The AAC and ESPN: will there be an eventual slide? | Page 2 | The Boneyard

The AAC and ESPN: will there be an eventual slide?

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cockhrnleghrn said:
I think the ACC is the best fit for you guys. The other large, state flagship universities are in P-5 conferences - I really can't think of any besides you and UMASS that are not, and UMASS just moved up to FBS in football. Maybe you and UMASS could team up to join the ACC and lock down New England, plus add to Syracuse's presence in NYC. Just a thought.
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I agree and the hope is that Clemson and FSU will leave the ACC for the SEC and UConn could fill 1 off those vacated spots.
 
zls44 said:
As someone who, like, actually helps control these things...post the link and I'll try and get that fixed. P5 is a FB-only thing, so any ranking system that doesn't include the AAC has been unintentionally set up incorrectly.

For MBB it's P5/BE/AAC...WBB should be the same as well.
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Hi,
I have a screen shot of what I think is missing from UConn's Clubhouse Page:

upload_2014-12-25_21-19-54.png


I have used the Duke page as an example
http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/team/_/id/150/duke-blue-devils
 
sawxfan23 said:
I agree and the hope is that Clemson and FSU will leave the ACC for the SEC and UConn could fill 1 off those vacated spots.
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USC and Florida would never allow Clemson or FSU into the SEC and Georgia wouldn't allow Georgia Tech. Those 3 schools also don't add any TV markets to the SEC so it wouldn't make any financial sense.
 
uconnfan68 said:
You left out UNH, Maine, Vermont, URI, New York!!!, Delaware, Wyoming, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska.
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I should have clarified that they should have football teams in FBS. Of the above, only Wyoming, Idaho, New Mexico and Hawaii do and they're all small states, population-wise. I don't like it any more than you do, but let's face it - it's all about money. The NCAA is non-profit in name only.

Fans are really the ones who suffer. I have USC season tickets for FB, MBB and WBB and it's expensive to keep the seats that I have and occupies much of my vacation budget.
 
cabbie191 said:
Perhaps my memory is foggy, or my facts are wrong, but it seems to me that even when UConn went to the Orange Bowl, and when they were ranked nationally, attendance was suspect. Few, if any, sold out games, and fans leaving many games early.

I remember as a kid failed attempts to keep a semi-pro football team in Hartford at Dillon Stadium. Connecticut has never been a strong football state, and while I hope Diaco has the same success as Edsall, I don't foresee Connecticut ever being a major football presence.
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College football as we know it was fathered in Connecticut by a Connecticut Native
Yale built the largest stadium in the world to accomodate crowds of up to 80,000 people. We have 3.5 million people and zero professional teams. The pent up demand is just waiting to be released. The missing ingredient is a viable product.
The Ivies de-emphasized football and no Connecticut team was there to pick up the mantle until UConn was cajoled by the Big East nearly 30 years later.
They made the expenditure just as the Big East was falling apart,sped along by the leagues rejection of a new ESPN contract.
If UConn by some miracle gets into the BiG and offers a half way competative product. UConn football will be the hottest ticket in the state.
With only 6 or 7 home dates they will easily fill the Rents expanded capacity.
Diaco needs to deliver or it will be a tough road ahead.
 
RegisteredUconn said:
This is probably not a good time for this. Then again, I'm not sure when the right time might be. Our current conference affiliation and its potential affects on the program have been discussed on several occasions. Here is one more datum to add to the pile: ESPN no longer considers us worthy of tracking with the "important" programs. "Important" is my word, not theirs. I've applied it to those 65 teams (the so-called P5) for which ESPN daily tracks, ranks, and publishes four team statistics: points per game; rebounds per game; assists per game; and field goal percentage. By ignoring the American and other lesser conferences, ESPN can, for example, unashamedly assert that Baylor is 1st Overall in scoring at 89.5 points per game even though UConn is scoring 89.9 ppg.

I understand the "as long as we have Geno" and "winning is what matters" arguments. I agree with them. Perception plays its role as well though, particularly in the lifeblood of every program, recruiting. Every time we find ourselves marginalized, or diminished in the discussion ("oh UConn? Who cares, they're not #1" or "UConn? They lost, they're not that good anymore" or "Sure UConn clobbered Team X without Player Y. What's your point?") our perception in the eyes of the cumulative others is lessened. Perhaps the diminution is negligible, imperceptible even, but unless addressed, it is cumulative. Rome neither rose nor fell in a fortnight. Just sayin'.
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The article in today's Courant about UCONN and ESPN seems to say that ESPN is looking out for the Huskies, not forgetting about them.
 
zls44 said:
As someone who, like, actually helps control these things...post the link and I'll try and get that fixed. P5 is a FB-only thing, so any ranking system that doesn't include the AAC has been unintentionally set up incorrectly.

For MBB it's P5/BE/AAC...WBB should be the same as well.
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Here's the link to the UConn page: http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/team/_/id/41/connecticut-huskies

Here's a link to the South Carolina Page: http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/team/_/id/2579/south-carolina-gamecocks
 
cabbie191 said:
Perhaps my memory is foggy, or my facts are wrong, but it seems to me that even when UConn went to the Orange Bowl, and when they were ranked nationally, attendance was suspect. Few, if any, sold out games, and fans leaving many games early.

I remember as a kid failed attempts to keep a semi-pro football team in Hartford at Dillon Stadium. Connecticut has never been a strong football state, and while I hope Diaco has the same success as Edsall, I don't foresee Connecticut ever being a major football presence.
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Would you ever have forecast a national presence for Boise State in football? Has Idaho ever been a football beacon? There are ways to do this if the commitment is there. What is needed is to identify where Pasqualoni was headed then do an about-face. If we spend the money, we'll get there. If we don't, we'll have to be lucky.
 
cockhrnleghrn said:
USC and Florida would never allow Clemson or FSU into the SEC and Georgia wouldn't allow Georgia Tech. Those 3 schools also don't add any TV markets to the SEC so it wouldn't make any financial sense.
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You are basing your conclusions on a model that is on its way out, namely the cable TV pricing model. People will pay to watch stuff, that much is obvious. What we don't want to do is pay not to watch stuff, and collecting money for stuff people don't watch is exactly what the cable companies do. The freight train that is people and content de-coupling from cable has just left the station and it's gaining speed. What conferences need going forward is content, not cable. Florida State and Clemson provide good content. U-Florida and U-South Carolina, et. al., would be foolish to look forward from the viewpoint of an ostrich.
 
For the first 10 years (2003-12), the Rent sold at 96 percent capacity - an average attendance of about 38,500 out of 40,000. About half the games were sellouts in that span (30 of 65).

The last two years will weigh that average down, due to the poor product. Although the Michigan game was 42,000 due to temporary seating.
 
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RegisteredUconn said:
Would you ever have forecast a national presence for Boise State in football? Has Idaho ever been a football beacon? There are ways to do this if the commitment is there. What is needed is to identify where Pasqualoni was headed then do an about-face. If we spend the money, we'll get there. If we don't, we'll have to be lucky.
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No, I wouldn't have imagined Boise State to be where they are. And I would love for you and AZH to be right and myself wrong, but my argument here is that even in the few years when UConn had a really good football team, and we offered potential recruits among the best training facilites in the country, we still rarely sold out games.

UConn will hopefully rebuild its football success on the field - but I don't think that automatically means the result is having the kind of fan base the P5 schools want.
 
cabbie191 said:
No, I wouldn't have imagined Boise State to be where they are. And I would love for you and AZH to be right and myself wrong, but my argument here is that even in the few years when UConn had a really good football team, and we offered potential recruits among the best training facilites in the country, we still rarely sold out games. UConn will hopefully rebuild its football success on the field - but I don't think that automatically means the result is having the kind of fan base the P5 schools want.
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They weren't that rare. We sold out half of our games in the first 10 years of the Rent, including 12 in a row spanning a couple years. The economic downturn of 2008 hurt a bit, and then the football downturn of the last couple years hurt more

http://www.uconnhuskies.com/facilities/rentschler-field.html
 
RegisteredUconn said:
You are basing your conclusions on a model that is on its way out, namely the cable TV pricing model. People will pay to watch stuff, that much is obvious. What we don't want to do is pay not to watch stuff, and collecting money for stuff people don't watch is exactly what the cable companies do. The freight train that is people and content de-coupling from cable has just left the station and it's gaining speed. What conferences need going forward is content, not cable. Florida State and Clemson provide good content. U-Florida and U-South Carolina, et. al., would be foolish to look forward from the viewpoint of an ostrich.
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The SEC's content is already top-notch for football; if we add any more schools I'd like them to be tops in basketball.
 
cockhrnleghrn said:
The SEC's content is already top-notch for football; if we add any more schools I'd like them to be tops in basketball.
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You can't be too rich, too thin, or have too much top-notch content. Feel free to quote me if you'd like.
 
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cockhrnleghrn said:
The SEC's content is already top-notch for football; if we add any more schools I'd like them to be tops in basketball.
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When do the SEC players learn English? Sorry, but I'm from "snooty" Connecticut, and we speak English in a certain formal manner.
 
Incidentally, earlier in the thread there was some discussion of the American being included in the basketball power conferences.

That's as may be, but I lost a bet when I said there was more than one American team in the men's basketball top 25; actually, not a single AAC team in the poll, even receiving votes. Luckily, I lost the bet to my wife, but, on subject, yikes . . .
 
Why can't only the bb programs go into a different conference and when football gets its act together join them.
 
KnightBridgeAZ said:
Incidentally, earlier in the thread there was some discussion of the American being included in the basketball power conferences.

That's as may be, but I lost a bet when I said there was more than one American team in the men's basketball top 25; actually, not a single AAC team in the poll, even receiving votes. Luckily, I lost the bet to my wife, but, on subject, yikes . . .
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I saw that also. UCONN women is the only AAC team and in the top 25, men or women, and Tulane's women are the only other team receiving votes (2)
 
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Beemer said:
Like Goodgood said it all hinges on the football team. If UConn is to have any kind of shot at getting into a decent conference the football team has to start winning.
I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen and I don't think anyone else should either. The program has been abysmal since Randy Edsall left for Maryland.
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Why does UConn's football team HAVE to be good ... yet Rutgers, Maryland, Syracuse, etc. all secured P5 invites despite having worse programs?

Sure, having a good football team helps, but markets seem to be the bigger driving force. Unfortunately, UConn's doesn't appear all that attractive to conferences at the moment.
 
Oh God of the Boneyard Pleeaaasssseee make this way beyond redundant way past depressing thread with its suicidal title slip off the front page!!!!
 
UConn990411 said:
Why does UConn's football team HAVE to be good ... yet Rutgers, Maryland, Syracuse, etc. all secured P5 invites despite having worse programs?

Sure, having a good football team helps, but markets seem to be the bigger driving force. Unfortunately, UConn's doesn't appear all that attractive to conferences at the moment.
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If the team were winning, more people would watch the games. UConn also needs to get good enough to beef up the schedule because playing the Stony Brooks of the world isn't going to draw eyeballs to the TV set. And it's not fannies in the seat that are key; it's eyeballs.
 
UConn990411 said:
Why does UConn's football team HAVE to be good ... yet Rutgers, Maryland, Syracuse, etc. all secured P5 invites despite having worse programs?

Sure, having a good football team helps, but markets seem to be the bigger driving force. Unfortunately, UConn's doesn't appear all that attractive to conferences at the moment.
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I'm not sure they have to be "good", but better than they are will make the deal more attractive.

I don't really consider Rutgers or Maryland great programs, but currently they are not worse than UConn; RU improved greatly under Greg Schiano, went 8-5 this season in Kyle Flood's 3rd year, won 3 B1G games and just pretty much pasted UNC in a bowl game. Maryland had a very nice run under Ralph Fridgen (who happens to be offensive coordinator at RU now) and while I know there is some angst in the UConn world over it, I think Randy Edsall was a winning hire for them.

Syracuse isn't very good now, but with their storied history (something RU, Md and UConn all lack) I think they can regroup eventually. Unfortunately you and Syracuse share having hired someone with the initials "PP" in football.:(

I think - in time - your teams will end up in a P5, at the next conference scramble. What I suspect is there will be a few years of suffering (not in WBB!) until then. And I do hope it happens, as I think all major state universities should be in power conferences.
 
zls44 said:
Thanks. I passed it along to the engineers. No idea when they'll fix it, but they are aware.
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Thank you zls! Merry and Happy!
 
HuskyNan said:
If the team were winning, more people would watch the games. UConn also needs to get good enough to beef up the schedule because playing the Stony Brooks of the world isn't going to draw eyeballs to the TV set. And it's not fannies in the seat that are key; it's eyeballs.
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There's a tradeoff. In theory, the gimme win over an FCS team can be the difference between being bowl eligible at the end of the season and building interest in the program, or playing out the string to empty seats and turned off TV sets with nothing at stake. Of course, that's in theory, since it hasn't been a gimme - we lost to Towson, barely beat Stony Brook, might be underdogs next year vs Villanova, and we've been nowhere near bowl eligible lately anyway. But you don't know that when you schedule.
 
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