Why the AAC is a dumpster fire

[KnightBridgeAZ]

UConn gets millions in free advertising from its teams. How often was UConn mentioned on TV in the last six months? Breanna was on Good Morning America and when ol' whatsisname made his tweet, UConn was all over the place in the national press. That's just the women's basketball program. When the men are successful, the effect is even greater and if/when the football team improves on a national scale - and the Huskies did beat a ranked team for the first time in years last season - the improvement in publicity will be exponential.

UConn Can Expect Bottom Line Boost from NCAA Finals, NBC Business News

There's also this:

Mike Enright, a spokesman for UConn, cautioned against comparing UConn's spending against the 234 other public universities with Division 1 sports teams.

"Every school does their budget differently. It's not as neat and clean as comparing one school to another," he said.

He said some schools don't include spending on intramural sports or student scholarships in the athletics budgets.

UConn is aware of the widening gulf and is working on it. See this article.

Good points, it is always difficult to determine how a school's budget translates to "actual" income and expenses. BeK on the RU board always references this fact when related topics come up.

All of that - and anything said - in the current landscape, only P5 schools are going to see the level of income they see. UConn's a tweener to my mind - big state school that should be in a P5 conference - and are in a far better position than many, but even UConn ultimately needs either a major shift in the picture of intercollegiate athletics or a membership in a P5 conference to drive income to the next level. What the P5's generate is so much more even than the oBE.

 

[UConnNick]

UConn gets millions in free advertising from its teams. How often was UConn mentioned on TV in the last six months? Breanna was on Good Morning America and when ol' whatsisname made his tweet, UConn was all over the place in the national press. That's just the women's basketball program. When the men are successful, the effect is even greater and if/when the football team improves on a national scale - and the Huskies did beat a ranked team for the first time in years last season - the improvement in publicity will be exponential.

UConn Can Expect Bottom Line Boost from NCAA Finals, NBC Business News

There's also this:

Mike Enright, a spokesman for UConn, cautioned against comparing UConn's spending against the 234 other public universities with Division 1 sports teams.

"Every school does their budget differently. It's not as neat and clean as comparing one school to another," he said.

He said some schools don't include spending on intramural sports or student scholarships in the athletics budgets.

UConn is aware of the widening gulf and is working on it. See this article.

Free publicity doesn't pay the bills. Eventually, you can't keep spending 70 million if you're only making 20. No matter how many new students may be attracted, and how many sponsors and donors will contribute, the State of Conn. isn't going to be able nor willing to make up the difference. Right now we are competing with P5 schools that receive 20 million or more per year from their conference TV payouts. We get 1.6 million from the AAC TV deals. That cannot go on forever without a corresponding disadvantage against all of those schools in everything to do with athletics and perhaps other areas of the university.

We've bumped along for a little while on the Big East exit fee money, but that's gone by now. The article talks about cutting costs, not adding to a budget we already can't afford. Getting into a P5 conference is a necessary step if UCONN expects to remain a major player in big time college athletics long term.

UCONN has perhaps been a lot more successful at leveraging a high achieving athletics program to improve the entire university than other schools may have been. That can only continue if you figure out a way to stay with the big boys. Right now we are in a mid major conference of largely commuter schools, and we're getting mid major conference money.

 

[HoopsFan21]

Free publicity doesn't pay the bills. Eventually, you can't keep spending 70 million if you're only making 20. No matter how many new students may be attracted, and how many sponsors and donors will contribute, the State of Conn. isn't going to be able nor willing to make up the difference. Right now we are competing with P5 schools that receive 20 million or more per year from their conference TV payouts. We get 1.6 million from the AAC TV deals. That cannot go on forever without a corresponding disadvantage against all of those schools in everything to do with athletics and perhaps other areas of the university.

We've bumped along for a little while on the Big East exit fee money, but that's gone by now. The article talks about cutting costs, not adding to a budget we already can't afford. Getting into a P5 conference is a necessary step if UCONN expects to remain a major player in big time college athletics long term.

UCONN has perhaps been a lot more successful at leveraging a high achieving athletics program to improve the entire university than other schools may have been. That can only continue if you figure out a way to stay with the big boys. Right now we are in a mid major conference of largely commuter schools, and we're getting mid major conference money.

This new B1G TV deal is going to be a problem for non-B1G and SEC schools. Many figures have been thrown about, and it's certainly not a done deal, but it seems like the B1G schools are about to get a huge raise that will see them take in at least $40 million each per year just from this new TV deal which I believe only covers half of the B1G's media rights. Eventually the SEC will also get a deal to match the B1G's. Every other conference and school not in those two conferences will be left in the dust.

 

[Sonny44]

I think Geno et. al. should grab the team some night and move to another university. There must be many schools which would welcome us.
Would you still root for them? I would.

 

[HuskyNan]

Free publicity doesn't pay the bills. Eventually, you can't keep spending 70 million if you're only making 20. No matter how many new students may be attracted, and how many sponsors and donors will contribute, the State of Conn. isn't going to be able nor willing to make up the difference. Right now we are competing with P5 schools that receive 20 million or more per year from their conference TV payouts. We get 1.6 million from the AAC TV deals. That cannot go on forever without a corresponding disadvantage against all of those schools in everything to do with athletics and perhaps other areas of the university.

We've bumped along for a little while on the Big East exit fee money, but that's gone by now. The article talks about cutting costs, not adding to a budget we already can't afford. Getting into a P5 conference is a necessary step if UCONN expects to remain a major player in big time college athletics long term.

UCONN has perhaps been a lot more successful at leveraging a high achieving athletics program to improve the entire university than other schools may have been. That can only continue if you figure out a way to stay with the big boys. Right now we are in a mid major conference of largely commuter schools, and we're getting mid major conference money.

Those donors you're dismissing built the new football and basketball practice facilities. The sponsors, like Nike, must be thrilled how its shoes get mentioned every time the team wears a new pair. UConn and the Swoosh are on TV ad nauseum and, in fact, UConn was the #47 ranked school in licensing revenue in 2014, the most recent year for which info is available, and one of the highest ranked basketball schools. That's incredible for a school where the football team is basically a non-entity. (side note: Duke and North Carolina football were ranked in 2014)

Absolutely the goal is to get into the P5 but it's not a quick or easy process. Herbst and Benedict are working on it as best they can and part of that is improving the overall quality of UConn as a university. The more highly qualified students and faculty dismissed above help improve UConn's academic reputation which is important for consideration for the ACC and Big 10. So, yes, there is a payoff there, too.

 

[UConnNick]

Those donors you're dismissing built the new football and basketball practice facilities. The sponsors, like Nike, must be thrilled how its shoes get mentioned every time the team wears a new pair. UConn and the Swoosh are on TV ad nauseum and, in fact, UConn was the #47 ranked school in licensing revenue in 2014, the most recent year for which info is available, and one of the highest ranked basketball schools. That's incredible for a school where the football team is basically a non-entity. (side note: Duke and North Carolina football were ranked in 2014)

Absolutely the goal is to get into the P5 but it's not a quick or easy process. Herbst and Benedict are working on it as best they can and part of that is improving the overall quality of UConn as a university. The more highly qualified students and faculty dismissed above help improve UConn's academic reputation which is important for consideration for the ACC and Big 10. So, yes, there is a payoff there, too.

I never said anything about dismissing donors. The point I made is no matter how much donor and sponsorship money is available, it's not going to make up a 50 million dollar shortfall in money being spent on athletics. That's why the Conn. taxpayers are having to kick in what was it, 27 million?

Anybody who thinks anything to do with conference realignment is about academics is dead wrong. This whole thing is a giant money grab among university presidents that are ill equipped to be decision makers in the business world, It's all about big business, not athletics or academics. The whole situation is sickening.

Also, the Big 10 and ACC pontificating about academics is a big joke. This is about how many cable subscribers you can deliver to the Big 10 Network or the ACC, nothing more. Did Rutgers deliver some great athletic achievement to the Big 10? Their admission dispells the myth that football means anything.

If academics meant anything, a glorified community college like Louisville never gets into the ACC, and the complete lack of regard they have for academics regarding the athletes at UNC would have them kicked out of the conference. That will never happen because they ARE the ACC, which tells you all you need to know about the academic priorities of that particular conference.

Heck, the entire NCAA cares nothing about academics. That's blatantly obvious. We've got schools in the same conferences with schools on the other side of the country. They couldn't care less about academics or that situation would never have existed.

 

[malevocalist#]

That's like saying there is No way the little guy can keep up with the big guy. Yet the little guy keeps kicking the big guy's azzzzzz