Why not the SEC?

[metsfan2323]

Missouri Football: Last 4 years, 40-14, 3 top 20 BCS finishes. Ranked last 3 of 4 years. Football facility seats 71,000. Coach signed to long term deal, makes base of $2.3 million. Assistant coaches pool is $2.2 million. Coach, a Don James disciple, turned down Washington to stay.

Uconn Football: Last 4 years 33-19, no BCS finishes. Never finished ranked. Football facility seats 40,0000. Coach left to Maryland. New Coach makes $1.5 million. What do we pay assistants?

Tv Markets: MO also has 5.9 million population vs CT of 3.6 million. MO population is growing at twice the rate of CT the past ten years. MO is getting younger, CT older.

Geography: Missouri connects to Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arkansas. While Missouri is not the south it is a boarder state.

Basketball: Uconn is better. No comparison (better coach, better program, better history), but even there Missouri does have a $75 million on campus arena that is state of the art seating 15,000 with luxury boxes and the works.

Good post. I still think the SEC should be pitched. Turn over every stone.

Why are people moving to Missouri?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Missouri Football: Last 4 years, 40-14, 3 top 20 BCS finishes. Ranked last 3 of 4 years. Football facility seats 71,000. Coach signed to long term deal, makes base of $2.3 million. Assistant coaches pool is $2.2 million. Coach, a Don James disciple, turned down Washington to stay.

Uconn Football: Last 4 years 33-19, no BCS finishes. Never finished ranked. Football facility seats 40,0000. Coach left to Maryland. New Coach makes $1.5 million. What do we pay assistants?

Tv Markets: MO also has 5.9 million population vs CT of 3.6 million. MO population is growing at twice the rate of CT the past ten years. MO is getting younger, CT older.

Geography: Missouri connects to Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arkansas. While Missouri is not the south it is a border state.

Basketball: Uconn is better. No comparison (better coach, better program, better history), but even there Missouri does have a $75 million on campus arena that is state of the art seating 15,000 with luxury boxes and the works.

Excellent analysis. Some other thoughts:

Missouri has the St. Louis Cardinals, Rams, Royals and Chiefs in the state. UConn has no instate competition.

Connecticut's per capita income is $56k compared to Missouri's of $37k. Take that number and multiply it by population, and Connecticut has $201 billion in annual purchasing power vs. Missouri's $218 billion, although more likely Connecticut's is much bigger since PCI is a median, not mean number.

CT has 41 millionaires per 1,000 compared to Missouri which has 26.

So if you are Lexus or BMW, where would you rather advertise?

Missouri plays most preseason hoops games in front of friends and family, despite basically giving away thousands of tickets to students.

 

[MattMang23]

You forgot the St. Louis Blues, Nelson!

 

[HuskyHawk]

Excellent analysis. Some other thoughts:

Missouri has the St. Louis Cardinals, Rams, Royals and Chiefs in the state. UConn has no instate competition.

Connecticut's per capita income is $56k compared to Missouri's of $37k. Take that number and multiply it by population, and Connecticut has $201 billion in annual purchasing power vs. Missouri's $218 billion, although more likely Connecticut's is much bigger since PCI is a median, not mean number.

CT has 41 millionaires per 1,000 compared to Missouri which has 26.

So if you are Lexus or BMW, where would you rather advertise?

Missouri plays most preseason hoops games in front of friends and family, despite basically giving away thousands of tickets to students.

OK, assuming that the Sox, Yankees and Mets plus Giants, Jets and Pats don't compete just as effectively for CT entertainment dollars (I think they do), let's add that they care about college football in Missouri. It's not Alabama, and doesn't come to a halt on Saturday, but it's a much bigger part of day to day life. College football is an afterthought in New England.

Admittedly, my experience suggests that the Springfield/Branson/Joplin area is more populated with Arkansas fans than Tiger fans, and KC will have nearly as many Kansas fans as Missouri fans. St. Louis is a Mizzou town, with some Illinois fans.

 

[Heston]

OK, assuming that the Sox, Yankees and Mets plus Giants, Jets and Pats don't compete just as effectively for CT entertainment dollars (I think they do), let's add that they care about college football in Missouri. It's not Alabama, and doesn't come to a halt on Saturday, but it's a much bigger part of day to day life. College football is an afterthought in New England.

Admittedly, my experience suggests that the Springfield/Branson/Joplin area is more populated with Arkansas fans than Tiger fans, and KC will have nearly as many Kansas fans as Missouri fans. St. Louis is a Mizzou town, with some Illinois fans.

I lived in Missouri for a while. Mizzou is the college team in STL. It is as big in KC as KU is. But you are right, Mizzou is not the Huskers in Nebraska or Crimson Tide in Bama. The Cardinals dominate STL. The Rams and Blues are afterthoughts. But the fact is MO stacks up much better than Uconn does as an attractive conference addition. The fact the Big Ten passed on Missouri seems to indicate Uconn will never be an option there. But Uconn can and does make sense for the ACC to some degree.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Hartford is the second largest metro area in the country without a professional sports team, and that will never, ever change. Las Vegas is #1, and neither Hartford nor Vegas will ever get a professional team.

You certainly have Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, Jets, Knicks, Nets and even a couple of Mets fans in Connecticut. And no D1 football team in New York, so that part of the analysis goes both ways.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Hartford is the second largest metro area in the country without a professional sports team, and that will never, ever change. Las Vegas is #1, and neither Hartford nor Vegas will ever get a professional team.

You certainly have Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, Jets, Knicks, Nets and even a couple of Mets fans in Connecticut. And no D1 football team in New York, so that part of the analysis goes both ways.

I agree with you from a long term perspective. I think this is one of the reasons the Husky hoops teams have been so strongly embraced, even by non-alumni. It's the same reason Kansas hoops and Kentucky hoops have such strong followings, as do Nebraska, Alabama etc. in football. USC is excellent, but doesn't command the same kind of following in LA. I think UConn football, especially playing attractive opponents and showing some success, could develop a very strong following. I just think it's 10 years away, barring some dramatic event, like a top 5 finish and BCS bowl win.

In short, I think we have tremendous potential. I am unsure whether these conferences recognize that potential, or are focused more clearly on the near term.

 

[Heston]

Actually, UConn finished ranked top 25 in the final BCS standings 2007.

You are correct. Good catch.

 

[Scot-e]

I live in Atlanta- I go to SEC games. There just does not seem like there is anyway I can possibly think of that the SEC would extend an invite to UCONN. It's like Lady Gaga dating ex-president Bush- just can't picture it.

 

[businesslawyer]

I live in Atlanta- I go to SEC games. There just does not seem like there is anyway I can possibly think of that the SEC would extend an invite to UCONN. It's like Lady Gaga dating ex-president Bush- just can't picture it.

like Lady Gaga deating which ex-President Bush?

 

[Danzz]

Excellent analysis. Some other thoughts:

Missouri has the St. Louis Cardinals, Rams, Royals and Chiefs in the state. UConn has no instate competition.

Connecticut's per capita income is $56k compared to Missouri's of $37k. Take that number and multiply it by population, and Connecticut has $201 billion in annual purchasing power vs. Missouri's $218 billion, although more likely Connecticut's is much bigger since PCI is a median, not mean number.

CT has 41 millionaires per 1,000 compared to Missouri which has 26.

So if you are Lexus or BMW, where would you rather advertise?

Missouri plays most preseason hoops games in front of friends and family, despite basically giving away thousands of tickets to students.

Per capita income is less important than spendable income and the two don't always go together. Connecticut also has higher taxes, real estate, labor rate, and cost of living. Millionaires are another meaningless statistic.
Toothless Alabama fans fill their stadium every weekend and the residents that don't go to the games watch it on TV .Their football consumer franchise is more valuable because the entire state cares about football and that isn't the case in Connecticut.
Are you saying that given the choice between Missouri and Connecticut that the SEC would prefer Connecticut?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Per capita income is less important than spendable income and the two don't always go together. Connecticut also has higher taxes, real estate, labor rate, and cost of living. Millionaires are another meaningless statistic.
Toothless Alabama fans fill their stadium every weekend and the residents that don't go to the games watch it on TV .Their football consumer franchise is more valuable because the entire state cares about football and that isn't the case in Connecticut.
Are you saying that given the choice between Missouri and Connecticut that the SEC would prefer Connecticut?

I am saying that we have a sales problem when it comes to finding a home for UConn athletics, not a product problem.

 

[Danzz]

I am saying that we have a sales problem when it comes to finding a home for UConn athletics, not a product problem.

Sales or product, one depends upon the other. The truth is that Uconn's D1 football program is substandard for the SEC. We are new, have no football history and the near future doesn't look bright. The product isn't creating all of our problems but it isn't helping our sales pitch.
Nobody really knows if we can get into the ACC but IMO it is our best landing spot. We could be competitive in the ACC in football because their quality outside of FSU and occasionly Miami is pretty weak compared to the other BCS conferences. Basketball counts in the ACC and our program speaks for itself. Right now I'd say we are a long shot.
More than likely Uconn will end up in some form of the BE if the conference continues to exist at all. Reallignment most likely won't be complete in the next year and that could be a good thing for Uconn.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Sales or product, one depends upon the other. The truth is that Uconn's D1 football program is substandard for the SEC. We are new, have no football history and the near future doesn't look bright. The product isn't creating all of our problems but it isn't helping our sales pitch.
Nobody really knows if we can get into the ACC but IMO it is our best landing spot. We could be competitive in the ACC in football because their quality outside of FSU and occasionly Miami is pretty weak compared to the other BCS conferences. Basketball counts in the ACC and our program speaks for itself. Right now I'd say we are a long shot.
More than likely Uconn will end up in some form of the BE if the conference continues to exist at all. Reallignment most likely won't be complete in the next year and that could be a good thing for Uconn.

We will never get into the ACC unless they think they are going to lose us to someone else. If UConn doesn't solve for that problem, we are toast.

 

[CTMike]

We will never get into the ACC unless they think they are going to lose us to someone else. If UConn doesn't solve for that problem, we are toast.

This is really one of your most puzzling positions in all of this. Do you not think that the ACC can think for themselves? They need some sort of outside confirmation of our worth for them to wake up to our value?

We should be showing them our value, not using some sort of human emotion (jealousy?) to make a business decision.

We can add value to the ACC by X, Y, Z. We can help deliver increased payouts per team within the conference. Hopefully, at least keep the payout per team stable. If it's negative incremental value... that's where we are toast.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

This is really one of your most puzzling positions in all of this. Do you not think that the ACC can think for themselves? They need some sort of outside confirmation of our worth for them to wake up to our value?

We should be showing them our value, not using some sort of human emotion (jealousy?) to make a business decision.

We can add value to the ACC by X, Y, Z. We can help deliver increased payouts per team within the conference. Hopefully, at least keep the payout per team stable. If it's negative incremental value... that's where we are toast.

People don't pay for something they think they already own. If the ACC wanted to add us because of the value UConn brought to their league, they would have already done it. They are waiting for a reason. They think that if they do nothing, UConn and Rutgers will fade away and they will take over the New York market without having to pay for it. The only way UConn can make them pay for it (i.e. adding UConn and Rutgers) is to make them think someone else is going to get it, or there will be competition in that market.

That is why I am convinced there is collusion between ESPN, the Big 12 and the ACC. They are pecking at the Big East, slowly damaging the league, but neither is grabbing UConn/Rutgers despite what should be obvious value to either league. It seems that neither the Big 12 nor the ACC seems too worried about the other taking UConn/Rutgers, which says to me they are working together.

 

[Heston]

We will never get into the ACC unless they think they are going to lose us to someone else. If UConn doesn't solve for that problem, we are toast.

I don't think Swofford will bite on speculation or rumor. When the Big Ten rumors were flying per the Nebraska offer that Rutgers may be gone to the Big Ten or an outside chance it would be UConn, Swofford never flinched. And the ACC will never believe an offer is coming to Uconn from the SEC. Because no offer is ever coming from the SEC.