UConn to new Big East? What happens to Husky football?

[ZooCougar]

This is gross. Efff basketball and basketball fans. Enjoy playing in that crap XL Energy Center that is never full. I’m basically done with UConn when this happens.

 

[HuskyHawk]

98% of all fans know nothing about how "ESPN screwed us". They just know we gave up and walked away.

Have no idea what you’re talking about. We aren’t walking away or giving up. We are trying a different approach.

 

[huskysupporter]

This line of thinking makes no sense to me. He's already paid the price for that decision many times over, first at Maryland and then again when he returned to UConn. He clearly cares a great deal about the program and deserves our support whether we agreed with the decision to bring him back or not.

I wholeheartedly support him and have supported him in his comeback. I’m saying he deserves zero sympathy from people regarding the death of the program. He was a contributor.

 

[champs99and04]

Have no idea what you’re talking about. We aren’t walking away or giving up. We are trying a different approach.

Do you really believe that or is this just the PR spin? If this isn't giving up on football and the P5 dream, then I don't know what that would look like.

 

[champs99and04]

I wholeheartedly support him and have supported him in his comeback. I’m saying he deserves zero sympathy from people regarding the death of the program. He was a contributor.

I get what you mean, but I don't think blame and sympathy are mutually exclusive. I feel like he deserves a little bit of both whereas the administrators involved should get only the former.

 

[champs99and04]

Lol. So we're running a $40 million deficit, have to somehow find $10 million more to cough up, and then get partial payments of a lower revenue intake for 5-6 years?? I'm assuming we'll still be on the hook for paying for the Rent while being even more in the red for ticket sales in the low thousands and season ticket sales in the mid hundreds, if that.

So explain to me how this benefits anyone except the majority of fans who yearn for basketball in a conference that's missing the teams we loved to play and hate?

Did we really just make this move without thinking about where to put the football team and the financial ramifications just because the fans wanted it and we were butthurt from the SNY snub?

God our AD is a clown show

I would hope that this move was contingent on boosters funding the buyout. Otherwise, you can prepare for another spike in tuition costs.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Do you really believe that or is this just the PR spin? If this isn't giving up on football and the P5 dream, then I don't know what that would look like.

I don’t have enough information to know. I don't think any of us do. i advocated against this for the last few years. You can check my posts. But there is something odd here. UConn is in the news. Enthusiasm about the brand is up. Fox is about to pay a lot of extra money to the Big East to bring us in. As I mentioned above, BYU makes this work, and without other programs like ours. Believe in yourself, win games and fill the stands. That’s how you build a brand tha transcends your conference.

 

[OldGoldnBlue]

Yeah but ...

Fort Worth and then Orlando, TCU & UCF had far easier backyards of talent to harvest. Even Rutgers. Even there.

A fair observation - even with the 1-11 - is UConn needs to build far more carefully and with depth. One year and 7 studs ain’t happening to turn one or two wins into 6 or 7.

While I agree it does help to have fertile instate recruiting grounds it's absolutely possible to field competitive football programs without them. Look at WVU for example.

 

[Adios]

I wholeheartedly support him and have supported him in his comeback. I’m saying he deserves zero sympathy from people regarding the death of the program. He was a contributor.

It ain't over. Just might take longer now.

Ironically, as we know, had Randy not left (or taken the ND series), we'd be in the ACC.

 

[whaler11]

This is gross. Efff basketball and basketball fans. Enjoy playing in that crap XL Energy Center that is never full. I’m basically done with UConn when this happens.

the xcel energy center is in minnesota...

it’s just the XL Center.

 

[ZachCT12]

 

[ZooCougar]

the xcel energy center is in minnesota...

it’s just the XL Center.

Exactly. Who gives a crap.

 

[CL82]

We aren't a football school.

We have no idea what the payouts will be now in the Big East but we do know that we were locked into a horrific long term deal with ESPN, were going to be playing a lot of games behind a paywall, and the fact that aside from Cincinnati nobody in their right mind cared about any opponents.

Let's wait and see what happens with football. This is an absolutely huge move for hoops. And I say that having been a season holder for nearly a decade when I lived in the state and having went to 4 bowl games, so I'm certainly far from a hoops only fan.

The AAC wasn't sustainable and at least here, we have something to look forward to every winter/spring.

Don't doubt your fan cred in the least CBH. But the Big media deal is about 60% of the AAC deal and FS1 and FS2 aren't close to having games on ESPN and ESPN2. They are roughly equivalent to getting a game on ESPNU as someone else pointed out.

Agree with everything else you said though. Let's see what the deal actually is. If the Big East deal gets bumped up to the $$ of the current AAC deal, we can sell our T3 to SNY and Fox can help us schedule it's a definite win in my view despite the reduced visibility.

 

[CL82]

It ain't over. Just might take longer now.

Ironically, as we know, had Randy not left (or taken the ND series), we'd be in the ACC.

Don't know about either one, but I wonder about them both from time to time.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Don't doubt your fan cred in the least CBH. But the Big media deal is about 60% of the AAC deal and FS1 and FS2 aren't close to having games on ESPN and ESPN2. They are roughly equivalent to getting a game on ESPNU as someone else pointed out.

Agree with everything else you said though. Let's see what the deal actually is. If the Big East deal gets bumped up to the $$ of the current AAC deal, we can sell our T3 to SNY and Fox can help us schedule it's a definite win in my view despite the reduced visibility.

I wouldn't cite the TV deal as being an advantage to the AAC. The per year take home may be higher right now on paper but consider a few things. The AAC deal doesn't start until 2020, and it locks in the AAC until 2032. That's a hell of a long time.

I would imagine the Big East gets a bump by taking UConn and that doesn't include anything for football or possible women's basketball coverage on SNY. The Big East deal also ends in 2025 I believe.

So, again, there is a lot to unpack here. A lot of which we don't even know about. Hopefully our administration has an inkling but I have more faith in certain posters here than the clowns in charge in Storrs.

 

[CL82]

I wouldn't cite the TV deal as being an advantage to the AAC. The per year take home may be higher right now on paper but consider a few things. The AAC deal doesn't start until 2020, and it locks in the AAC until 2032. That's a hell of a long time.

I would imagine the Big East gets a bump by taking UConn and that doesn't include anything for football or possible women's basketball coverage on SNY. The Big East deal also ends in 2025 I believe.

So, again, there is a lot to unpack here. A lot of which we don't even know about. Hopefully our administration has an inkling but I have more faith in certain posters here than the clowns in charge in Storrs.

Agree with all of that. Also keep in mind that under the new AAC deal we'd be responsible for our own production costs so that $7.2M gross upside is significantly reduced.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Agree with all of that. Also keep in mind that under the new AAC deal we'd be responsible for our own production costs so that $7.2M gross upside is significantly reduced.

Good point. Also I think that payout figure included projected bowl revenue.

For those that haven't watched FS1 coverage of the Big East, I think you'll enjoy it. I've watched a handful of Seton Hall games as living in NJ I'm friends with some alums and it's nice to watch the coverage and the game be the story and not just a 2 hour advertisment for the next ACC game.

I'm ultimately going to try and enjoy first class regional hoops and for all we know football may not even be a thing come 30 years into the future given all the concussion stories in recent years.

 

[Redding Husky]

No, they know we said screw you. First decision that wasn’t made for us.

I hope you’re right. But in Texas and the rest of the country outside CT, we’re seen as quitters.

 

[Redding Husky]

Have no idea what you’re talking about. We aren’t walking away or giving up. We are trying a different approach.

The media says we’re giving up on football. That’s the version of events America is being told.

 

[huskymedic]

The media says we’re giving up on football. That’s the version of events America is being told.

Can you link what you're seeing - something beside the Wolken USA Today piece?

I haven't seen a mainstream media article (not some Memphis blogger) that directly says that (been a lot flying around so I could have missed it).

 

[Chia Pet]

This is gross. Efff basketball and basketball fans. Enjoy playing in that crap XL Energy Center that is never full. I’m basically done with UConn when this happens.

Later dude

 

[Redding Husky]

Can you link one article besides the Wolken USA Today piece?

I’ve seen some others that mention it or hint at it, but they don’t make it the centerpiece of the article.

If you look at the AAC forum, all posters interpret this as UConn giving up on football. Even if they’re generally ignorant, that’s how the country sees it.

 

[huskymedic]

I’ve seen some others that mention it or hint at it, but they don’t make it the centerpiece of the article.

If you look at the AAC forum, all posters interpret this as UConn giving up on football. Even if they’re generally ignorant, that’s how the country sees it.

So other AAC fan bases?

 

[Chia Pet]

I hope you’re right. But in Texas and the rest of the country outside CT, we’re seen as quitters.

That doesn’t seem to be the case in Colorado.

Let the rest of our soon to be ex-AAC friends think what they want. At least I’m sure we won’t be beggars like that Big 12 expansion fiasco ever again.

 

[Waquoit]

The media says we’re giving up on football. That’s the version of events America is being told.

What about the fact that we still have a football team?