UConn athletics long-term

[nelsonmuntz]

It has come up on other boards, but I think it is worth a discussion here since this is a more "catch all" board for UConn athletics topics. I would be interested on how people think UConn athletics is viable long term.

UConn athletics has a $18 million to $28 million hole, depending on how you look at it. That represents money that comes from the school in terms of school funds or student fees. That is circa 2015, and I suspect that number gets worse every year as the Big East exit fees wind down.

UConn spends over $71 million on athletics amid budget troubles

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/14/...l-drags-on-uconns-power-5-ambitions.html?_r=0

USA TODAY Sports


There is no high probability path to a P5 invitation. The weakest of the P5's looked at expansion 6 months ago, and decided doing nothing was better than adding UConn. There are no other P5 conferences with expansion even under consideration, in a large part because the consensus expectation is that the P5 schools will see a major drop in their revenues when their current TV deals expire. Why expand when there will not be enough money to feed the mouths around the table in a few years?

I don't want to start a political argument, but the state of Connecticut finances are in terrible shape, and getting worse for the foreseeable future. We should expect state support to UConn to decrease over time. Students are looking at huge tuition increases over the next few years as a result.

On the field and court, the two biggest revenue sports are struggling. Basketball is coming off its worst season in probably 30 years, and football has been bad for a while. Our conference affiliation is hurting recruiting in both sports, and in football appears to put a ceiling on how good UConn football can ever be.

This is not sustainable. Financially, we need more revenue and we need to cut costs. If the quality of the product continues to suffer, it will create a vicious cycle of worse recruiting and less revenue, reducing whatever chance of a P5 invitation we have, and even making us less attractive to other second tier conferences.

 

[The Funster]

IIRC, you've made quite a few posts of a similar nature. Nothing has really changed except for maybe a few more articles or data points that support your position.

On many points, I agree with you. On one point, I do not. I think our funding of P5 quality sports is sustainable, at least for the next decade. UConn has raised it's academic profile considerably, and has done so on the back of it's athletic programs. If you have a quality institution students will pay to come to it and UConn has acheived thqat status. It's no longer a safety school. It is the first choice of many quality students. If fees have to be raised (within reasonable limits of course) to meet the needs for P5 quality athletics why not? If the money is there then it is only a matter of using it on the right resources whether it be coaches or facilities.

 

[CJS87]

It has come up on other boards, but I think it is worth a discussion here since this is a more "catch all" board for UConn athletics topics. I would be interested on how people think UConn athletics is viable long term.

UConn athletics has a $18 million to $28 million hole, depending on how you look at it. That represents money that comes from the school in terms of school funds or student fees. That is circa 2015, and I suspect that number gets worse every year as the Big East exit fees wind down.

UConn spends over $71 million on athletics amid budget troubles

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/14/...l-drags-on-uconns-power-5-ambitions.html?_r=0

USA TODAY Sports


There is no high probability path to a P5 invitation. The weakest of the P5's looked at expansion 6 months ago, and decided doing nothing was better than adding UConn. There are no other P5 conferences with expansion even under consideration, in a large part because the consensus expectation is that the P5 schools will see a major drop in their revenues when their current TV deals expire. Why expand when there will not be enough money to feed the mouths around the table in a few years?

I don't want to start a political argument, but the state of Connecticut finances are in terrible shape, and getting worse for the foreseeable future. We should expect state support to UConn to decrease over time. Students are looking at huge tuition increases over the next few years as a result.

On the field and court, the two biggest revenue sports are struggling. Basketball is coming off its worst season in probably 30 years, and football has been bad for a while. Our conference affiliation is hurting recruiting in both sports, and in football appears to put a ceiling on how good UConn football can ever be.

This is not sustainable. Financially, we need more revenue and we need to cut costs. If the quality of the product continues to suffer, it will create a vicious cycle of worse recruiting and less revenue, reducing whatever chance of a P5 invitation we have, and even making us less attractive to other second tier conferences.

You're the solution. Write a check to the athletic department. You seem to care about UConn because you spend a significant amount of time writing about them. If you'er genuinely concerned provide some support. If you already do - thank you.

 

[Exit 4]

But if we keep writing about it - we can fix it....right?

 

[pepband99]

IIRC, you've made quite a few posts of a similar nature. Nothing has really changed except for maybe a few more articles or data points that support your position..

Ding ding ding. An annoying retread.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Ding ding ding. An annoying retread.

You think it is my fault UConn is in this position. Got it.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

IIRC, you've made quite a few posts of a similar nature. Nothing has really changed except for maybe a few more articles or data points that support your position.

On many points, I agree with you. On one point, I do not. I think our funding of P5 quality sports is sustainable, at least for the next decade. UConn has raised it's academic profile considerably, and has done so on the back of it's athletic programs. If you have a quality institution students will pay to come to it and UConn has acheived thqat status. It's no longer a safety school. It is the first choice of many quality students. If fees have to be raised (within reasonable limits of course) to meet the needs for P5 quality athletics why not? If the money is there then it is only a matter of using it on the right resources whether it be coaches or facilities.

You realize how far back some of those posts go? Nothing is getting better, but UConn is pursuing the same strategy. The major difference is that we have additional information that a P5 bid is less likely now than it was 3 or 5 years ago. I can see the argument that athletics raises the profile of the school, but is that marketing worth $25 million a year?

The money is not there any more. The state is shutting off the spigot, which means the university is shutting off the spigot soon. I don't know if the last 31% tuition increase got passed or not, but that number is huge and also not sustainable. We are asking students and their parents to pay a lot more so that 20-25 thousand middle aged people can drink on a runway 6 times a year. That will stop soon. The athletic department will have to pay its own bills.

 

[pepband99]

You think it is my fault UConn is in this position. Got it.

...and the trademark "let me butcher your last statement, and add "got it," so I sound smart"

Offer a solution, or stop complaining. Your 100th attempt at trying to get the board to resign themselves to dropping football isn't going to work. again.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

...and the trademark "let me butcher your last statement, and add "got it," so I sound smart"

Offer a solution, or stop complaining. Your 100th attempt at trying to get the board to resign themselves to dropping football isn't going to work. again.

Explain to me how football is viable, and why it is worth the cost? If there is a secret plan that gets football to breakeven, now is the time to use it.

 

[pepband99]

Explain to me how football is viable, and why it is worth the cost? If there is a secret plan that gets football to breakeven, now is the time to use it.

Your other "Offer a solution, or stop complaining." You're the one that started the umpteenth thread with the same shadow purpose.

I could just as easily start a thread about declining attendance nationally, the shrinking TV pool, and academic fraud, and then not present to everyone why athletics, in general, should be dropped. I won't, but i could. It doesn't serve a purpose.

 

[UConnJim]

LT is not the next 3 to 5 years, but the next 15 to 20 years.

The one thing we do know about conference realignment is that it is constantly evolving and entirely unpredictable. All conferences have had defections over time. SEC lost Tulane and Georgia Tech. ACC lost South Carolina and Maryland. Big 10 lost University of Chicago. Big 12 has lost Missouri, Texas A&M, Colorado, and Nebraska. Big East lost too many teams to list. The Pac 12 basically dropped Idaho and Montana at one point and reformed the conference. Other major conferences that have disappeared or dramatically changed include the SWC, Southern Conference, WAC,... To think anybody knows the future of conferences, college athletics, value of sports media rights, how schools will be compensated for media rights,... is extremely presumptuous and ignores history.

I remember when UConn first joined the Big East and the consensus thought UConn would never compete in men's basketball. If the-boneyard existed back then, someone would have started a thread on how UConn couldn't compete and should consider returning to the Yankee Conference.

Which brings me back to Nelson's valid point that UConn and UConn athletics needs to improve their financial positions. That is why we have an Athletic Director, a President, a UConn Foundation, and a Board. They all need to step up their games. It won't be easy and there are many challenges, but UConn athletics changed the perception of UConn and they are a necessary marketing investment for future growth of the university. There is not much we can do about the current media contract and conference, but future media contracts need to be more favorable to UConn (like regaining Tier 3 rights), we need to continue to push for a better conference, and we need to figure out how to generate more revenues from the existing teams like the football game at Fenway Park.

Finally, winning drives attendance, donations, and improved financial performance. Unfortunately, football has been down for 5 years and men's basketball has had a tough patch. Sure, the AAC does not provide traditional opponents, but attendance would be much better if we were winning. The pressure is on to improve both programs.

 

[shizzle787]

Explain to me how football is viable, and why it is worth the cost? If there is a secret plan that gets football to breakeven, now is the time to use it.

Football went $6 million in the hole last year; that doesn't account for the other $34 million deficit. We have to cut m/w tennis, m golf, m/w swimming & diving to get to FBS minimum.

 

[Towney007]

Explain to me how football is viable, and why it is worth the cost? If there is a secret plan that gets football to breakeven, now is the time to use it.

It's viable because alumni want to have a place to BBQ on the weekend and have utterly convinced themselves that it's the route to P5 glory despite the fact that it was the reason it got left out in the cold to begin with.

It's like thinking AIDS is the cure for AIDS.

 

[WestHartHusk]

I don't know if you guys heard, but it's all good now - we got Wichita State.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Football went $6 million in the hole last year; that doesn't account for the other $34 million deficit. We have to cut m/w tennis, m golf, m/w swimming & diving to get to FBS minimum.

Football is a lot more than $6 million in the hole. I would not be surprised if the budget hole is single digits millions without football. That is manageable.

 

[UConnJim]

Football is a lot more than $6 million in the hole. I would not be surprised if the budget hole is single digits millions without football. That is manageable.

Wrong. Back in 2011, sports outside of football and men's and women's basketball lost >$12 million. Throw in student recreation and intramurals which are included in the athletic budget and part of the "subsidy" through student fees, most if not all of the "losses" of the athletic department are from non-revenue sports and student recreation.

UConn's accounting for athletics is a double edge sword. On the one hand, it inflates athletic revenues and expenses which makes UConn athletics seem bigger than they actually are. For conference realignment, that's probably a good thing. On the other hand, they make it look like UConn athletics has a big subsidy as a large part of the student fees go towards spending on student activities. With state spending under pressure, that's probably not a good thing.

As for football, total annual expenses are around $20 million, so a loss of $6 million this past year given the AAC media contract and weak home attendance seems about right.

 

[Alum86]

Let Wichita St take our hoop spot, we go Big East hoop, play FB in the C-USAAC.
Nelson wins. Stop adding teams and stop the madness

 

[junglehusky]

Just for the record, it's official - if UConn wants to go to the Big East it means either 1) FBS independent 2) downgrade to FCS 3) shutting down the program."Parking" football in any FBS conference is pretty much off the table.

AAC presidents to vote this week on adding Wichita State; could begin play in fall

It was made clear to CBS Sports that it would be unlikely UConn could park football in any FBS conference while playing basketball in the Big East.

 

[gioff23]

Just for the record, it's official - if UConn wants to go to the Big East it means either 1) FBS independent 2) downgrade to FCS 3) shutting down the program."Parking" football in any FBS conference is pretty much off the table.

AAC presidents to vote this week on adding Wichita State; could begin play in fall

At the risk of being trivial, we are a member of BE for a few sports.

And the AAC has Navy for FB only and WSU for BB only. Why would those in favor of the BE not simply argue FB can stay in AAC and other sports go to BE?

 

[pj]

As a matter of long-term perspective, UConn is the most valuable collegiate athletics property in the New England-New York region. As such, we deliver more value to a conference than half the P5 conference teams.

Where we are at is a legacy of UConn's historic lack of investment in athletics (along with other northeastern schools), especially football, and the chances of conference politics, and the boom and incipient bust of athletic TV values as the cable industry is gradually displaced by the Internet.

Ten to twenty years from now, as the major conferences come up for renewal, they will be looking at smaller contracts and UConn will be a source of additional marginal revenue per school. We'll probably have a temporary home in the B12 before moving to ACC or B1G when the money makes sense.

The university needs to continue to invest in football and basketball and wait out the storm.

 

[WestHartHusk]

Basically doomed. Our school is off giving handies to WSU, which is about all you need to know of or prospects going forward.

 

[junglehusky]

At the risk of being trivial, we are a member of BE for a few sports.

And the AAC has Navy for FB only and WSU for BB only. Why would those in favor of the BE not simply argue FB can stay in AAC and other sports go to BE?

Because our MBB and WBB programs have value, and Navy's doesn't. AAC would be stupid to let UConn MBB and WBB walk away. Navy is a completely different equation.

By the way, WSU is in for all sports except football, which they don't sponsor. They have studied whether to start it up again, I think primarily because they thought they might need it to get in the AAC or MWC, but shelved the study for at least the time being.

 

[metsfan2323]

If Football were such a costly burden there would be many schools across the country that would have dropped it by now. Can someone please compile a list of all of those schools that have dropped football.

I get it, basketball is down and people are looking for something to blame. Mick freaking Cronin's success in the AAC tells me the AAC is not our basketball problem, it might be something else........ but I get it, lets drop football so we can finish near the bottom of the C7 league. We can be the new St John's, Hooray!

 

[CL82]

Just for the record, it's official - if UConn wants to go to the Big East it means either 1) FBS independent 2) downgrade to FCS 3) shutting down the program."Parking" football in any FBS conference is pretty much off the table.

AAC presidents to vote this week on adding Wichita State; could begin play in fall

Entire quote:

A report earlier this year had UConn talking to the Big East about possibly joining its former league. However, Aresco said it would be difficult for UConn to play its two major sports in different conferences.

It was made clear to CBS Sports that it would be unlikely UConn could park football in any FBS conference while playing basketball in the Big East.

Seems like the door is open a crack.

 

[junglehusky]

Entire quote:

Seems like the door is open a crack.

I think it would take Fox somehow underwriting UConn football in order to add UConn BB to its inventory. The conferences themselves are clearly not inclined to take UConn football without UConn BB. Clearly, UConn tried to make that happen and were told no.