Why keep football ?

[nelsonmuntz]

Also, the meltdown when people see the next AAC contract is going to be glorious.

While I know it will suck, I will admit that I never understood the pricing model for college sports content. How is a Illinois vs. Minnesota game worth 100x what a Houston vs. UCF game is worth?

 

[pepband99]

Also, the meltdown when people see the next AAC contract is going to be glorious.

It will be equaled by the bewilderment at the awful NBE next contract, and the realization that we, again, don't have a better option.

 

[whaler11]

While I know it will suck, I will admit that I never understood the pricing model for college sports content. How is a Illinois vs. Minnesota game worth 100x what a Houston vs. UCF game is worth?

It’s not - it just gets bundled with games like Michigan/Ohio State.

That is where we go next - when the money train slows - Ohio State is going to be a lot less interested in propping up Iowa. Expansion was so short-sighted as to be laughable in retrospect.

 

[whaler11]

It will be equaled by the bewilderment at the awful NBE next contract, and the realization that we, again, don't have a better option.

Yeah their contract will stink too - but they might have two bidders since ESPN has moved so much to SEC and ACC networks.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Yeah their contract will stink too - but they might have two bidders since ESPN has moved so much to SEC and ACC networks.

Everyone's previous predictions on the Big East's demise have been so accurate. The Big East has high profile program in big cities that make up the majority of the nationwide basketball fanbase. The SEC draws 6,000 fans to midweek games, and half of those are student tickets that are either free or virtually free. No one cares about basketball in the South outside of Kentucky, North Carolina and maybe Tennessee.

Remember when everyone said that football drives the bus? Football will be a regional sport in 10-15 years, and most high schools in the northeast won't even play it. Any sport that turns a large percentage of its players into crippled vegetables or sociopaths has a limited shelf life once people understand the causality.

 

[whaler11]

Everyone's previous predictions on the Big East's demise have been so accurate. The Big East has high profile program in big cities that make up the majority of the nationwide basketball fanbase. The SEC draws 6,000 fans to midweek games, and half of those are student tickets that are either free or virtually free. No one cares about basketball in the South outside of Kentucky, North Carolina and maybe Tennessee.

Remember when everyone said that football drives the bus? Football will be a regional sport in 10-15 years, and most high schools in the northeast won't even play it. Any sport that turns a large percentage of its players into crippled vegetables or sociopaths has a limited shelf life once people understand the causality.

I think the runway as longer than that for football - but basketball schools focusing on basketball in basketball parts of the country is going to lead to a good basketball league.

College basketball is already regional except for everyone but 5 schools, 48 weeks a year.

Half the attention goes to a handful of one and dones because the NBA’s growth has help marginalize CBB.

Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and Carolina plus a couple of random 1 & dones elsewhere get 90% of the attention before March.

There is no roster cohesion year to year, rivalries have been destroyed, the big boys play nobody OOC except for neutral site special events. It’s not a sport in a good place.

 

[Exit 4]

It’s not a sport in a good place.

Wait, what sport is in a good place in your opinion?

 

[freescooter]

Doesn’t this really beg the question of why have football or basketball at this level? Or really any sport? Play D3 in everything. Wesleyan and Trinity run their entire athletic programs for +- 5 million. Games are fun. Tax payers wouldn’t have any complaints. And can you imagine how exciting the St Joe’s-UConn tilt will be? Maybe they can move it to one of the bigger high school gyms in the area to handle the crowds.

 

[whaler11]

Wait, what sport is in a good place in your opinion?

The NBA is destroying everyone.

The NFL is healthier than CW.

College football at the national level isn’t too bad off.

Soccer is growing in the US.

College basketball is dying so fast nobody even cares about the trial.

 

[Adios]

Doesn’t this really beg the question of why have football or basketball at this level? Or really any sport? Play D3 in everything. Wesleyan and Trinity run their entire athletic programs for +- 5 million. Games are fun. Tax payers wouldn’t have any complaints. And can you imagine how exciting the St Joe’s-UConn tilt will be? Maybe they can move it to one of the bigger high school gyms in the area to handle the crowds.

Was considering going to the Trinity-Wesleyan men's soccer game but decided against it since they might play at Citrin Field instead of Jackson Field, which they did. Drew a huge crowd of 109.

 

[freescooter]

Look, I follow both sports but enjoy football better. I'm tired of the conference complaint from the basketball side. If it's such a bad conference, how come we've never won it in the regular season and needed a Jalen Adams miracle to go on and win the conference tournament once. Until UConn is dominating the AAC in bball, I don't want to hear about how it's hurting us. If we can't win in our current conference, what makes any of you think we'd be anywhere close to competitive in the Big East?

Oh boy! Now you’ve done it. The argument is that if we were in the Big East we would get better players and win that. At least I think that is the argument. Totally ignoring the fact that for all the hype the Big East is a 1 team league and most of our old rivals, Syracuse, Pitt, WVU, Louisville, aren’t there either. To say nothing of the late lamented coaching staff that could take good players and make them mediocre, mediocre ones below average, and below average one and make them starters , and all players and make them want to transfer.

 

[freescooter]

Was considering going to the Trinity-Wesleyan men's soccer game but decided against it since they might play at Citrin Field instead of Jackson Field, which they did. Drew a huge crowd of 109.

Good thing you didn’t go. Might not have gotten in with that kind of crowd!

 

[freescooter]

And some of us remember when UConn was the only Big East team that had 0 NCAA bids as a Big East member. Every other team if I recall correctly, had made the Elite 8 at least once. Two had championships and 2 others had lost in the title game. People were arguing about whether leaving the Yankee Conference had been a mistake, and frankly, the majority opinion was that it had. Folks with short memories also think Jim Calhoun was successful right out of the gate. But guess what? The year after winning the NIT UConn became the first NIT champ to fail to make the NCAA in almost 10 years.

 

[RSTuthill]

This decision will be made after HCRE2.0's fifth year. No sooner. A nationally ranked winning G5 football program is a completely different animal from what UConn has now.

 

[HuskyDogArt]

Don't you live in Florida?

Yes, but I do own a business (and pay taxes) on it. I moved to Florida when both my parents were sick and I just got a divorce, so I moved to help them. I would love to move back, since I miss the fall colors.

 

[Devland]

This decision will be made after HCRE2.0's fifth year. No sooner. A nationally ranked winning G5 football program is a completely different animal from what UConn has now.

I think people seem to forget that it took RE1 four years just to have a .500 season. His first three seasons he had 4, 3 and 2 wins. His method of developing raw players with strength and conditioning takes time. I don't know if RE2 will reach the level of RE1 but I think we need to give him time. We can't just keep hitting the reset button every couple years. It will get us nowhere.

 

[champs99and04]

The NBA is destroying everyone.

The NFL is healthier than CW.

College football at the national level isn’t too bad off.

Soccer is growing in the US.

College basketball is dying so fast nobody even cares about the trial.

College basketball has been a niche sport for at least a decade now. It's not a case of a sport that's bleeding out gradually by the year, it's a sport that's already been through the ringer and it will survive from here on out, barring any significant changes, as a product you either like or you don't. Four weeks per year is all they need.

I don't see any sport that's really ready to take off. I think soccer has always been very popular in the United States, but there is too much global change that would have to occur for it to ever morph into a true spectator sport.

Hockey faces some obvious demographic challenges that will make expanding the sport throughout the country a non-starter. But I do expect that it will begin to fill more of the vacancy in the northeast, if and when football sputters out. Basketball will reap the benefits as well, but there doesn't seem to be much overlap between the fans of those sports, and there's a regional appeal that's becoming jeopardized with basketball as many of the traditional northeast powers have been left out of the p5 model.

 

[freescooter]

It is really a cultural change. Younger people have other things to do. It is being felt at every level of sport from high school to the NFL. My high school used to send multiple bus loads of students to away football games. My nieces who go to the same school and are active in school activities from track to plays to the school paper have been to a couple of games in their 2 and 4 years but none away and there is surely no bus. And UConn is far from alone in having less than great student attendance. Students at Duke still camp out for student tickets but for most games it isn’t necessary. It is just a college event. Michigan was giving away free tickets to football if you bought Coke. They stopped because it looked bad not because they were selling out. The NFL is seeing attendance and viewing fall. College basketball has followed the NBA toward a mostly meaningless regular season. In all seriousness why go out on a Tuesday night in Januaryvto watch UCONN play Temple when the outcome is more or less meaningless. March matters and winning your regular season really doesn’t. Hasn’t for a while but now people are getting that it’s meh. In many ways the NCAA tourney has become the perfect event for a generation raised on trophies for all. For some leagues you get in by finishing 8 or 9. Honestly you don’t even have to be that good. And guys who actually win their leagues to get in get relegated to the playin round.

 

[RSTuthill]

I think people seem to forget that it took RE1 four years just to have a .500 season. His first three seasons he had 4, 3 and 2 wins. His method of developing raw players with strength and conditioning takes time. I don't know if RE2 will reach the level of RE1 but I think we need to give him time. We can't just keep hitting the reset button every couple years. It will get us nowhere.

Agreed. And five years is long enough to establish if there is any hope.

 

[huskyrob1]

Tell more of the UB football story if you can. I'm genuinely curious.

Here's one side of it, this article has nothing about what killing the program did to the school itself. At one time UB football ruled in Connecticut. I was there, right in the middle of it.

For a brief period, UB's football program among the elite

 

[methodology]

They are all in. Can't back out now. Have to take the punches while they try to come back to respectability

 

[uconnphil2016]

Saw Colorado bear ASU today. I highly recommend going to the stadium—may be the most beautiful in all of sports. Saw good football with a great crowd.

I left more convinced than ever that we need to shut it down. We’re not in the same stratosphere as what’s going on at a mid level P5 program.

It’s not salvageable—just give it up

 

[Bomber36]

Ouch.

 

[huskymedic]

Look what you people are doing to the ad profile??

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Saw Colorado bear ASU today. I highly recommend going to the stadium—may be the most beautiful in all of sports. Saw good football with a great crowd.

I left more convinced than ever that we need to shut it down. We’re not in the same stratosphere as what’s going on at a mid level P5 program.

It’s not salvageable—just give it up

Your fiance is a lucky woman

 

[nelsonmuntz]

If shutting the football program down tomorrow, and playing basketball in the Big East this season was an option, I would do it without a moment's hesitation.

 

[Adios]

If shutting the football program down tomorrow, and playing basketball in the Big East this season was an option, I would do it without a moment's hesitation.

We didn't know that. Thank you for informing us of your opinion.

We going to start collegiate MMA by any chance?

 

[NC_Uconn_Fan]

I give the die hard football fans credit for watching every game, knowing the outcome will be bad. I'm a Giants fan, so I understand.

 

[Waquoit]

And the TAXPAYERS will be paying for a 40,000 seat abandoned stadium that is a WHITE ELEPHANT. What should we do with Rentschler? Give it to Goodwin College, Manchester Community College or UHart in exchange for them starting a football team? Please leave, you are a disappointment!!

It's already paid for Art.

 

[Madmannsucks]

Saw Colorado bear ASU today. I highly recommend going to the stadium—may be the most beautiful in all of sports. Saw good football with a great crowd.

I left more convinced than ever that we need to shut it down. We’re not in the same stratosphere as what’s going on at a mid level P5 program.

It’s not salvageable—just give it up

I live in Denver. CU had a miserable stretch up until the last couple years. Actually 10 straight losing seasons. Half empty stadium. 2 yrs ago 10 and 4, then 5-7 last year. When you win, they will show up.