UConn to Big XII Imminent?

[John]

The Big 12 could add us for hoops, and never add us for football. If that happens, you could roll up the big time athletics carpet for UConn.

because we'd be in the best basketball conference and earning a boatload more money?

 

[Ucxc24]

The presidents met yesterday per CBS. No consensus, no vote taken, same old same old. Not happening.

There wasn’t suppose to be anywhere close to a vote yesterday. Presidents weren’t even in the loop before that meeting. Negotiations are happening, wheels are getting greased and they will see if that gets them over the finish line. If not, there won’t be a vote. But if you think this is already over thats not correct

 

[Kolumbo]

Or, rather than jump on the B12 offer to maybe join in 2031 if they still like us and they are still around, we cool our jets because a big change is about to happen and some of the P4 may decide this big-time athletics thing is not for them.

I do not like the 2031 for football scenario. UConn deserves better than that and 7 years can bring a lifetime of change in the landscape. Of course we would prefer immediate membership at perhaps a reduced share. If they do go that route, UConn better have a hedge in place to protect itself, such as being able to move if some other opportunity comes along or moving up the timeline if UConn makes commitments. It would be tough to lock in having no idea what changes are coming.

The big risk we would hopefully be mitigating by going this route is being eliminated should the P# break off completely, however unlikely that scenario is.

The bright side, if UConn gets shafted again, is that we still have Hurley in the Big East.

 

[UConn Dan]

You are contradicting yourself here and need to read up on this stuff

If each team is taking a cut how can it be neutral? And ESPN is making sure they don't take a cut.

Read the post you are responding to.

I don’t need to read up on anything. I have a PHD in realignment after the last 15 years and counting.

It sounds like you need some lessons in reading comprehension and math.

Here’s a basic example:
ESPN -
16 teams at $10mil per
17 teams at $10.6 mil per (giving UConn pro rata for basketball content plus a marginal bump to sweeten the deal)

Fox -
16 teams at $10mil per
17 teams at $9.4mil per

Net net - budget neutral. If Fox kicked in at least pro rata for basketball, it would be a net positive and more palatable.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

because we'd be in the best basketball conference and earning a boatload more money?

We get to just make up the rest of the deal now? How do you define “boatload”? Got a link for that?

 

[ctchamps]

No votes may be the university’s preference to not accept UConn because of our geographical location or because of our football program.

On the other hand the universities may be using this as an excuse in attempting to put pressure on the media companies for more monies and waiting to see if they cave in.

ESPN is on record (at least in the ether world) with wanting UConn in the B12. Fox doesn’t for obvious reasons. So ESPN is going to make up the difference. But that will come with some conditions that they, and not Fox, get the majority of broadcasting rights for UConn’s mens and women’s bb games. We will see if Fox will allow that to happen. I doubt it because Fox knows they used the BE to lowball our value.

All these parties, UConn, the Big12 universities individually, the conference (BY), ESPN, Fox, and even Endeavor, have common and separate monetary agendas and are playing each other for an advantage. I expect UConn to get an invite because there is too much money to lose, but the various entities have to fight for their specific agendas. Hopefully that won’t take long.

 

[John]

We get to just make up the rest of the deal now? How do you define “boatload”? Got a link for that?

guess we'll have to wait and see but I'm hearing 15m. Let's not forget a seat at the table for a potential basketball breakaway.

 

[How Sway?!]

I don’t need to read up on anything. I have a PHD in realignment after the last 15 years and counting.

It sounds like you need some lessons in reading comprehension and math.

Here’s a basic example:
ESPN -
16 teams at $10mil per
17 teams at $10.6 mil per (giving UConn pro rata for basketball content plus a marginal bump to sweeten the deal)

Fox -
16 teams at $10mil per
17 teams at $9.4mil per

Net net - budget neutral. If Fox kicked in at least pro rata for basketball, it would be a net positive and more palatable.

Espn is not giving the B12 a bump because of us. They are simply prorating the deal. That means everyone elses cut stays the same. Us joining would not affect the per school payout until the renewal in 2031

 

[king conn]

I don’t need to read up on anything. I have a PHD in realignment after the last 15 years and counting.

It sounds like you need some lessons in reading comprehension and math.

Here’s a basic example:
ESPN -
16 teams at $10mil per
17 teams at $10.6 mil per (giving UConn pro rata for basketball content plus a marginal bump to sweeten the deal)

Fox -
16 teams at $10mil per
17 teams at $9.4mil per

Net net - budget neutral. If Fox kicked in at least pro rata for basketball, it would be a net positive and more palatable.

Bad enough you won't take the L, but then you have to post fake numbers that have no meaning whatsoever and say I need lessons? The lengths you are going to are just making you look like an idiot

You have no idea what the numbers are and it doesn't matter, if ESPN says it is making it neutral to the other schools- that's what it is! They are making up the difference!

Now I see you might be seeking to move the goalpost at the end, another outstanding effort. Nobody has talked about making everyone positive from the beginning. Fox has no incentive to, they have UConn at a cheap price already. Why would they just to appease us?

But, the post of yours I answered was you saying Fox was blocking us and nothing more, so this would be a feeble attempt of a goalpost shift.

 

[ec33]

The rights are shared. ESPN is adding money to the pot to get us to the Big 12, meaning each team will get an additional piece; Fox is not adding money with our addition, meaning each team will have to take a cut. The net is budget neutral. If Fox adds a little bit, it would be net gain for everyone. Capisce?

My understanding of the rumors from journalists is that the addition of UConn -- for the duration of this contract -- has no bearing on the broadcasting payments other schools will receive (outside of tournament shares and I would suspect they would want to block UConn from receiving football playoff money).

Fox Sports already has UConn, so I am assuming they either are only going to pay UConn what they are currently receiving or a prorated amount depending on their share of UConn rights. ESPN is going to come with a figure for partial rights to UConn that will go to UConn (perhaps with the Big 12 offices as intermediary but functionally it is ESPN paying for UConn).

So Fox isn't blocking anything, just no offering more for less of the same product. And why would they?

 

[ctchamps]

guess we'll have to wait and see but I'm hearing 15m. Let's not forget a seat at the table for a potential basketball breakaway.

Plus a seat in the Big12 when the ACC implodes with input on which teams would be advantageous for an eastern division.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Plus a seat in the Big12 when the ACC implodes with input on which teams would be advantageous for an eastern division.

We won’t have a seat in the Big 12. We will have the option of applying to join in football in 5 years, and if the Big 12 says “no”, they still get our hoops program.

 

[John]

We won’t have a seat in the Big 12. We will have the option of applying to join in football in 5 years, and if the Big 12 says “no”, they still get our hoops program.

you know who's definitely saying no to our football program? The Big East. And we're getting paid less for that privilege than we'd get from the Big 12 which is a better basketball conference

 

[HuskyHawk]

I’m pretty indifferent to changing conferences in general. But those teams would be the closest games to travel too in the Big 12.

Every team except 3 are two time zones away. The competitive disadvantage that we’ll be putting ourselves at would be interesting if we do end up joining.

Eight schools in the Big XII are in the central time zone. Three, Cinci, WVU and UCF are east. Five, Arizona, ASU, Utah, BYU and Colorado are mountain. So only those 5 are two time zones away.

 

[Smp7598]

We won’t have a seat in the Big 12. We will have the option of applying to join in football in 5 years, and if the Big 12 says “no”, they still get our hoops program.

Do you think the people running UConn is that stupid? Get out of here!

 

[Deleted at users request]

Eight schools in the Big XII are in the central time zone. Three, Cinci, WVU and UCF are east. Five, Arizona, ASU, Utah, BYU and Colorado are mountain. So only those 5 are two time zones away.

I swore that Texas was two but I was mistaken.

Regardless that’s A LOT of extra travel time compared to what we do now is the main point. The closest teams to us would be some of the furthest in the current Big East.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Don’t kid yourself. Unless we win 45-0 not one game is going to change the public opinion of UConn football.

Lol…..the opinion of 12 AD’s out in the Midwest is NOT public opinion.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

So much hot air. You know what we actually know? That UConn and the XII are seriously talking. Beyond that, we have a bunch of internet posts where we don't know what any of the sources are, and traditional media then talking about unsourced and unreliable internet posts.

We will know something when we know something.

Yes lots of hot air, so what’s holding you down?

 

[UConn Dan]

My understanding of the rumors from journalists is that the addition of UConn -- for the duration of this contract -- has no bearing on the broadcasting payments other schools will receive (outside of tournament shares and I would suspect they would want to block UConn from receiving football playoff money).

Fox Sports already has UConn, so I am assuming they either are only going to pay UConn what they are currently receiving or a prorated amount depending on their share of UConn rights. ESPN is going to come with a figure for partial rights to UConn that will go to UConn (perhaps with the Big 12 offices as intermediary but functionally it is ESPN paying for UConn).

So Fox isn't blocking anything, just no offering more for less of the same product. And why would they?

Of course Fox doesn't want to offer more for the same product, that's why I'm jokingly saying they are c*** blocking us.

But we should push Fox to add some money to the Big 12 pie because alternatively the ACC could wake up and offer us, and then Fox would lose UCONN men's and women's basketball since the ACC is with ESPN only. So why not entice Fox to pay a premium to keep us on their network. Make sense now?

 

[uconnyankee]

This post is correct, but I made one small fix.

Very curious…. If someone were to rank all of the realignment movements, what school was the biggest egg, and which school was biggest surprise (best ROI).

Off the cuff is it BC, Pitt, or Syr in ACC? They have become complete deadweights. Especially BC.

On the plus side, TCU maybe? Or Utah in Pac 12? Both seemed to step up.

I’m only going back to ACC raid of BigEast. Obviously conferences have been moving around for decades.

 

[UConn Dan]

Espn is not giving the B12 a bump because of us. They are simply prorating the deal. That means everyone elses cut stays the same. Us joining would not affect the per school payout until the renewal in 2031

That's not true, it's been reported that ESPN would bump up the payout not only pro rata but also to account for UConn's basketball added value. The fact that Fox won't even pro rata the add, makes it budget neutral -- which has been reported. Look at my math example above.

This shouldn't be that hard -- if ESPN didn't move the pot up beyond that of a pro rata increase, and with Fox not adding anything, it would be NET NEGATIVE overall. ESPN indeed did put forth more money than pro rata.

 

[Umac11]

There wasn’t suppose to be anywhere close to a vote yesterday. Presidents weren’t even in the loop before that meeting. Negotiations are happening, wheels are getting greased and they will see if that gets them over the finish line. If not, there won’t be a vote. But if you think this is already over thats not correct

Does anyone have a decent timeline of SMU Calford to the ACC? I feel like that was originally met with a lot of objection.

Curious what events transpired to get that across the line and how long that took.

 

[bendm]

We won’t have a seat in the Big 12. We will have the option of applying to join in football in 5 years, and if the Big 12 says “no”, they still get our hoops program.

you are the one making things up. i havent seen a potential invite characterized like this by anyone.

by all accounts it would be olympic sports as early as 2026 upon which we would get ~15 mill/year. then full members by 2031 pending some financial milestones.

it's pure speculation to say the deal would allow the conference to keep moving the goal posts in order to keep our football program in limbo forever.

 

[ctchamps]

We won’t have a seat in the Big 12. We will have the option of applying to join in football in 5 years, and if the Big 12 says “no”, they still get our hoops program.

It’s to the B12’s advantage to help UConn be successful in sports. Adding Cincinnati will help West Virginia. Pittsburgh will improve regional rivalry more so.

UCF will benefit from whatever ACC schools in the southeast are available that they, the conference as a whole, the media entities and Endeavor decide is beneficial.

I expect UConn will have similar input for northeast teams that follow.

 

[ctchamps]

I swore that Texas was two but I was mistaken.

Regardless that’s A LOT of extra travel time compared to what we do now is the main point. The closest teams to us would be some of the furthest in the current Big East.

We can remedy that easily by refusing to attend tournaments like Phil Knight and Maui.

I don’t disagree that travel is a negative. But hopefully this is short term. It seems the media wants to contract the college sports landscape at the highest level so four contracts are better than five (bye bye PAC), three will be better than four (bye bye ACC).

The question is will they push it down to two contracts or stay at three? I believe three is easier to manipulate than two plus the BIG does not trust the SEC so they’ll want a partner. Additionally Yormark’s plan for a superior bb conference will keep the B12 viable long term.

With this scenario it will benefit the B12 conference to add teams from the ACC that are geographically better for UConn and negate this negative travel situation.

 

[Kolumbo]

Not sure if the Big XII HQ is in the new digs yet, but we got any boots on the ground in Texas? We've gotta have someone down there with some inside info.

 

[UConnJim]

Our football budget rivals many P4s. Coaching salaries are admittedly below average but if Mora gets it done the way Edsall did in his first go-round then he'll deserve to be paid as highly as other B12 coaches.

UConn's football budget is well below P4 budgets and below a number of G5 budgets.

I wrote this on the-boneyard 11 months ago:


In 2011, UConn paid Paul Pasqualoni $1.5 million per year and the assistant coaching pool ~$1.7 million. Fast forward to 2022 (latest USA Today data) and UConn is paying the head coach $1.5 million and the assistant coaches ~$1.8 million. So in 11 years, the football coaching salaries are flat and down in real terms after adjusting for inflation. Does that show a commitment to winning football?

Compare the above numbers with Cincinnati. In 2011, they paid the head coach ~$1.1 million with a $1.5 million assistant pool. In 2022, they were paying the head coach $5 million (before he left for Wisconsin) with an assistant pool of $3.3 million. Doesn't that show more commitment to football than UConn?

What schools look similar to UConn when it comes to spending money on football coaching salaries? Wyoming, UNLV, Utah St. What G5 schools are spending more? UTSA, Boise St., San Jose St., ECU, USF, San Diego St., Memphis. Are these the schools that we trying to be peers with in athletics?

I don't know how we do it, but we need to find a way to increase spending on football. We have to look at football spending as an investment with a potential return, not as an expense. I think we need to increase the total football salary pool by ~$2 million per year. Give Mora the money to get and keep top assistant coaches.

 

[UConnJim]

I’m pretty indifferent to changing conferences in general. But those teams would be the closest games to travel too in the Big 12.

Every team except 3 are two time zones away. The competitive disadvantage that we’ll be putting ourselves at would be interesting if we do end up joining.

The Big 12 is looking at UConn as the 17th school which probably means there will be additional schools added in the future. And, where would those schools come from? The ACC. The Big 12 could add schools like Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, Miami, Virginia Tech.

 

[noeynox]

UConn's football budget is well below P4 budgets and below a number of G5 budgets.

I wrote this on the-boneyard 11 months ago:


In 2011, UConn paid Paul Pasqualoni $1.5 million per year and the assistant coaching pool ~$1.7 million. Fast forward to 2022 (latest USA Today data) and UConn is paying the head coach $1.5 million and the assistant coaches ~$1.8 million. So in 11 years, the football coaching salaries are flat and down in real terms after adjusting for inflation. Does that show a commitment to winning football?

Compare the above numbers with Cincinnati. In 2011, they paid the head coach ~$1.1 million with a $1.5 million assistant pool. In 2022, they were paying the head coach $5 million (before he left for Wisconsin) with an assistant pool of $3.3 million. Doesn't that show more commitment to football than UConn?

What schools look similar to UConn when it comes to spending money on football coaching salaries? Wyoming, UNLV, Utah St. What G5 schools are spending more? UTSA, Boise St., San Jose St., ECU, USF, San Diego St., Memphis. Are these the schools that we trying to be peers with in athletics?

I don't know how we do it, but we need to find a way to increase spending on football. We have to look at football spending as an investment with a potential return, not as an expense. I think we need to increase the total football salary pool by ~$2 million per year. Give Mora the money to get and keep top assistant coaches.

Good post. One the basketball 1st people hate because they view any additional resources allocated to football as taking away from basketball.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

The next step in ACC Expansion is grabbing another basketball blue blood The next step in ACC Expansion? Grab another basketball blue blood