What would be the requirements for UConn to join the Pac-12 for football-only?

[CTFAN4LIFE]

All good points, especially since the new PAC will be no more than a new AAC ( even just for FB). With most of the schools looking to head out to a P-4 at first chance. And how did that work out for Uconn attendance wise, even starting out with 6 AAC schools that are now in the P-4, a bunch that we actual did have rivalries with ? An other thought is if Mora hates the perceived slights to Uconn from officials in the few ACC games a year, what will it be like when these west coast crews get to call the shots in the bulk of the schedule ?

Agree on the attendance issues - the ACC and regionals that we play now add millions of ticket revenue as opposed to what the Pac schools would draw. Plus, it would cost us in player recruitment grounds and add millions of costs to simply rebrand ourselves as a Pac football program, and, and, and... No thanks, rebuilt Pac. Hard stop.

 

[Kowalski]

I don't think there is any way to really know whether it would hurt or help your chances of joining a revamped ACC. It's not like UConn is moving the campus to the West Coast, so there will always be a fit between UConn and The ACC should they need replacements. If UConn were to hold their own in an upper G5 Conference I believe it would demonstrate their viability far more than playing a random assortment of Rice, FIU, and Georgia Southern. Boise, OSU, WSU, FSU is solid competition. Win that league and your program health will look pretty strong.

Agree. It’s better competition than UConn plays now overall, even with the 2 or 3 P4’s on our schedule. And they could still schedule 1 or 2 out of conference P4’s, w/o the body bag games

Even better, the latest CFB playoff proposal gives an automatic bid to the 5 highest ranked conference champions. The Pac champion would probably get it which can be real exciting. I think it helps attendance & recruiting. If Uconn can negotiate low or no fees for a P4 exit, I see little downside to parking FB in the PAC.

 

[ZooCougar]

Agree. It’s better competition than UConn plays now overall, even with the 2 or 3 P4’s on our schedule. And they could still schedule 1 or 2 out of conference P4’s, w/o the body bag games

Even better, the latest CFB playoff proposal gives an automatic bid to the 5 highest ranked conference champions. The Pac champion would probably get it which can be real exciting. I think it helps attendance & recruiting. If Uconn can negotiate low or no fees for a P4 exit, I see little downside to parking FB in the PAC.

Constantly flying to the West Coast would suck. It’s really not that appealing. At all.

 

[CL82]

Constantly flying to the West Coast would suck. It’s really not that appealing. At all.

6 flights a season, less if we "travel partner" some games. It's doable.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

6 flights of season, less if we "travel partner" some games. It's doable.

Also it’s not 6, it’s 4 unless the PAC12 adds more than 9 football members.

 

[ZooCougar]

6 flights of season, less if we "travel partner" some games. It's doable.

That’s half the season. Nope.

 

[CL82]

That’s half the season. Nope.

It's pointed out above, it's actually only four. If you "travel partner" schedule games, games, it could be two trips.

I'm not advocating for it, but I don't see it being insurmountable either.

 

[ZooCougar]

It's pointed out above, it's actually only four. If you "travel partner" schedule games, games, it could be two trips.

I'm a advocating for it, but I don't see it being insurmountable either.

Don’t even know what the conference will look like and they are offering crappy terms. One things for certain. We won’t be traveling less.

 

[cellocgg]

The door was open for UConn last Fall. UConn passed. Maybe the Pac 12 getting a media contract with real numbers could change things.

Uconn passed without an eastern contingent of Pac schools. We were on an island

 

[FfldCntyFan]

It's pointed out above, it's actually only four. If you "travel partner" schedule games, games, it could be two trips.

I'm not advocating for it, but I don't see it being insurmountable either.

Please work this out for those of us who don't fully believe a suitable travel partnership is possible. The more detail that you could provide, the better you will be able to convert some skeptics.

 

[Patman]

Please work this out for those of us who don't fully believe a suitable travel partnership is possible. The more detail that you could provide, the better you will be able to convert some skeptics.

There's no such thing as a travel partner in football. Ok, nothing wrong with admitting not wanting to take 4 left coast trips. Make that argument and move on. The team ain't staying west for a whole week

 

[AZHuskiePop]

I am still disgusted about how we were treated by the Big 12 and surprised that UConn would have any interest at all in the PAC-12? I am so done with UConn getting kicked around. Sorry for the snarky comment. I am proud of what our FB has accomplished despite being kicked around and I would not be happy at all going to the PAC-12. They couldn’t offer enough in my opinion.

UConn would seriously consider the PAC 12 or even the AAC as a football only If the PAC deal is at least $8,000,000 And the AAC deal is in the $5,000,000 range Or they could stay Indy if they could get media Deal in those ranges .

I suggested a Ryder to the Big East media contract for NBC to pick up UConn Football either on Pracock or part of a ND Indy football doubleheader.

The thing is we need to increase football revenue to compete .

 

[CL82]

There's no such thing as a travel partner in football. Ok, nothing wrong with admitting not wanting to take 4 left coast trips. Make that argument and move on. The team ain't staying west for a whole week

You're right. I brain farted on that.

Personally, I don't think four West Coast trips would be prohibitive, if everything else, money, ease of leaving, etc. could be worked out. I'm not at all confident that it can be.

 

[DW1361]

UConn would seriously consider the PAC 12 or even the AAC as a football only If the PAC deal is at least $8,000,000 And the AAC deal is in the $5,000,000 range Or they could stay Indy if they could get media Deal in those ranges .

I suggested a Ryder to the Big East media contract for NBC to pick up UConn Football either on Pracock or part of a ND Indy football doubleheader.

The thing is we need to increase football revenue to compete .

I will pretend I didn’t see you add the AAC into this conversation. The PAC-12 is as low as I go. Interesting idea with the Big East NBC media contract. However, I believe CBS Sports picked us up for another two seasons. However do we get out of that? Being part of an ND double header is less likely than joining the BIG10 in my opinion. Nice thought though.

 

[ZooCougar]

I will pretend I didn’t see you add the AAC into this conversation. The PAC-12 is as low as I go. Interesting idea with the Big East NBC media contract. However, I believe CBS Sports picked us up for another two seasons. However do we get out of that? Being part of an ND double header is less likely than joining the BIG10 in my opinion. Nice thought though.

I have very hard time believing the AAC will still be worth $5M a school. That would be for all sports.

That’s never going to happen. Not going back.

 

[Blades]

UConn would seriously consider the PAC 12 or even the AAC as a football only If the PAC deal is at least $8,000,000 And the AAC deal is in the $5,000,000 range

FWIW from these guys who cover west coast FB ..LIVE but back at about 3 or 4 mins in.......PAC is ready to add Texas State for a total of 9 members.... "no way they get the $90 mil a year TV deal " but closer to $65 mil a year ($7 mil ave. a year for full members but unequal payouts for Boise St etc., Gonzaga might get a full share ) Anyway "just in" alot of talk from their "sources" .........

 

[Rufus]

Current AAC media rights deal runs through 2031-32 school year. No way it renews at its current rate. Half the teams under that contract have left and they were the higher value members.

 

[Waquoit]

And who will be able to resist a road game in Fresno, and the opportunity to stock up on raisins?

And hit the Sizzler!

 

[UCONNRPh]

Constantly flying to the West Coast would suck. It’s really not that appealing. At all.

I do not see it as 'constantly".. I see that as only several times a season. It's not much different than both our hoops teams have regularly travelled the country to face teams much better than the Big East or low G independents..

If we had a true opportunity, I believe we should take it and still keep our eyes and ears open. PAC would be a way to prove ourselves vs. the top G teams while we wait for the next realignment cycle.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Not saying either side is all that interested in this happening, but it seems like it would be pretty easy to put together if they did. UConn becomes a football only member. They are paid a portion of revenue commensurate with the value of football to the conference TV deal. In return UConn gives the PAC a handful of M/W Basketball Games OOC every year. Maybe something like 4 and 4 until they cycle through all teams. Starting the year with 8 football games already scheduled, would be a huge burden off the shoulders of the AD. It's not like UConn hasn't already played on the road at places like Wyoming, Boise, and Fresno in the past. It would still give the team an opportunity to schedule an FCS School, UMass, and two potential games against "local" G5 & P5 Schools.

If that Memphis thing is real and apparently contingent upon them joining the Big East then that gives us leverage..
We could make our acceptance of Memphis into the BE conditional on our acceptance into the PAC as a football only . Member If the money is right .
Us having leverage is a rare thing
There is no question we need a football. Media deal for survival unless a P4 bid is imminent.

 

[Fishy]

I don't think they would, and frankly, I don't even think that's the analysis. The commentary from A.D.s in the big 12 was, essentially, since you are not in the P4, you are not worthy of being in the P4. That's a tough mountain to climb, particularly since you can find data to back it up.

First off, you can say our revenue is well behind a P4 team and you'd be right. Of course, if we had the same media revenue and CFP money that P4 teams get, we'd be significantly above the median revenue in the P4.

You can also say that are ratings numbers for football are well below the average P4 numbers and again, you'd be right. But if you put our games on a more visible platform, our ratings would be stronger.

You can also know the huge amount of institutional support that the university has to invest in football to keep it viable. It is a big number, but, again, if we had P4 media revenue and a CFP share, that number drops 40 million, minimally.

How do we overcome that? I'm not sure if we can. Continued basketball success, of course, significantly helps, but probably the best thing we can do is schedule and comfortably defeat P4 teams.

I don't have a lot of hope that we can get into a P4 conference. It is very hard to overcome the argument that if "you're not in the club, you don't deserve to be in the club"

And yet fifteen schools have been promoted into the P4 - we were in a conference with 13 of them at one time or another. Nearly half the B12 got jumped up from the Big East or non-BCS conferences into the P4s.

Where we get killed, in particular, is that there is a media frenzy and a resulting fan frenzy every time we get mentioned for inclusion. It’s fatal.

 

[Fishy]

I do not see it as 'constantly".. I see that as only several times a season. It's not much different than both our hoops teams have regularly travelled the country to face teams much better than the Big East or low G independents..

If we had a true opportunity, I believe we should take it and still keep our eyes and ears open. PAC would be a way to prove ourselves vs. the top G teams while we wait for the next realignment cycle.

Moving a football team across the country is not like moving a basketball team across the country.

This is just an awful idea. Like, absolutely awful.

We’re gonna try to recruit east coast kids to what will now be an entirely west coast schedule…it will not work because it doesn’t work. So we’ll end up sucking in a conference 3000 miles away and y’all will have stuck a fork in us.

No.

 

[Kowalski]

If that Memphis thing is real and apparently contingent upon them joining the Big East then that gives us leverage..
We could make our acceptance of Memphis into the BE conditional on our acceptance into the PAC as a football only . Member If the money is right .
Us having leverage is a rare thing
There is no question we need a football. Media deal for survival unless a P4 bid is imminent.

If you believe Thamel , the prospect of Pac football only membership is the reason Memphis now wants to join the BE. If true, I think it means Memphis believes Pac football only membership positions them much better for a P4 invite than taking their FB independent. They could otherwise have lobbied for BE membership years ago & taken their FB independent like UConn did.

 

[WrenchFan69]

If you believe Thamel , the prospect of Pac football only membership is the reason Memphis now wants to join the BE. If true, I think it means Memphis believes Pac football only membership positions them much better for a P4 invite than taking their FB independent. They could otherwise have lobbied for BE membership years ago & taken their FB independent like UConn did.

And/or Memphis believes they can get more revenue by doing PAC+Big East than the AAC. Remains to be seen

 

[Kolumbo]

You're right. I brain farted on that.

Personally, I don't think four West Coast trips would be prohibitive, if everything else, money, ease of leaving, etc. could be worked out. I'm not at all confident that it can be.

Don't be too hard on yourself Homer, there could still be some logistical maneuverings. The trucks transporting all the football gear could drive directly from Colorado State to Utah State, an 8 hour drive, if those away games are played back-to-back. That's really the challenge for football. 7 hour drive from WSU to OSU. 3 hour drive from SJSU to Fresno. The flights for the football team don't really matter. If Memphis and 1 or 2 other easterly teams end up in the mix, even better.

It is not happening but it's conversation.