Warde to CBSSports: 'Move on' from realignment | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Warde to CBSSports: 'Move on' from realignment

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The American... They couldn't come up with a better branding?
 
Why isn't UConn in another conference? Questions like that are marketing opportunity->


Why isn't UConn in another conference?

"Well that's certainly surprising, [insert name here.] UConn owns more MBB national championships than any other university that was affiliated with the conference. No other program can match our 3 NCs since 1999. In football we won our conference twice and went to BCS game despite playing at the BCS level for less than 10 years. Even in down year for us we still 5 players drafted to the NFL. A lot of programs who have been playing longer can't match that. The WBB team has an incredible 8 NCs and counting. We own two NC in soccer and two more in Field Hockey. We just won the Big East Conference in track, and our baseball team had a deep run in the post season last year. Of course you know that we are joining Hockey East and have just hired an outstanding young coach who we think will lead us into being very competitive there. I could go on but let's just say that things have never looked brighter for the our teams and our athletes.

Academically the university is shining as well. We are well established as the number one university in New England, and of course we have an incredible presence in NYC. Our state legislature is committed to investing in the school to continue its meteoric rise academically.

So to sum up, I guess I can't really say why UConn wasn't chosen in the most recent round of conference realignment, but what I can say is the University of Connecticut has long stood for excellence on the field and in the classroom. That's who we are. I have every confidence that will continue regardless of how conference realignment plays out."
(*Applause*)I find it amazing that a random guy on the Boneyard can come up with 200 times the answer that the schools athletic director. even if conference presidents know this, fans of the big 5 conference might not. For all we know, after learning the facts about Uconn maybe other schools fans will be impressed.(ex:UM)
 
Absolutely point on and then CBS would have unceremoniously edited it out ;) - doesn't fit their narrative.

There was obviously a narrative in place since the headline didn't jibe with what Manuel said.
 
Why isn't UConn in another conference? Questions like that are marketing opportunity->


Why isn't UConn in another conference?

"Well that's certainly surprising, [insert name here.] UConn owns more MBB national championships than any other university that was affiliated with the conference. No other program can match our 3 NCs since 1999. In football we won our conference twice and went to BCS game despite playing at the BCS level for less than 10 years. Even in down year for us we still 5 players drafted to the NFL. A lot of programs who have been playing longer can't match that. The WBB team has an incredible 8 NCs and counting. We own two NC in soccer and two more in Field Hockey. We just won the Big East Conference in track, and our baseball team had a deep run in the post season last year. Of course you know that we are joining Hockey East and have just hired an outstanding young coach who we think will lead us into being very competitive there. I could go on but let's just say that things have never looked brighter for the our teams and our athletes.

Academically the university is shining as well. We are well established as the number one university in New England, and of course we have an incredible presence in NYC. Our state legislature is committed to investing in the school to continue its meteoric rise academically.

So to sum up, I guess I can't really say why UConn wasn't chosen in the most recent round of conference realignment, but what I can say is the University of Connecticut has long stood for excellence on the field and in the classroom. That's who we are. I have every confidence that will continue regardless of how conference realignment plays out."

The University should seriously consider anonymously posting all press inquiries to the BY before responding. This place consistently provides better responses to the questions being asked of them.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2
 
That's why you script talking points and go over them with everyone who is likely to speak publically. You get a single consistent message from everyone, every time.
 
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Pretty solid comments. Clearly winning is a big priority this year.

Agreed. I don't have an issue with anything he said. He basically gave the Al Davis answer "just win baby". I suppose he could decline interviews like this, but does that help UConn more than being featured in this CBS piece? I don't think so.

Increasingly I think Warde is an angry man, that inside he is pissed and intends on beating the ever loving snot out of everyone at everything. The hockey hire was a damned good one. Weiss was a good move. The scheduling has been agressive in football and basketball. I think PP will need to win 7 to stay on. There will be pressure to win across the department.
 
Oh man Warde! And to think that I praised you in thr other thread for ignoring the FIRST article on CBS and now you go and do this.....man....

I must admit he can't run away from them all but I'd rather see us go the Cincy route of saying we're doing all we can because we don't wanna be in our current situation for long.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

That's on target. Now add a truly rising star coach for football, make the games exciting and maybe this stall pattern gets fixed.
 
That's why you script talking points and go over them with everyone who is likely to speak publically. You get a single consistent message from everyone, every time.

Agree completely.
 
(*Applause*)I find it amazing that a random guy on the Boneyard can come up with 200 times the answer that the schools athletic director. even if conference presidents know this, fans of the big 5 conference might not. For all we know, after learning the facts about Uconn maybe other schools fans will be impressed.(ex:UM)

It's actually significantly harder to give a well-articulated answer in the middle of an interview rather than a well-thought out talking point. Not sure if you've ever been interviewed, but unless you're a professional media-type, it can be difficult to do, honestly.
 
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*shrug*

No one wanted us. What's he gonna do? It is what it is. And believe me it's taken me a long time to accept where we are, and accept that it's not Warde's fault or Susan's fault, but it's done and we just gotta move forward now.
 
It's actually significantly harder to give a well-articulated answer in the middle of an interview rather than a well-thought out talking point. Not sure if you've ever been interviewed, but unless you're a professional media-type, it can be difficult to do, honestly.
Unless you are groomed to do it. Anyone who speaks on behalf of the university should be. For what it is worth, this skill ought to be right in the wheelhouse of any AD of a major university.
 
Why isn't UConn in another conference? Questions like that are a marketing opportunity->


Why isn't UConn in another conference?

"Well that's certainly surprising, [insert name here.] UConn owns more MBB national championships than any other university that was affiliated with the Big East. No other program can match our 3 NCs since 1999. In football we won our conference twice and went to BCS game despite playing at the BCS level for less than 10 years. Even in down year for us we still had 5 players drafted to the NFL. A lot of programs who have been playing longer can't match that. The WBB team has an incredible 8 NCs and counting. We own two NC in soccer and two more in Field Hockey. We just won the Big East Conference in track, and our baseball team had a deep run in the post season last year. Of course you know that we are joining Hockey East and have just hired an outstanding young coach who we think will lead us into being very competitive there. I could go on but let's just say that things have never looked brighter for the our teams and our athletes.

Academically the university is shining as well. We are well established as the number one university in New England, and of course we have an incredible presence in NYC. Our state legislature is committed to investing in the school to continue its meteoric rise academically.

So to sum up, I guess I can't really say why UConn wasn't chosen in the most recent round of conference realignment, but what I can say is the University of Connecticut has long stood for excellence on the field and in the classroom. That's who we are. I have every confidence that will continue regardless of how conference realignment plays out."

Best post on BY in many months. Nice work. Why is it so hard for some here to recognize when Warde speaks, our image actually suffers?

Please find a way to forward this to Susan's new PR person.
 
Unless you are groomed to do it. Anyone who speaks on behalf of the university should be. For what it is worth, this skill ought to be right in the wheelhouse of any AD of a major university.

Maybe. Have you watched many AD interviews? There are probably 10 or 20 who are great, and the rest?

I mean, did you ever hear Jeff Hathaway talk out loud?
 
Unless you are groomed to do it. Anyone who speaks on behalf of the university should be. For what it is worth, this skill ought to be right in the wheelhouse of any AD of a major university.
Exactly
 
Maybe. Have you watched many AD interviews? There are probably 10 or 20 who are great, and the rest?

I mean, did you ever hear Jeff Hathaway talk out loud?
If you want your organization to be the best, aim for the top ( or in this case the top 10 or 20) not the worst. UConn's AD really ought to have those communication skills. If he doesn't come that naturally, we ought to have him work with a pro until he does. In my experience, some people at born with these skills, but pretty much everyone can develop them.
 
.-.
If you want your organization to be the best, aim for the top ( or in this case the top 10 or 20) not the worst. UConn's AD really ought to have those communication skills. If he doesn't come that naturally, we ought to have him work with a pro until he does. In my experience, some people at born with these skills, but pretty much everyone can develop them.

He communicated just fine. He just didn't communicate the message you wanted him to. There's a difference between having the skill set and using it in a way that makes posters on the BY happy. Nobody who has ever held the job at UConn made BYers happy, so I'm not sure why this is a suprise.
 
Why isn't UConn in another conference? Questions like that are a marketing opportunity->


Why isn't UConn in another conference?

"Well that's certainly surprising, [insert name here.] UConn owns more MBB national championships than any other university that was affiliated with the Big East. No other program can match our 3 NCs since 1999. In football we won our conference twice and went to BCS game despite playing at the BCS level for less than 10 years. Even in down year for us we still had 5 players drafted to the NFL. A lot of programs who have been playing longer can't match that. The WBB team has an incredible 8 NCs and counting. We own two NC in soccer and two more in Field Hockey. We just won the Big East Conference in track, and our baseball team had a deep run in the post season last year. Of course you know that we are joining Hockey East and have just hired an outstanding young coach who we think will lead us into being very competitive there. I could go on but let's just say that things have never looked brighter for the our teams and our athletes.

Academically the university is shining as well. We are well established as the number one university in New England, and of course we have an incredible presence in NYC. Our state legislature is committed to investing in the school to continue its meteoric rise academically.

So to sum up, I guess I can't really say why UConn wasn't chosen in the most recent round of conference realignment, but what I can say is the University of Connecticut has long stood for excellence on the field and in the classroom. That's who we are. I have every confidence that will continue regardless of how conference realignment plays out."


Excellent post, but all of that doesn't speak to the reasons we were passed over. It wasn't because folks were ignorant of our athletic success, or even our academic climb. It's nice to recount our achievments but any AD who did that in an interview would get a lot of rolled eyes and interuptions by the interviewer. He'd be seen as gilding the lilly (To adorn unnecessarily something already beautiful.) Making our case involves answering questions about cable rates, viewership, SNY ratings, the economics of standard cable versus a sports tier, bundling opportunities and the number of incremental households UConn brings to the equation compared to the others. Those are more of the elements (there are others) that appeared lacking compared to Rutgers and Louisville, who, by the way, also happened to display more of an all-in commitment to football and the moxie in tough economic times to spend money on stadium expansion before ticket sales would have suggested.
If Warde can logically and accurately make the case on the "numbers" that we are superior in those cable market metrics to Rutgers or Louisville he should be seeking out the media and reaching as big an audience as he can. If, however, we don't yet measure up on those aspects, he should do exactly what he's doing- smiling, saying he's happy with our home (for now), and staying focused on getting us to the promised land.
 
Someone ought to tell Warde that if you put lipstick on a turd, you just have a turd with lipstick on it. But I suppose it is better than Connecticut's prom queen saying her favorite sport is lacrosse...and winingly winning winners...I think the University has fine leadership. Unfortunately they care not at all about athletics and the AD reflects that. I hate to say it, but I'm almost to the point of writing to Hathaway and saying "Come back, Jeff. All is forgiven." Then I think of Paul Pasqualoni...and say nah.
 
Excellent post, but all of that doesn't speak to the reasons we were passed over. It wasn't because folks were ignorant of our athletic success, or even our academic climb. It's nice to recount our achievments but any AD who did that in an interview would get a lot of rolled eyes and interuptions by the interviewer. He'd be seen as gilding the lilly (To adorn unnecessarily something already beautiful.) Making our case involves answering questions about cable rates, viewership, SNY ratings, the economics of standard cable versus a sports tier, bundling opportunities and the number of incremental households UConn brings to the equation compared to the others. Those are more of the elements (there are others) that appeared lacking compared to Rutgers and Louisville, who, by the way, also happened to display more of an all-in commitment to football and the moxie in tough economic times to spend money on stadium expansion before ticket sales would have suggested.
If Warde can logically and accurately make the case on the "numbers" that we are superior in those cable market metrics to Rutgers or Louisville he should be seeking out the media and reaching as big an audience as he can. If, however, we don't yet measure up on those aspects, he should do exactly what he's doing- smiling, saying he's happy with our home (for now), and staying focused on getting us to the promised land.

Fantastic points. These are the metrics that are going to ultimately matter. If those metrics aren't in your favor yet (and I know most of you hate hearing this, but those metrics definitely favored Rutgers for the Big Ten), then that's what needs to be worked on before a power conference invitation ever comes. It's not as if though the entire college sports world doesn't realize that UConn has had one of the best men's and women's basketball runs of any school in history. They certainly do realize that, but those aren't the metrics that necessarily matter in conference realignment.
 
Fantastic points. These are the metrics that are going to ultimately matter. If those metrics aren't in your favor yet (and I know most of you hate hearing this, but those metrics definitely favored Rutgers for the Big Ten), then that's what needs to be worked on before a power conference invitation ever comes. It's not as if though the entire college sports world doesn't realize that UConn has had one of the best men's and women's basketball runs of any school in history. They certainly do realize that, but those aren't the metrics that necessarily matter in conference realignment.
We are superior to Louisville by every metric. We're superior to Syracuse too, again by almost every metric. Almost comparable to Pittsburgh. Hartford/new haven is the 30th tv market. Louisville is 50th Syracuse 82. Pittsburgh is 24th. And that really understates UConn's position since Fairfield County is considered part of the New York market, but UConn draws well there. So while it might have been a factor for the Big, it clearly was not for the ACC.
 
We are superior to Louisville by every metric. We're superior to Syracuse too, again by almost every metric. Almost comparable to Pittsburgh. Hartford/new haven is the 30th tv market. Louisville is 50th Syracuse 82. Pittsburgh is 24th. And that really understates UConn's position since Fairfield County is considered part of the New York market, but UConn draws well there. So while it might have been a factor for the Big, it clearly was not for the ACC.

Football simply requires a flick of the switch. UConn beat Cuse and Pitt several times, taking fewer losses from those teams. At a certain point, UConn was drawing 35,000 in heavy rain for Murray St. and selling out the rest. In this period, Louisville was floundering under 4 years of Kragthorpe. Cuse was worse under Robinson, and Pitt really never did anything and drew flies for games. UConn needed to keep the momentum going. Instead, things got reversed, but when you think of the long term future, you have to question the wisdom of judging schools in such small windows. After all, on the day UConn beat a big bowl bound Louisville team last year, their stadium was half-filled, much to the dismay of Ville fans. That doesn't mean anything to me since clearly Ville has performed at a higher level in that sport than UConn has, despite the head to head .500 record.
 
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We are superior to Louisville by every metric. We're superior to Syracuse too, again by almost every metric. Almost comparable to Pittsburgh. Hartford/new haven is the 30th tv market. Louisville is 50th Syracuse 82. Pittsburgh is 24th. And that really understates UConn's position since Fairfield County is considered part of the New York market, but UConn draws well there. So while it might have been a factor for the Big, it clearly was not for the ACC.

Freescooter, I understand what you're saying, but if UConn was negligent in not hiring a sharp analytical consultant to make the case for our superiority on these Metrics arguments emphatically and convincingly--then shame on us. (I don't know the answer to that point) On the other hand, if those arguments were indeed made and somehow were deemed to be less impressive than we believe them to be, especially when combined with " other factors" then there is little we can complain about in being passed over.
Our metrics may prove to be more important, however, in future comparisons with Cincy if, for example, the BigXII ever comes looking for an entree into the Northeast and a travel partner for WVU. Of course, it would also help for us to win, fill our stadium, and create more of a national football buzz.
 
upstater and nostical
You guys make my point. Frank is simply worng when he says the metrics don't favor us. They did, but those metrics didn't matter. For all the nonsense that got spouted, they didn't really matter to the Big when they selected Nebraska, either. They were looking to shore up a football reputation that had taken a hit in recent years. Everything else was window dressing. As far as the ACC adding Pitt and Syracuse, the Louisville, the Syracuse deal has been "in the works" for a decade. Pitt was their partner depending on what you believe, and Louisville was the result of a very successful marketing campaign. None had to do with "metrics."
 
ESPN should have made it clear to the ACC that based on the dollars, UConn made the most sense. That way, it would have been evident to the ACC that they were all taking less money because of BCs obstinacy. They should have never moved on to Pitt in that meeting because of the obstruction. It should have been made clear that ESPN was willing to pay MORE for UConn than the others. And that by leaving Uconn behind, the others would be LOSING money. ESPN gets $60 million + in tax subsidies from the state. It could spare $12 million of that by passing it on to the ACC schools (and thereby locking that conference down tight!)

This is the major problem.

Uconn may have the metrics, but as we have all recognized, they have never blown out the competition (Ville and Pitt). Only ESPN could make the case that UConn was a slam dunk (and ESPN had the logic behind it to make the case, i.e. tier 3 rights, licenses and sponsorships). This is where the state and the school blew it.

Ville got in because of better football and support. Pitt got in because there was enough resistance to adding Uconn. The ONLY card that UConn had at the time was superior metrics and the advocate for UConn, in that case, should have been ESPN.

The fans here that think ESPN doesn't advocate are naive in the extreme. ESPN advocates in the way that the vast majority of Americans understand, and that is, THE BOTTOM LINE. ESPN advocates by rewarding the ACC with extra money every time it adds a new school, as though Pitt and Cuse are worth more to the ACC than the average ACC team. That's advocacy right there. The problem is, it's advocacy AGAINST UConn.
 
100 percent spot on Upstater. I've felt for a long time that UCONN's biggest sin in this was that its leaders were trying too hard to hold the,Big East together while every other football school was trying to get out like crabs in a barrel. Sorta serves em right.
 
100 percent spot on Upstater. I've felt for a long time that UCONN's biggest sin in this was that its leaders were trying too hard to hold the,Big East together while every other football school was trying to get out like crabs in a barrel. Sorta serves em right.
I disagree on this. Uconn was no different... Had any conference showed interest in Uconn, they would have gone as well. The flip side to this is that maybe Uconn leadership realized the only real option they had was to hold the BE together as long as they could because they could see the writing on the wall.

When Syr and Pitt left, Uconn made it pretty clear they wanted in to the ACC.

If you look at Herbst's actions of late, it's pretty clear she has an agenda. While the timing is later than most would like, she is clearly on a road to somewhere not named the AAC.
 
Not disagreeing Marty, but the people who would have made a difference were the ones in their respective positions prior to Herbst and Warde. They just walked in to shi+ storm as far as conference realignment and were behind the 8ball from the start.
 
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