UCONN to new Big East

[Boreifs]

Last year, if UConn was in the Big East, that conference would have been fifth in the Massey power ratings, ahead of the SEC.

 

[Rocket009]

That may be. So what does the state do with a 90 million dollar stadium the taxpayers bought?

Use it for UCONN men's and women soccer and UCONN field hockey - give those teams a chance to play in front of thousands - they are certainly good enough. And the stadium is already built, so complaining about it seems a little late in the game. What do you propose to do with it?- keep waiting for an invitation to a P5 conference?

 

[Plebe]

I strongly recommend people read the following post from the MBB board, which gives a thorough rundown of the financials behind this move, for both the BE and UConn:

Report: UConn Going To Big East For 2020-2021 Season

The AAC is going to get poached in the next round of expansion. We will certainly lose UCF and USF and probably Houston, Memphis or Cincinnati. There is no future for us in the AAC. Let's move on before the AAC ship sinks. The thing people don’t understand is that they’re not going to get...

the-boneyard.com

 

[UConnNick]

Use it for UCONN men's and women soccer and UCONN field hockey - give those teams a chance to play in front of thousands - they are certainly good enough. And the stadium is already built, so complaining about it seems a little late in the game. What do you propose to do with it?- keep waiting for an invitation to a P5 conference?

Do you realize what kind of crowds we draw for FH? I attended a game a few years back. Beautiful, mid-Sept. day and there were maybe 100 there, and that's generous. We were playing Temple.

Soccer draws more, but if things continue the same way, the state charges us rent to play there. We're not going to regularly play any games there if we're losing money each time.

 

[zls44]

Soccer draws more, but if things continue the same way, the state charges us rent to play there. We're not going to regularly play any games there if we're losing money each time.

There's the small matter of the new $8m stadium they're building, too

 

[Vowelguy]

. The fact is schools have proven they can do well in sports outside a P5, with the exception of football.

You do realize that many p5 schools are now getting 50+M in revenue?

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

Did you skip over Plebe's comparison chart (easy to do once these threads get long). There is a huge difference between the two in WBB: Mean Massey for AAC = 143; Mean NBE = 71. Huge! And UConn would in turn being pulling up the NBE even higher, rather than its Herculean effort of pulling up the AAC.

On edit: I don't know if this would be much of a factor or not, we do fairly well with OOC scheduling already, but it's got to be more appealing to a good OOC school scheduling and losing to us with what our rating will be in the NBE over the AAC.

No, I missed it. I'll go back and look. Other than Marquette, I couldn't think of another good WBB program in the BE.

 

[Wbbfan1]

Will UConn owe the AAC any dollars with this Pullout?

 

[diggerfoot]

You do realize that many p5 schools are now getting 50+M in revenue?

?? I have to guess at what you think is the relevance of that in response to my comment. First, I think you are one of the posters that brings the most to the Boneyard; you really enhance the place. I'm not sure why we often are at odds. Perhaps I subconsciously feel you are a little quick with the contrarian trigger? Maybe I should check myself.

But for now ... ... The sentence you responded to was about competition, not revenue. Many football folks think a move to the NBE hurts all sports competitively, because it hurts football competitively. That's not true. Only football is severely handicapped by not being in a P5 conference. Also, not even the football folks want to stay in the AAC, they just think it is a better stepping stone to a P5. In our current situation that is no more certain or knowable than a move to the NBE, but I understand them thinking that way.

Any regional conference will have less expense than the AAC. I've stated twice I prefer the ACC to the NBE so, once again, I'm not sure what drives your revenue statement. I can only imagine that you side with the football folks that staying in the AAC gives us a high probability of landing in a P5 while going to the NBE gives us a low probability. Maybe that's true, I don't see the probabilities as differing that much but, in either case, it's not something of which fans can know.

 

[ThetaZoo]

Some website called Digital Sports Desk is reporting that we will be moving to the new Big East for basketball prior to the 2020-21 season. Many of us have never heard of this site, and there is already considerable discussion about it on the men's board, some of which is making it look plausible.

The NBE commissioner Val Ackerman has been asked about this in the past and said we would have to decide what we're going to do with football before they'd consider this. That means dropping it or likely downgrading to FBS. Either of those moves would kill whatever remote chance we'd have of ever joining a P5 league. Long term that would be the death of the UCONN AD as a whole. Staying in the AAC, although a negative for women's BB, is still our best option currently, money, media exposure and competition wise. I don't think the new Big East solves any of our women's BB competition problems, although other than DePaul and Marquette, I'll admit I don't know much about any of the other schools in NBE women's BB.

What killed our chance with the ACC was BC, Pitt, Syracuse and ESPN and our success in bball and football (leading up to the Fiesta Bowl). College athletics and college academics as we all know now is not a meritocracy.

 

[veryolddog]

Based on what has been presented the move to the New Big East would be both a prudent business decision for UConn and for the other sports programs of the University. I graduated from UConn in 1964, and attended some football games. UConn was a perrenial loser in their old league, the Yankee Conference and they have been consistently a loser ever since. People tout the season when they went to the Fiesta Ball but they lost to Oklahoma by such a wide margin, that by the end of the game, Oklahoma was playing with the third string. Football is not going to happen at UConn and as one poster said the hope to get into a P5 conference is only a hope. UConn means basketball. Thanks to Jim Calhoun and Geno A., UConn is on the map as the basketball Capital of the USA. If the Governor, the people and the UConn Board of Directors accept this and support this 150 per cent, its future in competitive basketball will be assured.

 

[huskeynut]

First, and people are not going to like this one bit, all of the carping on the Boneyard is not going to change the decision.

Next, I believe the new AAC contract with ESPN was the straw that broke the camel's back. Shutting down the SNY contract and then moving all Uconn games, football, a both basketball teams, to pay to view streaming was too much. ESPN has never been a friend or supportor of UConn athletics.

Outside of a few seasons under Edsel in his first round as head coach, UConn football has been nothing to brag about. Hathaway and the Rock Star did nothing to improve it. Pasqualoni was a disaster as was Diaco. Now 2 years with Edsel and we have 8 consecutive loosing seasons.

Is this move going to work out in the long run, who knows. At least UConn is being proactive and doing what it feels is in its best interests. The state is in massive debt and the athletic program is running in the red. Something had to be done. Now if we can keep the damn politicians out of this move we might survive.

Finally, UConn is not going to get a P5 bid. You can thank BC, Pitt, Miami, Syracuse and partially ND for that.

Just my opinion.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Column from Mike Anthony this morning I can get behind.

"The fuse on the this-is-who-we-are moment had been burning for a long time in advance of Saturday's flash-bang news that shook up the national college basketball picture and set a university's top athletic pursuits back on course.

UConn was built on basketball and it had become time for the university to protect at all costs its prized assets, the programs run by Dan Hurley and Geno Auriemma. It is with that priority firmly established in the past handful of months that led UConn out of the American Athletic Conference and into the Big East, a move that is expected to be formalized and announced in the coming days.

It’s not often that one can relive part of the past while creating opportunity and potential for the future but that’s where UConn is today, walking back into the right neighborhood with a realistic view on what makes present-day sense. "

Mike Anthony: UConn’s move back to the Big East strengthens a brand that is about national championship caliber basketball

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Jeff Jacobs tour de force too.

Jeff Jacobs: Move to Big East could be right call, but questions remain

 

[eebmg]

Jeff Jacobs tour de force too.

Jeff Jacobs: Move to Big East could be right call, but questions remain

Best part

The Big East has a deal with Fox Sports. If UConn football goes independent, annually lines up a bunch of big-money games against Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas, etc., at the Meadowlands or Gillette and intersperses those with games at Rentschler against UMass, Villanova, etc., that can be portrayed as a proactive move. Throw in Fox’s potential willingness to allow UConn women’s basketball to be broadcast on SNY — a sore, sort point among the AAC, ESPN and UConn — and good mojo could follow.

 

[j66kicker]

Best part

The Big East has a deal with Fox Sports. If UConn football goes independent, annually lines up a bunch of big-money games against Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas, etc., at the Meadowlands or Gillette and intersperses those with games at Rentschler against UMass, Villanova, etc., that can be portrayed as a proactive move. Throw in Fox’s potential willingness to allow UConn women’s basketball to be broadcast on SNY — a sore, sort point among the AAC, ESPN and UConn — and good mojo could follow.

What makes Jacobs think “Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas, etc.” would schedule away games with UConn? The only “big money” aspect of those games is what those schools pay creampuffs to schedule home-only ass whoopings.

 

[DEpup]

No, I missed it. I'll go back and look. Other than Marquette, I couldn't think of another good WBB program in the BE.

Depaul?? And it isn't really about more really good programs, its about a group of good middle programs instead of all the terrible programs in AAC.

 

[Vowelguy]

The sentence you responded to was about competition, not revenue. .... Only football is severely handicapped by not being in P5.

Perhaps you can explain how a program stays competitive when others have so much money they can build gleaming new facilities every few years and pay coaches twice what you pay.

Perhaps the Gonzaga model can work long term. But don’t delude yourselves into believing it’s not without significant risk.

 

[Vowelguy]

Paige Bueckers family now gets multiple games within driving distance.

 

[DEpup]

Paige Bueckers family now gets multiple games within driving distance.

True. Marquette not far. Depaul a quick flight.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Here is a Register article that summarizes a lot of the info and predicts BE and UConn Bd approvals this week with a formal announcement on Thursday.

UConn appears to be heading back to the Big East for basketball, other sports

 

[Vowelguy]

True. Marquette not far. Depaul a quick flight.

Marq DeP Crei within 7 hr drives.

 

[TheFarmFan]

Perhaps you can explain how a program stays competitive when others have so much money they can build gleaming new facilities every few years and pay coaches twice what you pay.

Perhaps the Gonzaga model can work long term. But don’t delude yourselves into believing it’s not without significant risk.

Why do you assume this is going to be financially worse for UConn? The world you're describing is the status quo! What do you think a $40m annual deficit is if not a huge albatross on UConn's ability to stay competitive over the long term?

Pretty much everyone in the know seems to think the opposite. Insider said (on the MBB forum) that it is likely the Big East contract will be renegotiated for more per school than the AAC's new one is for. Travel costs for ALL teams will be substantially reduced. Attendance for home games will almost certainly improve for both MBB and WBB, not to mention other sports that have away teams within driving distances of Storrs. And if UConn does find a way to schedule games against the Alabama types of the world, those games can bring in big paydays.

And even if the alternative is that football can't secure a financially desirable new home, hasn't pretty much everyone concluded that UConn was never going to become a P5 football school, so pouring $8m of losses into football every season just isn't sustainable?

I guess I'm failing to see how this hurts UConn financially vis-a-vis the AAC. Vs. perhaps the ACC, yes. But Insider pretty much said point blank that there was never going to be a future for UConn in a P5 conference. Absent that, this move seems financially sound, even if it comes at the expense of football.

 

[tomcat]

No, I missed it. I'll go back and look. Other than Marquette, I couldn't think of another good WBB program in the BE.

I thought DePaul was supposed to be pretty good. Had a pretty fair coach, too.

 

[CL82]

I also think they're running scared, believing the overall competition in football and men's BB in the AAC is too much to ever overcome on a restricted AD budget.

Doubt it.