The Worst Possible Out Come

[ctchamps]

I say we just take the plunge.

The New Big 12 would be

UConn
Rutgers
Louisville
Cincinnati
West Virginia
South Florida
UCF
Missouri

Kansas
Kansas St.
Iowa St.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.
Texas
Texas Tech
Baylor

This looks like a pretty damn good conference to me. Doesn't look like a bunch of desperate leftovers at all.

That conference looks fine. Two problems. It Texas and OU stay in the Big 12 they decide how it is configured, not UConn or the remaining BE football schools.

And Texas is still toxic until it proves it will change its contract once and for all. And I want no part of that instability. That was the same intoxicated driver that caused all the B12's problems and started this current ball rolling. If we are critical over the instability of the association with BE bb schools why go into something even more unstable.

 

[HartbeatHusky]

That conference looks fine. Two problems. It Texas and OU stay in the Big 12 they decide how it is configured, not UConn or the remaining BE football schools.

And Texas is still toxic until it proves it will change its contract once and for all. And I want no part of that instability. That was the same intoxicated driver that caused all the B12's problems and started this current ball rolling. If we are critical over the instability of the association with BE bb schools why go into something even more unstable.

I pretty much agree about Texas but it looks like they'll have to make concessions to keep OU anyway so hopefully that would be the case.

 

[ctchamps]

I pretty much agree about Texas but it looks like they'll have to make concessions to keep OU anyway so hopefully that would be the case.

If they make that agreement, then all of us better hope they include UConn in their expansion talks. That gives UConn some leverage to decide if it takes the offer or approach the ACC on the quiet and give them the ultimatum. But we are all talking hypothetically. And I would bet my body parts that these same type of discussion are taking place between Ms. Herbst, the AD and all the UConn advisors. They have their flow charts in place.

 

[HartbeatHusky]

If they make that agreement, then all of us better hope they include UConn in their expansion talks. That gives UConn some leverage to decide if it takes the offer or approach the ACC on the quiet and give them the ultimatum. But we are all talking hypothetically. And I would bet my body parts that these same type of discussion are taking place between Ms. Herbst, the AD and all the UConn advisors. They have their flow charts in place.

I am sure they are looking at all of these options. The more I think about it the more I like it though. We could help make the Big 12 into the first superconference and it would surely help our football recruiting even more than going to the ACC being in a conference with Texas and OU. We could probably put some distance between us and Cuse and Pitt. On the basketball side we'd be one of the premier powers of the conference and be the eastern counterpart to KU.

 

[sportsart]

I do believe the BE and Big 12 presidents have already said the logistics make this merge a non exsistant option. (olympic sports being the trouble spot)

 

[HartbeatHusky]

I do believe the BE and Big 12 presidents have already said the logistics make this merge a non exsistant option. (olympic sports being the trouble spot)

Hopefully it's because one side wants it to be an acquisition and not a merger and because they don't want non-football members.

 

[ctchamps]

I am sure they are looking at all of these options. The more I think about it the more I like it though. We could help make the Big 12 into the first superconference and it would surely help our football recruiting even more than going to the ACC being in a conference with Texas and OU. We could probably put some distance between us and Cuse and Pitt. On the basketball side we'd be one of the premier powers of the conference and be the eastern counterpart to KU.

Certainly possible. But I've learned never to stay married to any idea or concept, no matter how good or logical things appear regarding said idea. The world is in constant change, always has been and always will be. If the best options don't pan out there is no reason for sour grapes. Just keep being proactive. Things usually have a way of working out especially if the player is doing the right things. And UConn has been doing the right things for a long time. Until the football program is dead and buried the school will continue to look for best options available. And that is all one can ask for.

I wouldn't be surprised if a scenario occurs in which all of us feel the program is dead and buried and out of the blue some surprise takes place putting UConn in a better position than Cuse and Pitt. Heck it happened when Miami, VT and BC went to the ACC. It could happen again.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Our problem was never that we didn't have the flexibility to add teams, it's that no team that could have saved the big east ever wanted to join the big east. you don't team up with the weak, you join the strong.

Here is the problem with your logic. You are acting under the assumption that the only expanmsion candidates are from non BCS conferences. If this were true, there would not be a problem right now as somehow, other BCS conferences have been able to find expansion candidates.

I am not blaming our inability to lure top schools from the ACC, B1G or anywhere else on the catholic members of this conference (although i have been less than thrilled with the fact that half of them have not been contributing anything to this conference for quite some time). I do however believe that the climate we've been in for quite some time has dictated that eventually we will see four sixteen member conferences representing the entirety of the BCS. The goal of every current BCS football school (and many who don't yet have BCS status) is to end up as one of the haves. Outside of the SEC, B1G and (due to geography) P-12, no conference was assured of being one of the last four standing.

The configuration that we had (with both football and non football participants) put us in a position where if we wanted to be the bold ones attempting to lure top schools from other BCS conferences (B-12, ACC) to get to sixteen early and ensure our existence we would have needed some accomodation from the catholic contingent (not easily achieved) and then grown to a 12/24 model. There was no way in hell that this would happen so anyone who wasn't cognizant of the fact that the future for every football member of this conference at best lies in a different BCS (at some point super) conference and at worst in another conference without BCS status was either blind or kidding himself.

The fact that eludes you (and you still have not answered my question on why no other conference has non football members, if you want to repost BL's response as your own I would be happy to debate you on those points) is that we (UConn on its own and the entirety of the football conference) reached the point where it was time to move on well before this round of expansion. All we can do if we remain is hope that it is someone else who plays football here that gets left out instead of us.

 

[Waquoit]

I guess putting Na(+) and CL(-) together works. But I'm not sure how many unstable and toxic elements or compounds combined work. I would only go to the merger for football. All other sports including bb stick with the BE. If it appears to be working add sports and then split completely.

Sure, rub salt into the wounds.

 

[BlueMAB]

Here is the problem with your logic. You are acting under the assumption that the only expanmsion candidates are from non BCS conferences.

The fact that eludes you (and you still have not answered my question on why no other conference has non football members, if you want to repost BL's response as your own I would be happy to debate you on those points) is that we (UConn on its own and the entirety of the football conference) reached the point where it was time to move on well before this round of expansion. All we can do if we remain is hope that it is someone else who plays football here that gets left out instead of us.

1) Tell me which school was going to leave the ACC, B1G, Big 12, or SEC to join the big east football schools in a split. I can't wait to hear this.

2) Your point doesn't elude me. I responded to it, and am still waiting for an answer to my questions. Your response included many assumptions, among them was your claim that there were other non-football, basketball powers in other conference footprints. Like who? Go back and respond to my questions if you want.

3) I haven't been advocating we stick around, exactly the opposite.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

1) Tell me which school was going to leave the ACC, B1G, Big 12, or SEC to join the big east football schools in a split. I can't wait to hear this.
If this premise is true (may very well have been prior to the last raid, absolutely afterward) there really was no reason for any current (including Cuse & Pitt) to do anything beyond trying to land in a conference that was in position to expand to sixteen the minute BC became the third departure.

More importantly, with all of the bluster that some were tossing around about the enormous television deal we were in line for (with the ACC at that time stuck in a long term deal that had already becpome obsolete and half of the B-12 looking to jump for UT's greed) it wouldn't have taken a whole lot of creativity for someone to look into what kind of TV deal it could bring if they took the BE eight and tried to lure a few from each of the other two conferences,

2) Your point doesn't elude me. I responded to it, and am still waiting for an answer to my questions. Your response included many assumptions, among them was your claim that there were other non-football, basketball powers in other conference footprints. Like who? Go back and respond to my questions if you want.
I must have missed your questions (as the only response I saw ways you claimg that BL answered it to which I did address those points). Believe it or not DePaul and Marquette both sit in the B1G's footprint while Gonzaga sits within the footprint of the P-12. Even more to the point, once the ACC added BC, every catholic member of the pre-raid BE (except the one that they have been making a play for) ended up within their footprint. Somehow the massive advantages of adding these schools and their markets have gone over the heads of the people in charge of those two conferences.

3) I haven't been advocating we stick around, exactly the opposite.
Best answer you've had in days