UConn's commitment to Independence?

[Ha Who]

Is it Groundhog Day at the boneyard?

 

[LoyalFanCT]

I have little hope of getting into a major conference, but I will say that memories are extremely short in the sports world. If UConn has a few strong seasons in football, combined with men's basketball returning to elite status, UConn would be as attractive as anyone in potential realignments.

I have more hope than you for such a scenario. College sports is going to be topsy-turvy for a few years due to the pandemic. This could lead to opportunities. UConn has got to seize them.

 

[billybud]

Then they should be thrown out!

Along with GT who also don't play men's soccer.

 

[uconNYC]

I have more hope than you for such a scenario. College sports is going to be topsy-turvy for a few years due to the pandemic. This could lead to opportunities. UConn has got to seize them.

Give me a potential scenario. Would love to dream.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Neither does FSU.

We carry five more, larger teams than FSU in msoccer, mhockey, whockey, wlacrosse and wcrew. Geez.

 

[buddy]

Along with GT who also don't play men's soccer.

I agree. They voted against UConn as well.

 

[billybud]

We carry five more, larger teams than FSU in msoccer, mhockey, whockey, wlacrosse and wcrew. Geez.

add Men's Lacrosse to that list. It is a fast growing sport although much slower in the south.

There is still a regionality to sports...

Not having hockey teams is no biggee in the southland...but I would really like Men's Soccer (I think that they could field a team...the 2014 women won an NC)......and I'd love Lacrosse (M&W).

The SEC does not have Men's Soccer as a conference sport nor Men's or Women's Lacrosse.....nor Field Hockey...

 

[Duncan Idaho]

add Men's Lacrosse to that list. It is a fast growing sport although much slower in the south.

There is still a regionality to sports...

Not having hockey teams is no biggee in the southland...but I would really like Men's Soccer (I think that they could field a team...the 2014 women won an NC)......and I'd love Lacrosse (M&W).

The SEC does not have Men's Soccer as a conference sport nor Men's or Women's Lacrosse.....nor Field Hockey...

And field hockey! Dont know how long we can continue to do this. Alot of B12 schools have the the minimum teams to qualify for D1 or close to it.. Resources go to fewer programs that are fairly succesful.

 

[Milo65]

WVU and Cinncinati do not have the commitment to Olympic sports. Cinnci just dropped men's soccer and WVU doesn't have a team either. That won't fit well with the ACC.

If the ACC goes to 16 teams (assuming ND is #15), I'd say Cincy would be #1 choice unless West Va were to defect from the Big 12 which would be better for them. Both are strong in MBB but WVa is stronger in WBB & Olympic sports. I guess a third possibility might be UCF, but the other two help ND and Pitt and the ACC already has 2 Florida teams.

Nobody in the Big 10 or SEC are leaving, the conference given their TV contracts and both might even go after ACC/Big12 teams or ND if they try to get to 16 teams. The PAC12 is certainly willing to become the PAC16 as they almost had a deal with Texas/TT and Oklahoma/OSU the last realignment. If that happens the Big12 is dead and there will be 4 super conferences with 16 teams each.

UConn's football just has zero cache so the ACC for football is a pipe dream.

Conference realignment is about television dollars which can be accomplished by either opening up untapped markets and/or creating rivalries with teams that would attract viewers. Cincinnati doesn’t give you either. OSU owns Ohio and a Cinci/ACC has matchup doesn’t bring in viewers. WV possibly could bring in viewers as they have a long and storied football history, but the TV market is dismal, which is why they were left out of earlier ACC realignments. ACC already has Florida covered with FSU, so nothing is really gained by adding USF or UCF.

Television money is drying up. Athletic departments in G5 are looking to play regionally as travel is killing non revenue sports. UConn is actually ahead of the curve by going Indy, and parking all other sports in the BE. I wouldn’t be surprised if Navy gets out of the American. Their football program would gain more by going Indy as almost any program would love to schedule a service academy.

 

[Waquoit]

I wouldn't say UConn has a commitment to independence. What they had was a commitment to keep the FB program and the AAC from destroying the rest of the athletic department. And thank goodness for that! How much more screwed would we be if we still had that millstone tied around our necks? We were lucky to grab the last copter out of Saigon.

 

[Exit 4]

You all have put together some nice independent schedules. The only drawback I see is not being eligible for the NY6 access bowl. That's why I wondered about a football only spot in a G5 with a Northern wing.

UConn will only seek a new G5 conf for football if the next iteration of the national championship playoff officially closes the door to independents. Currently the door is virtually closed given what we saw with UCF (not really possible to play much better) in 2017 and 2018, but not officially closed.

And a new higher wall is about to surround the Nat Championship. Some of the football talent that used to disperse itself a little bit around the P5 non top 20 and the G5 could become more concentrated in the years ahead as the winning programs will have more motivated fan bases to fund the new licensing/marketing deals to attractive even more top kids. For many kids the shot at both P5 and some grease (3k?10k? 25k?) will be impossible to ignore. And I am not talking about the 4 and 5 star kids that will get far more money, especially if they have one breakout season as those kids were never in play for the G5.

One other thought, the entire NCAA and its partner at ESPN will really have a bad look if they deny independents with at least 7 wins to bowl games. I could see a new rule prohibiting schools from creating new FCS independents to avoid further dilution, but for those that at here today, their is more pain than gain from denying bowl access.

And look around the G5 closely, it has pretty much no access to good bowls. All few G5 vs P5 bowls that exist are typically the top 2 or 3 G5 vs the 6-8th P5 in a respective conference. The G5 has crap for bowls when you look closely. So, all that really matters about bowls is having one, because the quality of the G5 bowls is all garbage.

 

[Uconnalliance]

Wins=fans=money... repeat

 

[BlueMAB]

UConn will only seek a new G5 conf for football if the next iteration of the national championship playoff officially closes the door to independents. Currently the door is virtually closed given what we saw with UCF (not really possible to play much better) in 2017 and 2018, but not officially closed.

And a new higher wall is about to surround the Nat Championship. Some of the football talent that used to disperse itself a little bit around the P5 non top 20 and the G5 could become more concentrated in the years ahead as the winning programs will have more motivated fan bases to fund the new licensing/marketing deals to attractive even more top kids. For many kids the shot at both P5 and some grease (3k?10k? 25k?) will be impossible to ignore. And I am not talking about the 4 and 5 star kids that will get far more money, especially if they have one breakout season as those kids were never in play for the G5.

One other thought, the entire NCAA and its partner at ESPN will really have a bad look if they deny independents with at least 7 wins to bowl games. I could see a new rule prohibiting schools from creating new FCS independents to avoid further dilution, but for those that at here today, their is more pain than gain from denying bowl access.

And look around the G5 closely, it has pretty much no access to good bowls. All few G5 vs P5 bowls that exist are typically the top 2 or 3 G5 vs the 6-8th P5 in a respective conference. The G5 has crap for bowls when you look closely. So, all that really matters about bowls is having one, because the quality of the G5 bowls is all garbage.

I wonder if this is out-dated thinking. I mean no insult, but honestly I think UConn's priorities for football are trying to remain economically viable.

It's not realistic for UConn to plan moves around access to the national championship games. The one BCS bowl we made was the nail in the coffin for the BCS format.

Everything the P5 is doing (from my moderately informed perspective) is to limit access to everyone outside the P5.

On top of that, it seems like we lose money on bowl games due to the cost to travel etc. It would be interesting to see how much we really gain (economically, exposure, etc) from some random bowl game played in front of 20,000 people on a Tuesday night on ESPN News. As an independent with no bowl tie-ins, what can we really expect?

If joining UMass, Army, Marshall, and others makes sense economically then we should consider it. If we make more money from buy games like OSU and Clemson then that's what we'll continue to do, for better or worse. But I don't know why we'd bother setting a plan for the program that involves prioritizing access to a national championship.

 

[billybud]

I agree with WingU....

It usually won't be about going to a bowl for UConn. As an independent that has, of yet, no bowl tie in, a bowl would make it an unusual year.

But....Liberty got a two year tie in with the Cure Bowl as a stand in if the Sunbelt or AAC do not have enough eligible teams. And they played Ga. Southern in the Cure Bowl last year. Maybe UConn can negotiaite a bowl arrangement.

Liberty may have had ESPN's help since ESPN bought rights to all of the Flames home games.

 

[Exit 4]

I wonder if this is out-dated thinking. I mean no insult, but honestly I think UConn's priorities for football are trying to remain economically viable.

It's not realistic for UConn to plan moves around access to the national championship games. The one BCS bowl we made was the nail in the coffin for the BCS format.

Everything the P5 is doing (from my moderately informed perspective) is to limit access to everyone outside the P5.

On top of that, it seems like we lose money on bowl games due to the cost to travel etc. It would be interesting to see how much we really gain (economically, exposure, etc) from some random bowl game played in front of 20,000 people on a Tuesday night on ESPN News. As an independent with no bowl tie-ins, what can we really expect?

If joining UMass, Army, Marshall, and others makes sense economically then we should consider it. If we make more money from buy games like OSU and Clemson then that's what we'll continue to do, for better or worse. But I don't know why we'd bother setting a plan for the program that involves prioritizing access to a national championship.

I think you misunderstood me. All I am saying is that access to the National Championship game via whatever is decided in the new format is probably the next realistic pivot point for UConn football. If at that juncture it is decided Independents will not have access to the NY6 and final 4 (or final 8 if expanded), then at that point UConn might consider joining a G5 conference for football only. Emphasis on might and its probably the case none (the Conf USA) would have us. But until that moment, there is zero reason at all to consider joining an existing G5 for football only or helping to create a new G5 football only conference per the original poster.

As for bowls - the whisper word is that ESPN has told the administration we will have access to a couple of their bowls. I think the administration is waiting to put that out there when we are ready to talk about our football tv contract and perhaps the plan for the four unfilled games for 2021. All of this seems to be on hold until the bigger issue is decided - the status of the 2020 season.

 

[BlueMAB]

I think you misunderstood me. All I am saying is that access to the National Championship game via whatever is decided in the new format is probably the next realistic pivot point for UConn football. If at that juncture it is decided Independents will not have access to the NY6 and final 4 (or final 8 if expanded), then at that point UConn might consider joining a G5 conference for football only. Emphasis on might and its probably the case none (the Conf USA) would have us. But until that moment, there is zero reason at all to consider joining an existing G5 for football only or helping to create a new G5 football only conference per the original poster.

As for bowls - the whisper word is that ESPN has told the administration we will have access to their bowls. I think the administration is waiting to put that out there when we are ready to talk about our football tv contract and perhaps the plan for the four unfilled games for 2021. All of this seems to be on hold until the bigger issue is decided - the status of the 2020 season.

No I think I understood you.

You're using access to the national championship games as the pivot point.

I'm using economics. If it makes sense financially to forego access to something we'll never get access to anyway, then we should consider it. I don't think we can say there is "zero" reason without understanding the economic results of the different options.

I'm not saying it makes sense to do it, only that we shouldn't be using access to the national championship games as the basis for our decisions. It should be an economic decision. If that means we hang on as an independent because we can make more money, then great, let's do that.

 

[Exit 4]

I'm using economics. If it makes sense financially to forego access to something we'll never get access to anyway, then we should consider it. I don't think we can say there is "zero" reason without understanding the economic results of the different options.

Its a pivot point. The administration will have to make a decision at that point in time. Maybe it will be decided its not worth moving to a conf to maintain what is essentially is a faux opportunity. I'm not opining at this moment if that will make sense. It depends on too many factors I cannot see or guess about. Need to see what life is like as an independent first in terms of recruiting, attendance, tv/media, etc. Need to see what the options are (if any) when that day comes, should it come.

 

[BlueMAB]

Its a pivot point. The administration will have to make a decision at that point in time. Maybe it will be decided its not worth moving to a conf to maintain what is essentially is a faux opportunity. I'm not opining at this moment if that will make sense. It depends on too many factors I cannot see or guess about at this moment.

Yeah I see your point. I'm just saying that any long-term plan that improves the economic viability of the program should be considered a potential pivot point. We shouldn't wait to see what happens with bowl games, and playoff games etc. We should set our path on our terms if/when it makes sense financially.

 

[Fishy]

From this Marshall fans perspective, I'd love to be in a more regional Olympic sports league with teams like JMU, ODU, Delaware, Charlotte, App State, WKU etc.

But on the football side of the conference include UConn, UMass and Army as football only additions.

It's purely my opinion, but I think flagship U's and a military school add name recognition and credibility with the average Joe and TV networks for a better TV deal.

On the football side we'd have 3 state flagships, a military school, and 2 of the biggest G5 names in Marshall and App State.

In return UConn, UMass, and Army join a football league that could rival the AAC and MWC giving them access to the NY6 bowl. While keeping their Olympic sports where they want. (Big East, A10, Patriot)

From UConn’s perspective, it would likely be a non-starter.

There’d be no money incentive - easier scheduling would be the only draw, but you’d end up with a slate of games no one would really want to see. UConn already has phone numbers for Army and UMass.

I don’t think Army would be interested either. UMass, maybe?

But....I kinda like the league for the others.

 

[Exit 4]

We shouldn't wait to see what happens with bowl games, and playoff games etc.

Well we have clearly set our path and I dont think AD David Benedict is taking a wait and see on things we can control. We just don't control the BCS/playoff committee and they seem poised to remake the playoff format at some point.

 

[BlueMAB]

Well we have clearly set our path and I dont think AD David Benedict is taking a wait and see on things we can control. We just don't control the BCS/playoff committee and they seem poised to remake the playoff format at some point.

My point was that if a realistic offer like this comes along, and it makes financial sense, we should consider it, regardless of whether the playoff committee has made changes or not.

 

[Exit 4]

My point was that if a realistic offer like this comes along, and it makes financial sense, we should consider it, regardless of whether the playoff committee has made changes or not.

Hmmm, well okay. Hard to imagine what that could be...but if there was a proposal that materially improved our football finances - then yep- dont wait.