UAB and the Future of the non-Power 5 | The Boneyard

UAB and the Future of the non-Power 5

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CaliHusky

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With the big news that UAB was the first D1 school in 20 years to drop their football program, I was wondering what the board thought about the future of the non-Power 5 conferences, especially with regard to the AAC. Will we see schools give in to the costs? And, if so, is this something UConn might do for the sake of the rest of the sports, including basketball?

Frankly, I think a move to the Big East without football may be worth considering if the chips start falling...
 
I'd love to see UCONN do this! Not that I'm expecting it. Look how much better a basketball conference the Big East is than the AAC.
 
Do people really not grasp that the non-power schools will not be competitive in any sports at the highest level in 20-30 years? Dropping football is suicide. At least make them murder us.
 
7774 said:
Do people really not grasp that the non-power schools will not be competitive in any sports at the highest level in 20-30 years? Dropping football is suicide. At least make them murder us.
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and keeping football, outside of the p5, is the equivalent of countless failed attempts at suicide to finally die nautrally. in the dead of winter, outside in some street ally, homeless.
 
7774 said:
Do people really not grasp that the non-power schools will not be competitive in any sports at the highest level in 20-30 years? Dropping football is suicide. At least make them murder us.
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Honestly, given the way that pop warner participation is dropping, I wouldn't be shocked if handegg has lost a lot of its clout in 30 years. Maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part, though.
 
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Oh Chr1st, not this again.

UCONN wants to gain entry into a P5 conference and have access to the tens of millions of annual dollars that come with it. To gain P5 access, you can't drop football.

The Big East is a mid major conference that pays its members $5M/yr (in other words, not even enough to cover our basketball head coaching salaries ONLY!).

Sports are cyclical. Football will get better. And when it does, UCONN's CR profile will be better (AAU progress, endowment, student body, football, hoops, hockey, rest of AD). Be patient.

If it's 2020 and we are still locked in the AAC, then I think the better play would be to petition the ACC, not the Big East, for a deal similar to ND. Obviously, not exactly the same but somewhere to park all non football sports for a heck of a lot more $$ than what the Big East could ever pay.
 
All BS aside ,if your not in a P5 conference in 5 years.
Schools will have a huge choice to make ,,Pay all the increased benefits, go back to FCS, or remain in a lame duck G5 without additional costs,or drop football.
For those that tough it out there Is only limited access to games with P5 schools, bowls. Or playoffs.,and increased costs.
The P5 can easily say we will schedule only schools offering full benifits.
Some have speculated a P5 like move on BB. Much more difficult to do.and the revenue generated is peanuts.
The Big money is the NCAA tourney and the P5 normally get the lions share.
Especially after the BiG East was dismantled.
FSB football gives 85 scholarships , under the law this huge football number generates an equal number of women's scholarships.
Going back to FCS reduces the number to 45. With a huge reduction in coaching salaries.
 
With the Big East's ratings, their $5 mn will drop to $2 mn next contract.

With the AAC's ratings, our $2 mn will rise to $5 mn next contract.

Don't get google-eyes over small change. The prize is the B1G and $45 mn per year. For UConn, media revenue is less than 10% of the athletic budget. At P5 schools, it's 20-35%. So we're down something like 25% in revenue. That's not an amount of money that should be radically changing strategy.

If we could make football popular enough to sell out at slightly higher prices, we'd get the extra $20 mn per year we're missing. So let's work on that, it's more in our control.
 
pj said:
With the Big East's ratings, their $5 mn will drop to $2 mn next contract.

With the AAC's ratings, our $2 mn will rise to $5 mn next contract.

Don't get google-eyes over small change. The prize is the B1G and $45 mn per year. For UConn, media revenue is less than 10% of the athletic budget. At P5 schools, it's 20-35%. So we're down something like 25% in revenue. That's not an amount of money that should be radically changing strategy.

If we could make football popular enough to sell out at slightly higher prices, we'd get the extra $20 mn per year we're missing. So let's work on that, it's more in our control.
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I do agree that even in the AAC ,if UConn football was good, it would be a hot ticket.

What impact that would have on revenue I'm not really sure..
It's the only show in town and we managed to screw it up.
 
pj said:
With the Big East's ratings, their $5 mn will drop to $2 mn next contract.

With the AAC's ratings, our $2 mn will rise to $5 mn next contract.

Don't get google-eyes over small change. The prize is the B1G and $45 mn per year. For UConn, media revenue is less than 10% of the athletic budget. At P5 schools, it's 20-35%. So we're down something like 25% in revenue. That's not an amount of money that should be radically changing strategy.

If we could make football popular enough to sell out at slightly higher prices, we'd get the extra $20 mn per year we're missing. So let's work on that, it's more in our control.
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Have you seen our ratings?
 
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djct1999 said:
and keeping football, outside of the p5, is the equivalent of countless failed attempts at suicide to finally die nautrally. in the dead of winter, outside in some street ally, homeless.
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We have no chance at a P 5 conference without football. It really is that simple. We are stuck outside until we get inside and a huge investment in facilities has already been made. UConn won't be dropping football.
 
Danzz said:
We have no chance at a P 5 conference without football. It really is that simple. We are stuck outside until we get inside and a huge investment in facilities has already been made. UConn won't be dropping football.
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By being in the AAC, we are testing just how much UConn is committed to football. I am fairly confident that 5-7 more years in this league will cause UConn to fail that test. If we want to save the football program, we need to either go independent or form a new league of northern schools that has better basketball. The AAC will be the death of UConn athletics.
 
There are no easy roads here.

I think being in the Big East would be better for our basketball program in the short run. But in the long run, it just makes for a prettier corpse.

Long term, the Big East is marginalized. Long term, the American is marginalized.

We can't get into a lifeboat without football, so we soldier on.
 
all the concussions and related foosbal injuries will cause many regents of universities to debate the end of respective programs and more uab scenes will transpire

high school teams around nation are dropping foosbal at present
 
Fishy said:
There are no easy roads here.

I think being in the Big East would be better for our basketball program in the short run. But in the long run, it just makes for a prettier corpse.

Long term, the Big East is marginalized. Long term, the American is marginalized.

We can't get into a lifeboat without football, so we soldier on.
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Plus football will be fun as hell when we start winning again.
 
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Football will be all but dead in a few decades but it's a necessary money maker for now.
 
Fishy said:
There are no easy roads here.

I think being in the Big East would be better for our basketball program in the short run. But in the long run, it just makes for a prettier corpse.

Long term, the Big East is marginalized. Long term, the American is marginalized.

We can't get into a lifeboat without football, so we soldier on.
Expand ...

There is not a single sport for which the current conference affiliation is a good idea, even relative to realistic alternatives.
 
Having poor leadership at a key time is something we are paying a big price for. Now are football program has diminished into a shell of what it was, I can only imagine what season ticket sales will look like next year.
 
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Dooley said:
Oh Chr1st, not this again.

UCONN wants to gain entry into a P5 conference and have access to the tens of millions of annual dollars that come with it. To gain P5 access, you can't drop football.

The Big East is a mid major conference that pays its members $5M/yr (in other words, not even enough to cover our basketball head coaching salaries ONLY!).

Sports are cyclical. Football will get better. And when it does, UCONN's CR profile will be better (AAU progress, endowment, student body, football, hoops, hockey, rest of AD). Be patient.

If it's 2020 and we are still locked in the AAC, then I think the better play would be to petition the ACC, not the Big East, for a deal similar to ND. Obviously, not exactly the same but somewhere to park all non football sports for a heck of a lot more $$ than what the Big East could ever pay.
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I agree, UCONN wants to gain entry to a P5 conference. I just don't think they're going to.
 
kyle said:
Football will be all but dead in a few decades but it's a necessary money maker for now.
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In many northern state maybe, here in the south, football is huge. I just cannot that happening.
 
NC_Uconn_Fan said:
In many northern state maybe, here in the south, football is huge. I just cannot that happening.
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It's funny how much bigger football is in the south vs the north. Back in December 2011, I was on vacation in Florida. I was walking around and happened to have a UConn shirt on, when I was stopped by an older guy saying "UConn huh...they lost pretty bad last night."

The Men did play the previous night but actually won, so i corrected him. After a little back and forth, I realized he was talking about football to which I responded "Yeah, I don't really follow the football team, I'm mainly a Mens Basketball fan. And we're reigning national champs."

His response " Wow really? Good for you guys!"

I politely bid him farewell and walked away.
 
For all the people predicting (and quite frankly hoping for) the demise of football and referencing declining Pop Warner participation are promoting a false premise. First of all, Pop Warner has weight limits until the typical high school age (135 lbs. when I was age-eligible to play, IIRC).

Secondly and more importantly, the people turning their kids away from football are the ones who have ability to do so and the option to guide them into something else. There is a large population of kids who don't have that option. I was listening to an episode of the Adam Carolla Show a few weeks back when a caller from London mentioned the exact same phenomenon in Rugby. There are a sizable population of kids all over the country who NEED football. and the camaraderie, structure, and guidance that goes along with it. One observation that Carolla made is that it's not like these kids are going to double down on the calculus, if you take away football. They are going to end up in jail, where camaraderie has a completely different definition. No one tells them that as they are getting beaten into a gang or something.

Watch the documentary, "Undefeated." Then tell me if the demise of football is a good thing.
 
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