What if....Benedict to Hurley: “We’ll be in ACC by the final year of your contract” | Page 4 | The Boneyard

What if....Benedict to Hurley: “We’ll be in ACC by the final year of your contract”

HuskyHawk said:
I think you guys over simplify this. None of the ACC schools "brings 28 million per year". In fact, the entire current model evolved from a prior model where each school sold its own content. In that model, none of them got much. It was only by pooling the schools and selling the rights of the conference as a whole that the numbers increased significantly. It should be obvious why, the following and market for any one program, even Texas, is insufficient. Notre Dame gets much less as an independent than it could in the Big Ten. It gets $15M annually from NBC.

Does UConn enhance the overall appeal and market of the ACC. Yes. How does it compare to others? For the ACC, I'd say UConn would add more value than any non P5, non Notre Dame program. We'd have much more value to the ACC than we did to the Big 12, and would really turn New England into "ACC Country" the way it is in the Carolinas and Virgina. They don't have that kind of saturation even in Georgia or Florida.

The bigger challenge we face is that ESPN has UConn's rights for pennies on the dollar right now. Our talk about the Big East is (in my opinion) largely to let ESPN know that they won't continue getting UConn at bargain basement prices. They broadcast the hell out of UConn sports. Even when we suck, we are on national TV more than most P5 schools. I think Benedict is positioning us for this. It's why Diaco had to go when he did and so did Ollie. It's a short window and UConn has to have a competitive football team and very competitive basketball team now. Baseball being ranked is great. If the American can switch to Fox, I actually think that ESPN would move to put UConn in the ACC as #15. If we up the cost of our content to ESPN, even that could be enough.

That is my .02
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Your .02 is better than many, 10 dollar bills we have floating around here.
 
HuskyHawk said:
UConn is the strongest basketball brand in NYC, Syracuse is next. They'd argue that but the ACC has both. In terms of football, I believe we came in 3rd or 4th, after Rutgers and ND and close to Syracuse. Boston is more tricky, but I live in that market and see UConn stuff everywhere. It's more about the New England market. Boston is the capital of the region, and covers events across New England. Having two New England teams greatly increases the importance of both in the Boston market. It's just the way they think about things.
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I miss being able to get UConn stuff. My parents said me a package every few months with stuff the pick up at Wal-Mart, Bob's and Stop and Shop....I have to go online to order my stuff...at mark-up. Dang California...I hate it here.
 
HuskyHawk said:
I think you guys over simplify this. None of the ACC schools "brings 28 million per year". In fact, the entire current model evolved from a prior model where each school sold its own content. In that model, none of them got much. It was only by pooling the schools and selling the rights of the conference as a whole that the numbers increased significantly. It should be obvious why, the following and market for any one program, even Texas, is insufficient. Notre Dame gets much less as an independent than it could in the Big Ten. It gets $15M annually from NBC.

Does UConn enhance the overall appeal and market of the ACC. Yes. How does it compare to others? For the ACC, I'd say UConn would add more value than any non P5, non Notre Dame program. We'd have much more value to the ACC than we did to the Big 12, and would really turn New England into "ACC Country" the way it is in the Carolinas and Virgina. They don't have that kind of saturation even in Georgia or Florida.

The bigger challenge we face is that ESPN has UConn's rights for pennies on the dollar right now. Our talk about the Big East is (in my opinion) largely to let ESPN know that they won't continue getting UConn at bargain basement prices. They broadcast the hell out of UConn sports. Even when we suck, we are on national TV more than most P5 schools. I think Benedict is positioning us for this. It's why Diaco had to go when he did and so did Ollie. It's a short window and UConn has to have a competitive football team and very competitive basketball team now. Baseball being ranked is great. If the American can switch to Fox, I actually think that ESPN would move to put UConn in the ACC as #15. If we up the cost of our content to ESPN, even that could be enough.

That is my .02
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You're right that no ACC school "brings" $28MM to the table. The problem is that's what they're being paid.

Expansion is about increasing revenues.

UConn or any other candidate would need to bring more than $28MM to the table in the current environment. None of the ACC schools are going to vote to add anybody if it costs them money. They won't vote to add anybody to stay at the status quo.

The only ways the ACC adds UConn are:

1. Notre Dame decides to join and they need a dance partner.
2. If somehow the ACC Network does ever get off the ground, and there are metrics that demonstrate adding UConn will bring more money to the table.
3. If the sports media bubble has burst when the ACC contract with ESPN expires in 2030 and in order to make the same , or close to the same, they add UConn

As has been said before, being Notre Dame's dance partner is about the worst position to be in when it comes to Conference Realignment
 
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Football still is the the media money pull...

"While the NCAA Tournament has undergone a recent resurgence, the same cannot be said for the regular season. The overwhelming majority of college basketball regular season games barely registered in the ratings, with nearly 60 percent earning a rating of 0.0 or 0.1 . More than three-quarters of the games had a rating of 0.5 or lower.

2015-2016 data...."Of the 979 regular season games examined by Sports Media Watch (excludes seven games for which ratings were unavailable), only 25 had a rating of 1.5 or higher. That includes both Duke/North Carolina games and the Big Ten Tournament title game, each of which had a season-high 2.6."

The March Madness draws eyes for three weeks....but basketball regular season doesn't turn dials...

(2015-16) The ACC tournament final, Virginia-North Carolina delivered the largest viewing audience of the regular season (but still just a 2.0 rating).

Nationally...twice as many people watched Louisville-Mississippi State play football as watched the Big 12 BB tournament final...in fact,
more people watched middle of the road football games like VT-Virginia, Florida-South Carolina, Wake Forest-Notre Dame, UCLA-Memphis then watched the Big 12 Tournament final.
 
HuskyHawk said:
So that's what I think UConn adds to the ACC (and to a lesser extent the B1G). Two teams in New England (of a total of two that play FBS)
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3 FBS teams in New England:
BC
UConn
UMass
 
Zissou said:
3 FBS teams in New England:
BC
UConn
UMass
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I suspect that. someday, somewhere, UMass will have a .500 season in FBS. Not next year....but, with judicious scheduling, it could happen.

The problem is that with 129 teams...the bell curve distribution runs from Alabama to some team ranked in the lower rings of the netherworld by Sagarins ELO .

It is a convenient fiction that all play for the same prize....
 
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Mokum said:
Kick out BC. Add Uconn. I would not be surprised if down the road BC could end up dropping FB. Aside from Notre Dame, which is a world if it's own, all the catholic schools have dropped FB or dropped to a lower division. When I was a kid schools like Holy Cross were playing a big time schedule. Not anymore, obviously. BC is not a big draw in Boston for non students or non alumni. It's a Catholic commuter school and does not fit with other ACC schools. They pretty much stink so I doubt they are a big draw when they go on the road. I don't think the ACC wants the big in New England, and if there is expansion Uconn will most likely end up in one or the other of those two leagues. If Uconn does get the nod, it will obviously not be because their FB is a big plus. However, in a better league they stand a chance of improving and they can compete with the lower tier schools in each of those conferences. I think any further expansion will be more about establishing a geographic foot print than bolstering the FB in either conference. There are no FB powerhouse programs left to choose from, Uconn is probably the best of the leftovers in terms of fanbase, potential and similarity to existing members of either league. Also, since you are an ACC guy, I want to ask you this. Have you heard rumblings about the ACC not being happy about Louisville. Not because they are not good, but because their academics are far below ACC standards and they have all these scandals?
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Sorry to not respond for so long. I had a family member who was very ill, and, he just passed away three weeks ago. So, it's been awhile since anything remotely approaching mormalcy has been seen in these parts. All of that said...

I DO believe that some in the ACC are having buyer's remorse concerning Louisville. Everything to do with Pitino, Papa John's, etc, have some saying enough is enough. But, I HIGHLY doubt that they'd be booted, at least not at this point. I know Carolina fans are the last folks to be caught dead saying this, but, if anything, the fallout from the academic scandal has, at the very least, forced many of the more egotistical nutbars amongst our fanbase to tone down their arrogance and rhetoric towards everybody else. Save for NCSU and Duke, of course. :)

We all know that UL's academics were not of ACC level, but, they were the only school that a majority of the league would vote to add at the time. And, even though they were...and, still are...a basketball-first school, their football success at the time was the deciding factor, and, we all knew it. Even though Swofford might've preferred UConn to UL, he did a very poor job selling his future vision for the league to the members who were less than enthusiastic about adding UConn. As one of your regulars here...maybe Fishy...correctly pointed out.
 
Screw the ACC. I would prefer UConn to become a member of the Big Ten. .....much better $, better academics .... better competition across all sports.
 
SouthronCross said:
Sorry to not respond for so long. I had a family member who was very ill, and, he just passed away three weeks ago. So, it's been awhile since anything remotely approaching mormalcy has been seen in these parts. All of that said...

I DO believe that some in the ACC are having buyer's remorse concerning Louisville. Everything to do with Pitino, Papa John's, etc, have some saying enough is enough. But, I HIGHLY doubt that they'd be booted, at least not at this point. I know Carolina fans are the last folks to be caught dead saying this, but, if anything, the fallout from the academic scandal has, at the very least, forced many of the more egotistical nutbars amongst our fanbase to tone down their arrogance and rhetoric towards everybody else. Save for NCSU and Duke, of course. :)

We all know that UL's academics were not of ACC level, but, they were the only school that a majority of the league would vote to add at the time. And, even though they were...and, still are...a basketball-first school, their football success at the time was the deciding factor, and, we all knew it. Even though Swofford might've preferred UConn to UL, he did a very poor job selling his future vision for the league to the members who were less than enthusiastic about adding UConn. As one of your regulars here...maybe Fishy...correctly pointed out.
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Very sorry to hear of your loss. My thoughts go out to you and your family.
 
UL's academics are now at the ACC level. A chain is no stronger than its weakest link.
 
SouthronCross said:
Sorry to not respond for so long. I had a family member who was very ill, and, he just passed away three weeks ago. So, it's been awhile since anything remotely approaching mormalcy has been seen in these parts. All of that said...

I DO believe that some in the ACC are having buyer's remorse concerning Louisville. Everything to do with Pitino, Papa John's, etc, have some saying enough is enough. But, I HIGHLY doubt that they'd be booted, at least not at this point. I know Carolina fans are the last folks to be caught dead saying this, but, if anything, the fallout from the academic scandal has, at the very least, forced many of the more egotistical nutbars amongst our fanbase to tone down their arrogance and rhetoric towards everybody else. Save for NCSU and Duke, of course. :)

We all know that UL's academics were not of ACC level, but, they were the only school that a majority of the league would vote to add at the time. And, even though they were...and, still are...a basketball-first school, their football success at the time was the deciding factor, and, we all knew it. Even though Swofford might've preferred UConn to UL, he did a very poor job selling his future vision for the league to the members who were less than enthusiastic about adding UConn. As one of your regulars here...maybe Fishy...correctly pointed out.
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Why were they not enthusiastic about Uconn? Football? Also why not West Virginia? Academics?
 
bobbyinaz said:
You're right that no ACC school "brings" $28MM to the table. The problem is that's what they're being paid.

Expansion is about increasing revenues.

UConn or any other candidate would need to bring more than $28MM to the table in the current environment. None of the ACC schools are going to vote to add anybody if it costs them money. They won't vote to add anybody to stay at the status quo.

The only ways the ACC adds UConn are:

1. Notre Dame decides to join and they need a dance partner.
2. If somehow the ACC Network does ever get off the ground, and there are metrics that demonstrate adding UConn will bring more money to the table.
3. If the sports media bubble has burst when the ACC contract with ESPN expires in 2030 and in order to make the same , or close to the same, they add UConn

As has been said before, being Notre Dame's dance partner is about the worst position to be in when it comes to Conference Realignment
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If the ACC added Uconn and Navy, and gave Navy a pass in BB, like ND has in football, they would have the same number of teams in each sport, and could have northern and southern divisions.
 
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The ACC will probably never have Northern and Southern Divisions. Although many fans like the idea of regional divisions.

Although if they move to 16, there will have to be compromises. and there would be a tussle over Notre Dame. With Notre Dame still out there, I am sure there has been some noodling about what to do if they ever did go all in.

Currently, playing a non division opponent at home (except for the one permanent crossover) once every 12 years is almost like not being in the same conference with them. So a team like FSU travels to Boston and Syracuse while not seeing GT in Tallahassee but every 12 years. GT, their closest rival who also plays in the city with FSU's largest out of state fan base.

Two divisions of eight only compound that scheduling problem...it would be almost like having two different leagues whose champs play for a combined champion.

...ADs evidently do not want FSU and Miami to be in the same division. Programs fear not playing a Florida team would mean that Florida kids would grow up watching the southern division and would be more difficult to recruit. That may be one of the reasons that realignment of divisions has failed to carry the last three times it was brought to a vote.

...The density of ACC schools in Tobacco Road would mean that with FSU, Miami, GT, Clemson definitely in the South...and Cuse, BC, Pitt, Notre Dame definitely in the North....

...that the Tobacco Road teams of UNC, Wake, NC State, Duke, Virginia, VT would have to be split...they are densely packed in the center of the conference.

I think that, no matter what conference, going to a format of sixteen will cause scheduling problems and change the way that conferences are viewed...
 
Once again, as long as ESPN keeps the ACC afloat, they will likely remain as they are at least until 2036, when the GOR expires. I doubt that any ACC teams will leave that conference. Assuming that college athletics remain as valuable as they are today to TV networks. Even if the ACC did divide into a north-south division, BC and Cuse would still likely keep UConn out. It is extremely unlikely ND joins full time and they are also bound, I believe by the GOR. I would say forget the ACC for UConn fans. Doesn't appear likely. I wish I was wrong, but I don't see it in the "Cards".
PS: Billybud you left off your darling Louisville in the above essay.
 
buddy said:
Once again, as long as ESPN keeps the ACC afloat, they will likely remain as they are at least until 2036, when the GOR expires. I doubt that any ACC teams will leave that conference. Assuming that college athletics remain as valuable as they are today to TV networks. Even if the ACC did divide into a north-south division, BC and Cuse would still likely keep UConn out. It is extremely unlikely ND joins full time and they are also bound, I believe by the GOR. I would say forget the ACC for UConn fans. Doesn't appear likely. I wish I was wrong, but I don't see it in the "Cards".
PS: Billybud you left off your darling Louisville in the above essay.
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Buddy...Not sure if Louisville is North or South...as a border with Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana....they could go north...as a border with Tennessee and Virginia, they could go south...
 
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01161C42-05AB-45EF-B28A-0B07C9B94E00.gif
dayooper said:
Louisville has already gone south.
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The more likely scenario was Benedict said to Hurley to rebuild the program and I will take you to a P5 School.
 
SouthronCross said:
Sorry to not respond for so long. I had a family member who was very ill, and, he just passed away three weeks ago. So, it's been awhile since anything remotely approaching mormalcy has been seen in these parts. All of that said...
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I'm sorry for your loss. Hope you're doing as well as can be expected and that some normalcy is returning.
 
Kolumbo said:
UL's academics are now at the ACC level. A chain is no stronger than its weakest link.
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Respectfully disagree. UConn's academic rep is not affected by associating with the likes of ECU, or, UCF. Nebraska's ranking does not affect anybody else's in the B1G, either.
 
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Mokum said:
Why were they not enthusiastic about Uconn? Football? Also why not West Virginia? Academics?
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At the time of the expansion that brought UL to the ACC, their FB program was having a good couple of seasons with Charlie Strong, while UConn was struggling. I really do believe it was that simple. Had the roles been reversed, UL wouldn't have gotten in, IMHO.

The ACC's refusal to add WVU goes all the way back to the '60s. And, that had nothing to do with academics.
 
SouthronCross said:
At the time of the expansion that brought UL to the ACC, their FB program was having a good couple of seasons with Charlie Strong, while UConn was struggling. I really do believe it was that simple. Had the roles been reversed, UL wouldn't have gotten in, IMHO.

The ACC's refusal to add WVU goes all the way back to the '60s. And, that had nothing to do with academics.
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So what is the reason they don't want West Virginia?
 
SouthronCross said:
Respectfully disagree. UConn's academic rep is not affected by associating with the likes of ECU, or, UCF. Nebraska's ranking does not affect anybody else's in the B1G, either.
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Well, yes and no. The B1G used to be able to claim that its members were all AAU universities which is a criteria it can no longer hold on to. So the B1G lost a little something there.

And let's be honest here, UNC has its own problems.
 
Academics may have had a meaning in conference realignment, but likely it was fake advertising back when BC and Miami were touting academics as their reason for betraying the Big East. Academics are meaningless now in conference realignment, for any conference. So please let's just stop this. The ACC members are bound by a GOR until 2036. There is no need for them to expand. They are supported by millions of dollars courtesy by our beloved ESPN. I would not hold my breath waiting for the ACC. UConn is going to have to be top dog in the AAC and then hopefully, someone will come calling, or hopefully the whole system will collapse and start all over again.
 
Maybe the nearest path is for the AAC to actually become a P6 conference....

Get a more competitive media contract this time around (possible multiple bidders?). Maybe don't sign a long term contract with short payouts.

Build more football buzz (UCF, USF, and Memphis need to continue winning against P5's)...Snag a BB national championship or two.
 
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