Would UConn Basketball survive the move to the ACC

[Kolumbo]

The AAC's impact to UConn athletic success is way overstated. Crappy coaching on both the football and men's basketball programs almost took UConn down. Women's hoops never missed a beat, again due to coaching. The AAC's impact to UConn casual fan interest... that definitely was a problem, albeit one that would've been mitigated to an extent by winning more.

Now that doesn't mean that the move hasn't turned out to be the right one. I think it's an unquestionable success and given the CR ripples was absolutely the right move; but Hurley would've been successful in either conference and to that point had UConn improving and rolling going into the AAC tournament in 2020 where they looked ready to make some noise prior to the cancellation.

The extent can be debated but the AAC was a big problem. Women's hoops didn't miss a beat because there are far fewer national brands and UCONN and Geno are the kingpins. Hurley may have been successful but I believe there is no way Cling Kong comes to UCONN knowing he is playing in the freaking AAC. AD Dave Benedict's quote from the USA Today article I posted in the Big 12 thread:

“You have to be able to recruit,” Connecticut athletics director David Benedict said. “It’s a very competitive league, but in the northeast and particular in New England and the Tri-State area, that league did not resonate. And we had to be successful recruiting against the Big East and the ACC, and we were in the AAC and it just wasn’t working. It doesn't mean it won’t work for other people, but it wasn’t working for us.”

 

[CTBasketball]

Let’s sell our souls for some ACC football money, then 4 years later we’ll be left behind again when the Big Ten rescues Duke, UNC, and Syracuse.

We don’t learn.

 

[alphasigko]

Fun fact. There are more Big East pre-raid (2004) members in the ACC (6) than in the Big East (5)

Not counting UConn

And your point is? Please tell me one OBE team has had any modicum of success in their new respective conference(s).

 

[ScottVib]

There wasn't a point.. as I noted, I thought it was interesting. If there is a point I guess it would be that it's not exactly an alliance where UConn wouldn't have prior association. UConn would have a combined 135 seasons shared with the 7 members of that league. (For comparison they have 215 shared seasons with the 10 other members of the Big East)

Again without point but thought it was interesting to see the comparisons:

For Basketball:

Miami - 2x ACC Basketball Regular Season Championships; 1x ACC Tournament Championship; 7 NCAA Tournaments; 4 Sweet 16; 1 Final Four (19 seasons) // 1x Big East Basketball Regular Season Championship; 4 NCAA Tournaments; 1 Sweet 16 (13 seasons)

Virginia Tech - 1x ACC Tournament Championship; 6 NCAA Tournaments; 1 Sweet 16 (19 seasons) // 0 Championships; 0 Tournaments (4 seasons)

Boston College - 1x ACC Basketball Regular Season Championship; 4 NCAA Tournaments; 1 Sweet 16 (18 seasons) // 3x Big East Regular Season Championships; 2x Big East Tournament Championship; 10 NCAA Tournaments; 5 Sweet 16 (26 seasons)

Notre Dame - 1x ACC Tournament Championship; 4 NCAA Tournaments; 2 Sweet 16 (10 seasons) // 1x Big East Regular Season Championship; 9 NCAA Tournaments; 1 Sweet 16 (18 seasons)

Pittsburgh - 0 Championships; 3 NCAA Tournaments (10 seasons) // 6x Big East Regular Season Championships; 2x Big East Tournament Championships; 17 NCAA Tournaments; 5 Sweet 16 (31 seasons)

Syracuse - 0 Championships; 5 NCAA Tournaments; 3 Sweet 16; 1 Final Four (10 seasons) // 1x NCAA Championship; 10x Big East Regular Season Championships; 5x Big East Tournament Championships; 27 NCAA Tournaments; 15 Sweet 16; 4 Final Four (34 seasons)

For bonus...

Louisville - 0 Championships; 3 NCAA Tournaments; 1 Sweet 16 (9 seasons) //1x NCAA Championship; 2x Big East Regular Season Championships; 3x Big East Tournament Championships; 8 NCAA Tournaments; 5 Sweet 16; 3 Final Four (8 seasons)

 

[John]

And your point is? Please tell me one OBE team has had any modicum of success in their new respective conference(s).

Miami went to the Final Four this year

 

[gmc1055]

Let’s sell our souls for some ACC football money, then 4 years later we’ll be left behind again when the Big Ten rescues Duke, UNC, and Syracuse.

We don’t learn.

Big 10 is not taking Duke or Syracuse

 

[CTBasketball]

Big 10 is not taking Duke or Syracuse

They’re not taking us either.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Big 10 is not taking Duke or Syracuse

They'd take UNC and Virginia in a heartbeat. Maybe GT and one of the Florida schools too.

 

[John]

They’re not taking us either.

Ye of little faith.

 

[CTBasketball]

Ye of little faith.

We don’t fit the mold! I’m sorry but it’s true.

 

[hoopsfan22]

We don’t fit the mold! I’m sorry but it’s true.

What other conference is full of state flagship and land grant schools like ours?

 

[Kolumbo]

There wasn't a point.. as I noted, I thought it was interesting. If there is a point I guess it would be that it's not exactly an alliance where UConn wouldn't have prior association. UConn would have a combined 135 seasons shared with the 7 members of that league. (For comparison they have 215 shared seasons with the 10 other members of the Big East)

Here's my take-away. I am perfectly content in the New Big East and I think UCONN would be highly successful in the ACC. Given the split of the old Big East teams, I think it's about 50/50 in terms of desirability. It probably would have been better for those teams if all 6 went to the ACC at one time. It would have been more of a merger. Instead it was piecemeal so it always felt like crumbs joining the ACC. More importantly, if UCONN had gone along with cuse, pitt, va tech, and nd, it may have really bolstered ALL of those programs because UCONN, cuse, and pitt were the heavy hitters, and believe it or not, even bcu was doing well.

PC
SJU
SHU
Nova
Georgetown

BCU
Cuse
Pitt
Miami
Va Tech
ND

 

[CTBasketball]

What other conference is full of state flagship and land grant schools like ours?

Yes that’s what I want to fit in. Just those two categories.

 

[John]

Yes that’s what I want to fit in. Just those two categories.

Not a big fan of peer institutions?

 

[CTBasketball]

Not a big fan of peer institutions?

I’ll play devil’s advocate. If we go to the Big Ten, do you think we’ll have the same basketball success? Keep in mind Big Ten teams don’t win national titles . Same for football, we won’t jump into the top half of the Big Ten. We’d collect a paycheck each year to be a doormat.

Is that worth it?

 

[metsfan2323]

We don’t fit the mold! I’m sorry but it’s true.

You really think our fanbase would not enjoy being in a league with old rivals Syracuse, Pitt, BC, Louisville along with Duke, North Carolina, Virginia? are you out of your PC lovin mind?

The ACC is still a terrific basketball league and always will be, even if they eventually have to raid the Big East again to do it.

 

[metsfan2323]

I’ll play devil’s advocate. If we go to the Big Ten, do you think we’ll have the same basketball success?

Yes we would still have the same success in the Big 10 as long as we have the same great coach, any other dumb questions?

 

[CL82]

I’ll play devil’s advocate. If we go to the Big Ten, do you think we’ll have the same basketball success? Keep in mind Big Ten teams don’t win national titles . Same for football, we won’t jump into the top half of the Big Ten. We’d collect a paycheck each year to be a doormat.

Is that worth it?

I think, coaching, tradition, and facilities, have a lot more to do with our success than our conference affiliation.

 

[giddyup]

UConn fans continue to underestimate the strength of the Big East brand. It is greater than the sum of its parts. The brand draws talent. It's the only way to explain that waves after waves of realignment the Big East is still on top.

We leave to a southern centric conference like the ACC and we can easily see our fate just by looking at the other ex-partners that have left. The four national championships won't do $hyt the same way it didn't do $hyt while we were in the AAC

B1G or B12 or bust.

 

[CL82]

UConn fans continue to underestimate the strength of the Big East brand. It is greater than the sum of its parts. The brand draws talent. It's the only way to explain that waves after waves of realignment the Big East is still on top.

We leave to a southern centric conference like the ACC and we can easily see our fate just by looking at the other ex-partners that have left. The four national championships won't do $hyt the same way it didn't do $hyt while we were in the AAC

But will 5 National championships matter? Asking for a friend.

 

[CL82]

Let’s sell our souls for some ACC football money, then 4 years later we’ll be left behind again when the Big Ten rescues Duke, UNC, and Syracuse.

We don’t learn.

Well maybe in 13 years. Let’s see that would be $30M more per year for 13 years…$390M.

Yes, we should take that if given the opportunity.

 

[CL82]

We don’t fit the mold! I’m sorry but it’s true.

Just curious, what do you perceive “the mold” to be at this point?

 

[Ldandy]

I think, coaching, tradition, and facilities, have a lot more to do with our success than our conference affiliation.

Exactly.

UConn won National Titles in both Men's and Women's Basketball in The AAC of all places. The Big East didn't win UConn anything. UConn did. If people are ok with running up 40 mil dollar deficits in athletics on a yearly basis just to keep playing Villanova and Seton Hall, I guess no argument will change their minds. .

 

[CL82]

Exactly.

UConn won National Titles in both Men's and Women's Basketball in The AAC of all places. The Big East didn't win UConn anything. UConn did. If people are ok with running up 40 mil dollar deficits in athletics on a yearly basis just to keep playing Villanova and Seton Hall, I guess no argument will change their minds. .

They are not the minds you need to change. Getting an invite to either the Big 12 or the ACC is a precursor to any moves. The minds that need to be changed are in those conference offices, or actually in either ESPN or foxes corporate offices since they will be footing the bill.

 

[CTBasketball]

Yes we would still have the same success in the Big 10 as long as we have the same great coach, any other dumb questions?

So as examples here are the following great coaches who lead programs that switched conferences:

Syracuse (Boeheim) - one miracle Final Four, otherwise terrible
West Virginia (Huggins) - not great
Louisville (Mack + others) - not great
Pitt (Capel + Dixon + Stallings) - not great
Notre Dame (Brey) - 2 E8’s otherwise not great

You can argue some of these guys are good to great coaches, who have stunk it up since switching conferences.