What’s your solution?

[whaler11]

I start with these assumptions:

1. The AAC won’t allow UConn to stay as FB only (doubt anyone disagrees)

2. Independence and/or FCS football is a non-starter.


I’ve been predicting for a few years that the drop football voices were going to get loud. They got loud faster than I expected. It’s pretty hard to argue against some of their logic. We have argued who to blame a million times so let’s ignore that this time.

If I’m running the show this is what I’m exploring:

1. Approach the MAC with UMass asking to be football only members (I know they kicked UMass out but that was because they were 13 and UMass wouldn’t add basketball)

2. If the MAC is in, approach the Big East on membership for everything they sponsor.

To me this is the best case scenario.

The Big East is 1.7 billion times more attractive as a basketball league to me and I think most of the fanbase.

Keeping football at the FBS level keeps UConn’s ACC powerball ticket alive. It looks bleak but Independent/FCS kills it.

The football fanbase couldn’t be smaller than it is now - the marginal difference to the MAC can’t make it much worse. 14k instead of 17k. How cares? Competing at the top of the any league no matter how mediocre might actually increase interest.

The biggest downside is the horrible schedule the MAC plays. Saturday games end in October.

Some will worry about the academics of the other schools. Candidly, I don’t give a damn. I don’t think it matters at all. Tulane is good, Memphis is not - guess who I’d rather watch play?

Anyway - anyone got a better idea?

I’m football first, but if we don’t get creative we are going to be tailgating with @Butch at the Yale Bowl or Arute.

Separately I’d tear the athletic department to the studs and start over. Marketing, ticketing, presentation. Separate thread for that. It’s like a Martin Luther hang 99 thesis on the charter oak rant.

 

[uconnbill]

Stay where they are. I know it isn't perfect but the other options are crap in all honesty.

 

[whaler11]

Stay where they are. I know it isn't perfect but the other options are crap in all honesty.

That might be the best answer but it is one that feels less possible each passing week.

 

[JMick]

stay in the AAC. cheat as much as possible in football. go full SMU/Ole Mi$$. hope we don't get caught before the next round of realignment. if we get caught and get the death penalty just drop football and beg to join the Big East

 

[uconnphil2016]

Joining the Big East in basketball wouldn't even be that exciting. This is not the old Big East...the only teams who I'd really care to play against are Villanova, Providence, and Georgetown. Even if Butler is a good basketball team, that doesn't make them an exciting opponent. I'd just stay put in the American--SMU, Cincy, Wichita State are all fine basketball programs...we can have a successful basketball program in this conference. The Big East is a fine basketball conference, but it's not the ACC or anything. I just don't see the allure...it's a shell of what it was before

 

[temery]

Address the least common denominator. The AAC isn’t to blame for the men’s basketball teams situation.

 

[uconnphil2016]

That might be the best answer but it is one that feels less possible each passing week.

Why does it feel less possible? Because random fans are saying they want the Big East back? The Big East doesn't exist anymore...the teams we cared about playing (i.e. Pitt and Cuse) are long gone. There's no benefit to joining the Big East in my mind

 

[whaler11]

Joining the Big East in basketball wouldn't even be that exciting. This is not the old Big East...the only teams who I'd really care to play against are Villanova, Providence, and Georgetown. Even if Butler is a good basketball team, that doesn't make them an exciting opponent. I'd just stay put in the American--SMU, Cincy, Wichita State are all fine basketball programs...we can have a successful basketball program in this conference. The Big East is a fine basketball conference, but it's not the ACC or anything. I just don't see the allure...it's a shell of what it was before

That’s a fair opinion but one that is not shared by many who have influence with the University.

 

[uconnbill]

Someone has to come up with those embarrassing pictures of Swafford so UConn gets that invite they should have gotten 5 years ago instead of Reebok U

 

[uconnphil2016]

Address the least common denominator. The AAC isn’t to blame for the men’s basketball teams situation.

Exactly. It's a way of MBB fans to deflect the reality that our moron coach has driven the program into the ground and several other teams have been quite successful in the AAC.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

MAC football and I’m out. I’m hanging by a thread as it is.

The thought that the basketball program will be saved by moving to the BE is complete folly.

 

[superjohn]

I've been saying we have to get creative for a while but firing Ollie is the first and most important step to making the bball program viable again.

 

[whaler11]

Why does it feel less possible? Because random fans are saying they want the Big East back? The Big East doesn't exist anymore...the teams we cared about playing (i.e. Pitt and Cuse) are long gone. There's no benefit to joining the Big East in my mind

The athletic department is burning like a wildfire around us.

I guess you can do nothing and hope it fixes itself but that generally doesn’t work.

 

[uconnphil2016]

That’s a fair opinion but one that is not shared by many who have influence with the University.

I just think it's so short sighted to want to return to the NBE. That absolutely kills any P5 prospects for the future. In my mind, if we stay put, we'll end up right where we were. P5 is going to become P4 and they'll cut fat from the bottom of their conferences. The teams we miss seeing (Cuse, Pitt, Rutty, BC, maybe Louisville) will all need a home...they won't make the cut in P4. Sure, this is a ways down the road, but if we just stay patient and stay put, I do think we'll have the opportunity to create a regional conference that reignites old rivalries.

 

[uconnphil2016]

The athletic department is burning like a wildfire around us.

I guess you can do nothing and hope it fixes itself but that generally doesn’t work.

I agree, but in dropping football we relegate ourselves to small time no matter what. And our basketball program still stinks, so where's the joy in that? Getting the snot kicked out of us by marginally better basketball teams won't make anything better

 

[tcf15]

Along the same lines...

How much longer do we have to suffer UConn in the AAC?
This much I do know, however: I’ve talked to a few donors in recent weeks who can’t take much more of this. They see the same thing as I do, the power structure failing to take the AAC seriously. UConn’s bad hires affecting the current product. And the need to begin some uncomfortable conversations.

 

[whaler11]

Exactly. It's a way of MBB fans to deflect the reality that our moron coach has driven the program into the ground and several other teams have been quite successful in the AAC.

I completely agree but just firing Ollie doesn’t guarantee things are fixed.

You are still a northeast school playing in a southern football first league.

Ollie has been dismal the last few years. There is a lot of evidence it’s not just him.

 

[superjohn]

Why does it feel less possible? Because random fans are saying they want the Big East back? The Big East doesn't exist anymore...the teams we cared about playing (i.e. Pitt and Cuse) are long gone. There's no benefit to joining the Big East in my mind

Agree people are using the AAC as an excuse to deflect from Ollie but you are wrong about the Big East. It is still a damn good basketball conference.

It's pretty amazing after being raided over and over again the Big East has managed to remain really good at basketball.

 

[whaler11]

Along the same lines...

How much longer do we have to suffer UConn in the AAC?
This much I do know, however: I’ve talked to a few donors in recent weeks who can’t take much more of this. They see the same thing as I do, the power structure failing to take the AAC seriously. UConn’s bad hires affecting the current product. And the need to begin some uncomfortable conversations.

That was what prompted me to toss up this idea.

The younger football fans don’t understand that the most of the major donors don’t give a flip about football and they would prefer not even a half-step.

 

[JMick]

I just think it's so short sighted to want to return to the NBE. That absolutely kills any P5 prospects for the future. In my mind, if we stay put, we'll end up right where we were. P5 is going to become P4 and they'll cut fat from the bottom of their conferences. The teams we miss seeing (Cuse, Pitt, Rutty, BC, maybe Louisville) will all need a home...they won't make the cut in P4. Sure, this is a ways down the road, but if we just stay patient and stay put, I do think we'll have the opportunity to create a regional conference that reignites old rivalries.

riding out the lull until they cut dead weight is probably a great strategy. expect a ton of lawsuits if/when they finally try to remove the bottom feeders who have been grandfathered in for decades

eventually TV deals won't mean anything. I am expecting/hoping we will get back to smaller, regional conferences.

 

[whaler11]

Agree people are using the AAC as an excuse to deflect from Ollie but you are wrong about the Big East. It is still a damn good basketball conference.

It's pretty amazing after being raided over and over again the Big East has managed to remain really good at basketball.

The Big East remains good at basketball because it’s a league of schools who take pride in their programs and there are always going to be a lot of players who want to not play second fiddle to the football program on campus.

You go to Marquette or Xavier - you are the BMOC. You go to most P5/ACC programs, not so much.

 

[whaler11]

I just think it's so short sighted to want to return to the NBE. That absolutely kills any P5 prospects for the future. In my mind, if we stay put, we'll end up right where we were. P5 is going to become P4 and they'll cut fat from the bottom of their conferences. The teams we miss seeing (Cuse, Pitt, Rutty, BC, maybe Louisville) will all need a home...they won't make the cut in P4. Sure, this is a ways down the road, but if we just stay patient and stay put, I do think we'll have the opportunity to create a regional conference that reignites old rivalries.

It could turn out to be the wrong move.

Doing nothing could also turn out to be the wrong move.

I look around and see how ugly things are. Then I look at the football roster and the Ollie buy-out and I’m 90% sure we still have some distance between here and rock-bottom.

 

[uconnphil2016]

If UConn cuts their football program or drops to FCS, I will never attend another UConn sporting event in my lifetime. Will not step foot into Gampel. And I'll hire a witch doctor to curse the MBB program so that it shoots all you idiots in the foot anyways. Locusts will rain onto that Epcot looking stupid **** roof and you all will pay the price

 

[Robertelamin]

MAC football and I’m out. I’m hanging by a thread as it is.

The thought that the basketball program will be saved by moving to the BE is complete folly.

Let's make it happen people.

 

[JMick]

It could turn out to be the wrong move.

Doing nothing could also turn out to be the wrong move.

I look around and see how ugly things are. Then I look at the football roster and the Ollie buy-out and I’m 90% sure we still have some distance between here and rock-bottom.

just wait until a booster says "sure, I'll pay Ollie's buyout - as long as you promise we'll be back in the big east by year 20xx"