UConn athletics long-term

[ElGuapo]

 

[HuskyDogArt]

Small compared to P5. Huge compared to AAC.

Don't confuse this hypothetical alliance with the P5. It is a step down and always will be. If UConn gets a P5 bid someday, it is a "riding the coattails" opportunity like Rutgers, BC, VT, or Wake. UConn is not driving anything in football. UConn is scratching lottery tickets.

In the meantime, you could have the hoops programs in a Top 3 basketball conference. Hoops is the Flagship program at UConn. Take care of Hoops first, and find your way outside the P5 in FBS until (IF) the lottery ticket hits.

Excuse me, Zissou, but us in the Big East for basketball makes as much sense as UHawaii in the ACC. The Big East is small Catholic schools, not a big public state school. Also, if we were Indy in football, we wont be playing anyone of importance. Now we have a good schedule.

 

[HuskyDogArt]

If you want to ignore all other options and simplify it to AAC or dropping football, that's fine if it makes you feel better. In reality there are other options.



The Big East and UConn had some talks earlier this year. The talks were leaked and disavowed, but I'm quite certain they happened. It's likely more careful communication continues.

There is other options, no sorry UConn as an indy is a death knell. We won't go to FCS and if are going to drop FB, we wouldn't have hired RE.

 

[UConnNick]

UConn is both feet in FBS at this point.

If / until a P5 opportunity arises, what is the better "forever" position and what is the better "interim" position for UConn? I think the answer to both is Big East for all sports but FB, with FB remaining in the American, or going indy if the American deal can't be negotiated.

Being in a Top 3 hoops conference with regional foes and a NYC base is a better environment for both UConn basketball programs. The footprint is much more reasonable for non-rev sports.

If the FB-only American can be negotiated, UConn has the best of both worlds. As a fall-back, indy football won't really hurt it's chances at future P5 consideration. As in the past, the bigger picture of the university's position will be critical and more important than specific short-term performance in football.

UConn football will not survive as an FBS independent. You can't go to bowl games as an independent. No bowls = no national exposure. In 2003 we went 9-3 as an FBS independent and got no bowl invitation(s). There are more bowls now, but you're at the bottom of the list after every single conference tie-in game is set. You only get a bid if there aren't any more bowl eligible teams left to fill vacant slots. That will almost never happen, particularly since they've relaxed the rules to allow certain 5-7 teams in if there aren't enough other teams that won six games.

You also have the headache of trying to put together a decent schedule with no conference affiliation. Other teams don't want to play an independent. It does them zero good, even when they win the game. Being an FBS independent would kill UConn football.

 

[UConnNick]

Here is a hypothetical with some real numbers.

What if Fox would support UConn to the Big East, and extended the Big East contract another 5 years with a guaranteed $5M per school per year for basketball.
What if UConn were to be able to keep their Tier 3 rights for all sports. What if UConn could monetize that to $2M.
What if Fox and CBS would support the football Eastern Alliance of Independents with a TV deal for $5M per school per year, excluding the Army-Navy game which is already contracted by CBS through 2028 (and is already excluded from the AAC arrangement) and is probably $10M just for the one game..

That is $12M worth of what ifs.

What if Aresco is able to increase the AAC ESPN TV deal from ~$2M per school to $7.5M per school, which includes basketball and football. This will be a challenge with ESPN shedding costs and having a low starting benchmark, but let's assume it gets done.

It's all hypothetical, but would you rather be in the Big East or in the American in this hypothetical?

They are all options if you expected a $30M P5 deal. Maybe UConn needs to fully explore its best option outside of P5. If the P5 happens it's just gravy.

And if I had wheels, I'd be a bus.

 

[UConnNick]

You have no clue. You are stuck on JMU as defining the Alliance - it's one team.

Eastern Carolina...
Tulane...

Sagarin is only one measure, but surely more statistically important than one game. I say this knowing that you won't understand the statistical significance of one data point, but others will. Nelson is smart enough to get it. The University of Michigan failed you.

You started out with zero credibility here, but now you've managed to explore the depths of less than zero. FYI, East Carolina routinely comes close to selling out its 50,000 seat football stadium, has been more than competitive at the FBS level for a long time, and has exponentially more value than a JMU, and most of the other schools you've suggested should be involved in some half-assed regional FB alliance that would receive a collective yawn from every media outlet in the country. For that matter, even Tulane brings more value than JMU. They used to be in the SEC, which I'm sure you didn't know, and as recently as the late 1990's they produced an undefeated team at the FBS level, and sent their QB Shaun King to the NFL.

Most folks outside Virginia couldn't locate JMU if you gave them a map of the state. Epic fail on your part. Maybe you should study some CFB history before disparaging programs that are light years ahead of JMU, or most of the other teams you suggest should form some fantasyland alliance.

 

[Zissou]

Epic fail on your part. Maybe you should study some CFB history...

You are getting $1.4 for football and $0.4 for basketball. You are an island in a mostly south east to Texas footprint. The American didn't finish with a top 25 football team last season. You are the number 7 basketball conference.

The epic fail already happened. I'm exploring alternatives.

 

[UConnNick]

You are getting $1.4 for football and $0.4 for basketball. You are an island in a mostly south east to Texas footprint. The American didn't finish with a top 25 football team last season. You are the number 7 basketball conference.

The epic fail already happened. I'm exploring alternatives.

Troll away. You're exploring nonsense.

 

[Zissou]

Just keep doing what you are doing. Things will get better. TV revenue is over rated anyway. The state funding will always be there.

 

[Drew]

The argument has been made that UConn, which has an annual athletic budget of about $80 million, should drop football to the FCS level and focus on an attempt for its other programs to rejoin the Big East.

That lessens expenditures but hurts on the revenue side. Most Big East teams, without the benefit of big-time football, received between $2.3 million to close to $3 million from the league in 2015. Benedict also brings up another revenue issue.

"The misnomer with that thought process is that a lot of the money that we derive from multimedia rights — if you look at our ticket sales for football, even though they're not great right now, if you look at the multimedia rights deal, you'd lose the majority of those dollars if we said we're going to drop down to FCS in football," Benedict said. "I think most of those people are saying that because of the financial piece, but it's counter-intuitive because we're going to get over $9 million from our multimedia rights deal next year. … They're not going to pay us like that if we don't have football."


http://www.courant.com/g00/sports/u...urant.com/g00/?i10c.referrer=#nt=oft12aH-1gp2

Hopefully we can put this idea to rest now.

 

[UConnDan97]

The argument has been made that UConn, which has an annual athletic budget of about $80 million, should drop football to the FCS level and focus on an attempt for its other programs to rejoin the Big East.

That lessens expenditures but hurts on the revenue side. Most Big East teams, without the benefit of big-time football, received between $2.3 million to close to $3 million from the league in 2015. Benedict also brings up another revenue issue.

"The misnomer with that thought process is that a lot of the money that we derive from multimedia rights — if you look at our ticket sales for football, even though they're not great right now, if you look at the multimedia rights deal, you'd lose the majority of those dollars if we said we're going to drop down to FCS in football," Benedict said. "I think most of those people are saying that because of the financial piece, but it's counter-intuitive because we're going to get over $9 million from our multimedia rights deal next year. … They're not going to pay us like that if we don't have football."


http://www.courant.com/g00/sports/UConn-huskies/hc-aac-UConn-money-0527-20170526-story.html?i10c.referrer=http://www.courant.com/g00/?i10c.referrer=#nt=oft12aH-1gp2

Hopefully we can put this idea to rest now.

I love how you think that facts will somehow end an argument on the Boneyard...

 

[Zissou]

The argument has been made that UConn, which has an annual athletic budget of about $80 million, should drop football to the FCS level and focus on an attempt for its other programs to rejoin the Big East.

Dropping to FCS does not seem to have many supporters on here, even from those that support a move to the Big East. Moving to the Big East does not mean dropping FBS.

Most Big East teams, without the benefit of big-time football, received between $2.3 million to close to $3 million from the league in 2015.

The Big East TV contract is bigger than that. Then add in NCAA tournament credits.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Dropping to FCS does not seem to have many supporters on here, even from those that support a move to the Big East. Moving to the Big East does not mean dropping FBS.

This is what you continually keep failing to understand.

UConn football cannot survive as an FCS program, UConn football cannot survive as an Indy, UConn football cannot survive a loose alliance of Northeastern non-P5 schools and UConn football cannot play in the AAC unless UConn basketball is in the AAC.

 

[dogged1]

This is what you continually keep failing to understand.

UConn football cannot survive as an FCS program, UConn football cannot survive as an Indy, UConn football cannot survive a loose alliance of Northeastern non-P5 schools and UConn football cannot play in the AAC unless UConn basketball is in the AAC.

If facts don't work, what makes you think logic will?

 

[Drew]

Dropping to FCS does not seem to have many supporters on here, even from those that support a move to the Big East. Moving to the Big East does not mean dropping FBS.



The Big East TV contract is bigger than that. Then add in NCAA tournament credits.

Dude you are out of your freaking mind

 

[Zissou]

It's another great day to be in the Big East. Samuels and Spellmen are First Years at Nova in the coming season, and Slater and Swider are committed for 2018. Top 50 type 4/5 star recruits.

Providence has AJ Reeves coming in, and you know about Ashton-Langford.

UConn is in a dry spell for higher rated recruits.

Football aside (and disagreements on whether or not UConn's FBS football can survive a move to the Big East), UConn to the Big East would have to help hoops recruiting. UConn just seems lost in the AAC without a positive identity. Bash away, but I'd love to see UConn come home.

 

[gopher2]

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

Football Drags on UConn’s Power 5 Ambitions

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.

Depends entirely on how we fair in the next round of CR. My guess is our apex in D1 sports has passed but who knows what might happen 3-5 years from now. Whatever happens at least we had our days in the sun.

 

[dayooper]

Depends entirely on how we fair in the next round of CR. My guess is our apex in D1 sports has passed but who knows what might happen 3-5 years from now. Whatever happens at least we had our days in the sun.

We will have none of that lying around going on here:

FYI - Has a couple of inappropriate words not intended fore the workplace, as if you didn't already now.

 

[gopher2]

We will have none of that lying around going on here:

FYI - Has a couple of inappropriate words not intended fore the workplace, as if you didn't already now.

If only John Belushi had been our AD instead of Jeff Hathaway.

 

[billybud]

Or Jeff Spicoli

"They sold their bodies to medicine for $25 bucks, I think.

Righteous bucks!"

 

[nelsonmuntz]

UConn football will not survive as an FBS independent. You can't go to bowl games as an independent. No bowls = no national exposure. In 2003 we went 9-3 as an FBS independent and got no bowl invitation(s). There are more bowls now, but you're at the bottom of the list after every single conference tie-in game is set. You only get a bid if there aren't any more bowl eligible teams left to fill vacant slots. That will almost never happen, particularly since they've relaxed the rules to allow certain 5-7 teams in if there aren't enough other teams that won six games.

You also have the headache of trying to put together a decent schedule with no conference affiliation. Other teams don't want to play an independent. It does them zero good, even when they win the game. Being an FBS independent would kill UConn football.

Being in the AAC has killed UConn football and basketball.

 

[huskymedic]

Being in the AAC has killed UConn football and basketball.

6 years of losing has killed UConn Football...

 

[UConnNick]

Being in the AAC has killed UConn football and basketball.

Paul Pasqualoni and Bob Diaco killed UConn football. We could have been in any P5 conference and they still would have killed it.

There's nothing wrong with the AAC as a football league. Houston went to a NY6 bowl and the AAC is head and shoulders over any of the other G conferences. You just have to win games and it gives you your best chance of making it to at least a NY6 bowl. That's what's so laughable about this nitwit idea of forming some eastern alliance of 1-AA football nobodies and 1-A bottom feeders.

As for basketball, I agree the AAC does suck, but basketball means zero in terms of conference realignment prospects for UConn, or anybody else stuck in purgatory outside the P5.

 

[Zissou]

Paul Pasqualoni and Bob Diaco killed UConn football. We could have been in any P5 conference and they still would have killed it.

There's nothing wrong with the AAC as a football league. Houston went to a NY6 bowl and the AAC is head and shoulders over any of the other G conferences. You just have to win games and it gives you your best chance of making it to at least a NY6 bowl. That's what's so laughable about this nitwit idea of forming some eastern alliance of 1-AA football nobodies and 1-A bottom feeders.

As for basketball, I agree the AAC does suck, but basketball means zero in terms of conference realignment prospects for UConn, or anybody else stuck in purgatory outside the P5.

It's what you prioritize. You put football first, so you hate the idea of the Big East.

If you put basketball first, playing in the top 2 or 3 conference would matter.

Your UConn basketball heritage is top rate. Football, not so much.

I'd say hoping that you'll be a football power is a nitwit idea. Especially at the expense of basketball.

 

[chickenhead]

I can't believe this thread keeps going... It's now 3 months old and the initial argument hasn't changed.