Success of Rutgers, Cincinnati and Louisville

[UC990411]

Before reading this take off your blinders, if you dont want to take them off, please stop reading this now and refrain from commenting.

Is anyone else concerned about the success these three teams are having this year? They seem to be light years ahead of us right now and my fear is the B12 comes calling for Cincinnati an Louisville. Coupled with the fact that ND is tied to the ACC and can commit in football at any point, meaning they need a 16th member. I was at RU on Saturday and even though they mic'd the band, the atmosphere was unlike anything I've seen at the rent in a couple years, if not ever. Fans were loud all game, in their seats for kickoff and didn't leave until Whitmer thre the pick six. They have to be light years ahead of us right now, especially since they will outdrawing us in NYC by miles if they keep winning. Now I'm not saying the B12 or ACC is expanding now, but I would think if things keep up long term we're going to be stuck in this dumpster fire.

 

[Hoophound]

Before reading this take off your blinders, if you dont want to take them off, please stop reading this now and refrain from commenting.

Is anyone else concerned about the success these three teams are having this year? They seem to be light years ahead of us right now and my fear is the B12 comes calling for Cincinnati an Louisville. Coupled with the fact that ND is tied to the ACC and can commit in football at any point, meaning they need a 16th member. I was at RU on Saturday and even though they mic'd the band, the atmosphere was unlike anything I've seen at the rent in a couple years, if not ever. Fans were loud all game, in their seats for kickoff and didn't leave until Whitmer thre the pick six. They have to be light years ahead of us right now, especially since they will outdrawing us in NYC by miles if they keep winning. Now I'm not saying the B12 or ACC is expanding now, but I would think if things keep up long term we're going to be stuck in this dumpster fire.

On a side note, does anyone else notice how many empty seats there are at Patriots games at the start of the first and third quarters? Maybe it's a New England thing...

New Englanders drink before during and after games. RU doesn't serve beer during the game as I recall.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

yes

 

[UC990411]

Shouldn't have posted that part...lets talk realignment

 

[whaler11]

If a major BCS league makes a play for a team it isn't because of how good their team is in the moment.

Louisville has an out. I imagine Rutgers and Cincinnati are as screwed as UConn.

 

[CTBballfan243]

We as UCONN fans, and more importantly the UCONN administration, need to accept the fact that were aren't going anywhere. We are stuck in this "dumpster fire". The sooner everyone accepts that fact the sooner we can begin focusing on the future. Uconn's primary goal is to get the basketball facility built so our basketball programs can stay relavant. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter if Uconn has access to the football playoff, we won't ever be playing in the playoff. If we were in the B1G or ACC what would the likelyhood be of UCONN ever making the Championship game? I am guessing not very likely. I think Uconn just needs to stay with what made UCONN a household name, basketball, and not panic so much over what football conference we are in.

 

[Hoophound]

We as UCONN fans, and more importantly the UCONN administration, need to accept the fact that were aren't going anywhere. We are stuck in this "dumpster fire". The sooner everyone accepts that fact the sooner we can begin focusing on the future. Uconn's primary goal is to get the basketball facility built so our basketball programs can stay relavant. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter if Uconn has access to the football playoff, we won't ever be playing in the playoff. If we were in the B1G or ACC what would the likelyhood be of UCONN ever making the Championship game? I am guessing not very likely. I think Uconn just needs to stay with what made UCONN a household name, basketball, and not panic so much over what football conference we are in.

You just don't get our mentality. Sucking at football isn't tolerable. If we are going to play it, we want to win at it. In general UConn plays sports to win. We have that expectation for football. Very soon, we will have that expectation for hockey as well. Thank Jim Calhoun for the attitude many of us share. He showed us winning was possible. More importantly he brought our state together and inspired all of us to make UConn an elite university which will pay dividends for this state for the next hundred years. We must win.

 

[UC990411]

You just don't get our mentality..........We must win.

That's all you had to say

 

[CTBballfan243]

And Uconn can win at football, but maybe it will just have to be at the mid-major level in football. It wouldn't be the end of the world if in football we are not in with the big boys.

 

[Hoophound]

And Uconn can win at football, but maybe it will just have to be at the mid-major level in football. It wouldn't be the end of the world if in football we are not in with the big boys.

Yes it would. The sooner you and everyone else anywhere near the situation gets that, the sooner we can start gettin' where we're going.

 

[UC990411]

And Uconn can win at football, but maybe it will just have to be at the mid-major level in football. It wouldn't be the end of the world if in football we are not in with the big boys.

Dear Warde,please dont try and sell me on this. I'm a bigger hoops fan than a football fan. I value the success of the hoops team more than anything. That being said I don't want to be a mid major in anything. You realize how bad this basketball conference is going to be in comparison with the ACC, right? To me this realignment thing isn't just about football, it's about all sports. I don't want to play Houston, UCF, SMU, etc in anything, let alone basketball.

 

[Adios]

We beat a Heisman Trophy winning player twice, Heisman winning and national champion coach (Spurrier and South Carolina), beat Notre Dame at their house. The sky is the limit.

 

[CTBballfan243]

... But the fact of the matter is those are the teams UCONN is going to be playing. UCONN just needs to make the best of it. We aren't as valuable a commodity as we thought. If we were, then the ACC would have already invited us. The ACC will not be expanding further unless a team like FSU leaves the conference, which isn't likely. The best play now for the ACC is to see if they can pry Penn State from the B1G and get ND to join for all sports. No other move make financial sense for the ACC to expand further. UCONN isn't going anywhere. Therefore, it seems to me, it make more sense to try and make the best of a bad situation (that is only going to get worse when Louiville leaves). You can only live in a dream world for so long. At some point you have face reality and deal with it head on.

 

[Adios]

I think a day will come when ND becomes a full member of the ACC. That's when we get invited. The writing is pretty much on the wall. They are playing 62.5% of the conference football games required of a full member. The Connecticut market is desirable to ANY of the major conferences. The Big East also does have an 8-3 record against the SEC in bowl games. We need a football coach like Bill Snyder or Brian Kelly. Kansas State was absolute crap before Bill Snyder.

 

[CTBballfan243]

I agree 100% that we need a new coach. Someone younger, with some energy, and who creates a "buzz" around the program.

 

[CL82]

You just don't get our mentality. Sucking at football isn't tolerable. If we are going to play it, we want to win at it. In general UConn plays sports to win. We have that expectation for football. Very soon, we will have that expectation for hockey as well. Thank Jim Calhoun for the attitude many of us share. He showed us winning was possible. More importantly he brought our state together and inspired all of us to make UConn an elite university which will pay dividends for this state for the next hundred years. We must win.

Great ....post.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Louisville, Cincinnati and Rutgers having good seasons is a lot better for UConn than the 3 of them having bad seasons. This is a huge year for the Big East, and it has to at least be OK. Another 2010 type year for the conference would have been devastating in a year where the league was trying to ink a TV deal.

Interestingly, the NNBE teams are generally having poor seasons, but no one is really paying attention to anyone other than Boise. SMU and Houston are much worse than expected, and UCF and SDSU have missed some opportunities for a marquee win. Boise probably doesn't deserve a Top 25 ranking either.

The Big East just has to survive 3 more weeks without getting raided, and then it is home free with NBC. Not the greatest outcome in the world, but NBC's TV deal should be good enough to keep UConn competitive financially and give it solid exposure.

 

[gioff23]

What makes the so-called Power 5 what they are (ok, sorry, really just the Fab 4, but let's not digress) is that they have teams year in and year out (and not always the same team) that prove they can play at the highest level. Why in the world would we not want our conference to gain national respect for teams playing on the field? Why in the world would you bemoan 3 ranked teams? Would you rahter everyone sucked, so ESPN could keep touting the Power 5?

If you're belief is that the next conference to expand will take the team with the best record, then explain to me why the ACC took SU and Pitt or explain to me why the B12 did not want Boise. What we need more than anything is for this confernece to be taken seriously at the national level so we can secure a good TV contract that will keep our sports program growing, while we reamin part of the BE.

 

[SubbaBub]

Who was the last member of the current BE to play in a BCS bowl? Oh right, it was us.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[HuskyHawk]

You just don't get our mentality. Sucking at football isn't tolerable. If we are going to play it, we want to win at it. In general UConn plays sports to win. We have that expectation for football. Very soon, we will have that expectation for hockey as well. Thank Jim Calhoun for the attitude many of us share. He showed us winning was possible. More importantly he brought our state together and inspired all of us to make UConn an elite university which will pay dividends for this state for the next hundred years. We must win.

I agree. But no university is great at every sport it plays. We are already a top hoops program, men and women. Top men's soccer, and women's has slipped. Top field hockey team. Baseball team made the CWS and has produced some good players recently. Hockey only went division 1 not that long ago, and will soon be playing in the best league in the land. That said, anyone who thinks that UConn will quickly be beating BC in Hockey is nuts. We're a long way behind BC, BU, Maine, UNH, Lowell and everybody else in HE.

Football is further along than hockey, but if the goal is to be USC, Michigan or Alabama, then that's just not reasonable or fair to the university. I'd like to see list of consistently excellent football programs that don't fill 60,000+ seat stadiums. Oregon is probably the best program playing in a relatively small stadium. Maybe K-State is next. It is a very short list. Louisville, Utah, Colorado, Stanford, none have big stadiums. But nor are they "elite" football programs. They're good programs, with success that comes and goes, and some have been very very good at times.

But look at this list and there is an obvious correlation between stadium size and elite status. Particularly non-NFL stadiums. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_football_stadiums