UConn Moving to the Big East?

[JSB60]

I don't buy any of the gloom and doom over non P5 basketball. The Old Big East showed that a bunch of non-powerhouse athletic schools can form a conference and play basketball at the highest level. As for the current situation, either I'm hallucinating, or a non P5 school has won three of the last four men's basketball championships. While I agree that B12 is the best option, NBE is not so bad. Especially with UCONN in it. The $%^# with football. As for post-Geno, the women will be in good hands and still have the tradition.

 

[CocoHusky]

When a top NYC basketball recruit is choosing between say Rutgers who will be able to pay said player $10k/year or UConn where you get to play Creighton and Butler, where do you think they are going to go?

Villanova or UCONN if they want to win a Championship!

 

[uconnfan68]

No argument--I learned a bit from your posting--
As I perceive your message it is Big 12 or abolish Uconn sports! Your last sentence about Recruit selecting Rutgers over Uconn for 10 k per year has a scary tone to it. But if that player goes to UConn without any per diem or payback money--it is possible the Uconn route may take her to the WNBA or Europe WBB for really big buck. More likely at Uconn than Rutgers, isn't it? Yes some RU Alums made it--look at Christine Dailey...
Since the BE is primarily a Catholic league/conference one would immediately think---your 4th sentence is moot--since God is highly visible in all BE schools except probably Butler. In the past God was in some manner part of every military motto--that's why HE didn't take sides..(I got that from a very very high source)

No one is saying we need to abolish sports. That will happen on its own due to lack of finances. It's not like we have multi billion endowments to carry us like the Ivies do.

 

[HoopsFan21]

I don't buy any of the gloom and doom over non P5 basketball. The Old Big East showed that a bunch of non-powerhouse athletic schools can form a conference and play basketball at the highest level. As for the current situation, either I'm hallucinating, or a non P5 school has won three of the last four men's basketball championships. While I agree that B12 is the best option, NBE is not so bad. Especially with UCONN in it. The $%^# with football. As for post-Geno, the women will be in good hands and still have the tradition.

So without power conference TV money, which is driven by football, who is going to pay for our ridiculously expensive power conference-level athletic department?

 

[Wally East]

I would ask, other than WBB fans for Uconn, what attributes, value (in dollars) or high level identity does Uconn bring to the table??

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or if you really don't know.

 

[CocoHusky]

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or if you really don't know.

Not to answer for Broadway but assume the latter. To amplify, why are these UCONN "attributes" insufficient to have UCONN in a P5 conference already?

 

[Wally East]

Not to answer for Broadway but assume the latter. To amplify, why are these UCONN "attributes" insufficient to have UCONN in a P5 conference already?

They aren't. It's not always the school's attributes that have kept it from joining a P5 conference.

 

[HoopsFan21]

Not to answer for Broadway but assume the latter. To amplify, why are these UCONN "attributes" insufficient to have UCONN in a P5 conference already?

Don't underestimate the conference politics involved in picking new members. It's a good ol' boys network. These same schools also control who gets invited into the AAU.

 

[uconnell]

Is that Rutgers "deserved" what they got or UCONN "deserved" what Rutgers got. That last one sounds like envy!

Are you really a UConn fan? Not envy, anger.

 

[Fightin Choke]

Are you really a UConn fan? Not envy, anger.

Sure, Coco's a Huskies' fan. I know that the term 'fan' is short for fanatic, but that fanaticism manifests itself in different ways. Some fans are utterly devoted to their team and cannot view them objectively. Other fans can view their teams more objectively, but are fanatic in the way they follow the team and think about them constantly. TonyC would be an excellent example of the first category (no offense intended, Tony) and Coco (and many others on this site) are great examples of the second type. Coco is always reading posts and sharing his thoughts, so his devotion to this board is fanatic, but his views and posts are more balanced.

 

[Fightin Choke]

No one watches BE anything. There is zero visibility (if you believe the ratings numbers) let alone value in it. The BE blew its shot when the Catholic schools started acting like brats and decided to destroy the league. Now, it's power conference or bust. Either get into a power conference or prepare to downsize your athletic department because not even God himself will be able to help you keep up with B1G and SEC schools raking in $40-50 million dollars every year just from a TV contract. When a top NYC basketball recruit is choosing between say Rutgers who will be able to pay said player $10k/year or UConn where you get to play Creighton and Butler, where do you think they are going to go?

That's not the way I saw it. I thought the Catholic schools left en masse because the football schools were leaving (or attempting to leave) the Big East like rats on a sinking ship. UConn had been trying to leave for the ACC before the Catholic schools decided to leave, so you can't blame them for going their own way. If I found out that my date for the prom kept trying to upgrade her situation by propositioning other guys, I would beat her to the punch by finding someone better for myself, leaving her without her safety net.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Not to answer for Broadway but assume the latter. To amplify, why are these UCONN "attributes" insufficient to have UCONN in a P5 conference already?

We joined the Big East in football as other member schools were working behind the scenes to get out. We were not going to be a P5 candidate given that our BCS football program was a fledgling.(Still is). Former member local schools like BC and Syracuse lobbied for our exclusion.
http://content.usatoday.com/communi...c-director-gene-defilippo-espn/1#.V7dOiPkrLs0

We would bring a sizeable viewing market to a conference that develops a network. The monies from a P5 conference would greatly help to offset the subsidy to the AD that the students now pay for. State support to the university has declined steadily over the last decade.
The current AAC contract sacrificed dollars for exposure.

 

[CocoHusky]

Don't underestimate the conference politics involved in picking new members. It's a good ol' boys network. These same schools also control who gets invited into the AAU.

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”
Groucho Marx.
Politics is a constant competitive process and what dislike most about this UCONN situation is the assertion that the right outcome was not achieve because of "politics". i.e, UCONN is not in a P5 conference because of politics-Nonsense IMO. The reality is that playing winning politics is just as important to getting into a P5 as is playing winning football. Commit to do both.

 

[Vowelguy]

I don't buy any of the gloom and doom over non P5 basketball. The Old Big East showed that a bunch of non-powerhouse athletic schools can form a conference and play basketball at the highest level. As for the current situation, either I'm hallucinating, or a non P5 school has won three of the last four men's basketball championships. While I agree that B12 is the best option, NBE is not so bad. Especially with UCONN in it. The $%^# with football. As for post-Geno, the women will be in good hands and still have the tradition.

In a couple of years, Big 10 schools will be earning $50 million/year in media rights. AAC schools will get about $1-2 million. Just how long do you think UConn can survive in that environment?

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I don't buy any of the gloom and doom over non P5 basketball. The Old Big East showed that a bunch of non-powerhouse athletic schools can form a conference and play basketball at the highest level. As for the current situation, either I'm hallucinating, or a non P5 school has won three of the last four men's basketball championships. While I agree that B12 is the best option, NBE is not so bad. Especially with UCONN in it. The $%^# with football. As for post-Geno, the women will be in good hands and still have the tradition.

You mean a big East with UConn, Syracuse, Boston College, Pitt, Louisville, Notre Dame? UConn post Geno will need to have strong conference schedule. Why would anyone outside the conference who is any good schedule UConn if an icon is not their coach?

 

[uconnell]

Villanova or UCONN if they want to win a Championship!

I consider UConn P-5, without P-5 $$$$$

 

[uconnell]

Didn't the B1g recognize, or was it some teams in the B1g recognize, UConn as a p5 for their ooc
Games? Am I mistaken?

 

[CocoHusky]

You mean a big East with UConn, Syracuse, Boston College, Pitt, Louisville, Notre Dame? UConn post Geno will need to have strong conference schedule. Why would anyone outside the conference who is any good schedule UConn if an icon is not their coach?

For the same reason that Non-SEC teams like ND, Stanford still schedule Tennessee after Pat Summitt (RIP) is no longer the coach.

 

[HoopsFan21]

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”
Groucho Marx.
Politics is a constant competitive process and what dislike most about this UCONN situation is the assertion that the right outcome was not achieve because of "politics". i.e, UCONN is not in a P5 conference because of politics-Nonsense IMO. The reality is that playing winning politics is just as important to getting into a P5 as is playing winning football. Commit to do both.

Well I do know it can't be our athletics keeping us out. UConn is better than half the teams in the P5 right now. If anyone doubts that assertion, let's compare trophy cases. UConn has won 15 basketball titles over the last 21 years and the Olympic sports are up there too. It can't be academics. Look at some of the community colleges that are in P5 conferences. We'd be no worse off than middle of the pack academically in any of the P5 conferences. It can't be TV markets. UConn is in the 30th largest TV market and also has some share of the #1 and #8 TV markets that adjoin its own TV market, so that easily puts it ahead of half the P5 (ahead of even the mighty Ohio State University TV market). So what is it exactly that we lack? Oh we suck at football? Yeah, so do 2/3rds of the P5 teams. Most of the P5 conferences are 2 or 3 teams deep with the rest a bunch of hanger-ons that are just there for the free ride a.k.a. falling backwards into a big pile of money for doing nothing more than having joined a particular conference before TV even was a thing. At least we've gone to a major bowl game relatively recently, and beat P5 teams at a 35% clip. All while being a relative newcomer to this level of competition. Right now I feel like UConn could win the national championship in football and we'd still get the cold shoulder. You were lucky; win it with some frequency then we'll talk is what people would say to excuse us from being part of the big boy club. Perhaps there is some merit to the idea that the other schools are just scared of UConn.

 

[HoopsFan21]

You mean a big East with UConn, Syracuse, Boston College, Pitt, Louisville, Notre Dame? UConn post Geno will need to have strong conference schedule. Why would anyone outside the conference who is any good schedule UConn if an icon is not their coach?

UConn post Geno is going to be in a tough spot either way. 90% of the reason we get the recruits we do is because of Geno. No one will ever fill those shoes or take his place. These kids all come to UConn to play for Geno. When Geno is gone, why are they going to come to UConn any more than some other school? They're certainly not going to come just to play Tulsa twice a year and stare at the banners in the practice facility and the falling apart ceiling in Gampel.

 

[uconnell]

UConn post Geno is going to be in a tough spot either way. 90% of the reason we get the recruits we do is because of Geno. No one will ever fill those shoes or take his place. These kids all come to UConn to play for Geno. When Geno is gone, why are they going to come to UConn any more than some other school? They're certainly not going to come just to play Tulsa twice a year and stare at the banners in the practice facility and the falling apart ceiling in Gampel.

Nay Sayers said the same thing about Calhoun and the men's basketball team. Perhaps Geno is already training his successor.

 

[CocoHusky]

So what is it exactly that we lack? Right now I feel like UConn could win the national championship in football and we'd still get the cold shoulder. You were lucky; win it with some frequency then we'll talk is what people would say to excuse us from being part of the big boy club. Perhaps there is some merit to the idea that the other schools are just scared of UConn.

Quite honestly what I think you lack is an objective assessment of UCONN and a credible plan. It has been more than a decade since BC left the BE and joined the ACC-2005. In the decade + there have been 4 former BE schools that have joined the ACC (Syracuse, Pitt, ND, & Louisville). An objective assessment of UCONN would compel the UCONN administration to determine and emulate what made those school successful in gaining membership if that is what was desired for UCONN. Pitt would be an interesting case study because it is comparable to UCONN in student body, academic reputation, & caliber of football team -in last decade. If such a plan exists, then the issue may be with the execution, 10 years is a long time.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Not to answer for Broadway but assume the latter. To amplify, why are these UCONN "attributes" insufficient to have UCONN in a P5 conference already?

Thanks for the support! The question was not sarcastic--I hope it is not a trait of mine at times I try to be facetious --it was one I know a tiny bit of the answer and one in which those who want Uconn in the Big 12 to answer for themselves and come to reality of exactly what the B12 would see as a reason for or against UConn.
After that exercise maybe AAC or BE or another lessor conference may be the only choice. With any choice the State of Conn, Uconn, even Yale shall not disolve into dust. But I'm one who liked the Yankee Conference.
Again Coco--thanks.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Quite honestly what I think you lack is an objective assessment of UCONN and a credible plan. It has been more than a decade since BC left the BE and joined the ACC-2005. In the decade + there have been 4 former BE schools that have joined the ACC (Syracuse, Pitt, ND, & Louisville). An objective assessment of UCONN would compel the UCONN administration to determine and emulate what made those school successful in gaining membership if that is what was desired for UCONN. Pitt would be an interesting case study because it is comparable to UCONN in student body, academic reputation, & caliber of football team -in last decade. If such a plan exists, then the issue may be with the execution, 10 years is a long time.

Coco--Kind of what I was seeking in my questions.
One step further--it's easy way too easy for Fans to say --if we don't do this-we are done---the hard part is doing the plan and effort (financial, physical) to make a valid presentation to B12 for consideration.
What would YOUR plan be and what, if you were the UC pres/Ad need to address and where would the funds come from to allow the B12 to know you are capable of completing your plan??

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”
Groucho Marx.
Politics is a constant competitive process and what dislike most about this UCONN situation is the assertion that the right outcome was not achieve because of "politics". i.e, UCONN is not in a P5 conference because of politics-Nonsense IMO. The reality is that playing winning politics is just as important to getting into a P5 as is playing winning football. Commit to do both.

Where is Groucho when we need him. And from a guy known for outrageous comedy not intelligence.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

For the same reason that Non-SEC teams like ND, Stanford still schedule Tennessee after Pat Summitt (RIP) is no longer the coach.

Its a process, their recruiting began suffering last year. They will at least have a strong conference to recruit in.
Jim Calhoun recruited playing in the conference. That is gone.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Yep. It would be a mistake to fold 'em.

Knowing when to hold em or when to fold them has to do with reality and how much more TAXPAYER dollars will be needed.Having seen taxpayer dollars wasted for no good end--the bottomless well of tax money REALLY does have a bottom The state of CT is now reaping the rewards of nice programs to have and useless programs to have . The leadership is doing the fiscal thing and is about to be run out of Dodge to boot hill.

 

[HoopsFan21]

Knowing when to hold em or when to fold them has to do with reality and how much more TAXPAYER dollars will be needed.Having seen taxpayer dollars wasted for no good end--the bottomless well of tax money REALLY does have a bottom The state of CT is now reaping the rewards of nice programs to have and useless programs to have . The leadership is doing the fiscal thing and is about to be run out of Dodge to boot hill.

The top 10 or 20 highest paid state employees should be laid off immediately. That's one way to save taxpayer dollars instead of cutting folks making $40k/year that are just getting by.

 

[uconnell]

Coco--Kind of what I was seeking in my questions.
One step further--it's easy way too easy for Fans to say --if we don't do this-we are done---the hard part is doing the plan and effort (financial, physical) to make a valid presentation to B12 for consideration.
What would YOUR plan be and what, if you were the UC pres/Ad need to address and where would the funds come from to allow the B12 to know you are capable of completing your plan??


Where is Groucho when we need him. And from a guy known for outrageous comedy not intelligence.

The top 10 or 20 highest paid state employees should be laid off immediately. That's one way to save taxpayer dollars instead of cutting folks making $40k/year that are just getting by.

UConn coaches are among the top 10 highest paid state employees.

 

[HoopsFan21]

Come on guys, if UConn needs to put together a presentation to sell itself, then we're in trouble. I know in this Trumpian age facts yield to social media, but look at what I laid out above. There is nothing embellished because UConn's success story doesn't need embellishment. UConn is a great school that's on the rise academically with a fantastic athletic pedigree in a great TV market with plenty of fan support even at Gampel South a.k.a. MSG. It's kind of sad that despite winning 15 basketball titles in 21 years we still can't get any of the TV talking heads to call us one of the basketball blue bloods.

 

[HoopsFan21]

UConn coaches are among the top 10 highest paid state employees.

You don't say...