Why will the ACC fall apart? The UConn principle.

[Fishy]

On the Syracuse vitriol, towards BC. Doesn't anyone find it odd that within 3 years Cuse and BC were talking about a long term OOC series that they in fact renewed. Either Leahy really believes in turning the other cheek or like so much else that passes as fact on the internet the whole thing is questionable.

The 'vitriol' was 100% real - Leahy lied or misled to the administration at Syracuse and they held it against him.

But they retired - Buzz Shaw as chancellor in '04 and Jake Crouthamel as athletic director in '05.

 

[noeynox]

The 'vitriol' was 100% real - Leahy lied or misled to the administration at Syracuse and they held it against him.

But they retired - Buzz Shaw as chancellor in '04 and Jake Crouthamel as athletic director in '05.

But shit, our president and AD have since retired or moved on as well. So was it the lawsuit or the fact that we made them our bitches in basketball and feared the same thing happening in football?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The ACC thinks they don't need us, and clearly our Administration does not have a good rebuttal. Regardless, the gig is up. UConn's only outside prayer of joining the ACC is if ESPN requires it in return for more money to the ACC. Unlikely, but networks have offered conferences more money for weaker properties (see Maryland and Rutgers to Big 10), so who knows?

Until then, UConn's upside is to be combination of Boise in football and Gonzaga in basketball, programs that win despite their conference affiliation, because that could be the next 20 years of UConn athletics.

 

[upstater]

But , our president and AD have since retired or moved on as well. So was it the lawsuit or the fact that we made them our bitches in basketball and feared the same thing happening in football?

Exactly. And I don't think yours and Fishy's posts contradict. They say the same thing. What more do people need? Heck, DeFillippo even admitted it in the linked article!!! What more do people need? It's about competition. Same thing with Syracuse. Why is Gross against UConn? Competition. Why must we self-flagellate ourselves when the people blackballing us are pretty open about wanting UConn sports to die?

 

[ZooCougar]

It's not if you sue. It's when.

The BOT member actually posted on the Boneyard.

If these schools are so averse to lawsuits, then why are they suing each other right now? Maryland is suing, Rutgers is suing, the ACC schools are suing, they are all suing? Pitt sued too!!!

The article I linked to shows that Duke and UNC were totally flummoxed by BC's crazy position. Swofford, by the way, is known as a Tobacco Road guy. If UNC and Duke are in favor of UConn, I bet Swofford is too!

 

[caw]

Speaking of lawsuits: the purported Maryland lawsuit against the ACC.

 

[IMind]

There is no sillier thing than thinking that the reason UConn isn't in the ACC is because some politician said some mean stuff at a press conference a decade ago. There are only two reasons UConn isn't in the ACC right now: BC and FSU... and neither has anything to do with the lawsuit. They both think their value will diminish by playing UConn regularly... both for very different reasons. It's about money not some percieved slight.

 

[SubbaBub]

Exactly. And I don't think yours and Fishy's posts contradict. They say the same thing. What more do people need? Heck, DeFillippo even admitted it in the linked article!!! What more do people need? It's about competition. Same thing with Syracuse. Why is Gross against UConn? Competition. Why must we self-flagellate ourselves when the people blackballing us are pretty open about wanting UConn sports to die?

This. It's always been this. We're too much competition in everything for the northeast ACC schools and not enough FB competition for the southern FB schools. Everyone else was on board with us joining, but not adamant about it.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Nostical]

There is no sillier thing than thinking that the reason UConn isn't in the ACC.......has anything to do with the lawsuit. It's about money not some percieved slight.

You're too quick to dismiss the lingering impact of what is still perceived as a Connecticut led lawsuit against the ACC. While competitive factors and money issues are in play for sure, I'm inclined to believe what a good friend of mine from Syracuse was told by his friend Jim Boeheim when they played golf last summer. I believe I posted this before, but my friend asked (at my request) what JB thought were UConn's chances of getting an invite. Here's essentially what JB said. "I don't see it happening. When I attended my first ACC meetings and the subject came up, I was really surprised at the level of animosity over some lawsuit that was filed by UConn after the early defections"

My friend interpreted it this way. "It's like if your neighbor whose kids played with yours surprisingly sued you for cutting down some overgrown trees along your mutual property line. He caused you to spend lots of money to defend yourself and said some nasty things during the lawsuit. Now a few years later that same neighbor puts in his application to join your yacht club--and you're on the membership committee. The guy's boat is nice but nothing special and although he's considered a pretty good guy by some on the committee, they turn to you for your vote. What are the chances you'd vote to let him in? Maybe the only way you do is if his wife is extra hot, his boat is huge and he's willing to cover the cost of the needed clubhouse roof replacement! Barring that, he'd be toast!"

 

[Carl Spackler]

You're too quick to dismiss the lingering impact of what is still perceived as a Connecticut led lawsuit against the ACC. While competitive factors and money issues are in play for sure, I'm inclined to believe what a good friend of mine from Syracuse was told by his friend Jim Boeheim when they played golf last summer. I believe I posted this before, but my friend asked (at my request) what JB thought were UConn's chances of getting an invite. Here's essentially what JB said. "I don't see it happening. When I attended my first ACC meetings and the subject came up, I was really surprised at the level of animosity over some lawsuit that was filed by UConn after the early defections"

My friend interpreted it this way. "It's like if your neighbor whose kids played with yours surprisingly sued you for cutting down some overgrown trees along your mutual property line. He caused you to spend lots of money to defend yourself and said some nasty things during the lawsuit. Now a few years later that same neighbor puts in his application to join your yacht club--and you're on the membership committee. The guy's boat is nice but nothing special and although he's considered a pretty good guy by some on the committee, they turn to you for your vote. What are the chances you'd vote to let him in? Maybe the only way you do is if his wife is extra hot, his boat is huge and he's willing to cover the cost of the needed clubhouse roof replacement! Barring that, he'd be toast!"

The legal fees, on top of the $4mill out of court settlement, for a suit that was thrown out based on basic jurisdiction issues, and was completely slanderours, is a major contributor to why we stand alone on an island. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I recall that calls were actually placed to Clinton re: UConn - and that undoubtedly (if it happened) had to do with our current leadership reaching out to Shalala, and I guarantee that they were told exactly what was up in that case.

It's kind of funny for me to read around here, what people will think and write. UConn has indeed been blackballed, and the idiots in this state, put the guy in the U.S. Senate.

Here's a radical prediction - watch how fast UConn would get snatched up in the grand scheme, if the state of CT actually voted Blumenthal out of the U.S. Senate.

Politics and ego - are always what drive the money streams, and the rule - when you want to understand something - is to always follow the money.

 

[noeynox]

So, were toast? That contradicts the sentiment that was shared on this board regarding "sleeping the Angels sleep" or however it was worded. The champagne was basically on ice waiting for the call.

The other thing, the people in charge at UConn during the lawsuit are all gone, but it seems to me that whenever we meet the criteria for the next logical choice of expansion into the ACC, the criteria changes so maybe there is something to the lingering effects of the lawsuit.

 

[CTMike]

This may be silly then, but- why can't Blumenthal issue some sort of statement of apology. Whether he believes it or not. Give the haters a chance to gloat, pat themselves on the back, see him squirm a bit. The only thing it costs in the end is a bit of Blumenthals pride. And if it makes the small people at BC and Miami feel better about themselves... So be it. Lets just move on already!

 

[upstater]

You're too quick to dismiss the lingering impact of what is still perceived as a Connecticut led lawsuit against the ACC. While competitive factors and money issues are in play for sure, I'm inclined to believe what a good friend of mine from Syracuse was told by his friend Jim Boeheim when they played golf last summer. I believe I posted this before, but my friend asked (at my request) what JB thought were UConn's chances of getting an invite. Here's essentially what JB said. "I don't see it happening. When I attended my first ACC meetings and the subject came up, I was really surprised at the level of animosity over some lawsuit that was filed by UConn after the early defections"

Animosity from whom? That's the question. I have no doubt that certain schools have animosity toward UConn, but this lawsuit thing is a screen. Pitt was in the same lawsuit. And yet UConn was the original choice over Pitt. No doubt schools like BC will use anything like UConn. The football schools like FSU and Clemson might use that too. But then you have Duke and UNC "bewildered" by BC's blackballing of UConn. And when UConn didn't get the nod over Louisville, the UNC Chancellor comes out the next day and announces, "This decision was NOT about academics." What does that tell you? If there was that much animosity from Tobacco Road, why in the world would one of the key guys make a statement like that? It was totally classless and uncalled for, and yet he made it. Not to mention here that Syracuse itself came out against UConn--for what reason? Competition.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Animosity from whom? That's the question. I have no doubt that certain schools have animosity toward UConn, but this lawsuit thing is a screen. Pitt was in the same lawsuit. And yet UConn was the original choice over Pitt. No doubt schools like BC will use anything like UConn. The football schools like FSU and Clemson might use that too. But then you have Duke and UNC "bewildered" by BC's blackballing of UConn. And when UConn didn't get the nod over Louisville, the UNC Chancellor comes out the next day and announces, "This decision was NOT about academics." What does that tell you? If there was that much animosity from Tobacco Road, why in the world would one of the key guys make a statement like that? It was totally classless and uncalled for, and yet he made it. Not to mention here that Syracuse itself came out against UConn--for what reason? Competition.

Majority vote upstater. Come on. That's it. Democracy in action. You think if we had a majority vote to move to the ACC that we wouldn't have? Somebody wrote that Florida State & BC are afraid of UConn, or don't want to compete. That's complete horseshit. 24 hours after Blumenthal filed not the first but the SECOND lawsuit against the ACC, and it's leadership, the attorney general in Florida - tied to Florida State, was calling the lawsuit garbage, adn working to have it thrown out. I could post some of his comments, but you can go look at them. The university system of Florida - the people in charge of that, that are tied to state government, were personally PISSED off at the way that lawsuit was handled.

Blumenthal was in the media talkign about subpoening Shalala, Swofford, Everybody - for depositions into CT in the media in his grandstanding.

Somebody posted the Maryland filing around here - read it cover to cover. Then go find the 82 page suit Blumenthal filed. Compare and contrast. There's a way to go about business, and way not to.

You accept your losses and you move on, and that's exactly what we're doing.

The problem is that you need to learn from your mistakes, adn we've got lot's of bridges to mend, from the damage that was caused by the people in charge in our university (and that includes the bridges destroyed by the former president and AD, the former head men's b-ball coach, and the former attorney general of the state - current U.S. Senator) and we've got to build up the character and integrity bank accounts so that people like Delany, or Slive, or Bowlsby, and Swofford too - and their successors, are confident that they won't be personally named in a multi-million dollar lawsuit, for doing business.

Football scheduling depends on it. And football scheduling is what's going to drive the future of this athletic department either up or down.

One UConn football fan gets it. None of us can make up for the past, but we can show that we understand what we were allowed to become part of, and that we want to stay with it.

 

[Carl Spackler]

So, were toast? That contradicts the sentiment that was shared on this board regarding "sleeping the Angels sleep" or however it was worded. The champagne was basically on ice waiting for the call.

The other thing, the people in charge at UConn during the lawsuit are all gone, but it seems to me that whenever we meet the criteria for the next logical choice of expansion into the ACC, the criteria changes so maybe there is something to the lingering effects of the lawsuit.

We're not toast, were just on the outside looking in right now, becuase of our own behavior for the past decade. The good news is that our leaderhsip has changed, and we have leaders that I believe get it now. THere's not much they can do, except allow time to pass, and rebuild what I call the character and integrity bank accounts.

IN the meantime, the next best thing we can do is schedule anyone and everyone that we can get, and beat them - in our athletics endeavors. But as every day passes, that we have no one new on our football schedules, it gets a little bit more worrisome. We've got our best schedule to date for 2013, but this schedule was settled multiple years ago.....our scheduling has fallen off a cliff in the past few years, and as I've said before - Warde Manuel's mettle, is going to be measured in what he does for our future football schedules.

So far - there's nothing there. Doesn't mean he hasn't been trying, but clearly - he's not gotten to the finish line.

 

[upstater]

Majority vote upstater. Come on. That's it. Democracy in action. You think if we had a majority vote to move to the ACC that we wouldn't have? Somebody wrote that Florida State & BC are afraid of UConn, or don't want to compete. That's complete horse .

I didn't see anyone write anything about FSU being afraid of UConn. Where did you come up with that one? As for BC, they said it to Bob Ryan a decade ago, and they were open about it (names attached to the quotes) two years ago, leaving Duke and UNC in total bewilderment. I'm also at a loss to understand how you come up with this majority vote statement. FSU wanted to stick it to Tobacco Road, obviously. And the Chair of the BOT at Florida St. openly stated that FSU would leave the ACC. With that threat, enough of the other members (8) went FSU's way. I bet the others (excepting BC and the footballs) had no real stake in the matter. Tobacco Road kept its cohort.

Just so you know, Swofford is a Tobacco Road guy. He was the guy openly named in the lawsuit. What do you think his position is? They're suing Maryland, are they not?

As for the rest of what you wrote, I have absolutely no intention of discussing politics with you.

 

[Carl Spackler]

This may be silly then, but- why can't Blumenthal issue some sort of statement of apology. Whether he believes it or not. Give the haters a chance to gloat, pat themselves on the back, see him squirm a bit. The only thing it costs in the end is a bit of Blumenthals pride. And if it makes the small people at BC and Miami feel better about themselves... So be it. Lets just move on already!

Blumenthal would never apologize for that lawsuit, and even if he did, nobody would care. What's done is done.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I didn't see anyone write anything about FSU being afraid of UConn. Where did you come up with that one? As for BC, they said it to Bob Ryan a decade ago, and they were open about it (names attached to the quotes) two years ago, leaving Duke and UNC in total bewilderment. I'm also at a loss to understand how you come up with this majority vote statement. FSU wanted to stick it to Tobacco Road, obviously. And the Chair of the BOT at Florida St. openly stated that FSU would leave the ACC. With that threat, enough of the other members (8) went FSU's way. I bet the others (excepting BC and the footballs) had no real stake in the matter. Tobacco Road kept its cohort.

Just so you know, Swofford is a Tobacco Road guy. He was the guy openly named in the lawsuit. What do you think his position is? They're suing Maryland, are they not?

As for the rest of what you wrote, I have absolutely no intention of discussing politics with you.

It's right up there. Somebody wrote that BC and FSU are not interested in competiting with UCOnn because it would diminish their values, for differing reasons,a dn then somebody seconded it that were too much competition fo some ACC schools, and not enough for others.

You really don't understand that the reason that UConn wasn't chosen for the ACC, multiple times, was because we didn't have the majority vote from the voting membership of the ACC to make the move? Odd. I take you for more intelligent than that.

All I've been doing here, is providing the major reason, root, as to why leadership at multiple ACC institutions, have no intention whatsoever of partnerships with the University of Connecticut - to give a good reason, as to why we didn't get the votes we needed to have the opportunity to move to the ACC.

I think you just don't like to be wrong, and neither do I, so that's ok.

have a nice weekend.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I didn't see anyone write anything about FSU being afraid of UConn. Where did you come up with that one? As for BC, they said it to Bob Ryan a decade ago, and they were open about it (names attached to the quotes) two years ago, leaving Duke and UNC in total bewilderment. I'm also at a loss to understand how you come up with this majority vote statement. FSU wanted to stick it to Tobacco Road, obviously. And the Chair of the BOT at Florida St. openly stated that FSU would leave the ACC. With that threat, enough of the other members (8) went FSU's way. I bet the others (excepting BC and the footballs) had no real stake in the matter. Tobacco Road kept its cohort.

Just so you know, Swofford is a Tobacco Road guy. He was the guy openly named in the lawsuit. What do you think his position is? They're suing Maryland, are they not?

As for the rest of what you wrote, I have absolutely no intention of discussing politics with you.

One more - go read the lawsuits. None of the lawsuits out there are anything like what Blumenthal filed not once but TWICE against the ACC and their member institutions. Everything Blumenthal did - singled out INDIVIDUALS. The state of CT, sued personally, not just Swofford, but THREE other ACC conference office people, in addition to the individuals in charge at Miami, BC, et. al.

I don't know what else to say to you, except that I'm shocked that you can't grasp what I'm writing. I suppose there's a quote that I can put in here about business being business, and personal being personal, but I'm too cliche for everybody around here.

 

[upstater]

It's right up there. Somebody wrote that BC and FSU are not interested in competiting with UCOnn because it would diminish their values, for differing reasons,a dn then somebody seconded it that were too much competition fo some ACC schools, and not enough for others.

You really don't understand that the reason that UConn wasn't chosen for the ACC, multiple times, was because we didn't have the majority vote from the voting membership of the ACC to make the move? Odd. I take you for more intelligent than that.

All I've been doing here, is providing the major reason, root, as to why leadership at multiple ACC institutions, have no intention whatsoever of partnerships with the University of Connecticut - to give a good reason, as to why we didn't get the votes we needed to have the opportunity to move to the ACC.

I think you just don't like to be wrong, and neither do I, so that's ok.

have a nice weekend.

Sigh. The person said that FSU didn't respect UConn football. That's quite different from being AFRAID to compete with them. You wrote that someone said FSU was AFRAID to compete against UConn. No one said that.

You really don't understand that the reason that UConn wasn't chosen for the ACC, multiple times, was because we didn't have the majority vote from the voting membership of the ACC to make the move? Odd.

yet another thing no one said. Strawman after strawman. You make stuff up and knock it down. Ridiculous.

 

[upstater]

One more - go read the lawsuits. None of the lawsuits out there are anything like what Blumenthal filed not once but TWICE against the ACC and their member institutions. Everything Blumenthal did - singled out INDIVIDUALS. The state of CT, sued personally, not just Swofford, but THREE other ACC conference office people, in addition to the individuals in charge at Miami, BC, et. al.

I don't know what else to say to you, except that I'm shocked that you can't grasp what I'm writing. I suppose there's a quote that I can put in here about business being business, and personal being personal, but I'm too cliche for everybody around here.

And Swofford is very much in favor of adding UConn. He's so butthurt at Blumenthal's suit, that he wanted to add UConn. So there goes your whole argument.

 

[Nostical]

I posted the Boeheim story merely to indicate that beyond all the numbers and TV market analyses, fair dealing still counts. There are lingering comments about how CT was front and center in that lawsuit and in a close vote there is reason to believe we did not get the benefit of swing votes in part because of those bad feelings. Human nature is still at work in many business deals, and we were in the crosshairs. That doesn't mean we're toast. What it ultimately means is that angels are still sleeping for now but they took a bit too much Ambien.

 

[ZooCougar]

I posted the Boeheim story merely to indicate that beyond all the numbers and TV market analyses, fair dealing still counts. There are lingering comments about how CT was front and center in that lawsuit and in a close vote there is reason to believe we did not get the benefit of swing votes in part because of those bad feelings. Human nature is still at work in many business deals, and we were in the crosshairs. That doesn't mean we're toast. What it ultimately means is that angels are still sleeping for now but they took a bit too much Ambien.

It also means that in order for those particular schools to hold their noses and vote us in, there has to be no other better options.