Dear Businesslawyer:
I am a 25 year-plus football season ticket holder who has read and admired your 241 posts for many years. The fact that I never post (google machine phobia) should tell you something about how motivated I was to respond to your reaction to yesterday's game. Accordingly, I hope you take the comments below in the spirit of goodwill with which they are offered.
1. I don't offer one minute's worth of congratulations to the Army team. When they stepped on that field yesterday, they were football players just like any others. And, as suggested by a poster in another thread, borderline dirty ones at that. Army's first string team showed up and beat our second and third stringers. Big deal. Army is 6-1 in recent bowl games because they play mid-tier teams whose skill players have opted out of the game. Army choked in the one game that matters on their schedule -- losing the commander-in-chief's trophy.
2. This year's bowl game is not at all the same as last year's Wasabi Bowl. Going in to last year's game, there was substantial doubt as to whether UConn's first-string talent was strong enough to beat UNC's second and third string talent. Beating North Carolina last year helped to make the case that UConn can be a competitive ACC team.
3. I agree with the point you make about morality and values exhibited by players who decided not to participate in the game. But, as you acknowledge, the point is largely irrelevant. The players are merely reflecting today's culture and following the example of the "mentors" who are charged with leading them. UConn rescued Jim Mora from football oblivion (because it was in our best interests to do so). Mora could have finished the job he started here, ended his coaching career with honor, helped usher us into a conference, and there would be a statue of him in front of the Berton Football Complex. Instead, as soon as he built up enough of a record to secure another offer, he took it. He made a lateral move to another program for the purely self-interested reason of returning to the west. No matter how misguided the decisions by some players may have been, they were also acting out of perceived self interest as their first priority.
4. Although I played Division III football, I have nowhere near your level of X's and O's acumen, so I can't comment on any of the technical aspects of yesterday's play. That said, to my untrained eye, I did not see a bunch of UConn players who showed up yesterday and quit before they started. Those who were on the field played with effort. Many of them were simply overmatched or (on defense)gassed in the second half. That said, the Skyler Bell fiasco is hard to explain. But even there, I think you are being a bit unfair in suggesting that the trick play was installed solely as an ego boost for him. The offensive coordinator has shown a penchant for gadget plays all season long. Every day since Mora's departure, Sammis showed his limitations as a program leader. Good riddance to him, as you note.
5. The major premise of your post appears to be that the goal was to win the game. I think the premise is flawed. I also wish Cam Edwards had 25 carries yesterday, and that we followed a game plan of controlling the ground game and keeping the ball out of Army's hands. We didn't. I don't know why--none of us on the fan side of the equation has that answer. The goal of yesterday's exercise was to collect a check that has been reported to be in the vicinity of 2 or 2.5 million dollars. We need that money to be competitive in today's college football world. The reason UConn was offered the ACC slot by the Wasabi people is not because they love UConn or think we have a wonderful football program. It's because we have enough people who care about UConn football to put 12,000 to 15,000 people in the stands to watch a meaningless game. If the few hundred bucks I spent was helpful in securing that check, I'd say that's a pretty good return on investment.
6. Finally, I understand that you are upset. A lot of people are emotionally invested in UConn athletics. I am not a UConn alum. Besides being a sports fan, I care about UConn athletics as a whole (football, basketball, hockey, baseball, field hockey, etc.) because I believe athletic excellence at our flagship university is important to the identity and culture of our state. It would be nice if David Benedict sent an email to UConn fans explaining the business reasons why it was important to send depleted team to Boston, but he's too smart to do that. This will all blow over in time. Publicly explaining to us that the current state of college football is broken and that UConn is doing the best it can with the hand it has been dealt might make us feel better, but it won't advance the ball. We are lucky to have a skilled AD who is playing the long game. The future of UConn athletics depends on us getting into a conference. The Wasabi bowl is a blip on that long-term radar screen. You may disagree, but I seriously doubt our "brand" was damaged yesterday. The people who matter (those who control TV and conference admission) know that yesterday's game was meaningless. So, despite being disappointed by yesterday's performance and how UConn treated us as customers, I would hope everyone will continue to buy tickets and donate to the athletic department. The ability of UConn's sports programs to compete at a high level and maintain excellence depends, in the long run, on power conference affiliation --or whatever "club" may evolve in future years. Please keep investing in that goal.
