UConn Board of Trustees Needs to Delay All Votes on Leaving AAC and Joining New Big East

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Not baseball. Not soccer.

Soccer has fallen off a cliff in the AAC.

 

[CTMike]

Speaking of costs, wait until Geno Auriemma and Dan Hurley start pressuring the governor to spend a ton of money to renovate the XL Center given our new conference affiliation. 2018 price tag for full job was quarter of a billion dollars. Meanwhile, the new $10 M ceiling at Gampel has to be repaired.

This has not one iota to do with today’s announcement.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

This has not one iota to do with today’s announcement.

Geno said earlier this year to "fix the damn place." He wasn't referring to his overpriced restaurant.

 

[CTMike]

Geno said earlier this year to "fix the damn place." He wasn't referring to his overpriced restaurant.

That’s my point - it’s sorely needed regardless of today’s announcement.

 

[freescooter]

Decision to “protect” basketball but in reality will make the whole athletic department nothing more than a regional midmajor program. I suspect a couple of deep pocket donors are funding at least a big piece of the costs. We’ll see where they are when 6500 show up to watch us play our Big East rival, Butler, in January. Hurley had best get us into the tournament very quickly or this will be an even bigger disaster than it appears anyway. We will be better though if only because there is only 1 good team in the league. And seriously people are going to argue this will justify putting 250000 into the XL Center. Heck Bronin is ALREADY saying that. After the first year or two when the excitement is over the attendance will go back to normal—10 000 in Hartford 6500 in Storrs.

 

[freescooter]

Great points. FYI: Ethics board usually does conflict of interest issues and similar things. UConn Board Interim Chairman Tom Ritter's son is House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, so the legislature is unlikely to do anything. It may make more sense at this point just to throw the bums out. They are mostly appointed by our governor.

I would love someone to file a complaint with the FOI commission. Anyone believe there was no ex post facto communication on this? Or it wasn’t discussed by board members outside of a formal meeting? LOL

 

[noeynox]

AAC-YA Later.

Make that a TShirt, with welcome back to the Big East on it.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

I would love someone to file a complaint with the FOI commission. Anyone believe there was no ex post facto communication on this? Or it wasn’t discussed by board members outside of a formal meeting? LOL

I would love someone to file a complaint with the FOI commission. Anyone believe there was no ex post facto communication on this? Or it wasn’t discussed by board members outside of a formal meeting? LOL

Probably could at least get the commission to look at that. How and when did the board authorize the negotiations with the Big East? I assume that at least one vote was needed to be taken in public session even if conversations were held in private. I would be very curious if there is a report that lists possible drawbacks to the affiliation with the Big East. That may be considered a public document -- such as its impact on football and baseball teams.

 

[RyanFoul]

Geno said earlier this year to "fix the damn place." He wasn't referring to his overpriced restaurant.

The funny part about Geno is one minute he's saying "fix the damn place"---which will require state funds--the next minute he's saying "stop spending so much". In other words, Geno is a CT resident through and through.

 

[Gluap]

Making the best of this and supporting teams is in our best interest.The only way we dig out of this, the University returning to one that demonstrates passion as demonstrated by attendance. Full stadiums are contagious . They sells other fans, prospective students, advertisers,tv contracts and yes some bowl committees.
To this day I believe the publicity seeking and grandstanding by an ambitious Attorney General Blumenthal is the action that started the ball rolling away from us and prevented recovery. He not only publicly shamed other universities but took the ill advised path of lawsuits. What should have been a disagreement became a blood feud. Families fight but as soon as somebody files for divorce the narrative changes. I say this as someone who has continued to support the university with donations and attendance at every football and men’s basketball as well as many women’s games. I regret the road we took and where it took us to but in the hopes of digging out let’s chnage the strategy. Let’s not rely on AGs, politicians, university presidents etc. Let’s just try showing up in mass and with a loud voice. Seems that would be harder to ignore.

 

[BlueDogs]

Soccer has fallen off a cliff in the AAC.

Not getting better in the NBE, a glorified 1AA for other sports.

 

[WrenchFan69]

Not getting better in the NBE, a glorified 1AA for other sports.

The Big East is a very good soccer conference with real rivals of ours. Pair that with a new stadium, I think we see a resurgence.

 

[BlueDogs]

The Big East is a very good soccer conference with real rivals of ours. Pair that with a new stadium, I think we see a resurgence.

Georgetown, Creighton... the rest are ranked lower than 60. AAC has more ranked teams. The dominant conferences are the ACC and B1G.

 

[John]

Decision to “protect” basketball but in reality will make the whole athletic department nothing more than a regional midmajor program. I suspect a couple of deep pocket donors are funding at least a big piece of the costs. We’ll see where they are when 6500 show up to watch us play our Big East rival, Butler, in January. Hurley had best get us into the tournament very quickly or this will be an even bigger disaster than it appears anyway. We will be better though if only because there is only 1 good team in the league. And seriously people are going to argue this will justify putting 250000 into the XL Center. Heck Bronin is ALREADY saying that. After the first year or two when the excitement is over the attendance will go back to normal—10 000 in Hartford 6500 in Storrs.

Huge pressure on Hurley now to deliver actual results

 

[John]

Georgetown, Creighton... the rest are ranked lower than 60. AAC has more ranked teams. The dominant conferences are the ACC and B1G.

RR is a dinosaur.

 

[WrenchFan69]

Georgetown, Creighton... the rest are ranked lower than 60. AAC has more ranked teams. The dominant conferences are the ACC and B1G.

Providence and St. John's are good programs.

 

[J187Money]

Don't really care... the Football experiment was a disaster and I want all you football fans to remember how chasing a dream that was never going to happen nearly killed the basketball program. Block me don't block me no skin off my back.

Kevin Ollie almost killed the basketball program. Tell me what football had to do with that.