Uconn in CR

[whaler11]

Here is what ppl miss perception wise with Lville. They have climbed and climbed for years. The perception is that they have arrived now with the acc invite but that they can sustain it over time and be a powerhouse athletics wise without fail. That's the image we lack

This is seriously a crazy thread. Louisville won a men's basketball title, finished 2nd in women's hoops, made the CWS and blew out an SEC team in a BCS bowl over the last 6 months.

They had an athletic department that delivered them to a legitimate conference.

College sports is about perception. The perception is that Louisville is on the rise across the board. The idea that they can't sustain what they have built in football is silly.

The Boneyard might think Louisville football doesn't add more than UConn football, but the football schools in the ACC certainly saw it differently. Yes I know everyone involved with the ACC has been declared incompetent here, but maybe take the blue glasses off for a few seconds and look at what happened, instead of building a narrative around what you think is right.

 

[The Viking]

This type of ridiculous thinking is why Louisville is in the ACC and UConn is in the AAC.

If you can't see the difference in how Louisville approached football and how UConn approaches football you are lost.

One of them has shown that they value it. The other one makes you wonder if they wouldn't just prefer to quit and call it a day.

For all the ballwashing of Jurich - and I do like him a lot - a very simple answer for why we aren't in the ACC is Teddy Bridgewater.

If that little Doug Flutie wannabe runt is under center last year - or even a moderately better version of Flutie runt - than Louisville finishes with 6 wins maybe 7. You could fill the seats all you want and you can value football all you want but the ACC isn't taking a 6 win Louisville over a 5 win UConn. Louisville is a putrid school academically, the greatness of Teddy Bridgewater is what got the ACC to close their eyes and let them in while letting go of their uppity academic standards.

Just as with many things here, things aligned perfectly for Louisville. If Shannon isnt' fired from Miami, Bridgewater doesn't play a snap for the Cards and UConn is in the ACC.

 

[upstater]

just stating facts. didn't say it was right.
programs aren't measured by wins and losses. they are measured by tradition, history, final season rankings, recruiting class, coaches salaries, facilities, national championships, pre-season rankings, # of announcers on ESPN, stadium size, conference affiliation, draft picks, current coach, and probably 100 other intangible metrics as well. Tenn hasn't done anything in a long time. Haven't been ranked at the end of the season in even longer. Boise has done everything in their power to prove they are on the level of the big boys including winning games on the field against the big boys. are you really telling me Boise's program is ahead of Tenn?

you can keep touting Uconn's wins. I care because I remember those games and they are big wins to a Uconn fan. Fact is, like it or not Indiana, WF, Baylor, and even Duke are in. they don't have to prove they belong because they already do. Beating them only means that Uconn has proven they can compete with the lowest performing programs of the power conferences. Yeah!!!! I don't see how it helps Uconn in the CR game. I also hope Uconn has their sites a little higher than Indiana or Duke football.

And I'm guessing you do as well.

We are not talking about the same subjects here. I including Tennessee in the top tier, and waffled about Boise St.
I also didn't rank Uconn higher than a team like Louisville or Cuse or Pitt because of head-to-head wins. But when you tout history or tradition, you seem to totally disregard LOSING history and LOSING tradition. You would think these programs would be able to be an upstart like UConn with all the advantages they have. Why couldn't they? I'll tell you why: because of their tradition of losing. Put it this way: long before I started watching Uconn football, I watched Penn state football, and my perception of these teams was that they were below even the middling level.

Several years ago, after Uconn pounded Indiana twice, the Penn state board was like, "Is Indiana at the point now where even a school with no history like Uconn could pound it into the ground?"

The answers were twofold. One, yes Indiana is now a bottom-tier football school with many empty seats in the stadium, and two, UConn was recruiting some good players and had already surpassed Indiana, even though all the fans (as we saw with Michigan last week) considered Uconn's future capped at that mid-level while also denigrating the level of Indiana football. To recap, it was not a surprise to the majority that UConn pounded Indiana.

What that told me is that the perception of Indiana is bottom-tier, and though the perception of UConn was not much better (at the time) the majority of people thought it wasn't a surprise at all that Uconn could so thoroughly dominate bottom-tier B1G team.

You keep saying I'm highlighting UConn's wins when I'm not. As I said earlier, if I were doing that, I would stick UConn football ahead of Pitt and Syracuse, by the number of wins alone. What I was doing, on the other hand, was saying that certain BCS schools have the stigma of losing repeatedly over the years attached to them. It's as simple as that.

 

[upstater]

Here is what ppl miss perception wise with Lville. They have climbed and climbed for years. The perception is that they have arrived now with the acc invite but that they can sustain it over time and be a powerhouse athletics wise without fail. That's the image we lack

Tell me how they climbed during the Kragthorpe years? And though I agree they've climbed (not steadily, obviously) they haven't gotten into the to level yet. They are better than UConn, but they are not of a caliber that can stabilize any conference. If they decided (for some bizarre reason) to stay in the AAC, they would not stabilize it. If Tennessee decided to join the AAC, that would add a lot more stability.

 

[upstater]

The Boneyard might think Louisville football doesn't add more than UConn football, but the football schools in the ACC certainly saw it differently. Yes I know everyone involved with the ACC has been declared incompetent here, but maybe take the blue glasses off for a few seconds and look at what happened, instead of building a narrative around what you think is right.

Again with the made-up arguments. Boneyard conventional wisdom since December has been exactly the opposite of what you state. Almost everyone here says Louisville got in over UConn BECAUSE of their football. Bizarre that you would portray many as saying otherwise.

 

[hthusky74]

We are not talking about the same subjects here. I including Tennessee in the top tier, and waffled about Boise St.
I also didn't rank Uconn higher than a team like Louisville or Cuse or Pitt because of head-to-head wins. But when you tout history or tradition, you seem to totally disregard LOSING history and LOSING tradition. You would think these programs would be able to be an upstart like UConn with all the advantages they have. Why couldn't they? I'll tell you why: because of their tradition of losing. Put it this way: long before I started watching Uconn football, I watched Penn state football, and my perception of these teams was that they were below even the middling level.

Several years ago, after Uconn pounded Indiana twice, the Penn state board was like, "Is Indiana at the point now where even a school with no history like Uconn could pound it into the ground?"

The answers were twofold. One, yes Indiana is now a bottom-tier football school with many empty seats in the stadium, and two, UConn was recruiting some good players and had already surpassed Indiana, even though all the fans (as we saw with Michigan last week) considered Uconn's future capped at that mid-level while also denigrating the level of Indiana football. To recap, it was not a surprise to the majority that UConn pounded Indiana.

What that told me is that the perception of Indiana is bottom-tier, and though the perception of UConn was not much better (at the time) the majority of people thought it wasn't a surprise at all that Uconn could so thoroughly dominate bottom-tier B1G team.

You keep saying I'm highlighting UConn's wins when I'm not. As I said earlier, if I were doing that, I would stick UConn football ahead of Pitt and Syracuse, by the number of wins alone. What I was doing, on the other hand, was saying that certain BCS schools have the stigma of losing repeatedly over the years attached to them. It's as simple as that.

Tenn draws over 100,000 to virtually every home game. How much does Boise St. draw? Case closed.

 

[Marty Jackson]

We are not talking about the same subjects here. I including Tennessee in the top tier, and waffled about Boise St.
I also didn't rank Uconn higher than a team like Louisville or Cuse or Pitt because of head-to-head wins. But when you tout history or tradition, you seem to totally disregard LOSING history and LOSING tradition. You would think these programs would be able to be an upstart like UConn with all the advantages they have. Why couldn't they? I'll tell you why: because of their tradition of losing. Put it this way: long before I started watching Uconn football, I watched Penn state football, and my perception of these teams was that they were below even the middling level.

Several years ago, after Uconn pounded Indiana twice, the Penn state board was like, "Is Indiana at the point now where even a school with no history like Uconn could pound it into the ground?"

The answers were twofold. One, yes Indiana is now a bottom-tier football school with many empty seats in the stadium, and two, UConn was recruiting some good players and had already surpassed Indiana, even though all the fans (as we saw with Michigan last week) considered Uconn's future capped at that mid-level while also denigrating the level of Indiana football. To recap, it was not a surprise to the majority that UConn pounded Indiana.

What that told me is that the perception of Indiana is bottom-tier, and though the perception of UConn was not much better (at the time) the majority of people thought it wasn't a surprise at all that Uconn could so thoroughly dominate bottom-tier B1G team.

You keep saying I'm highlighting UConn's wins when I'm not. As I said earlier, if I were doing that, I would stick UConn football ahead of Pitt and Syracuse, by the number of wins alone. What I was doing, on the other hand, was saying that certain BCS schools have the stigma of losing repeatedly over the years attached to them. It's as simple as that.

not trying to create a debate. you were suggesting that recent results against Vandy and Baylor suggested UConn's program had passed them.
all I responded with was that you really can't use on field results to measure a program and provided numerous intangible metrics that I've heard people reference when judging a program.
for the same reasons you used to support UConn on par with vandy or Baylor, I provided a program like Tennessee that has been down for a long time. their program, evidenced by your ranking as a top program should suggest there is more than wins and losses in ranking programs.
That's all I was saying.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Tenn draws over 100,000 to virtually every home game. How much does Boise St. draw? Case closed.

there you go. attendance to home games is a measure of programs.

 

[upstater]

not trying to create a debate. you were suggesting that recent results against Vandy and Baylor suggested UConn's program had passed them.

What I wrote was this: Vandy has had nothing but losing seasons until last year (in a very tough league, which explains it) but when you look at the OOC for that school, there's nothing there to tell you they'd be better outside it. Yes, Vandy nipped UConn in a game UConn threw away (and which Vandy tried to give back to them multiple times). But UConn blew them out the previous year.

The initial post that you responded to actually agreed with whaler that head-to-head is virtually meaningless.

This is why I pointed out that these are historically losing programs.

In the second post I reiterated that I was discussing the school's football program and not head-to-head matchups. Are head-to-heads relevant? Of course. A school like UConn can have success against, say, a Notre Dame or a South Carolina, but repeating that success is another thing altogether. Cuse, Pitt, Vandy and Baylor are not ND and South Carolina. Two totally different things.

 

[upstater]

Tenn draws over 100,000 to virtually every home game. How much does Boise St. draw? Case closed.

And your post is in response to what?

 

[upstater]

there you go. attendance to home games is a measure of programs.

I put Tennessee in the top tier. I actually wrote that Boise might not make my top tier.

Why is it this thread is so full of totally off-tangent remarks?

 

[woomba]

What that told me is that the perception of Indiana is bottom-tier, and though the perception of UConn was not much better (at the time) the majority of people thought it wasn't a surprise at all that Uconn could so thoroughly dominate bottom-tier B1G team.

You think the perception of UConn FB is better now than it was 5-6 years ago? I would say it's about the same - or perhaps a bit lower after Edsall left.

 

[whaler11]

Again with the made-up arguments. Boneyard conventional wisdom since December has been exactly the opposite of what you state. Almost everyone here says Louisville got in over UConn BECAUSE of their football. Bizarre that you would portray many as saying otherwise.

In this thread is the argument not that there is little difference between the football programs. Do you need me to quote a dozen posts?

 

[whaler11]

For all the ballwashing of Jurich - and I do like him a lot - a very simple answer for why we aren't in the ACC is Teddy Bridgewater.

If that little Doug Flutie wannabe runt is under center last year - or even a moderately better version of Flutie runt - than Louisville finishes with 6 wins maybe 7. You could fill the seats all you want and you can value football all you want but the ACC isn't taking a 6 win Louisville over a 5 win UConn. Louisville is a putrid school academically, the greatness of Teddy Bridgewater is what got the ACC to close their eyes and let them in while letting go of their uppity academic standards.

Just as with many things here, things aligned perfectly for Louisville. If Shannon isnt' fired from Miami, Bridgewater doesn't play a snap for the Cards and UConn is in the ACC.

Things didn't perfectly align for Louisville. They were on the cusp of being left out and they shaped the debate.

Louisville is committed to football. When UConn had the chance to prove their commitment they hired P. UConn let their opportunity slip through their fingers, Teddy Bridgewater isn't why UConn's season ticket base has eroded consistently since 2003.

UConn's conference realignment debacle is on UConn - it's not because Louisville has a good quarterback.

 

[upstater]

In this thread is the argument not that there is little difference between the football programs. Do you need me to quote a dozen posts?

You started misquoting from my very first post which stated that Louisville is a middling program that could hardly have stabilized the ACC. After that, you said what does that say about UConn? Someone joked that it said UConn beat a middling program in its best year. From then on, you've been going on about how people believe UConn is on equal footing. Just because both are middling doesn't mean they're equal. The consensus on this board for many months has been that Ville got in because they have better football. Case closed. At the same time, it's perfectly reasonable to argue that their football prowess is hyped up and not at all what the ACC believes it's buying.

I quoted a prominent ACC writer last week who put Louisville ahead of West Virginia! Makes me wonder what people are looking at.

 

[upstater]

You think the perception of UConn FB is better now than it was 5-6 years ago? I would say it's about the same - or perhaps a bit lower after Edsall left.

Check when UConn played Indiana. It was several years ago--as I wrote. UConn hadn't beaten ND at South bend at the time, hadn't won a bowl game against South Carolina, hadn't sent a great number of kids to the NFL draft, it didn't have multiple wins against Big12, B1G, SEC, ACC teams, etc.

A lot has happened since then. The perception is a lot better.

 

[whaler11]

Louisville didn't help stabilize the ACC but Clemson and FSU have agreed to GORs after their addition? Louisville went off the board for the Big 12. It's tougher to flip 2 schools than 1.

Louisville walks in day 1 as a program jn the top half of the league. They probably have the most forward momentum in the league.

There is a very real difference in the programs and the perception between the two is even greater. That UConn is 4-4 against them recently is nice, but in the middle of the weekend where Louisville kicked UConn in the nuts and took the last spot, UConn pulled a 3 rating in the Hartford DMA for a road football team against a top 25 team. When you can't get more than 30k homes to watch your games in your own DMA there isn't much to complain about when the public perception is against you.

 

[upstater]

Louisville didn't help stabilize the ACC but Clemson and FSU have agreed to GORs after their addition? Louisville went off the board for the Big 12. It's tougher to flip 2 schools than 1.

Louisville walks in day 1 as a program jn the top half of the league. They probably have the most forward momentum in the league.

There is a very real difference in the programs and the perception between the two is even greater. That UConn is 4-4 against them recently is nice, but in the middle of the weekend where Louisville kicked UConn in the nuts and took the last spot, UConn pulled a 3 rating in the Hartford DMA for a road football team against a top 25 team. When you can't get more than 30k homes to watch your games in your own DMA there isn't much to complain about when the public perception is against you.

Maryland leaving = GORs.

Let's be real. Come on, FSU wanted to lock down Virginia and North Carolina, not to mention Virginia Tech and NC State.

FSU and Clemson are looking at the best other football teams being poached by the SEC and the B1G while they're staring straight in the face at road games in Ames, Iowa; Manhattan, Kansas; Stillwater, OK.

And you ask about GOR?

The rest of your argument simply reinforces the way you repeatedly miscontrue what I wrote, so why argue Ville is a beter football program than UConn?

It's bizarre. No matter how many times someone says the opposite, you continue in that fashion. You set up imaginary strawmen in your head, and then you display your arguments with them on the board.

 

[Marty Jackson]

I put Tennessee in the top tier. I actually wrote that Boise might not make my top tier.

Why is it this thread is so full of totally off-tangent remarks?

if boise after all the big time wins against the top of the top programs in BCS games can't make your top list, then what we are even arguing about UConn for?

 

[Marty Jackson]

Louisville didn't help stabilize the ACC but Clemson and FSU have agreed to GORs after their addition? Louisville went off the board for the Big 12. It's tougher to flip 2 schools than 1.

Louisville walks in day 1 as a program jn the top half of the league. They probably have the most forward momentum in the league.

There is a very real difference in the programs and the perception between the two is even greater. That UConn is 4-4 against them recently is nice, but in the middle of the weekend where Louisville kicked UConn in the nuts and took the last spot, UConn pulled a 3 rating in the Hartford DMA for a road football team against a top 25 team. When you can't get more than 30k homes to watch your games in your own DMA there isn't much to complain about when the public perception is against you.

it's a proven fact that CT is a fair-weather fan state. If there is nothing on the line, fans become apathetic very quickly.
Yes a bowl game was on the line, but that doesn't really matter.
Had the game been the difference between winning the BE and going to a BCS game or not, the fans and ratings would have been very different.
UConn's fate, despite the actual finality of missing a bowl game was sealed and the fans knew it.

 

[whaler11]

Maryland leaving = GORs.

Let's be real. Come on, FSU wanted to lock down Virginia and North Carolina, not to mention Virginia Tech and NC State.

FSU and Clemson are looking at the best other football teams being poached by the SEC and the B1G while they're staring straight in the face at road games in Ames, Iowa; Manhattan, Kansas; Stillwater, OK.

And you ask about GOR?

The rest of your argument simply reinforces the way you repeatedly miscontrue what I wrote, so why argue Ville is a beter football program than UConn?

It's bizarre. No matter how many times someone says the opposite, you continue in that fashion. You set up imaginary strawmen in your head, and then you display your arguments with them on the board.

Upstater is Louisville a better football program than Connecticut? Don't use the same word to describe them and then tell me you view them differently this time. Just answer the question.

 

[whaler11]

it's a proven fact that CT is a fair-weather fan state. If there is nothing on the line, fans become apathetic very quickly.
Yes a bowl game was on the line, but that doesn't really matter.
Had the game been the difference between winning the BE and going to a BCS game or not, the fans and ratings would have been very different.
UConn's fate, despite the actual finality of missing a bowl game was sealed and the fans knew it.

We are world class with excuses.

Gee I wonder how we ended up in the AAC? It's no one's fault but the schools and the 'fan base', but we'll have dozens of threads a month where people embrace being victims.

 

[The Funster]

I liked this thread better when we were talking about goats.

How about this:

Conference commishes filmed in compromising positions with goats (male and female) while cross dressing and singing show tunes.

 

[woomba]

Check when UConn played Indiana. It was several years ago--as I wrote. UConn hadn't beaten ND at South bend at the time, hadn't won a bowl game against South Carolina, hadn't sent a great number of kids to the NFL draft, it didn't have multiple wins against Big12, B1G, SEC, ACC teams, etc.

A lot has happened since then. The perception is a lot better.

Most of that success is attributed to Edsall - especially after seeing UConn struggle the past 2 years. In terms of program perception I don't think UConn has moved all that much.

It's similar to Cincinnati situation's where most of the success was attributed to Brian Kelly's coaching and once he left for ND Cincinnati went back to not being regarded any better than before.

 

[woomba]

it's a proven fact that CT is a fair-weather fan state. If there is nothing on the line, fans become apathetic very quickly.
Yes a bowl game was on the line, but that doesn't really matter.
Had the game been the difference between winning the BE and going to a BCS game or not, the fans and ratings would have been very different.
UConn's fate, despite the actual finality of missing a bowl game was sealed and the fans knew it.

There's a ranking made by some sports marketing professors at Emory that argue similarly: https://blogs.emory.edu/sportsmarketing/category/big-east/

This is ranking Basketball but basically they try to quantify how much support there is for a program controlling for wins - basically how "fair weather" a fan-base is.

 

[hthusky74]

And your post is in response to what?

Mostly concurring with Marty Jackson that Tenn is a top tier program and Boise St. is not. No need to waffle about it.

 

[huskymedic]

I liked this thread better when we were talking about goats.

How about this:

Conference commishes filmed in compromising positions with goats (male and female) while cross dressing and singing show tunes.

Dare to watch and not laugh at least once...

 

[Srqhusky]

Hitting double digit wins gets you noticed like a chick with a white shirt and big tits. We never accomplished that when we had to. Re has just as much responsibility for where we are as the current coach

 

[CL82]

This type of ridiculous thinking is why Louisville is in the ACC and UConn is in the AAC.

If you can't see the difference in how Louisville approached football and how UConn approaches football you are lost.

One of them has shown that they value it. The other one makes you wonder if they wouldn't just prefer to quit and call it a day.

Whaler I know that you love being contrarian on this board, but that last sentence is a pretty huge reach wouldn't you say? UConn has supported football very, very well and exclusive of stadium size can match up well against the facilities of any other university.

 

[CL82]

Dare to watch and not laugh at least once...

Lost that bet inside of 20 seconds