and are also good academically. I really can't say I'd rather play UMass than either of those schools. The only real benefit I see in playing UMass is to do it at the Rent so a few Mass residents would buy some tickets. Still, I'm really not sure if they'd sell more than a couple thousand.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

A Umass- Uconn football game each year will generate" more interest" throughout New England than a Uconn- Cincy ( or Houston ) game will, imo.... especially within the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

UMass does absolutely nothing to enhance our position In CR
I suspect the bus will come around again and having a viable football program is the only currently available ticket .
The AAC is our best football option by far if intact. I suspect you might even get other Quality programs if you wanted them . I can see this conference being a deal at a minimum of double or maximum of 5 times it's current contract. That puts it in a category all by itself.
Schools will be clamoring to join.
The only three programs in the Mountain West of any interest are ,CSU,and maybe New Mexico . But too a degree your media partner will dictate expansion or status quo.

 

[Vuce]

A Umass- Uconn football game each year will generate" more interest" throughout New England than a Uconn- Cincy ( or Houston ) game will, imo.... especially within the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Not in CT it won't. Not even close.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

A Umass- Uconn football game each year will generate" more interest" throughout New England than a Uconn- Cincy ( or Houston ) game will, imo.... especially within the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Seriously? Why not get Vermont to reinstate football and resurrect the Yankee Conference? Geez, that's how UConn got in this mess . . . by aiming for quaint and regional rather than national.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

I could never understand the distain for Tulane
They might be the most prestigious school in the AAC academically, AAU , the highest ratio of applicants to openings in the country. They also have a substantial endowment and have the oldest and in some aspects one of the most prestigious medical schools in the South. They also have a long history of competition on the big stage The SEC and Big 12 schools are fallback schools for a typical Tulane applicant.
Think of them as the AAC's Nortwestern or SEC's Vandy.
Having a Tulane increases the prestige of the conference.
If UConn had their :
AAU status ,
Endowment
And many years Football at the highest level
I suspect the CR board would be non existent.