Some Comments from Swofford | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Some Comments from Swofford

Status
Not open for further replies.
A master's degree from FSU in political science and international relations gets you working the phones for customer service. True story. I was shocked.
 
pj said:
That would only work for UConn if (a) we could do a football-only deal with the AAC, (b) we could exit at will with no exit fee or GoR once we got an invitation from another conference, (c) we were confident that an all-sports invitation from the ACC would not be forthcoming, so that we weren't giving away the milk without the cow, and (d) the payment from the ACC was adequate.

For the ACC, Georgetown or Villanova might be available for similar type deals. It's not clear why they'd favor UConn (likely to depart) over G'town or Villanova. I doubt they'd go there.
Expand ...

Georgetown and Nova would never do a deal like that because they make too much money in the Big East already with like-schools and neither school has any plans to upgrade football.

I disagree on the cow/milk analogy. If UConn is selling out Tobacco Road basketball arenas in addition to Pitt and the Carrier Dome, it might overcome our chief obstacle to an all sports membership which is BCU. I think an independent football schedule would be possible if we could get 3 football games a year from the ACC (not exactly moving heaven and earth). Throw in regular games against BYU, UMass and Army, who would probably all schedule us for November games, and we would have half a schedule filled coming out of the gate every year. I also think it is possible that Navy would bail on a AAC membership if the league loses another school.

The value to the ACC is to get one of the Top basketball programs in the country and a guaranteed draw, and balance out an imbalanced conference and tournament schedule. As importantly, the last thing the ACC wants to do is hold a tournament in NYC and have empty seats. Syracuse and Duke probably can't fill the place by themselves. It would also provide a commutable addition for the northern schools for olympic sports. UConn would definitely pay its own way in a TV contract.

I agree on the GOR, but Uconn would probably agree to a reasonable exit fee from the ACC if one was required to get the deal done.

That said, I suspect that like with the Big East, UConn has already tried this.
 
bobbyinaz said:
You've answered why it's not going to happen with reply (a). The AAC is not going to let us stay as football only members. There is no value to them in doing that. The conference already has a shi**y ESPN contract. There is no increased value to the AAC in keeping UConn for football only. They would just as soon tell UConn to take a hike & add UMass as a replacement for all sports. It wouldn't cost them anything

Then we are forced to go the independent route for football which has been discussed too many times on the BY to think it could work
Expand ...

The AAC has given a football only membership to Navy, so they are not opposed in principle. If the choice is between having us as football-only members or not having us at all, they would probably want us. If they didn't, football would have to go to the MAC.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
Georgetown and Nova would never do a deal like that because they make too much money in the Big East already with like-schools and neither school has any plans to upgrade football.
Expand ...

Don't be silly, the ACC would pay more than the Big East for basketball and Olympic sports. ESPN reportedly told the ACC that basketball provided 20-30% of the value of their contract, football 70-80%. At $19 mn each, that's $3.8-5.7 mn per school for basketball and Olympic sports, more than the Big East is getting. G'town and Nova might move for equal money to get greater exposure.

I disagree on the cow/milk analogy. If UConn is selling out Tobacco Road basketball arenas in addition to Pitt and the Carrier Dome, it might overcome our chief obstacle to an all sports membership which is BCU. I think an independent football schedule would be possible if we could get 3 football games a year from the ACC (not exactly moving heaven and earth). Throw in regular games against BYU, UMass and Army, who would probably all schedule us for November games, and we would have half a schedule filled coming out of the gate every year. I also think it is possible that Navy would bail on a AAC membership if the league loses another school.

The value to the ACC is to get one of the Top basketball programs in the country and a guaranteed draw, and balance out an imbalanced conference and tournament schedule. As importantly, the last thing the ACC wants to do is hold a tournament in NYC and have empty seats. Syracuse and Duke probably can't fill the place by themselves. It would also provide a commutable addition for the northern schools for olympic sports. UConn would definitely pay its own way in a TV contract.

I agree on the GOR, but Uconn would probably agree to a reasonable exit fee from the ACC if one was required to get the deal done.

That said, I suspect that like with the Big East, UConn has already tried this.
Expand ...

With a Notre Dame type football scheduling deal, it becomes possible to consider an exit fee.
 
huskyrob1 said:
“For the next 12 to 15 years, I don’t think you’ll see movement in the Power Five conferences,” Swofford said. “Unless someone grows and adds a team not currently in the Power Five, but I don’t think you’ll see any teams moving within it.”

Talking about UCONN?
Expand ...
Going based on historical data...no. He's not talking about UConn.
 
pj said:
The AAC has given a football only membership to Navy, so they are not opposed in principle. If the choice is between having us as football-only members or not having us at all, they would probably want us. If they didn't, football would have to go to the MAC.
Expand ...

I'm not sure the Mac would give football only membership. They just gave UMass the boot for not going all in.

I don't think a non football membership to any conference would be feasible for UConn to maintain football.

Scheduling would be a serious issue even with 3 acc games a year.
 
.-.
specialisthusky said:
I'm not sure the Mac would give football only membership. They just gave UMass the boot for not going all in.

I don't think a non football membership to any conference would be feasible for UConn to maintain football.

Scheduling would be a serious issue even with 3 acc games a year.
Expand ...

The current league is a death sentence, so we have to do something.
 
pj said:
Don't be silly, the ACC would pay more than the Big East for basketball and Olympic sports. ESPN reportedly told the ACC that basketball provided 20-30% of the value of their contract, football 70-80%. At $19 mn each, that's $3.8-5.7 mn per school for basketball and Olympic sports, more than the Big East is getting. G'town and Nova might move for equal money to get greater exposure.



With a Notre Dame type football scheduling deal, it becomes possible to consider an exit fee.
Expand ...

The Big East gets about $4.5MM per school, and virtually every game is nationally televised. I don't see Villanova and Georgetown leaving that for equivalent money in a league with a bunch of southern state schools.

UConn will take what UConn can get right now. The AAC is a death sentence, and I have heard that the Big East was not interested when UConn approached them about a basketball only membership. The status quo is guaranteed failure. Something needs to be done.
 
pepband99 said:
I don't know, I think Swofford is a buffoon, and his proclamation probably actually means that realignment is about to start soon. Who's with me? :)
Expand ...
You're absolutely right! It wasn't over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor and it's not over now! This situation requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on someone's part. Wormer dead! Marmalard dead! Niedermeyer dead! Swofford dead! Let's Goooooooo!!!!
 
nelsonmuntz said:
The Big East gets about $4.5MM per school, and virtually every game is nationally televised. I don't see Villanova and Georgetown leaving that for equivalent money in a league with a bunch of southern state schools.

UConn will take what UConn can get right now. The AAC is a death sentence, and I have heard that the Big East was not interested when UConn approached them about a basketball only membership. The status quo is guaranteed failure. Something needs to be done.
Expand ...

On just the capital projects alone - UConn has spent $91 million on the Rent and another $48 million on the Burton/Shenkman training complex for a total of $139 million and that does not include coaches' salaries, scholarships, travel, gear, etc. No way is UConn walking away from that investment. Plus, as I have stated before, recent history points to that the football/basketball power teams will continue to dominate in basketball, too. Since 2000, there have been 60 Final Four slots (15 years) and only 8, or 13% of those slots were taken by programs that did not also play D1 football (Marquette '03, George Mason '06, Georgetown '07, Villanova '09, Bulter '10, Butler '11, VCU '11, Witchita St '13). None of those won the title. The last basketball team to win the title that did not also play D1 football was in 1985 with Villanova, nearly 30 years ago. UConn has to survive in football in order to succeed in basketball.
 
Has anyone proposed moving hockey out of Hockey East to Independent yet? That way, we play 5 games a year against the Bruins and Rangers and get on NBC Sports Network. Maybe basketball can get a similar arrangement to play against the Knicks and Celtics 10 times per year if we went independent. They're talking about Kentucky beating the Sixers so maybe we can develop an Independent basketball market on our own.
 
.-.
Any possibility that one of the grandfathered P5 drecks drop out and decide they don't want to pay to keep up? (more just me wishful thinking)
 
Fishy said:
Anybody catch last week's Big East Fox ratings? No?

0.0

This conference sucks, but at least it exists on television.

The Big East doesn't.
Expand ...

If we could only pay coaches salaries with ratings points.
 
.-.
nelsonmuntz said:
If we could only pay coaches salaries with ratings points.
Expand ...
What percentage of our athletic budget is 4.5 million? It's not enough to drop football and ask the nBE for an invite. Has anyone even confirmed what their contract actually pays? All I have seen is speculation.
 
TRest said:
What percentage of our athletic budget is 4.5 million? It's not enough to drop football and ask the nBE for an invite. Has anyone even confirmed what their contract actually pays? All I have seen is speculation.
Expand ...

The NBE is not one of our choices, but it is ridiculous to make fun of that leagues ratings on foxsports when they are making so much more than us and our conference sucks so badly in both major sports.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
The NBE is not one of our choices, but it is ridiculous to make fun of that leagues ratings on foxsports when they are making so much more than us and our conference sucks so badly in both major sports.
Expand ...

Name one NBE school that will generate more revenue than UConn.
 
I think the NBE - money & all - is heading to a status very close to the A10 & CAA. Granted, they recruited a little & MSG had a nice draw for their tourney. Nostalgia. Their Brand will be sinking.

We are where we are. Football is important & we have a decent regional market. Need to creep further into NE & metropolitan NYC. And, of course, Diaco needs to succeed. Crossed my fingers on that guy.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
From their conference TV contract? All of them.
Expand ...

The answer is none of them. It's not even close. Both conference's TV contracts represent a fraction of UConn's overall revenue. The delta between the two contracts is even more insignificant. You're advocating picking up pennies when we need to be focused on pocketing dollar bills. . .
 
.-.
Pudge said:
I think the NBE - money & all - is heading to a status very close to the A10 & CAA. Granted, they recruited a little & MSG had a nice draw for their tourney. Nostalgia. Their Brand will be sinking.

We are where we are. Football is important & we have a decent regional market. Need to creep further into NE & metropolitan NYC. And, of course, Diaco needs to succeed. Crossed my fingers on that guy.
Expand ...

You realize how pathetic this whole board sounds with posts like this? This is like saying your ex will get fat and broke eventually, even if she looks great and is rolling in cash now. It sounds ridiculous.

We are in a southern mid-major league that plays on TV for almost nothing.The closest school is about 275 miles away, and after that the distances get really big. We would have been better off adding UMass and Buffalo instead of Tulane and Tulsa, but instead of adding two large state schools within driving distance of UConn, it added two tiny private schools that are each over 1,000 miles away. Having a school in Florida does not help us for recruiting when we are no longer in a BCS league. Those Florida kids would have to pick us over about 35 G5 schools that are closer, and in case you guys forgot, there was a foot of ice on the ground for about 2 months last winter.

I have said before that any other alternative is better than the one we have. Nothing has caused me to change that position. We are better off taking us, UMass, Temple, Buffalo and Cincinnati, and grabbing the next 3 closest schools we can find, and starting over with a new league. Miami (OH), Navy and Army, and we are done. Navy and Army would probably like the scheduling flexibility of a 7 game schedule, and we could fill in with the other 6 teams playing 4 games a year against BYU. That is better than our current option, and would likely generate more in revenue. We are stuck in a contract of death with ESPN, and the MAC basically just gave up with its TV deal. Mix things up and see what happens.

Literally every single option is better than the one we chose.
 
itgoeslike said:
The answer is none of them. It's not even close. Both conference's TV contracts represent a fraction of UConn's overall revenue. The delta between the two contracts is even more insignificant. You're advocating picking up pennies when we need to be focused on pocketing dollar bills. . .
Expand ...

It represents a fraction now. UConn kicks in about $15MM to the athletic department, and that is while UConn is still receiving exit fees from the OBE exodus. When those try up, we are completely screwed.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
It represents a fraction now. UConn kicks in about $15MM to the athletic department, and that is while UConn is still receiving exit fees from the OBE exodus. When those try up, we are completely screwed.
Expand ...

You just proved my point. An extra $1.8M isn't going to close that gap. Additionally, the football team was profitable or lost money while generating $11M in revenue depending upon whose data you believe. So if you downgrade football, what do you gain? Maybe you cut coaching salaries. You still end up with less fan interest, less revenue and the lion's share of the expenses. You would also halve the advertising revenue and donor support for the sport. Lastly, consider that the AAC's playoff payout, as well as other AAC payouts, more than make up the delta between the TV contracts. Your proposal is a net loss.
 
Last edited:
nelsonmuntz said:
You realize how pathetic this whole board sounds with posts like this? This is like saying your ex will get fat and broke eventually, even if she looks great and is rolling in cash now. It sounds ridiculous.

We are in a southern mid-major league that plays on TV for almost nothing.The closest school is about 275 miles away, and after that the distances get really big. We would have been better off adding UMass and Buffalo instead of Tulane and Tulsa, but instead of adding two large state schools within driving distance of UConn, it added two tiny private schools that are each over 1,000 miles away. Having a school in Florida does not help us for recruiting when we are no longer in a BCS league. Those Florida kids would have to pick us over about 35 G5 schools that are closer, and in case you guys forgot, there was a foot of ice on the ground for about 2 months last winter.

I have said before that any other alternative is better than the one we have. Nothing has caused me to change that position. We are better off taking us, UMass, Temple, Buffalo and Cincinnati, and grabbing the next 3 closest schools we can find, and starting over with a new league. Miami (OH), Navy and Army, and we are done. Navy and Army would probably like the scheduling flexibility of a 7 game schedule, and we could fill in with the other 6 teams playing 4 games a year against BYU. That is better than our current option, and would likely generate more in revenue. We are stuck in a contract of death with ESPN, and the MAC basically just gave up with its TV deal. Mix things up and see what happens.

Literally every single option is better than the one we chose.
Expand ...

Not very broadminded nor forward thinking are you?

I disagree. The NBE is not for us. We need to protect our Basketball brand and that has become increasingly hard to do. Long term, we can't sustain this going forward. However, I think that the NBE is going to sink to a lower status. They won't hold the urban attention that it used to have. That idea of yours ... SUCKS. And that is my view after this past year; I don't think we are going to see anything improve.

AAC is our stopgap. Can we inch along & make ourselves attractive for a ride into the B1G? I say yes. I think that has uber benefits for our Academic Brand as well as a great target for our sports. The ACC ... not so much. Probability? Not zero. But, we need the football and our overall AD to continue to strive.

The Florida schools do help us. They just do ... your statement is wrong. We never ever ever tried to compete with 35 G5 schools. Edsall/Terry Richardson ... and now Diaco/Keith Wolthausen et al go get a few kids. It is what it is. Not a huge component today. I think Diaco has really hustled for recruits well; we shall see when they arrive how good his evaluation eye is. I really like what I have heard.

Buffalo, UMass ... should be on our schedule regularly: for just the same idea that you promote. But, they are even farther behind than we are at this. Until they prove a bunch of things, they don't deserve to be where we have attained. Maybe soon? I don't think they have a fanbase that will grow over 20k.

So ... we sold our soul to be on TV. And, maybe the $$$ will increase over time. Until we get ascension ...
 
Pudge said:
Not very broadminded nor forward thinking are you?

I disagree. The NBE is not for us. We need to protect our Basketball brand and that has become increasingly hard to do. Long term, we can't sustain this going forward. However, I think that the NBE is going to sink to a lower status. They won't hold the urban attention that it used to have. That idea of yours ... SUCKS. And that is my view after this past year; I don't think we are going to see anything improve.

AAC is our stopgap. Can we inch along & make ourselves attractive for a ride into the B1G? I say yes. I think that has uber benefits for our Academic Brand as well as a great target for our sports. The ACC ... not so much. Probability? Not zero. But, we need the football and our overall AD to continue to strive.

The Florida schools do help us. They just do ... your statement is wrong. We never ever ever tried to compete with 35 G5 schools. Edsall/Terry Richardson ... and now Diaco/Keith Wolthausen et al go get a few kids. It is what it is. Not a huge component today. I think Diaco has really hustled for recruits well; we shall see when they arrive how good his evaluation eye is. I really like what I have heard.

Buffalo, UMass ... should be on our schedule regularly: for just the same idea that you promote. But, they are even farther behind than we are at this. Until they prove a bunch of things, they don't deserve to be where we have attained. Maybe soon? I don't think they have a fanbase that will grow over 20k.

So ... we sold our soul to be on TV. And, maybe the $ will increase over time. Until we get ascension ...
Expand ...

The NBE is not an option for us, so that doesn't matter.

We didn't sell our soul, we gave it away. The next contract with this league will suck just as badly as this one does. All these southern schools operate in markets where there are powerhouse competitors. They attract modest interest, and the travel must be killing the non-revenue sports. At least if the league had a northeastern nexus of UMass, Buffalo, UConn, Temple and Navy, it could put up a credible fight on the DC to Boston corridor, where the competition is pretty weak (Rutgers, Syracuse, BCU). Instead, we are heading down south and trying to get attention in markets that schools like LSU, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and Florida State own. UConn, UMass, Cincinnati, Temple and Buffalo with only 1 dreg would be better on Day 1 than the league we are in now. We would probably have to add 2 basketball onlies, or maybe add Delaware and another MAC team or ECU. We wouldn't have to play an 18 game basketball schedule, 10 of which are RPI killers, like we do now.

I am brain storming because there is no realistic scenario where long-term membership in the AAC does not result in the effective irrelevance of UConn's athletic program.
 
.-.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,336
Messages
4,565,404
Members
10,465
Latest member
agiglax


Top Bottom