The View From Section 241 -- the NBE

[whaler11]

 

[metsfan2323]

Spite could play a role here too. ESPN will probably choose not to change anything to spite UCONN.

 

[CTMike]

With our luck ESPN will pay them more, but I hope they bend the AAC over.

 

[Pudge]

Of course they can

The Yahoos who opened their mouths and saw they were giving UConn WBB content and Northeast regional eyeballs - for seemingly free - have a Teaching Moment. We just read Gladchuk talk about a greater distribution.

Hmmm

 

[UConnDan97]

Boom goes the dynamite!

Now, they will begin to understand who they forced out the door. Now, they will begin to understand just how badly ESPN can kick them in the chops too. They rose on our backs for the better part of a decade, and now they're going to see just how hard life can get without us...

 

[ZooCougar]

I have small ties to UConn, as I moved to CT 5 years ago and attend 3-4 football and 5-6 men's basketball games a year.

With those caveats, IMO this is complete incompetence and surrender. That's not a comment about the merits of joining the NBE for bball.

No competent university admin would get this far down the road without answers for all their athletics. I can only assume the admin have decided to go to FBS for football and will just play out the next couple of years, finally saying "see, we had no choice" in response to their self-fulfilling actions. If the UConn admin had any honesty and honor, they would come out and say "football is going FBS, details to follow".

Perhaps my perspective is naive, as I am only a few years vested in UConn athletics. And perhaps I haven't earned the right to post my opinion. But this is horrible leadership, and this short-time UConn fan wishes the university would just admit the truth of the situation.

Long story.

Most of this is due to circumstances beyond admin control dating back to even before Miami, BC and VT leaving.

I think we missed on not spending more on retaining and hiring good coaches in the Fiesta Bowl era.

I think the lawsuit didn’t win us many friends.

But mostly we are affected by headwinds like our market, recruiting base and a few other things.

 

[noeynox]

Our women's team had to be a big draw for their espn+ plans in this state.

They will have to settle for the other women's basketball programs instead.

 

[ZooCougar]

Our women's team had to be a big draw for their espn+ plans in this state.

They will have to settle for the other women's basketball programs instead.

There isn’t much appetite for wbb and UConn is breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

[jdb50]

Auriemma in a TV interview tonight said people have been saying they want to go back to the Big East for years now so if this occurs there better be 16,000 at the XL center for all the games now. Last year I bought tickets to the Cinci men's matchup that later on was used to honor the 99 men's championship team. That game was not a sellout! So all the basketball only fans that are dancing on the football programs grave can shove it. They spit the bit quickly when the record went south. We will see if they step up and support "their" program in the future.

 

[Northbound]

For the 5 millionth time, all it takes is coaches to turn a program around. It was not the conference, it was the hires. KO was good for a season or 2, then took his divorce out on the school and fanbase.

You keep repeating yourself - if it was so easy to get the right staff every piss poor program would do it. There's been three shots at it post RE1 and it's been 3 whiffs and the program has prevailing headwinds that other programs may not have - budget, recent history, location, support, etc, etc.

Come on man have just be a little honest with yourself. It's not that easy.

 

[Chief00]

This is not an easy column to write. I have loved UConn basketball since I moved to Connecticut in fall of '77. I have loved UConn football with maybe even a greater passion (as it was part of a more exclusive club) since they opened the Rent. The last few years have just been incredibly painful, watching something you love suffer the way our programs have. And it's not like I don't understand the move to the NBE. (And no, we are not moving back to the Big East -- we are leaving the real Big East, and woo to any of you who pretends this is really the Big East in my presence.) I get it. Political decisions unfortunately are made for the short term, and I get this in the short term. And I get that the majority of our fanbase will see this as a good thing. This is death for our football program (more on that in a moment) and disadvantageous to our baseball program, but is generally a very good thing for all our other non-revenue sports just based on cutting travel time and expenses alone and at least in the short term is a very good thing for basketball. But do I believe this is a good thing overall? No, I don't. I'd like to -- I really would -- but I can't get there. Let's take it in pieces.

For sports generally, this is a good thing. Less travel that has to be done on airplanes. Playing against more geographic rivals, which means more kids you played against growing up. More road games/matches/meets that your family can attend. Lower costs for the school. Generally it's a good thing, whether competition is up a little or down a little. Maybe it will help soccer revive, although I think that has more to do with needing a new coach. Hockey isn't effected -- plays in its own hockey league. For baseball, it's not a good thing but they'll survive. We have an outstanding coach, we have new facilities coming on line and we have established ourselves as THE program in the Northeastern United States. Not just New England, but the entire coast from PA up. Travel will be a little easier, in conference play will pull down SOS, you're not going to convince me this is a good thing for our baseball program but it will be fine. But let's talk women's basketball, men's basketball and football.

I don't follow women's hoops nearly as closely as many here, but I have to think that their inability to string together a few tough wins deep in the NCAAs and thus win championships is made more difficult by the fact that we don't seem to get any competition at all in the AAC. Yes, the NBE isn't the Big East. No Louisville, no Notre Dame, not even a Syracuse -- but even if it's just somewhat better maybe that will help. Other than that, Geno coaches the Globetrotters. Their popularity during the season doesn't come from their conference schedule anyway. Now, add the factors that we'll cover on the men's side in a moment (less travel, more rivalries that the fans and players care about) and I don't doubt this is a plus on the women's side.

For men's basketball, this is a short term boost, but not as big of one long term as many think. It will reduce travel, which should make road wins a little easier. While the conference is also spread out, it is obviously more northeast - centric than the American, which also helps fan interest and should increase attendance and fan intensity. The tourney in MSG is obviously a good thing both for our fanbase and recruiting. And, to be fair, over the last few years the NBE has been a better basketball conference than the American. By a ton? No. Are there factors (like the explosive growth of non-flagship state institutions in sunbelt states) that might cause the American to catch up or even surpass the NBE in hoops in the intermediate term? Yes, that's possible, although it's also possible their relative rank won't change. Do we run the risk that the football schools one day want to run their own basketball tourney and leave the basketball onlies entirely? Yes. That risk is still there, and I view it as more acute than when Lou Perkins convinced the administration that we needed football to protect basketball decades ago. But that's all long term. Short term, football fans can whine all they want but this is a good thing for the men's basketball program and that makes it popular overall with students, alumni and the state. Football having become as unwatchable as the last three years have been has guaranteed that the decisionmakers aren't listening to football fans because there aren't enough of them.

So what does this mean for football? Probably that FBS level football is on deathwatch. The fact that we applied to the NBE before we knew what we were doing with the football program says it all. The plan -- if you can call it that -- is that we don't have one because we don't care. We're putting our other sports in the NBE, we'll see if someone will take our football and if not we'll go independent. But that's a short term solution only. We won't survive as an independent. People don't care about our football program enough. I'm not even sure I do. If winning doesn't get you rewards and bowls, and you can't compare yourself to the teams you play every year, our program will die. Yes, I understand many think it's already dead but it's not. In the AAC, it only needs to start winning again and some attendance will come back. And winning just takes a great coach, a financial commitment and time in college football. Can Edsall get us back to our mildly winning ways? I don't know. If you've given up on him based on the last two years, that's fine and I get that. But someone could. But now I don't see it. We're UMass with a closer off campus stadium. We won't be playing FBS football in 10 years. I don't see how that's possible. For those that are saying they will pay that price because you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel anyway -- well, you need better eyesight. There was no light at the end of the tunnel about how we were going to compete on a P-6 level before we did it the first time either. Luckily, we didn't listen to the naysayers.

So that's it. I do get this. It will make people happier short term. And there are long term benefits. (And note I'm not dwelling on TV deals, because long term water will find its level.) But I hope basketball becomes Jim Calhoun era UConn again, because while this will be a great short term boost I'm not convinced the Big East will be so much better than the American long term that it will be a great long term boost. But I do know this will kill football. And without football, I fear one day basketball will die anyway.

Thoughtful piece. Of course, Chief’s the perpetual optimist and hopes we can pull the rabbit out of the football helmet. But, you are correct there was no meaningful plan for football and now it’s all hanging on a lifeline from Fox Sports. Let’s hope that works and works quickly.

 

[Chief00]

The AAC was better than the NBE this past season in men's BB and is going to continue to get better. Without football, the NBE is about to begin a slow descent toward total irrelevancy. The fact that we've signed up to go along for that ride is mind numbingly stupid and short sighted.

We just committed football suicide, apparently to appease some dumber than dirt donors, who myopically care only about men's BB.

The NBE may be better than the AAC for travel, but most of the Olympic sports teams were only traveling to half the schools in the conference because the schedule was home and away every other year. If we have to travel to Omaha, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis and Cincinnati every year in all sports, it's almost a wash travel wise, except that some of those cities are closer than many in the AAC. If we were in the ACC the travel would be just as bad as the AAC and way worse that the NBE, but if they invited us tomorrow we'd be there in less time than it takes for the ink to dry on the contract. Why? Because of the money.

Speaking of money, the NBE doesn't pay any more, and very well could pay considerably less than what we were going to be making in the AAC, especially now that football bowl revenue sharing is gone, and the likelihood of getting big payday games on the road will be considerably more problematic as an Independent. This takes away most if not all the revenue generating potential that FBS football offers.

Football programs go through down cycles. It happens to the best of programs long term. We could have gotten out of this cycle, become competitive again, and started making bowl games, which improves recruiting, and then the winning begins to build on itself. We've done it before and could have done it again.

Why be an Independent now? We'll lose even more money than we have been, we'll be playing schedules that virtually guarantee less attendance, and for what? I think we're only going through the motions because neither this, or any other school administration, wants to go down in history as having cancelled a sport we've been playing since 1896, even longer than basketball. The politicians and taxpayers in CT would have a fit if they were to keep driving by Rentschler viewing it as a 90 million dollar white elephant.

Again we are victimized by small minded, short sighted, parochial, New England style thinking. Even if we never would have made it into a P5 league, we are voluntarily giving up any chance to join one for nostalgic only reasons. The NBE schools are mostly small Catholic institutions with small alumni bases and no national following. They've been routinely beaten in their TV ratings on Fox by women's BB games in the same time slots. Very few people nationally care about NBE basketball. Their level of opposition in men's and women's BB is a wash or worse compared to the AAC, and we are giving up the potential to make more money in a football conference to join a league which is about to go on a steady decline because it can't possibly keep up with P5 leagues that make several times more money. Also, the P5s may eventually split and form their own association for sports. If that happens, there's some chance that the AAC might go along with them as the best of the G5 leagues. The NBE will be relegated to a second tier, or lower level of competition if that happens. We're hitching our wagon to the wrong horse.

Good observations. This was Herbst’s idea of resume enhancement - Big decisions are ill advised when one foot is out the door - the last thing on her mind is the long term interest if the University.
Having said that I do think Hurley will thrive in the NBE.

 

[jdb50]

Herbst has a plan- work 2 more years at Stamford UCONN to get her 10 years of State service and the pension/ health care.

 

[Chief00]

Auriemma in a TV interview tonight said people have been saying they want to go back to the Big East for years now so if this occurs there better be 16,000 at the XL center for all the games now. Last year I bought tickets to the Cinci men's matchup that later on was used to honor the 99 men's championship team. That game was not a sellout! So all the basketball only fans that are dancing on the football programs grave can shove it. They spit the bit quickly when the record went south. We will see if they step up and support "their" program in the future.

The XL center doesn’t even sit 16k anymore - we are caught to a time capsule.

 

[Fishy]

Agree with the above 100%.

What I don't get, is why do this now? The next (final) round of conference realignment will occur in the next 3-4 year (as the BIG TV contract expires). Why not wait a couple of more years and hope that Edsall has rebuilt the program by then and we get a P5 invite? Who knows how the P5 conferences will shake out at that time.

There was no reason to do this now.

Politics.

 

[Fishy]

Joining the AAC got us to this point with the football program.

Ah, no.

Hiring a pensioner and then a lunatic got us to this point.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The more I think about it, if you can bring in a few regional teams each year, and play some random G5/Indy teams and actually win, it could be a decent way to keep us afloat for if/when P5 contracts (it won't expand).

I guess I just don't see this being anything but another blip on the radar and so far a distant second from the Louisville/ACC decision as a program changing moment.

UConn can potentially carve out a decent Indy life somewhere in between BYU and UMass and while sure there isn't a league title to play for, we weren't winning the AAC, and even if we had...that still wasn't going to sell out the stadium.

 

[UConnNick]

Positives

- Regional basketball rivals that we have rich history with.
-BET at MSG, The AAC is playing the tournament in half empty arenas.
- can bus to 4 schools (Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, Villanova) every other school besides Creighton a plane ride ranging of 45 minutes to 90.
- save money on travel
- can absolutely recruit better basketball players in our target area (NYC/NJ/Boston).
- better basketball attendance
- better TV times
- Big East RPI is far better than the AAC. There is no ECU or Tulane. There is no guarantee that outside of Memphis that the AAC can be strong long term in hoops. UCF loses their starting 5 and how long do they keep Dawkins? How long does Houston keep Sampson? Cincinnati just lost Cronin. Besides Cincy and Memphis does the UConn fan get excited at all playing these teams in hoops?


Negatives

- We probably just gave up on football and raised the white flag on P5. If not than Suzie can kindly let us in on her master plan.

- Perhaps playing an Indie schedule can help get this program winning again. We can't compete with schools located in talent rich Texas, Florida, and Ohio in the current dynamic.

Temple has no trouble competing against schools from Florida, Texas and Ohio. This notion that we cannot is garbage and a complete myth.

 

[UConnNick]

It's not about "feeling better" about ourselves.

A school in Connecticut cannot recruit in a league of Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio, etc. Not in men's basketball. Not in football. If Hurley is the savior the men's board think he is (I still have some doubts) he should be able to recruit like gangbusters now.

The alternative was to have the same dynamic of terrible football team and a mediocre basketball team.

So, you're basically saying that Hurley can only be a good recruiter if he's in certain conferences? If that's true, and the AAC isn't one of those conferences, then please explain to me why he took the job in the first place?

Some of you BB only fans seem to think we were scared to continue competing in the big, bad AAC.

 

[UConnNick]

I’m happy to see that you, someone whose opinion I seriously value, also believes that athletic models without football like the NBE are ultimately unsustainable. I have seen almost no one on the basketball board even wonder that in passing

That's because none of them give a rat's ass about the football program. They want to see it dead. Little do they realize that it will eventually cause the BB programs to decline.

 

[Adios]

That's because none of them give a rat's ass about the football program. They want to see it dead. Little do they realize that it will eventually cause the BB programs to decline.

The ones who want it dead have no clue on the culture of modern public land grant universities. Many have made clear they are alumni of other schools. Oblivious to reality. To get excited about playing only religiously affiliated schools.

It's unreal. Our bandwagon fans have set us back.

 

[ASweet3781]

Temple has no trouble competing against schools from Florida, Texas and Ohio. This notion that we cannot is garbage and a complete myth.

Well get your butt down to UConn on Wednesday and ask Susan Herbst herself why she thinks we can't.

And Pennsylvania is a top 10 state for high school football recruits.

 

[UConnNick]

Well get your butt down to UConn on Wednesday and ask Susan Herbst herself why she thinks we can't.

And Pennsylvania is a top 10 state for high school football recruits.

So what? We recruit PA all the time. And NJ, Maryland, Florida and Texas. All FBS schools recruit nationwide.

We've played USF in the original BE and the AAC. Up until this downturn for the past few seasons our record against them was very competitive. We beat Louisville on the road when Tedy Bridgewater was their QB, and we were a mediocre team.

We can compete, our administration has just quit on the program, which is ironic because they're the ones who are responsible for where it is today. It seems like sabotaging the program has been their goal all along.

 

[UConnNick]

The ones who want it dead have no clue on the culture of modern public land grant universities. Many have made clear they are alumni of other schools. Oblivious to reality. To get excited about playing only religiously affiliated schools.

It's unreal. Our bandwagon fans have set us back.

We weren't even a good fit in the original Big East. We were the only flagship public state university in an entire conference of religious schools. Eventually Pitt, Rutgers, WVU, VA Tech, Louisville and USF joined, but the conference was still split between the football and non-football schools, ironically just like our fanbase is split between the football and non-football fans. It didn't work then and it will not work now. We've learned nothing from 40 years of history.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Ah, no.

Hiring a pensioner and then a lunatic got us to this point.

Right. I guess Ollie was a terrible coach too, even though he is one of the fastest coaches to a championship in history. And Auriemma must suck at his job too because that program is struggling to recruit now.

How long did it take Pasqualoni to get a job after UConn fired him? Apparently the NFL didn't share our opinion of him. Is it possible that it wasn't the coaches' fault?

Especially since quite a few of us predicted years ago that all three programs would struggle in the AAC?