Would UConn Basketball survive the move to the ACC | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Would UConn Basketball survive the move to the ACC

cordeodato said:
I usually don't like what if's but the recent news about Boeheim has me thinking. BTW--that is a guy who never really wanted to break up the old Big East. So I am intrigued, as we have seen so many once proud programs, break upon the rocks of the ACC, if we moved over there would we survive or end up as also rans just like all the others?
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:) :)
 
The ACC does something totally unexpected and goes WWII on the Big East by poaching UConn, SJU, Villanova, Georgetown. Even if the football powers leave, it is essentially a combo of the Big East and ACC and unvelievable hoops. I'm sticking with the football - basketball hybrid conference model whether it's called the Big East or ACC.
 
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I understand the money aspect and I know college sports will continue to shift as conferences poach from one another, so this might be an irrational take. I have no desire to go to the ACC. We’re a day away from taking over MSG for the weekend. I wouldn’t want to be playing in Greensboro this week. And Cuse, BC, Pitt, and Louisville are dead to me. Three of them are irrelevant right now. Let them flounder.
 
August_West said:
The ACC will look like the AAC in 10 years, just with better leftovers as teams, because they will be picked apart.
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As the P5 condenses to the P2 there will be less premier spots so the “leftovers” will be off a better quality. [shrugs] It’s not much but it’s something.
 
We’re actually potentially in a better position for conference realignment than some of the ACC teams because we aren’t locked into a GOR like they are. I could see a package deal with us and Kansas going to the BIG making a lot of sense. I personally kind of hate the style of basketball the Big 10 plays, it’s slow and boring, so that would be a negative, but we’d be in with flagship state schools which would make a lot of sense.
 
I think its more likely that the ACC leftovers - Cuse, Pitt, BC, and probably Duke, Wake, and ND for Olympic sports - join the Big East and create another hybrid conference.
 
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ecasadoSBU said:
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
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You’re seemingly only comparing Big East brand vs AAC brand relatively, which is of course night and day.

Big East vs ACC is not some big difference to recruits. It’s a P5 conference. We would still rule NE recruiting and only expand south with membership in the ACC. Duke and UNC even without K and Roy have at least as much brand pull as the whole Big East. Our real regional rivals are there and we could absolutely drum that back up. Especially now that Wright is no longer at Nova.

And let’s not discount what it would do for football and the university at large from a $ standpoint
 
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Ripper32 said:
Recruiting would drop a tier, but I assume they would be ok.
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I don't think recruiting would be an issue. It's not the American Athletic Conference so the competition and TV schedules more attractive for recruiting. Most North East Kids join the ACC teams anyway
 
Rocktheworld said:
You’re seemingly only comparing Big East brand vs AAC brand relatively, which is of course night and day.

Big East vs ACC is not some big difference to recruits. It’s a P5 conference. We would still rule NE recruiting and only expand south with membership in the ACC. Duke and UNC even without K and Roy have at least as much brand pull as the whole Big East. Our real regional rivals are there and we could absolutely drum that back up. Especially now that Wright is no longer at Nova.

And let’s not discount what it would do for football and the university at large from a $ standpoint
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Best points
 
It is better for the players not to have to travel all over the country to play. Being able to take a bus to Providence, St John’s, Seton Hall, and Philly is huge. Also nice to be playing in major US cities of Northeast. I wish we could get BC, Syracuse, and Pitt back into the conference. Chasing the football money destroyed 3 good basketball programs at those schools.
I think the Big East is a more interesting league than ACC, which has been dominated by Duke/UNC forever. My only gripe with Big East is the officiating. It is bad across the board, with allowing players to get mugged on court at times, and pretty biased towards a few teams.
 
The ACC is becoming a trash conference and will be a shadow of itself as the top tier departs. It certainly hasn’t done anything to elevate BC or Cuse. We belong in the B1G. They haven’t won an NCAA championship in MBB in 23 years.
 
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Scottobot said:
It is better for the players not to have to travel all over the country to play. Being able to take a bus to Providence, St John’s, Seton Hall, and Philly is huge. Also nice to be playing in major US cities of Northeast. I wish we could get BC, Syracuse, and Pitt back into the conference. Chasing the football money destroyed 3 good basketball programs at those schools.
I think the Big East is a more interesting league than ACC, which has been dominated by Duke/UNC forever. My only gripe with Big East is the officiating. It is bad across the board, with allowing players to get mugged on court at times, and pretty biased towards a few teams.
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I agree with everything you said except.., taking BC and Pitt back in the big east… I would take Syracuse back… but know way with Pitt and definitely not BC
 
Love the big East, but for those who think recruiting would take a hit, remember that the kids we’d be recruiting to UConn would be much more familiar with the recent success of programs like UVA, Duke and UNC vs the ancient success of Georgetown, St. John’s and Seton Hall…
 
McLovin said:
Love the big East, but for those who think recruiting would take a hit, remember that the kids we’d be recruiting to UConn would be much more familiar with the recent success of programs like UVA, Duke and UNC vs the ancient success of Georgetown, St. John’s and Seton Hall…
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Yes. But they are familiar with the success of Villanova and UConn. Having other name coaches like Shaka and Miller in the conference helps too.
 
Hoophound said:
Yes. But they are familiar with the success of Villanova and UConn. Having other name coaches like Shaka and Miller in the conference helps too.
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Will Marquette or Xavier even be able to muster a decent counter offer if a P5 came calling? Would we?
 
If this hypothetical were to happen, we'd be swapping out PC, St John's, Seton Hall, Nova and Georgetown for Syracuse, BC, Pitt, UNC, Duke & NC St. An increase in travel but that is offset by a larger increase in name value of opponents. There also is a large increase in swapping out whoever we would view our top current in-conference rival with Syracuse, offset by a reasonable decrease in swapping out whoever is second and third with Pitt & BC followed by whatever the loss would be swapping out the remaining original BE schools with the tobacco road schools.

Swapping out the western five BE schools with the remaining ACC schools is not only a gain in terms of travel, it would also be a slight overall increase in games against opponents that we have history with and an overall (although not all that large) increase in name value of opponents.

If those running the men's program actually do their jobs, we would benefit overall from the move.

That said, under the current climate the only way I would consider the move would be under the condition that we would not need to sign the grant of rights agreement. As things stand today, that is a ball and chain that will end up limiting the success of schools that are capable of rising above what the current ACC can allow and I personally believe that we are one of the schools that can rise above that.
 
Getting out of the American and into the Big East was absolutely the right move for our basketball program at that time. Though it’s safe to say firing Ollie and hiring Hurley had more to do with turnaround than the conference switch.

But I hate being in the big East. I hate being the only large public land grant research university in a conference of small private Catholic liberal arts schools. UConn doesn’t belong with those schools.

Several people in this thread have mentioned proximity and yes providence, St. John’s and Villanova are close but don’t forget we are making trips to Milwaukee, Chicago and to wherever Midwest wasteland creighton is. I’m still not sure.

I would much rather play Syracuse, BCU and Pitt in basketball and football every year. And bring on Duke and UNC. Love it. And it helps baseball and women’s basketball and all the Olympics.

And we know the athletic department definitely needs the bigger pay day to survive long term.

So to answer the op’s question, yes we would survive and thrive in the ACC but it’s probably something we need to have happen to survive.

That or the Big 10. I’m good either way!!
 
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FfldCntyFan said:
That said, under the current climate the only way I would consider the move would be under the condition that we would not need to sign the grant of rights agreement. As things stand today, that is a ball and chain that will end up limiting the success of schools that are capable of rising above what the current ACC can allow and I personally believe that we are one of the schools that can rise above that
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Signing the GOR would be part and parcel of joining the ACC. The ACC media deal is poor, compared to its peers, but it’s a world of difference from where we are, which right now is about $4 million for media money. The Big East is about to renegotiate its deal but that number is likely to be in the $7M range. The ACC is in the $35 million range. There’d GOR runs until 2036. So if we have a choice of $7 million for 13 years ($91M) or $35 million for 13 years ($455M) but have to sign their GOR, signing the GOR is a no-brainer.( And that’s without considering the fact that it takes us from being a G5 school to being a P5 school.)
 
HooperScooper said:
You're comparing the AAC to the ACC? Lol
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No. What I'm actually comparing is UConn residing in one southern centric conference vs another southern centric conference.

ACC is always going to gravitate around Tobacco Road first. That's the spiritual heart of that conference. Its always going to be UNC/Duke as elite basketball programs of that conference and then everyone else. Recruits and the general population know this is the case. When you think ACC you think Duke/UNC not Syracuse, Pitt, ND, or BC. Its just a fact

Here in the Big East we have our own gravitational force centered around the New York City metropolitan area (even if there's 5 midwestern schools) which helps in branding and recruiting. Where the Elite teams are UConn/Villanova.

Why exile our program to compete in a league it does not belong and where it isn't going to be at the top tier? especially when its competing at a high level right now - both in MBB/WBB - despite the apparent resources differences? Are we going to continue the game of just making moves for money without realizing the downsides? Uconn is thriving right now. Don't up something that is working.

Football is finally showing signs of life. If they want to play higher level teams then go ahead and form alliances/partnerships with schools to get better games. But don't let that be the driver because we will never be a Michigan or an Alabama. We were late to the party and have to live with that.
 
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UConnRock said:
The old BE had Miami, WVU, Va. Tech, and L’ville. Along w/ Cincy, Marquette, and DePaul. It wasn’t a cozy northeast league.
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It doesn't matter. Like I said in the post above. The league's heart was still centered in the New York metropolitan area and that is a big draw for recruits and fans.
 
District-Husky said:
I think its more likely that the ACC leftovers - Cuse, Pitt, BC, and probably Duke, Wake, and ND for Olympic sports - join the Big East and create another hybrid conference.
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It'll take years for such a conference like this to come around
 
cordeodato said:
I usually don't like what if's but the recent news about Boeheim has me thinking. BTW--that is a guy who never really wanted to break up the old Big East. So I am intrigued, as we have seen so many once proud programs, break upon the rocks of the ACC, if we moved over there would we survive or end up as also rans just like all the others?
Expand ...

We would survive and thrive as long as we got quality coaching. College basketball is all about the coaching. Right now we are lucky to have one of the best in the business, having more money would help us keep him.

To my point, is the Big East conference killing Georgetown or do they have a lousy coach?
 
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