Tranghese talks UCONN, ACC and Boston College

[uconndogs]

This is a great post. And this is what the Big Ten may not have thought through enough. The issue was never were their members as popular in the Northeast as Big East members (yes) or were eastern college football audiences small or large (small). The issue was what if you took UConn and RU and Syracuse and one of MD, Pitt or BC and you had your midwestern football schools playing eastern schools on the east coast regularly -- would that have created a market that you could then sell to?

I still think the answer was that that plan had a good chance of working, but it may be too late now.

I could not agree more with this. College football is a regional market for the vast majority of programs / fans. In the quest for immediate dollars this has been ignored. The interests of big swaths of existing and POTENTIAL fans have been ignored. We run our business with a laser focus on the customer over the long-term (i.e. we want them as a customer forever whether we have them now are hope to have them in the future). Once you take your eye off the customer you take on huge risks....HUGE!

One small example. I am a big college football fan, especially by New England standards. Along with UCONN, I have watched and attended a lot of BC and Syracuse football. I could give a rat's ass about either of those programs as they struggle at the bottom rungs of the ACC. Why would I care about them? What interest did they show to me as a college football fan? I think that without meaningful success on the field (competing for conference championships) they run the risk of limiting their regional support largely to their alumni base. That's not a good plan for private schools imo. If they struggle consistently, their stadiums will look just like Dukes, they will be almost filled when the Noles or Clemson come to town and empty otherwise.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Seriously? We were behind BC in basketball in the pre-Calhoun days of the Big East.

I don't blame anyone for forgetting the Dom Perno years, although he was a decent regional coach, and you guys had some pretty decent talent when he was there.

 

[huskymedic]

I don't blame anyone for forgetting the Dom Perno years, although he was a decent regional coach, and you guys had some pretty decent talent when he was there.

Dom Perno ~Wasn't he the announcer on Saturday Night Live and the Price is Right?

 

[CL82]

Perno was a nice guy but not one the best coaches at Connecticut. Still, I think that he went .500 against BC in his final year and the loss was in overtime. Just saying.

 

[ZooCougar]

the one thing Tranghese said that I agree with is that realignment has killed any chance of generating interest in college football in the northeast. There are millions of people, most of whom have significantly higher household incomes than those people who live in the south, that just don't care a all about college football. They care a lot about the Giants, Jets, Patriots, Cowboys, Bears and Packers. It's too bad.

Thi is where I think the admin at BC made a mistake with UConn. Having a local rival increases the interst in your team dramatically. It is what drives college sports. Not having Duke play hoops on your campus every two years or FSU come every two years. Its playing a blood rival every year. BC has one potential blood rival...Uconn

I agree that realignment has the potential to stifle any budding growth of college football in the northeast. But I also think that it may not make a difference either way. It's not like shifting Syracuse to the ACC will make much difference. They played BC every year for years and nobodu cared. If BC played UConn every year, it would be a huge game for UConn, BC would never admit it if it were big, but I am not sure anyone outside those two fanbases in the region would really give a damn. What I am saying is that it is not a given that UConn/BC game would galvanize the region and make us like Georgia/Florida. Of course I could be completely wrong and UConn/BC could become bigger than Jesus...

UConn will be fine either way as long as we can continue to get some compelling and respectable opponents into the Rent every fall. We 40,000 or more people that want to watch Divison I football and we need to keep that going. If the program can keep its nose clean, continue to recruit at a competitive level, win tons of games and stay on TV then UConn will be seen for what is. We want to be Utah, not Colorado State. Being left out of the power 5 doesn't have to be a death sentence.