The fears of our AD getting left behind are overblown | Page 2 | The Boneyard

The fears of our AD getting left behind are overblown

Patrick79 said:
JMick, considering there were people on this Board that legit thought we didn't get into the B12 because of the one loss at Maryland (i.e., B12 Presidents were ready to pull the trigger and then the flop happened), I think it's a lack of gray matter sadly.
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True - but success against any P-2 member in FB would have helped generally. Unfortunately, FB has been neglected for so long that the FB conferences think we are content to let it wither. BB is second to none, but the big money conferences want to see us striving to become better at FB. Losing 50-7 to a mediocre Maryland team sent a dismal message in that regard.

Nice win today, but how often can you schedule cannon fodder?
 
CL82 said:
Sick Vomit GIF by CBS
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If the goal is to get into the MAC so that we can compete for wins over UMass and Buffalo and Central Michigan and Kent State, why isn't being an independent and competing for wins over our current schedule just as good?
 
pj said:
If the goal is to get into the MAC so that we can compete for wins over UMass and Buffalo and Central Michigan and Kent State, why isn't being an independent and competing for wins over our current schedule just as good?
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I get the sense that being Independent hurts recruiting. Programs can recruit a certain type of player based on their program history and the conference they play in. UConn as an Independent has no identity. You can't fight for a conference championship and certainly not for a national championship. You don't have familiarity with the teams you play. If you are N. Illinois or Toledo you can recruit kids who want to play in the MAC (similarly kids who want to play in the Sun Belt or MWC) and maybe that team is more cohesive than an Independent program with no realistic goals for the season, other than trying to make a somewhat decent bowl game. I've never coached or played so I'm just guessing here but it makes sense to me and I'm sticking with it.
 
Kolumbo said:
I get the sense that being Independent hurts recruiting. Programs can recruit a certain type of player based on their program history and the conference they play in. UConn as an Independent has no identity. You can't fight for a conference championship and certainly not for a national championship. You don't have familiarity with the teams you play. If you are N. Illinois or Toledo you can recruit kids who want to play in the MAC (similarly kids who want to play in the Sun Belt or MWC) and maybe that team is more cohesive than an Independent program with no realistic goals for the season, other than trying to make a somewhat decent bowl game. I've never coached or played so I'm just guessing here but it makes sense to me and I'm sticking with it.
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It’s a mixed bag. Playing for a conference title is really important. It is also possible that attendance withers playing 8 MAC games. I think fans aspire to beat peer schools and not take a step back. And I know, we are not winning those games. Bottom line is revenue needs to be there - the plan is not to lose more money. Will MAC schools be paying players? That would be a big deciding factor.
 
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pj said:
If the goal is to get into the MAC so that we can compete for wins over UMass and Buffalo and Central Michigan and Kent State, why isn't being an independent and competing for wins over our current schedule just as good?
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Screw the MAC...
 
There has always been a sense on this board that the football program is bleeding money. I certainly don't have access to the specific budget figures of the athletic department, but I wonder if that is true. The athletic department budget is @ $95M. That's generally comparable to most big-time universities. We are not over-spending in comparison to other top universities so much as underperforming in generating revenue. The shortfall now is being made up by state subsidies. What the state government wants is to reduce the subsidies so they can waste money on other political items which is where the pressure is coming from. Even if we were to join the Big 12 or ACC, we'd get more money, but it would only reduce the deficit by perhaps 50%.

My point is that dropping football would probably reduce the expenditures of the athletic department, but it also reduce some revenue as well. Ticket sales, merchandise, tv contracts, etc. I know those are not a match but it would not solve the 'operating deficit' of the overall department unless we also dropped a major number of non revenue producing sports as well. Remember, there are only about two dozen colleges in the country whose athletic department operate in the black.

The revenue raised by the Alabamas, Ohio States, Texases, Floridas, etc., not only underwrites football costs, but more importantly, it funds other non revenue producing sports. We don't have that luxury (and for lots of reasons). I also believe, though, that many other colleges will be in a similar situation long term. When you look at the trend of moving to two major college conferences (the Big 10 and SEC) and look at the whole concept of conference realignment generally, it's all related to money. Once they have the money in their control, they don't need universities to sponsor them. They can use the money that used to fund non revenue sports to build their own empires.

We'll just be watching the Tuscaloosa Crimson Tide, the Ann Arbor Wolverines, The Athens Bulldogs, and the Gainesville Gators. Go Storrs Huskies!
 
Basketball breaks even at UConn and football loses about 13 million per year. Our deficit overall is closer to 35 million.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
It is important to keep emphasizing how much more profitable basketball is for the schools than football is for all but maybe 15 programs. Football is going to have massive payrolls just because of the size of their teams and the number of players that actually contribute. Basketball has small rosters, and teams can take the Creighton approach and just pay 5-7 players.
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Can you elaborate on the Creighton approach? How is this different than most other high level basketball programs in this era? The top 5-7 players will get paid.
 
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shizzle787 said:
Basketball breaks even at UConn and football loses about 13 million per year. Our deficit overall is closer to 35 million.
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The last year of reporting (22-23) football lost about $14M; men's basketball lost $3M and women's basketball lost $6M (source). They technically reported a profit of $3M for the athletic department, but that's with a $30M Subsidy from the university.

In the last full year that UConn kept all of its conference revenues in the AAC (17-18), football lost about $8M; men's basketball lost $5M and women's basketball about $3M.

About $3M in football's losses is the difference in the cost of the scholarships for the bigger roster (if you eliminated that, both football & men's basketball lost the same amount of money in that final AAC year; basketball's situation has improved, football has gotten worse.


UConn funds basketball at the top of division 1 regardless of conference. It funds football at the upper end of G5 level.
 
ScottVib said:
The last year of reporting (22-23) football lost about $14M; men's basketball lost $3M and women's basketball lost $6M (source). They technically reported a profit of $3M for the athletic department, but that's with a $30M Subsidy from the university.

In the last full year that UConn kept all of its conference revenues in the AAC (17-18), football lost about $8M; men's basketball lost $5M and women's basketball about $3M.

About $3M in football's losses is the difference in the cost of the scholarships for the bigger roster (if you eliminated that, both football & men's basketball lost the same amount of money in that final AAC year; basketball's situation has improved, football has gotten worse.


UConn funds basketball at the top of division 1 regardless of conference. It funds football at the upper end of G5 level.
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All those numbers are pre-House settlement. Football is about to get a lot less profitable at every school. Unfortunately, most of those other schools we want to compete with have a lot more football revenue than we do.
 
JohnFSilver said:
MAC scares me. Football is fine, but with the portal and nil that league is like a minor league for the P4.
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I still think its better than Independent.

IF we could do football-only in MAC, AND the exit fee wasn't too bad, I'd pull the trigger today.

I think being a part of a conference where you can build rivalries is important in college football especially
 
EdgewoodNHV said:
I still think its better than Independent.

IF we could do football-only in MAC, AND the exit fee wasn't too bad, I'd pull the trigger today.

I think being a part of a conference where you can build rivalries is important in college football especially.
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Screw the MAC - but I repeat myself...
Troll elsewhere...
 
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