Some B1G Financial Thoughts

[John Greene]

I didn't say the place was in need of repair. I said they struggle to keep up because their pockets aren't as deep. Sooner or later, that struggle will likely take a toll. As evidence, I offered a rather weak travel budget BC seems to have adopted. Kids like to travel, experience new things, experience others won't. Recuits won't rate that a positive or even a neutral. People try to hang onto the status quo for as long as possible but once they have to downgrade, the snowball begins to roll.

The question was how does BC and Cuse compare to UConn athletically. BC seems to have fallen on bad times recently. That, of course, is nothing new. I just submit that their path back to relevance is tougher that would be ours because we have greater resources to provide a better experience.

No doubt that BC FB and BB have both sucked for the last 3 years but the rest of your post makes no sense. We do not have "greater resources to provide a better experience" In addition our conference affiliation is worse. BC coach to prospect: "Son come to play at a school in the ACC located 10 miles from downtown Boston." Uconn coach to prospect: "Son come to play at a school in the NNNBE in Storrs." Look at their OOC FB schedule over the last few years and over the next few years. Compare it with ours. Guess who travels to more interesting places. I grant you that in the NNNBE our team will be able to travel to a lot of new places, but traveling long distances with short turnarounds to play SDSU and the others will hardly be a big selling point. Not trying to be a BC booster but, C'mon man use your head a little.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

No doubt that BC FB and BB have both sucked for the last 3 years but the rest of your post makes no sense. We do not have "greater resources to provide a better experience" In addition our conference affiliation is worse. BC coach to prospect: "Son come to play at a school in the ACC located 10 miles from downtown Boston." Uconn coach to prospect: "Son come to play at a school in the NNNBE in Storrs." Look at their OOC FB schedule over the last few years and over the next few years. Compare it with ours. Guess who travels to more interesting places. I grant you that in the NNNBE our team will be able to travel to a lot of new places, but traveling long distances with short turnarounds to play SDSU and the others will hardly be a big selling point. Not trying to be a BC booster but, C'mon man use your head a little.

You don't seem to be grasping the jists of my posts, missing the forest for the trees...

I'm not trying to divine what will happen later today...or next month That's far too near a horizon. The farmer doesn't make his decision on what to plant based on what he wants for lunch. I'm trying to imagine the landscape decades from now for surely that's what the B1G is attempting. Take a sojourn to Chestnut Hill or Syracuse and see whether the folks there think that big public universities have an advantage financially. Think there's a reason Vanderbilt and Northwestern don't spend a lot of time in conference title games?

 

[Point6]

Here is what I'd like to know from folks closer to the media market implications of both this thread and the "How Swofford" thread. I'm willing to believe that only markets matter to the B1G given the Rutgers acquisition, so if we hypothesize that at least one more northeastern program is required to anchor the B1G in the North East megamarket, how do we compare to BC and Cuse given the YES variable, the assumption that viewership doesn't matter as much as general cable sets, etc?

Three of the top six most valuable NFL franchises are the Giants, Jets and Patriots. http://www.forbes.com/nfl-valuations/

I'm sure there are a lot of reasons why that go beyond geography, but it is also clear that NYC and NE as a geography can support more than Rutgers in CFB. I think the real estate principle that its all about "location, location, location" also applies here -- and I think we are the best situated after Rutgers for capturing these markets for the B1G. Just looking at NYC, it has 2 NFL teams, 2 MLB teams and 2 NBA teams. Give the city a competitive "local" CFB conference (whether or not folks in NYC are UConn fans, RU fans or fans of other schools) and the city will get interested. Assuming further movement towards an 8 to 16 team playoff (sometime in the future) and I think NYC will become a college football town. As for the gravy, completely capturing Connecticut is a given and all of NE is likely.

 

[John Greene]

You don't seem to be grasping the jists of my posts, missing the forest for the trees...

I'm not trying to divine what will happen later today...or next month That's far too near a horizon. The farmer doesn't make his decision on what to plant based on what he wants for lunch. I'm trying to imagine the landscape decades from now for surely that's what the B1G is attempting. Take a sojourn to Chestnut Hill or Syracuse and see whether the folks there think that big public universities have an advantage financially. Think there's a reason Vanderbilt and Northwestern don't spend a lot of time in conference title games?

Finances have little to do with Vandy and Northwestern not spending a lot of time in conference title games. Both have financial resources that would make Pres. Herbst and the entire UConn BOT drool. I'm sure that given the choice between continued state support or an endowment the size of either the BOT would vote to go private in a heartbeat if it could.